What do you expect to get from attending a hustings meeting? To see how wannabe politicians react under pressure? Assess their credibility? A chance to see the ‘whites of their eyes’?
All these and more, in the days when if you didn’t get to your parish hall early, you’d be condemned to stand at the back of the room. Not like nowadays, when there are almost always seats available. Away from the era of parish elections, what should one expect from a hustings today?
One thing is clear, you’re unlikely to get much diversity of opinion as potential political colleagues come together under a common banner of like-minded attitudes on at least some, if not all, issues.
But then, you never went to a hustings meeting expecting to witness dust-ups on the top table.
So one take-away from such meetings, aside from those we mentioned earlier, is the prospect of assessing potential political alliances between both new and old candidates. Some are explicit, others less so.
The challenge of island-wide voting for candidates, particularly new ones, is how best to get into the game. Some are burning up shoe leather, one suspects to keep busy and ‘test the water’ as much as anything else.
As Alastair Campbell says, and he should know, the one thing they really shouldn’t want to do is miss any opportunity to get out there, when getting noticed is key.
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