The cut and thrust of political debate gripped a packed audience in St Andrews last night as a general election 2015 hustings took place for the key constituency of North East Fife.
The 90-minute event, hosted at the Byre Theatre by St Andrews University, and run in association with The Courier, featured all six candidates standing for election.
The event, a full house at the Byre, took a Question Time format with questions from the audience and lively debate.
It was chaired by The Courier’s political editor Kieran Andrews.
The candidates taking part were Huw Bell, Scottish Conservative; Brian Thomson, Scottish Labour; Andy Collins, Scottish Green; Stephen Gethins, Scottish National Party; Tim Brett, Scottish Liberal Democrat; Mike Scott-Hayward, Independent.
Education issues proved to be particular hot topics with tuition fees and impact of Scottish Government cuts on world-class education at Scotland’s universities provoking particularly heated debate.
The vexed issue of a new Madras College for St Andrews was also discussed, with the majority of candidates publicly backing calls for the new-build school at Pipeland to be built as a matter of urgency despite an ongoing legal challenge in the town against Fife Council’s granting of planning permission.The Courier hustings continue this evening in Arbroath. Click here for more informationLabour candidate Brian Thomson said his party was committed to bringing tuition fees down.
SNP candidate Stephen Gethins highlighted the £100 billion that could be saved through the abolition of Trident.
But it was the questioning of Liberal Democrat candidate Tim Brett which provoked one of the biggest audience reactions when he was quizzed about his party’s U-turn on tuition fees while in coalition with the Tories at Westminister. He said: “We made a pledge and couldn’t deliver because we only had 9% of MPs in the Westminster Parliament.”
Tory candidate Huw Bell said he paid his own way through university and wanted to see more Scottish students from deprived backgrounds coming to study at St Andrews. He also said there was no such thing as free education someone had to pay for it.
Green candidate Andy Collins said education was a basic right. He said society needed “radical proposals to start again from scratch”.
Scotland’s ability to run its own economy through fiscal autonomy was also discussed.
But it was again Lib Dem Fife councillor Tim Brett who found himself in the spotlight when, quizzed by audience member Susan Fleming, he was forced to defend his role in the £16 million overspend at NHS Tayside in 2002 when he was chief executive and was forced to resign.
Mr Brett said the whole episode was “all in the public domain” and came at a time when great investment was being made in Ninewells as a cancer and emergency centre. He said that since then he had been elected to Fife Council three times and had also played prominent NHS roles.
Huw Bell said senior management in the public sector should be held to account the same as those in the private sector. Stephen Gethins called for candidates to be judged on policies, adding that he had “great respect” for all of his colleagues at the table.Click here for as-it-happened updates by independent St Andrews student title The Saint