The Blackpool Gazette and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Blackpool North constituency at next month's general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
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NewsTranscript
00:00I've got a question for Dan, while he's already riled up. From your opening remarks, you made a comment about people being woke. I just want to know what you meant by that, and why it's such a bad thing.
00:16Well, if I could. When I talk about people being woke, there's definitely, in the public discourse now, there is a pushback against things like gender ideology, for example.
00:27The fact that children are going to schools and they're learning about 147 genders, when they're only ever going to meet two.
00:35It's not true.
00:37It is. You're entitled to your opinion, sir, and so are you, madam, but when you start ramming it down children's throats and telling them what to think instead of how to think, that is wrong and we are totally against it, and that, madam, is woke.
00:49Unfortunately, what you've just heard is what politics has been done. What we've got is a situation whereby particularly with Boris Johnson and with the leader of Brazil, they have created an environment of division between us.
01:16We all disagree about something or other. Within my family, there are 20-odd of us, and we never ever get to a situation where we all agree on one thing, other than the fact that we each love each other.
01:30What gets me is the fact that we can all have a society where we can all disagree with each other, but still respect each other.
01:47What used to be tolerance, democracy, is now termed as woke and people are pushed away.
01:58This is what some of the politicians, some of the parties, some of the people are doing, and the people we could trust are corroding our democracy from the base and creating division.
02:13I think that should not be acceptable. Thank you.
02:23I, like Paul, am a grammar school boy. When I went to grammar school and did biology, there was a male and a female. So far as I know, that's not changed.
02:36I think it's quite straightforward. Treat everybody with respect and do as you will be done by. It's not much more difficult than that.
02:48Yes, but. There was a report came out recently called the Caste Report that raised red flags. So yes, we need to treat people with dignity.
03:03We need to help young people who are looking to transition, but we need to make sure they are getting the right help.
03:09We also need to understand why some women have concerns about safe sex spaces or personal care, hospital care, sports, prisons, those sorts of things.
03:22But, like we said, this is not a woke issue. This is a humanity issue, looking at something and asking us to have a civilised conversation, not use it to divide parties and communities and families.
03:36So I think we need to take the heat out of the argument and speak about it in a proper, sensible way.