Chance to quiz election hopefuls

Those wishing to find out more about the green credentials of candidates running for the local seats at the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections are invited to a climate-themed hustings event.

Organised by local community organisation Climate Action Strathearn, and taking place online between 11am and 1pm on Sunday, May 2, the event is a chance to ask the candidates questions and hear their views on the global climate crisis.

The hustings will see candidates give opening statements before taking pre-selected questions from voters.

Discussions will then take place within‘breakout rooms’ before further questions at a final, chaired, open question and answer session.

Candidates for the Perthshire South and Kinross-shire constituency taking part will be Julia Brown (Scottish Liberal Democrats), Jim Fairlie (SNP) and Janine Rennie (Scottish Labour), as well as Mid Scotland and Fife candidates Roz McCall (Scottish Conservatives) and Mark Ruskell (Scottish Greens).

Jodie Bell is one of the founding members of Climate Action Strathearn, which formed just before the pandemic hit with the purpose of building a grassroots group aimed at addressing climate change issues at a local level.

She said:“Essentially how the group is working at the minute is drawing on a few specific action plans to keep us going, such as Plastic Free Strathearn and a Strathearn Climate Festival, and we were also looking at the election.

“We realised that a lot of us were unsure about who we were going to vote for – which candidate has the best climate credentials, who is focused on it or are they all focused on it.

“There are a couple of members in our group who are invested in politics and the political market space and they knew how to get in contact with various MSPs so we decided that a hustings for the Strathearn area would be a good way to get some information.

“We really just want to have a more informed decision for who we are going to vote for in the election.

“There have been various different things online but not specifically in this area so it is nice to get something going.”

Climate Action Strathearn has set up a website at www. climateactionstrathearn.com, which has links to register for the hustings and other events.

Questions will be taken in advance and can be put on the group’s Facebook page, where it is hoped discussion will also be generated.