General Election Dates (so far) – Inside Croydon

If you have a question for an election candidate or political party seeking their vote in Croydon, here’s one way you can try to get some answers

The hustings were a way for electoral candidates to be assessed and judged by the voting public: a grand event at City Hall, packed with the electorate, many of them eager to put their own questions to the people who imagined they might represent the Westminster constituency for the next five years.

Nowadays, in television, it was digital, not so much. Televised debates with fickle or dense party leaders absorb much of the appetite for such events from anyone who is not a fully paid-up “political animal”.

Consequently, there is less scope for public scrutiny at the district or constituency level. That’s probably how some of the candidates prefer it, because they and their political parties give you their vote as a matter of course.

The sudden announcement of the 4th of July general election may also have attracted some of the local groups that might, in the past, have sought to organize a hostings. All the organization required, confirming that candidates will attend, booking the hall, managing the publicity all take time and money, and too many of the voluntary sector organizations in Croydon are already completely exhausted. A craving for all the same, tired old clichés and empty promises? Nahh, I’ll leave it, thanks…

Hustings huff and puff: the 2022 Croydon mayoral election has produced some larger-scale plays. But in 2024, something similar seems to be missing from the entire neighborhood

So Croydon’s 2024 election debates are coming up a little bit.

Here are the details of the events we’ve seen so far – a four-way clash on Thursday, June 20 (pretty much the ideal way to celebrate midsummer):

• June 20: Citizens UK: Croydon East hustings Woodside Baptist Church, SE25 4SP, 7.30pm
• June 20: Croydon TUC: District wide search at Ruskin House, 7.30pm
• 20 June: East Coulsdon Residents’ Association: Croydon South hustings at Coulsdon Community Centre, Barrie Close CR5 3BX 7.30pm
• 20 June: Croydon BME Forum: Croydon West hustings at Stanley Halls, South Norwood 6pm

If you’re running or know of another hustings event then send us a line or better still an event poster (jpg) to [email protected] and we’ll add it to the list.

Here, at Inside Croydon, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re trying to do things a little differently.

So for this 2024 general election campaign, we want to hear your questions as we stage BC Digital hustings.

We want you to submit your question (no more than 30 words; it’s a question, not a lecture) and specify whether your question is for candidates in a particular constituency (Croydon East, Croydon West, Croydon South and Streatham and Croydon North), for a particular political party (because we could ask their candidates in any constituency) or for a particular candidate.

No anonymous submissions. Email us your question (or questions; you’re allowed more than one), specify whether it’s a constituency, candidate or party question and include a daytime phone number (just in case in which we have to answer you). And put “Digital Hustings” in the subject field.

We’ll select the best, most challenging and interesting questions and do our best to give you some answers.

Email: [email protected]

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• ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s most rotten boroughs for the seventh consecutive year in the annual summary of civic advertising Private magazine