Questions, questions: General Election hustings dates (so far)

If you have a question to put to an election candidate, or to a political party which is seeking your vote in Croydon, here’s a way you can try to get some answers

Hustings used to be the way for the election candidates to be assessed and judged by the voting public: a grand Town Hall event, packed out with an electorate, many of them eager to put their own questions to the individuals who fancied that they could represent the constituency at Westminster for the next five years.

These days, in the television, digital age, not so much. The TV debates with fickle, or thick, party leaders suck much of the appetite for such events from any who are not fully paid-up “political animals”.

As a consequence, there’s less of a chance for public scrutiny on a borough-wide or constituency level. Which is probably just how some of the candidates prefer it, as they, and their political parties, take your vote for granted.

The sudden announcement of the General Election on July 4 may have also caught out some of the local groups who might in the past have looked to stage a hustings. All the organisation required, the confirmation that candidates would attend, booking the hall, handling the publicity, all takes time and money, and too many of Croydon’s voluntary sector organisations are already fully stretched. A hustings for all the same, tired old clichés and empty promises? Nahh, we’ll leave it, thanks…

Thus Croydon’s election hustings in 2024 appear a bit on the thin side.

These are the details of the events that we have seen so far – a four-way clash on Thursday June 20 (hardly the ideal manner in which to celebrate mid-summer):

June 20: Citizens UK: Croydon East hustings Woodside Baptist Church, SE25 4SP 7.30pm

June 20: Croydon TUC: Borough-wide hustings at Ruskin House 7.30pm

June 20: East Coulsdon Residents’ Association: Croydon South hustings at Coulsdon Community Centre, Barrie Close CR5 3BX 7.30pm

June 20: Croydon BME Forum: Croydon West hustings at Stanley Halls, South Norwood 6pm

Streatham and Croydon North also has two hustings arranged:

June 26: Streatham Action: Streatham Baptist Church, Lewin Road, SW16 7.30pm

June 28: Streatham Seniors Connections Hustings: Lewin Road Baptist Church 3pm

If you are organising, or know of, another hustings event, then drop us a line, or better, an event poster (jpg) to inside.croydon@btinternet.com, and we’ll add it to the list.

Here at Inside Croydon, in case you had not noticed, we try to do things a bit differently.

So, for this 2024 General Election campaign, we want to hear your questions as we stage the iC Digital Hustings.

We want you to submit your question (no more than 30 words; it’s a question, not a lecture) and specify whether your question is for candidates in a particular constituency (Croydon East, Croydon West, Croydon South and Streatham and Croydon North), for a particular political party (that we might put the question to their candidates in whatever constituency), or for a particular candidate.

No anonymous submissions. Email us your question (or questions; you’re allowed more than one), specify whether it is a constituency, candidate or party question, and include a daytime phone number (just in case we need to get back to you). And put “Digital Hustings” in the subject field.

We’ll select the best, most-challenging, most-interesting questions, and try our best to get you some answers.

Email to: inside.croydon@btinternet.com

Inside Croydon – If you want real journalism, delivering real news, from a publication that is actually based in the borough, please consider paying for it. Sign up today: click here for more details

If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com

As featured on Google News Showcase

We offer FREE ads to community groups when they have members who are paid subscribers to Inside Croydon

Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here

Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network

Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London