On Monday 4 May, The Big Lincoln Debate will take place at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC), part of The University of Lincoln.
Today, the Conservatives’ Parliamentary Candidate for Lincoln, Karl McCartney JP, explains why he will not participate in this Debate: “In December of last year, I was approached by the Lincolnshire Echo, The Lincolnite and BBC Radio Lincolnshire (the “Organisers”) who informed me they were planning a General Election debate. This would be a single event which would avoid Parliamentary Candidates having to undertake a similar event for each media outlet.
“I responded to the invitation in December 2014. I said that I would be pleased to participate in the Debate providing three issues were addressed which would ensure the proposed Debate was fully inclusive and politically neutral:
- The Debate should be fully inclusive, in that all nominated parliamentary candidates should be invited to attend, regardless of which political party they represented. It was not the original intention of the Organisers that the Debate would be inclusive.
- The venue had to be politically neutral and the audience balanced and the audience selection process transparent. The venue selected was part of The University of Lincoln.
- The Debate Chairman had to be politically neutral.
“I further requested that the date was changed as I had a long standing personal engagement in my diary.
“ The organisers declined to address these four matters, which I believed at that time, and still believe today, to be reasonable.
“Accordingly, in mid-January 2015, I declined the invitation to participate in the Debate. Next, certain media reported that I was not planning on attending the Debate, only after which the Organisers addressed the first and third of my issues (that the event should be inclusive and that the Chairman should be neutral).
“Throughout, I was discussing my participation with the organisers in good faith. To read of my non-participation in the media and then only after that to be advised of changes to the Debate format (for it to become properly inclusive and to have a neutral Chairman) I find discourteous and unacceptable, if not contrived.
“The venue chosen (and the audience that it will naturally attract) and the date chosen for the Debate remain unresolved.
“I will not be there, as I have consistently advised on a number of occasions before. I sincerely hope that one benefit of my non-participation in the Debate is that candidates originally excluded from the event should enjoy greater prominence than they would otherwise have received.
“I do, of course, wish the Organisers and all my fellow parliamentary candidates present at the Debate all the very best for the evening.
- ENDS -
For further information, please contact Karl McCartney JP at [email protected] / 01522 687261.