Nangle Natters: Livewire of a show

Election fever is well underway and my Facebook feed is filled with cries to pick a devil I know, click this link to find out how to vote strategically for my area, and (I’m sure by now) Buzzfeed quizzes to tell me how to vote based on what I tell them I think about various issues. If someone dubious at party HQ isn’t hacking these online quizzes to get more floating votes then they’re missing a trick, by the way.

When the election was first announced – doesn’t a ‘Snap Election’ sound like something from a Legally Blonde sequel? – I had determined to go along to a hustings. The last time I went to one was the first year that I voted and I found it really useful, and surprisingly emotive. The candidates sat on the platform answering and discussing answers to questions submitted by the audience on a theme. In this case it was on the NHS. Practically Question Time in a school hall.

Medicine tends to do its best to avoid giving absolutes (and antibiotics)

I’m quite protective of our National Health Service, and so warmed to the Liberal candidate who happened to be a GP and knew exactly what they were talking about from the grassroots level up. One of the other candidates took more of a challenging stance, questioning the validity of modern medicine’s absolutes. My thinking is that most modern medicine tends to do its best to avoid giving absolutes (and antibiotics), and it’s chiefly us patients that demand them (and antibiotics). Obviously it’s a thorny issue, but it was going along to the hustings that gave me an idea as to the arguments in a way that several manifestos saying different things – never acknowledging the others’ arguments – didn’t.

You could say that I’d get the same thing from watching the televised debate, but my jaded self answers that I spend so much time trying to separate the spin from the policy that I have a tendency to tie myself in knots. Watching a debate live brings it that much closer, and raw emotions and beliefs to the surface.

Anyway, I’ve yet to find any live debate – of an official capacity – and election day is looming closer. Time to hunt one or two down and get to know my candidates and what makes them tick. I’ll make space in my busy Brighton Fringe diary to hear out the people who hope to speak for me.