The Ilford hustings

Andrew Boff supporter Graeme Archer offers a light-hearted account of last night's hustings in Ilford. Our report of the first hustings is here.  Another hustings has been added to the schedule (Sidcup Sports Centre, September 19th).

Hustings Round Two! Ilford here we come - but how to get there? Wrestle The Candidate to the ground over his plans to cycle there - rush hour traffic on the A12 not conducive to elegant arrival. Instead we drive (the horror!), but put the roof down on the way as a nod to environmentalism (I'm slightly woolly on the science of this). Since Candidate is practising his revamped speech, this gets us some odd looks from the passing van drivers. Suppose it does look bizarre to see a very animated driver gripping the wheel and declaiming to the air, sat next to a passenger so tired his head is lolling around like a pig's bladder on a stick. Arrive in Ilford about six hours early, due to my nerves over the heaviness of said traffic. Candidate reminds me, somewhat acidly, that Ilford is about 5 miles from Hackney so perhaps leaving mid-afternoon for a 7pm appointment was over-egging it a bit.

*

Disaster! Arrive at venue to discover that One Of The Other Candidate's team has purloined the only available trestle table outside the hustings room, and bedecked it with balloons and DVDs. The Other Candidate appears to travel everywhere with a portable balloon factory. On Night One was sure that my fizz would be beamed all over London News Tonight, only to view the bulletin later, aghast to see that between the camera and myself one of her wretched balloons had floated into place to cover my face completely, so that I briefly appeared on telly as some sort of Doctor Who type morph-creature, part Boff teeshirt and part Borwick-balloon-head thing. Find small space in corner of room, put on The Campaign Teeshirt (will it survive till Friday? will I?) and my rictus "Would you like one of these leaflets?" smile, and prepare for "battle". It's hard to feel like a battle when one is competing against friends who are all great Conservatives. Am pleased to report that all rivalry very good-humoured.

*

Double Disaster! No "Green Room" available for candidates to relax in prior to main event. More fuss than you would think possible outside of a hen farm, but matter resolved to general satisfaction.

*

Team Boris arrives, weighed down with their excellent Boris-Oyster cardholders. Are frankly furious over the state of trestle-table allocation. Remind them of our good-natured rivalry, all great Conservatives etc etc. I offer them a share of my small space in the corner, which they graciously accept. Am delighted to report that our campaign team then increases by 100%, when John turns up, so I go outside to bother the public with our beautiful leaflets. Meet old friends from the Ealing by-election, and we discuss the wonderful strengths of that campaign, how splendidly it all came together etc etc.

*

Consider the choice of venue, which is at the bottom of a steep flight of stairs round the back of the town hall, and find myself recalling the opening pages of The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy. Note the obvious excitement of the arriving crowd (the "normal person" vs "Tory activist" quota is much higher tonight) and silently curse whoever in Tory-land decided not to go full out on publicising this process. Had we plastered the Fantastic Four faces over the side of London buses for the last month, we'd have had the political event of the year and attendees by the thousand. As it is, the hall quickly fills up with 300 or so excited voters.

*

Meeting begins. To be fair-minded, I shall not comment on how wonderful Andrew is tonight, but note only that everyone has upped their game from Monday's launch. There is measurably more energy coming from all the candidates, and the, how shall I say, more authentic nature of the public here vis-a-vis Monday seems to drive us somewhat further into real political hustings territory. The candidates are also starting to enjoy themselves and feed off one another, visible from their more relaxed body language and the badinage they share. The questions from the audience are much more full-blooded too. Livingstone would not have enjoyed these hustings. The disdain for Livingstone, and the desire to pick a Tory who will get rid of him, is palpable in the room. Many people say to me on the way out (I'm still there with the leaflets) "I wish we could make one candidate out of all four of them".

*

Home, quick nod to partner, bowl of branflakes, and bed. Ruislip this evening. See you at the hustings, comrade!

Comments

[John Moss]

And if you're going to Ruislip on the Metropolitan Line, beware the hordes coming out of Wembley after the footie!

[Sally Roberts]

Wonderful account of your evening Graeme! It sounds a lot more fun than Round 1 was and I wish I'd been there but Ilford is a BIT far from Hammersmith!!!

[Londoner]

It seems that having a life (i.e. committed to theatre tickets to see Saint Joan at the National on Monday night - a very political play), leading to having to go off piste to Ilford for the hustings on Tuesday, brought a real bonus. I could not recognise the apparently lacklustre nature of Monday's gathering from the energised and, frankly, impressive performances in Ilford.

I think Graeme (whom I enjoyed meeting offline for the first time) was a tad overenthusiastic regarding the audience. I counted it and it was definitely nearer 170 than 300. Apart from the obvious camp followers, I was about the youngest there, and I can remember the 1964 election (OK, I was only eight, but precocious). Yes, Graeme, they were authentic: a very authentic bunch of London OAPs. Active and wonderful ones, but OAPs nonetheless. But that I suppose is the Tory Party: a place to go to if you want to feel young. [I've just remembered that there was one member of the Youth Parliament, who asked a question so, OK, I was the second youngest there.]

Boris was serious and measured for the most part, and certainly gave plenty of reasons to give one confidence in selecting him. He is right not to just promise to scrap the congestion charge and Andrew and Victoria I believe risk a re-run of 2000 and 2004 if we fight the election on opposing that again without something very solid in its place. We need an "and" strategy on traffic not an "or". He was also excellent in conveying a real enthusiasm for the diversity and vibrancy - the positive things - about London. Although I personally hate the Olympics, and therefore sympathise with Andrew Boff's total negativity on that subject, Boris (and Warwick) showed maturity in recognising that a London Mayor must at least pretend to be enthusiastic about it (whilst ensuring that Londoners pick up no more of the tab, about which they were all agreed). Andrew's attack on the overprovision of hospitals in inner London (the reason, he says, for proposed closures in outer London), whilst possibly popular with the mostly outer London audience last night, is also not likely to play well in places like Westminster, Kensington and Lambeth.

Boris also of course had some good lines but was careful to deploy his lighter side only after he had established his serious credentials. Regarding the Livingstone camp's smear campaign: "He seems intent on inventing and beating a candidate who doesn't exist, but unfortunately for him he's going to be beaten by the candidate who does".

There was a fun question at the end on which political figure they most admired (Thatcher and Churchill disallowed): the answers were quite revealing. Boff said Macleod: OK for this audience they were old enough to have heard of him; this revealed Boff as a romantic (early death) and long-time liberal. Borwick (after trying to say Thatcher despite the terms of the question) said Peel because he founded the Met (confirming her one-track police fixation, particularly as the greatest thing about Peel was dishing the landed interest by abolishing the Corn Laws - dishing the landed interest may not be the Royal Borough's forte). Lightfoot said Reagan (a more cunning way of really saying Thatcher, but also revealing a hitherto carefully hidden populist streak).

Boris, however, was priceless. After reciting his well-rehearsed admiration for the Mayor in Jaws (he wasn't swayed by public panic but his constituents were eaten anyway), he said that he wasn't "going to do that story anymore" (thereby having his cake and eating it) and instead plumped for Pericles, as the first advocate of democracy. He absolutely pledged to be a "thoroughly Periclean Mayor". What range: from 1970s trashy movie to classical scholarship. But don't try that one on Radio Five Live, or even Newsnight, Boris.

All of the candidates performed well. Boris and Andrew were equally assured but, actually, by some of his more measured answers on policy Boris was more the Statesman (or the Mayor). Lightfoot was the most thoughtful and intelligent, but not as engaging. He was confirmed as my second choice on policy grounds. Victoria was dogged, if a bit one dimensional. It is not enough on crime just to keep repeating how terrible it is.

So, if I haven't stolen their thunder by the detail of this report - I thoroughly recommend everyone to get to one of the remaining hustings and vote on the merits of what you hear. For me it confirmed my strong support for Boris, but, depending on your perspective, there are strong arguments also for coming away from this hustings favouring Warwick or Andrew, if not I think Victoria. May the best man win.

Footnote: after the meeting Boris showed he walks the walk on public transport as he was spotted by Londoner getting on a train at Ilford station, to a friendly single shout of recognition from a 20 something lad: "Oi Boris". Andrew, you really shouldn't have gone by car.

[C List and Proud]

The sparks were certainly flying between Boff and Boris and there is now a clear division between them on the Congestion Charge, with Johnson wanting to keep it and Boff setting out very clearly how he would scrap it.

This is warming up nicely!

[sjm]

Londoner:

I was ticking off names at the door at the Ilford hustings - there was a heartening number of non-OAPs, and indeed under-30's, in the audience.

[cmgc]

Cor, thanks Sonia. You made me feel young again.

[Comstock]

How many people turned up, just out of interest?

[Roger Evans]

I'm familiar with the room and I would say there were between 170 and 200 people present in a lively and mixed audience - certainly not all pensioners. Not all supporters - some of our local Greens attended. 300 is an over estimate as the room can't hold that many.

I agree that all the candidates had raised their game since the first hustings. It appears they took notice of feedback on Conhome.

[Londoner]

I presume your question is addressed to sjm, Comstock. I thought 170 but Graeme said 300. But then obviously I didn't notice all those young under-30 things. To defend myself I did say they were mostly OAPs "apart from camp obvious followers". By which I meant people wearing Boris teeshirts, carrying Victoria balloons etc. I think there were vanishly few young apart from them.