Today English voters will elect a bit shy of 5000 councillors across almost 3000 wards, in 135 local authorities. Last week, I organised and chaired a hustings for my own ward, Noel Park, in the London Borough of Haringey. A few observations and points of concern. 1. Hustings are a very important part of the democratic process. However, I observed several constituencies where either candidates or voters seemed to struggle to find one. Some voters said they did not know what a hustings is, or did know but had never been to one. 2. Comms were appalling. It was far too long before I knew who the non-incumbent parties' candidates were. There seemed at times to be a total lack of engagement. Except for a new Labour candidate (who I had met previously over tea with mutual friends) and his colleagues (who I also know, including the head of the council), it seemed more difficult than previous years to successfully contact the candidates. I had to chase everyone (again except Labour, the incumbent party), some multiple times, to get even an initial response. The only campaign leaflet I received was for Labour - and it was the one distributed at the hustings (the other parties came empty handed). 3. Candidate participation was poor. Every invited party was represented. But only two actual candidates for our ward were on the panel: for Labour and Green parties. One neighbour lamented that the choices for the evening were Left and far Left, with no actual candidates for anything more to the centre and right present. Do they want our votes or not? See next point. 4. Some candidates are not in it to win it. My hustings panel had representatives from Reform UK, Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, Labour, and the Green Party but only two actual candidates. The absence of the other candidates is a truer message than the ballot paper would indicate. The Liberal Democrat representative (a candidate for Crouch End) was extremely articulate in making his case, but he is not our candidate. We were told afterwards that the Liberal Democrats are not truly competing in the ward, they only have paper candidates. So we have the mere illusion of choice...and yet it is at the same time very real. What happens when one of the paper candidates actually gets elected? What quality of engagement could we expect from such elected representatives? 5. Parties should vet their candidates more carefully and train them more thoroughly. Re training: a neighbour commented that apart from the Reform UK candidate and interjections by a non-panellist Labour candidate (the head of the council) from the floor, she could not hear the other panellists. Her feedback was that they mumbled, at best speaking conversationally, instead of projecting. This could be addressed more readily than other concerns. Also, re. both vetting and training, the Conservative panelist was a lovely Kenyan-born older lady who lives locally and is running in a neighbouring constituency. I knew that she was not a candididate for Noel Park, but at first was not sure that she did, as she introduced herself otherwise over the phone and doubled down when I asked. On the night, she could not tell us the names of the candidates we should vote for or anything about them other than they were running for the Conservative party. Her answers were rambling, anecdotal, and seldom constituted a material addition to anything already said by the other candidates. More in reply post...