Democracy in Action in Charlbury!

Fri 5 Jul, 06:28 (last edited on Fri 5 Jul, 07:01)

Sounds like Banbury and Oxford East are Labour. Witney, Henley, Oxford West and Abingdon,  Didcot and Wantage, Bicester and Woodstock are Lib Dem. 😁

Wed 3 Jul, 12:38 (last edited on Wed 3 Jul, 12:43)

Thanks, Emily. I did appreciate seeing this. (I just repeated my thanks here because when I opened the Forum just now, my original one wasn’t showing up.)

Sun 30 Jun, 18:02

For those who are still deciding on who to vote for, the Oxford Mail has done a Q&A with Banbury's candidates. 

Yes, it's the OM but try to overlook that...

Sun 23 Jun, 16:50

On behalf of Churches Together in Charlbury, I would like to thank everyone who helped at the hustings on Friday evening and everyone who attended the event and made up such an attentive and good natured audience. About 200 people were in the hall, of which 150 were local residents and the others came from other parts of the constituency. 

Thank you for being willing to sign in when you arrived. This was a security measure requested by the Home Office and fortunately not needed. The lists will be shredded.

Thank you too for giving us plenty of written questions. Only the most popular topics could be put to the candidates but we hope they were enough to give a flavour of their views and policies. We are very grateful to Fergus for selecting suitable questions as well as managing the meeting so competently.

We are also very grateful to the candidates who came to the hustings to introduce themselves and respond to our questions. We were sorry that two candidates were unable to come, one due to illness and one because of an important family commitment. It was good she was able to appoint a substitute.

Thank you again to everyone who took part in the meeting in whatever way and who helped to make it a worthwhile and even an enjoyable event.

Rosalind Scott - Secretary to Churches Together in Charlbury

Sat 22 Jun, 22:33

Roy and Rosalind Scott organised the Hustings on behalf of Churches Together in Charlbury - how wonderful that they did so.  Well done and thank you.

Sat 22 Jun, 10:59

I've spent many an enjoyable evening in the Memorial Hall, usually as a member of our wonderful Wine Circle. Just as that Charlbury institution makes me glad we chose Charlbury as our home, last night's Election Hustings made us proud and grateful to be part of this community.

A big thank you to organisers, stewards and Revd Fergus for the fair and capable chairing of this event. The hall was packed to the rafters with standing room only and most of the 8 (yes, 8!) candidates for the Banbury and Chipping Norton Constituency we are now part of present.

Affordable housing, sewage in our rivers, the state of social care, fuel security and quality of education were key topics of the questions put to the candidates. Important issues for Charlbury, but for towns and cities across the country, too. The consensus in the room was that we're not happy with the state any of them are in now.

So what does that mean for who we choose to represent us in Parliament, and ultimately for which government we want to see in power for the next 5 years? Some of the candidates offered thoughtful and well-meaning contributions on these topics, and urged us to vote with our hearts. It's a lovely sentiment, but where would that leave us when we wake up on the 5th July? If we want to change the status quo we need to use our heads, too and vote for change.