QE Sixth form hosted the Crediton general election at the Upper School main hall with support from Sustainable Crediton.

There were only 4 or 5 spare chairs in the room as the proceedings commenced.Candidates from the Conservative, Labour, Lib Dems and UKIP parties were present to receive questions from the general public. The format was to allow the candidates 5 minutes to announce their local and national policies, then to field three "big" questions on local and national issues, next to take questions from the floor and finally to sum up in one minute. It was good to see many Sustainable Crediton supporters in the audience. 

The "big" questions had been received in advance via a box at the Crediton Courier or by email/post to the QE organisers. Around 15 to 20 questions had been received and several of these were consolidated into three topics: education, the economy and the environment.

The candidates were aware of the general topic but not the specifics of each question. The education topic included the need for a one site QE and student university fees. The economy question focussed on the large deficit and the banks, whilst the environment question quizzed the candidates policies on climate change and how encouraging the local economy could help the envoronment. Later there was time for four questions from the floor.

The candidates appeared to be quite well prepared, were good natured to one another and generally fielded the questions to the best of their abilities. This was the first hustings I had ever attended and found it very interesting and informative. I was most interested in their answers to the environmental question and was pleased to hear that all the parties, apart from UKIP, were basically in agreement with their policies to combat climate change and bring about a low carbon future for the UK.

UKIP appear to be sceptical about climate change and would act on the precautionary principle. Having said that, their candidate then went onto to say that we should start burning the 400 years worth of coal still available underground!