On 9th April 2015, the City Hindu Network (CHN) and the City Sikh Network (CSN) decided to come together to Host 'Hustings in the City', an event to bring political engagement directly to its people in London. Asian Voice was the media partner.
With voter apathy being common among the younger generation, CHN and CSN decided the event would be a good initiative to give an insight to the guests about the upcoming elections, while they can also have their queries answered by the panelists.
Param Singh, the Corporate Relations Director of City Sikhs Network, who organised the hustings stated, “It has been a great honour to help put together the largest Asian hustings event in the UK. I was delighted to see so many young Asian professionals taking time out of their busy schedules to listen to politicians and be part of the event. The Asian community is an integral and established part of Britain and it is time for Britain and the political parties to understand and acknowledge the importance of the Asian and ethnic vote.”
City Hindu Network is a not for profit organisation, created to promote networking, fast development, charity and community engagement. City Sikh Network is an organisation run by Sikh professionals to create positive change with this society to help create a more connected world.
The National President of the National Hindu Students Forum (UK), Yajur Shah said, "The "Hustings in the City" event as well as the increased activity in recent months demonstrates that Hindus and Sikhs are taking an interest in politics and want their voice to be heard- we have certainly seen this at NHSF (UK). We will be turning out in higher numbers than ever before to vote during these elections and it is now up to politicians to ensure that our voice is heard. Congratulations once again to CHN and CSN for organising such a fantastic event."
Representing the Conservatives was Rt Hon Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; from Labour, Rt Hon Sadiq Khan, Justice Secretary and Shadow Minister for London; Rt Hon Tom Brake from the Liberal Democrats, Parliamentary Secretary and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons; Equality Spokesperson, Benali Hamdache from the Green Party and the Culture Spokesperson, Peter Whittle, representing the UKIP party.
Each representative was given a slotted timeframe to give an introduction and elaborate on why people ought to vote for their respective parties.
Sajid Javid stated, “What I want to see in our country is to secure a better future for everyone and that, of course, includes British Asians which are a hugely important part of the history of our country and have made a significant contribution to our country for decades. The way I think the Conservatives can deliver that is essentially stick to the longterm economic plan that has been delivering for our country now for five years, ever since the government changed in 2010”.
On comparing the Conservatives with the Labour Party, Javid remarked, “It is competence vs chaos”.
Sadiq Khan humorously quipped how the event title 'Hustings in the City' reminded him of “Sex in the City”. On a serious note, he added, “In my opinion, the general election on May 7th is a choice. There is one school of thought which says it's as good as it gets; and there's one school of thought, which I subscribe to is that Britain deserves better than this... It's a straight choice. It's either as good as it gets [Conservatives], or Britain deserves better [Labour]”.
Tom Brake said, “The backdrop to everything that has happened in coalition is that in 2010, the situation we inherited was desperate from an economic point of view... We [Liberal Democrats] want a fair economy. That means an economy in which everyone has opportunity. That means investing in things like free school meals. That means investing in things like the pupil premium to make sure that the young people who are at risk of falling behind get the help that they need, so that they can succeed. We also want an economy in which everyone has a decent wage and that is why I am very keen to press the idea of a living wage.”
Brake concluded, “What you can get from the Liberal Democrats is a party which is committed to tackling our problems, with doing it in a way that doesn't cut 50 billion in the way that the Conservatives would like, or spend an extra 70 billion, in the way Labour would like”.
Benali Hamdache stated, “Politics has really changed. Compared to the situation in 2010, we're dealing with one of the most volatile actions we've ever looked forward to... The best thing to be doing is vote for what you believe in... When you look at the polls, fewer people are looking to vote for the main three parties; more and more people are looking to vote for alternatives because they are sick and tired of politics as usual. And I certainly think that the Greens offer that fresh alternative”.
Peter Whittle stated his disapproval of Britain being in the EU. “I want Britain to make all of its own laws. I don't want laws to come from Brussels. I want us to be a proud sovereign country and I want us also to go out into the world, into this global economy to trade for ourselves, make our own trade arrangements and not be spied for by regulations which comes from EU... Also, we [UKIP] want a controlled immigration policy... This is a huge concern to everybody in the country, from all different ethnicities... at the moment, we can't have a fair and ethical system whilst we are in the EU. It is actually quite a discriminatory system... There are one set of laws and set of rules for people outside the EU, but an automatic right for anybody inside the EU... We must have a controlled and fair system.”
There were many questions that were steered towards the dignitary panelists; questions in regards to the rise in property prices, as well as questions about their opinions on the government removing languages such as, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali and Urdu from GCSE and A Level syllabuses.
Sajid Javid replied in regards to the removal of these languages from the syllabus. “One of the most important things is to have as much choice as we can in our state school system... To be honest, I'm not aware that those GCSEs have been withdrawn, and that's apparently because no one has raised this with me as a Member of Parliament. One of the best ways to, frankly, get these issues raised and try to get it addressed is the more people raised them with a Member of Parliament across parties, the more seriously it will be taken.”
Tom Brakes mentioned, “I studied from the age of 8 to 18 at an international school in Paris, where each major nationality that was represented at the school had its own foreign section... so I really value languages. I think the UK is beginning to fall behind, in this respect. Our willingness to demonstrate a lack of an ability to speak foreign languages is quite breathtaking, and does us no favours, in terms of business.”
Banali Hamdache stated “The issue is the fragmentation of our education system. More and more academies, more and more free schools mean that independent schools are offering certain services, rather than collaboratively, schools working across cities, across boroughs to offer services together. If we have a more cooperative system, we could ensure that three students in that schools on this side of the borough and five students on the other can collaboratively get together and learn certain subjects. I think we need to make a more cooperative approach to our education system and really look at the impact of what the introduction of academies and free schools has done.
Peter Whittle disagreed and said, “I think academies and free schools have increased choice, without question. I think that is a great thing. In fact, in terms of languages, we are really contracting I think badly, generally. That's possibly because we are getting lazier and lazier as well... I would certainly think it is a very good thing. I didn't know particularly about this case... but the fact is the more languages you learn at school, the better; particularly, with the global economy.”
Sajid Khan gave a speech in Urdu, addressing the issue, stating how he would converse with his clients in Urdu when he was a lawyer and he explains voting issues to Urdu speaking people, who are not well versed in English. He explains the pros of knowing these languages. He also spoke about the benefits of knowing these languages if you are to do business with South Asian countries. He then quipped about which country speaks Latin in today's day and age, in regards to learning languages, such as Latin. “Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu, many many more countries speak these languages than Latin.”
The event gave plenty of insight to apathy voters to take interest and make a distinguished and important voting decision on 7th May.
