Pews packed for Lanark Hustings

CLAIMS that the 2015 General Election would be the most important in generations were borne out by the sheer size of the audience at the Lanark hustings meeting on Thursday night.
By Ron Harris
Published 1st May 2015, 15:18 BST
Question time...Rev Bryan Kerr (centre) with the candidatesQuestion time...Rev Bryan Kerr (centre) with the candidates
Question time...Rev Bryan Kerr (centre) with the candidates

One of the four candidates who took part in the gathering in Greyfriars Church reckoned that there were twice the number who attended the 2010 pre-election battle of words for the Lanark and Hamilton East Constituency.

Of course, as in past occasions, there seemed to be very few undecided or `floating’ voters attending, the vast majority being party activists, coming along to cheer on their man or woman.

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If the event didn’t actually change the way anyone attending would actually vote tomorrow, at least it served to blow the old myth that, if you don’t turn up for a meeting or a party, everyone will just talk about you.

Hustings chairman the Rev Bryan Kerr’s intimation of the non-attendance of UKIP candidate Donald MacKay was the last mention made of him or his party.

All attending knew that the Labour v SNP fight would be the main bout of the evening but that didn’t stop Tory candidate Alex Allison and Lib-Dem Gregg Cullen putting over their respective parties’ cases determidely and clearly.

Their contributions were squeezed in between repeated clashes between defending veteran Labour incumbant Jim Hood and his youthful SNP challenger Angela Crawley.