tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7733583.post2187625030554092608..comments2024-03-04T08:34:20.376+00:00Comments on John's Labour blog: Rupa Huq out campaigning for votes in Bethnal Green & BowJohn Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14269161145575667147noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7733583.post-71476330619653720002007-04-27T17:39:00.000+01:002007-04-27T17:39:00.000+01:00Rupa Huq did Unison proud at the hustings meeting ...Rupa Huq did Unison proud at the hustings meeting to select the next Labour party candidate for Bethnal Green & Bow held at The People's Palace, Queen Mary College at 6.30 yesterday evening.<BR/>The event attracted 150+ members and featured 6 short short-listed candidates who drew lots for the order to speak.<BR/>The candidates had to speak for 5 minutes, then 4 questions were asked by members whose questions had been chosen in advance by the panel, then questioons were taken from the floor.<BR/>Lutfur Rahman kicked off, clearly nervous he gained confidence and did a workmanlike job of answering questions. The next on was Abbas who also performed creditably, followed by Shiria Khatun, whose media training stood her in good stead. <BR/>However the audience was quite restless and had to be given a toilet break as some had clearly ignored the injunction of chair, Josh Peck, to "go before".<BR/>John Biggs came on at 20.53 having had to endure an extra 20 minutes wait because of the weak bladdered members. He also performed well, as did Rushanara Ali, both gave good and detailed answers to questions.<BR/>By now it was 21.40 and the audience was distinctly restless. The trouble with the 4 set questions format was that some candidates answered them too quickly. Theaudience was not coming up withany interesting questions.<BR/>Rupa's entrance did not look propitious as she immediately dropped all her prompt cards on the floor and had to scrabble round to pick them up. But she soon recovered and gave a stirring performane; by the time the questions came she was in full stride, cracking jokes and batting comments back to questioners. <BR/>Rupa was the only candidate you didn't want to finish, she really injected some welly into what, until then, was more like a series of after dinner speeches.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15128991048807978667noreply@blogger.com