[Latest, 20 April] Recording of meeting now available here–>https://youtu.be/kugejmKuAmQ
Spokes is holding an online election hustings, on Thursday 15 April, 7.30pm, for the Edinburgh and Lothians area of the Scottish Parliament election, to discuss transport issues with particular emphasis on cycling.
We have speakers from the 5 main parties currently represented at Holyrood, all of whom are candidates for an Edinburgh/Lothians seat and/or for the Lothians List.
- Con – Malcolm Offord [replacing Damian Timson; Lothians List candidate]
- Green – Chas Booth [Lothians List candidate, councillor, Spokes member]
- Lab – Sarah Boyack [Lothians List candidate, previous MSP, Spokes member]
- LibDem – Jill Reilly [Edinburgh Eastern & Lothians List candidate]
- SNP – Ash Denham [Edinburgh Eastern & Lothians List candidate, previous MSP]
- QA chair – Dr Caroline Brown of The Urban Institute, Heriot-Watt University
Each candidate will have up to 5 minutes to set out their party’s position on transport, with particular reference to cycling. The meeting will then open for Q&A, for the remaining hour. At the end, the speakers will be asked to briefly sum up what they have learned from the meeting.
Questions can be submitted in advance or at the meeting (see below).
Due to the expected large attendance we will use the same GoToWebinar system as at our recent #SpacesForPeople public meeting, courtesy of Cycling UK In Scotland, with the audience automatically muted.
Although Spokes is concentrating on our local area, Edinburgh and Lothian, there is plenty all-Scotland election info from WalkWheelCycleVote and Cycling UK Scotland – see ‘More Election Info’ below and our separate Elections Info article.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Register now for the meeting by clicking here. Attendance is free, so disregard the sentence about credit cards
- To submit a question in advance, email spokes @ spokes.org.uk with the subject line hustings question. Questions can also be submitted during the meeting using the “Questions” option in GoToWebinar (you will only see the question you have submitted)
- Help publicise the meeting by retweeting our tweet, liking our facebook post (due soon) and passing on the link for this article to friends and relations.
- Speak to your own local candidates about the issues that concern you
- Done all the above? Now enter our Cycling in the Pandemic Spring competition! The prizes have to be seen to be believed, and we are hoping for the usual great variety of entries, whether exciting, instructive, heart-warming or tear-jerking!
DETAILED PROGRAMME
- 7.30 Welcome and how the webinar works – Martin McDonnell
- 7.35 Introduction – Dave duFeu
- 7.40 Candidate 5-minute presentations
- 8.05 Spokes Announcements
- 8.10 Q&A
- 9.00 Candidates “what I have learned from the meeting”
- 9.10 Summing up and close – Chair & Martin
MORE ELECTION INFO
- If you tweet about the meeting (before, during or after!) please use the hashtag #SpokesMtg. The most popular general hashtags for the election are probably #Holyrood2021 and #SP21
- See our Election Info article for lots more election links and background
- Spokes is part of the #WalkWheelCycleVote campaign which brings together over 50 Scottish cycling/wheeling/walking and related groups. Top aim is “Provide the sustained, long-term investment needed to start the transformation of Scotland into a country that enables active travel everywhere – starting from 10% of the transport budget, and rising to 20% over the course of the parliament”
- WWCV has published a list of all candidates throughout Scotland, and contacted them all, seeking support. Find your constituency and regional list candidates here. It’s too early for most to have replied yet, but not too early for you to remind them!
- We’ll be adding further election info to our website as the campaign proceeds which we will notify to emailable Spokes members.
- Cycling UK Scotland also has an election page, here.
- Go-Bike, Strathclyde Cycle Campaign, is holding a hustings on Mon 12 April.
- The Election is on Thursday 6 May 2021. Here are some election FAQs from the Scottish Parliament.
