dundee general election debate

the prospective parliamentary candidates for dundee west (and east) got together tonight to discuss a wide selection local, national, and international issues. the general calibre of candidates was surprisingly good, with the green party's pauline hinchion coming across particularly well. 

possibly the most important statement of the night came from chirs law of the snp who said with regards to a second independence referendum "for me personally i would like to see it as soon as possible."not quite on point with the snp's line that this election is not about independence. 

overall the event could have done with a bit more direct confrontation between the candidates- at times it felt a bit sterile. there were however minor clashes between labour's michael marra and chris law. chris law managed to box marra into a corner on trident renewal which is always a crowd pleaser but was left wanting when the discussion shifted to austerity. of course the snp have cannily positioned themselves as the anti-austerity party however a publication this morning by the ifs shows that according to both parties manifesto's the labour party will spend more than the nationalists by 2019-20.

tusc candidate, jim mcfarlane was another strong performer. he talked at length about the follies of capitalism and advocated democratic public ownership of construction firms such as muirfield contracts. i was particularly impressed with his response to a question on the travelling community, mcfarlane talked of need to "change the language of the debate" and reminded the audience of our shared humanity. 

hichion's responded articulately to all questions levelled at her, it's just a shame that a lot of green support will be drained away by the snp. liberal democrat daniel coleman did fine, but his middle of the road, safe pair of hands message was not particularly inspiring. as for conservative bill bowman, you have to wonder what the vetting process is for the selection of candidates. at one point, during a discussion on foreign affairs, mr bowman justified the retention of trident nuclear weapons by warning of the threat posed to europe by the encroaching soviet union. yes, the soviet union.