Oh dear. My photography skills are getting no better but these are the Lincoln City Council candidates who took part in the TUC against Cuts' hustings held in the city last night with the chairman sitting second from right, next to UKIP Birchwood candidate Tony Wells.
The chap at the end from the TUC against cuts spoke about nationalising everything, having more public sector workers, and cutting nothing. The lady next to him for the Greens used all the words and phrases that confound and annoy me like "Transition Town, Resilience," and of course "Diversity and Sustainability".
Both ideologies scared me because, in my opinion, too many public sector workers leads to further loss of individual freedom through over bureaucratisation, regulation, enforcement, criminalisation, and ultimately Sovietisation of the public whose lives they are meant to improve. I felt the Green's view was idealistic and not realistic and even if we all moved towards this fluffy environmentalists' view, it would be too costly and too exclusive of those who couldn't afford it.
They all ridiculed genuine UKIP concerns about the undemocratic EU influence and control over our economic and social policies and every day lives. The Human Rights Act came up but I never got to say that I was against it because of how it discriminates against who can have rights and who can't. As humans, we are all entitled to that right at birth. A lengthy and costly piece of paper, interpreted variously by different judges in different courts, doesn't prevent abuses of that birth right.
I also had a view on prisoner voting rights which I didn't get to put forward. On that one I'm torn. Nick Hogan was a political prisoner and I can see how denying prisoners votes could be abused by the state. However, when I think of those prisoners that I've seen go through courts after having done some of the worst kind of degradation and humiliation to other human beings, I'm drawn to denying them the rights their victims have been denied by their direct action.
The panel and audience stopped short of calling us racist or little englanders although the socialist used the word to describe the Daily Express. The Green lady pontificated about how the country was very insular before joining the EU. How Nationalism - or being proud of your own culture - was wrong and how we needed membership of the EU to be more integrated with European cultures and respect them more.
She didn't mention that we had the Common Wealth long before we had the EU and since our inception as a Nation we have always integrated, adapted to new cultures from Saxon to Norman, to Dane and Asian to the myriad of cultures that we respect in Britain today without the EU telling us how to - and creating the paperwork to go with it.
I also found it patronising as the daughter of an Italian who taught me to love Europe. I am anti EU because I love the diversity of different European nations and I fear that under the EU they will become one converged blob of blandness with miserable citizens being told how to be "happy" - with the relevant paperwork of course. The EU is just the middle man between Britain and her friends and neighbours in Europe and we don't need it.
Tony Wells came across as the most mature, practical, common sense and logical to me but then he probably would as we stand for the same Party. I agreed mostly with what he said. The audience was mostly hostile but then that was expected as they were made up of about 20 mostly young left wing students and public sector workers.
I went to give Tony support and add a bit of balance to the debates. My throat was dry and my voice was shaky but I hope that what I said came across comprehensibly. My other half - who tends to chunter on but won't get involved in politics - even had his say and quite enjoyed it.
The event was held in a local church hall. I don't know why the LibLabCon wasn't there but maybe it's representatives didn't think the public that important if it was only worth a potential handful of votes.
I'd promised to give one of the organisers a copy of my book about the working class riots in 1911. He was rolling a fag as I approached and so I thought I'd make him aware of our campaign. He didn't feel denormalised as a smoker but he certainly didn't want to be.
I was still in a bad mood after having a row with my other half in the car over a traffic issue so I may have ranted on a bit, and, well, everyone knows that once I get started on that issue ...
My other half has forthright views and swears but not as much as Obnoxio because it's the language that he knows and expresses himself in best. He was accused of being "aggressive" and "offensive" because he used the word "shit" in a church.
I think that today we can get too upset and offended when in heated debate but the answer is not to cry foul but throw back.
Angela Eaglen felt patronised in Parliament but she'd have come out of the spat with Cameron with more public respect if she had retaliated and put him in his place with a few well chosen words. Just imagine what Margaret Thatcher would have said and probably did when she entered the male dominated world of her chosen profession. Women who hide behind their gender are doing none of us any favours.
As for the Lincoln Hustings, the TUC against Cuts did a sterling job of organisation and I really enjoyed it. It was thought provoking, confidence building, and great experience. Perhaps our branch should set up the next one.
Some of the local candidates including yours truly were featured in the local paper today.
It'll be interesting to see what happens on May 5th.