The Blackpool Gazette and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Blackpool North constituency at next month's general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
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NewsTranscript
00:00I've read all your manifestos and you've all got a green commitment.
00:07My understanding is that by 2030 we're going to go to wind turbines and solar.
00:13Have you got a detailed plan?
00:16Because that works out at 500 wind turbines a month for the next 6 years.
00:24That means you've got to set up factories and not buy from China.
00:29From that you can then create jobs.
00:32So what I would like, I don't think you'll make it but I hope you do,
00:36what I would like is whoever gets elected, have you got a plan
00:42and can you guarantee that a chunk of those jobs come to this area?
00:51Within my part of the manifesto there is a clear commitment to create the Great British Energy Company
00:58which will be based in Scotland but it will be about using the windfall taxes that have been mentioned
01:05to create a company that invests in new technology, to invest in green technology
01:11to create jobs and investment particularly for young people around the country.
01:16So they have got a plan, they've got a fully costed plan that will actually create new jobs,
01:23new opportunities, drive down the cost of energy because we will be less reliant on energy coming in from abroad.
01:32It will be created within this country and that from the figures will drop the cost for energy in this country by around 20-25%.
01:44So we have got a plan, we'll just have to wait and see what works.
01:48Will the jobs come here?
01:52No, they're all based in this country.
01:57Can I just ask, you think when you talk about the jobs he's talking about with this Great British Energy Company
02:02that it's to do with people actually producing energy because it's not.
02:05It's investment, it's just investment. There's no production of energy and there's no actual workers producing energy,
02:12it's a finance thing. The government puts in a pound and for every pound they put in,
02:16three pound comes from the private sector which turns it into a 75% owned private sector initiative for finance only.
02:23This has nothing to do with our energy. We need to decentralise power in all the ways.
02:29So how would we benefit here? We would benefit here with local power.
02:33Local power, solar on our rooftops. We don't have to do wind farms all over the countryside or solar all over it.
02:40We have like solar roofs and then there's tidal. There's a lot of ways we can produce energy.
02:45Have you got a proper plan, a detailed plan?
02:48Okay, so a detailed plan also on that when we're talking environment and energy would be that we employ people in the sector to insulate your home and save you money.
02:56How long did the other winter it will take to realise?
02:59Less than 20 years it will take to get nuclear or 15 for fracking or all the other ones. It's quick.
03:07You're not an engineer.
03:10No, but our leader is.
03:13So our policy for reform is to scrap net zero because it's impoverishing this country.
03:20We're about to lose our steel industry in Wales and those jobs are going to go to India or China in less good environmental conditions.
03:27The emissions are simply being sent offshore with the jobs and it is madness.
03:32You want to talk about British jobs, sir, it's about keeping the jobs here, about being energy independent, about our oil and gas industry and yes, more nuclear.
03:39With Rolls-Royce, SMRs, jobs in the UK, a huge export market to follow.
03:44Do not believe, on court on camera today, a Labour MP admitting that it's going to cost hundreds of billions of pounds a year for their net zero 2030 policy.
03:54They are lying blatantly to us about net zero.
03:57They are ideologues on a scale that I think even the Green Party would be embarrassed about.
04:03To your very quick point, you can have as many wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear power stations, any form of generation you like.
04:15If your grid can't cope with that extra capacity, then you're not building the right things.
04:20But the biggest challenge to all politicians, and I'm not an engineer either, is how do we make our grid capacity sufficient to take on board all these renewables.
04:28The best local contribution that renewable energy can make is quite simple, is to buy a garage.
04:34That will bring local jobs, that will bring local power generation and it can help power the homeless people, the homeless constituency.
04:41That to me is the most fundamental difference you can make locally.
04:46One particular issue this area has to address is the fact that Blackpool is not a city.
04:54And a lot of development is going into cities.
04:58If you look, you'll see that they're expanding because they've got better infrastructure, better roads, etc.
05:04If we want more development to take place in Blackpool, Blackpool has got to become a city.