Great Christian hustings events in Newbury

During the two Christian hustings it's is clear that people are concerned about the impact of globalisation and free trade both on the poverty in the 3rd world and on our own greedy need consumption to make us happy (buying things clearly do not make us happy).

There are clear strong theme for the 'right to life' and the right to a good quality of life both here and throughout the world. Richard Benyon was proud that he didn't support equal rights for all in our society (with his anti-gay votes reference
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpid=1727&dmp=826) and he steered clear of his pro-weapons exporting stance whilst claiming he supports all forms of right to life. UKIP also came out strongly against the LGBT community claiming that there was 'something wrong with them'. The Green Party has very strong human rights policies and stance which I hope was recognised by all.

I had very strong support for Green Party environmental policies as well, clearly the others struggled: Richard Benyon failed to make a cohesive 'green wash' argument (how can you support globalisation and free trade and say that localisation and fair trade are the way to go!); David Redndel was also on the fence with environmental issues such as nuclear power and weapons.

There were also areas where Green Party policy is not compatible with the various Christian views - our support for carefully monitored and managed euthanasia; pro-choice stance for abortion; and our policies to ensure we have an 'inclusive' society (not one for example that supports closed faith schools or closed moral religious teachings). But the feedback I had from people was that although they were not in agreement they were pleased that I had clearly brought up the differences and was
prepared to listen to them and their argument.

We had 7 people from the last event pledging to vote for Adrian Hollister (Green Party) and wishing us all the best.