General Election Hustings
Prospective Sheffield South East candidates faced crucial questions at a Climate Change Question Time held in Hackenthorpe on Thursday 5 December. An determined local audience demanded answers of their prospective Westminster representatives about how their parties would tackle the climate crisis. Clive Betts (Labour) Rajin Chowdhury (LibDem) Marc Bayliss (Conservative) and representatives of the Brexit and Yorkshire parties answered questions on the local hot topics of fracking and the development of green field sites for housing. Further discussion centred around the role of trees in capturing carbon, supporting wildlife and biodiversity as well as providing protection for the sort of whole-scale flooding South Yorkshire experienced recently. Candidates were also asked about their parties’ policies on plastic pollution, green energy and better, more environmentally sustainable transport.
Lindy Stone from the Sheffield Friends of the Earth group, which organised the hustings, said: “We were pleased with how seriously all candidates took the issue of the climate emergency we are facing and heartened by the fact that far more united than the divided the different parties. The world’s leading climate scientists have given us the starkest warnings that, unless we commit to ambitious action on cutting emissions, we significantly increase the threat of further climate breakdown and this was recognised by all participants.”
It was an open and serious minded debate about a range of climate and environmental issues & we were heartened by the way in which all parties recognise that there is a climate emergency that must be addressed.
Thank you to candidates taking part:
General Election 2019 Manifestos: Final Scores
Related to the election, Friends of the earth combed through the party manifestos (and any additional pledges they've made during the campaign) to see how they score on tackling the climate and ecological emergency. These are the results.
Picture Source: Lindy Stone
Prospective Sheffield South East candidates faced crucial questions at a Climate Change Question Time held in Hackenthorpe on Thursday 5 December. An determined local audience demanded answers of their prospective Westminster representatives about how their parties would tackle the climate crisis. Clive Betts (Labour) Rajin Chowdhury (LibDem) Marc Bayliss (Conservative) and representatives of the Brexit and Yorkshire parties answered questions on the local hot topics of fracking and the development of green field sites for housing. Further discussion centred around the role of trees in capturing carbon, supporting wildlife and biodiversity as well as providing protection for the sort of whole-scale flooding South Yorkshire experienced recently. Candidates were also asked about their parties’ policies on plastic pollution, green energy and better, more environmentally sustainable transport.
Lindy Stone from the Sheffield Friends of the Earth group, which organised the hustings, said: “We were pleased with how seriously all candidates took the issue of the climate emergency we are facing and heartened by the fact that far more united than the divided the different parties. The world’s leading climate scientists have given us the starkest warnings that, unless we commit to ambitious action on cutting emissions, we significantly increase the threat of further climate breakdown and this was recognised by all participants.”
It was an open and serious minded debate about a range of climate and environmental issues & we were heartened by the way in which all parties recognise that there is a climate emergency that must be addressed.
Thank you to candidates taking part:
- Marc Baylis: Conservative Party
- Clive Betts: Labour Party
- Alex Carrington: Yorkshire Party (candidate for Sheffield Central & standing in for Sheffield SE candidate Alex Martin)
- Rajin Choudhury: Liberal Democrats
- Kirk Kus: Brexit Party was ill so replaced by Tracy Knowles who is the Brexit Party candidate for Sheffield Heeley.
General Election 2019 Manifestos: Final Scores
Related to the election, Friends of the earth combed through the party manifestos (and any additional pledges they've made during the campaign) to see how they score on tackling the climate and ecological emergency. These are the results.
Picture Source: Lindy Stone