Approximately 30 members attended the Leadership Hustings at Scotch Corner at 1.00pm on Saturday 15th July 2006. The audience, from as far a field as Scotland, Sheffield, Teesside and Yorkshire, heard David Noakes and Richard Suchorzewski give their vision for the future for the UK Independence Party and outline the methodology that they would apply to implement these visions. Unfortunately, due to family commitments, Nigel Fararge was unable to attend and David Campbell Bannerman had a long-standing prior engagement that meant he too was unable to make the journey north. The Hustings Chairman gave the meeting the apologies he had received from both of these candidates. The two candidates present, Richard Suchorzewski and David Noakes, were able to take advantage of the extra time available due to the unfortunate absence of David Campbell Bannerman and Nigel Fararge to expand on what would otherwise have been only brief answers, into some very detailed and well thought out responses to the questions from the members. The meeting was highly animated and questions from the floor prompted considerable discussion. The Hustings Chairman was forced to call the meeting to order at 3.30pm to allow the candidates to make brief closing statements and for the hustings to finish at the scheduled time as the audience and candidates present might have happily continued for several hours discussing the future of UKIP and the Leadership contest. |