Record number of 'Hustings' Meetings

3.39.32pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 26th Apr 2005

In the Twickenham constituency there have been five public meetings attended by all the candidates to debate the issues: one with Amnesty International; two with the churches in Teddington and Twickenham; one at Hampton School; and one with Twickenham amenity groups.

Vincent Cable said that in his experience of four general elections this was "a record number of debates and it has given hundreds of residents an opportunity to hear the candidates at first hand. The debates have been polite rather than confrontational; low key rather than emotional. But this reflects the rather subdued way in which this election is progressing: very different from 1997 when there was a real sense of major change and the end of an era".

Vincent Cable regretted the unwillingness of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to debate in a similar way: "I issued a challenge to Gordon Brown to debate the economy with me. Oliver Letwin accepted but won't take the risk. This is bad for democracy".