Local politicians come to UMSU to woo student voters

The University of Manchester Students’ Union (UMSU) welcomed its own debates last week as the Virgin Voter campaign brought together candidates from the relevant parties for a Q&A session, though there was a notable absence of the Labour party.

Jobs in the north West, involvement in the European Union, a ban on the burkha and constitutional reform were all raised in the debate, but student issues dominated the discussion.

The event, co-chaired by the Politics Society and the Debating Union, allowed each panellist a short opening statement before it was opened to the floor for questions.

John Leech, the Liberal Democrat incumbent in Manchester Withington, appeared to emerge from the session as the most credible candidate, relying on his experience in Parliament to answer questions confidently where other panellists faltered.

Alongside him was current student and Green Party candidate, Gayle O’Donovan, standing in Manchester Central; Chris Green, the Conservative hopeful for Withington; Bob Gutfreund-Walmsley, the candidate UKIP is fielding for Withington; and Karen Reissmann, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition’s candidate for Manchester Gorton.

O’Donovan referred to the Tory, Labour and Lib Dem parties as three brands of baked beans, but conceded, with a nod to Leech and a laugh from the audience, that “some baked beans are better than others.”

Green, the Conservative hopeful, appeared shaky and unsure of his own manifesto.  Leech’s assistant was overheard offering to print out a copy of the Tory manifesto for him.

All the other candidates, including UKIP’s Gutfreund-Walmsley, claimed to support a cap or complete abolition of tuition fees, a platform which has won the Liberal Democrats much of the student vote in the past.

Kate Little, UMSU’s Academic Affairs Officer, asked the panel to pledge their support for the NUS’ campaign to pressure MPs to vote against any increase in fees. However Leech stressed that the proposal was “too conservative” and that the NUS should push for free higher education.  “A pledge from Labour or the Conservatives is not worth the paper it’s written on,” he said.

UKIP’s candidate, Gutfreund-Walmsley, attracted taunts from the audience when he claimed the organisation “Friends of the Earth is often enemy of the people”, prompting a bemused look from the Green Party hopeful.

And in an embarrassing admission from Gutfreund-Walmsley, the candidate was forced to declare he hadn’t properly read his own manifesto. “I’ve read it; it’s only 150 pages long,” a student questioning the panel shouted.

It was clear from the claps and jeers of those watching that the candidates left of centre were the most appealing to a majority of the student audience.

Protestors from the International Students for Social Equality (ISSE) group handed out leaflets and demanded an equal platform for The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and their candidate Robert Skelton, who was excluded from the debate.

The SEP stand on a platform of no cuts to jobs or services and an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The ISSE, the student movement of the SEP declared: “The decision to exclude Skelton is an attack on the democratic rights of the SEP and of the entire student body.”

They called for students to attend the Q&A session and demand the decision be overturned, but there was no mention of the issue once the meeting had started.