The first of the three meetings at the Globe, featuring prospective candidates for all the main political parties standing in this constituency, will be tomorrow night, Thursday, starting at 7pm, and will be followed by a screening of the TV political leaders' debate.
Rather alarmingly, I was asked to say a few words for this debate, but sadly I won't be able to be there.
So I thought I'd say a few words here instead.
When I first came to Hay, it seemed that all you had to do to make a living was to fill a room with books and open the door, with Richard Booth publicising the town with his mad ideas, and camera crews arriving like the first swallows of summer every year. As time has gone on, it has become more and more difficult to do that. In fact, this entire century has been difficult for local businesses.
First, there was the rise of internet trading, which meant that people didn't have to physically visit a bookshop, and the bookshops found themselves in competition with people trading out of their back bedrooms and (on the other hand) vast companies like Amazon.
There has also been the rise of ebooks, which prompted Derek Addyman's campaign against the Kindle.
Then there was 9/11, which meant that Americans were less likely to want to fly, and so less likely to visit the UK.
There was the foot and mouth outbreak, which meant that nobody was coming to the countryside that summer.
There have been floods when it has been impossible to cross the River Severn, meaning that it has been very difficult to get to Hay.
So, for all sorts of reasons, fewer visitors have come to Hay. But the economy generally was still quite good - until 2008, when recession hit hard, followed by austerity. So people are less likely to spend money on things that are not necessities - like books. Hay is quite a diverse economy, with enough antique and vintage shops that they now have their own town map, as well as clothes and food shops, and all the outdoor activities like cycling and canoeing, but books are what the town is known for before anything else.
The people of Hay haven't caused the problems, which are international, but we're having to try to solve them as best we can.
It will be interesting to find out what the various party candidates have to say about the problems, and how to solve them at a local level. The Conservatives and Labour both want to continue with austerity measures nationally - which is already causing problems for Hay, with the County Council about to hand over the running of the public toilets to the Town Council, for instance, and the very recent revelations about the re-organisation of secondary schools in the county - and Hay still hasn't got the new primary school which was supposed to be ready this year.
But Education and Health are for next week's debate, with a third debate the week after that.
The debates are free, by the way, and should provide a good opportunity to put the candidates on the spot.
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2 comments:
The Education one should be interesting - but remember that the Westminster Parliamentary candidates won't be able to influence our local educational issues one jot because, of course, that all falls to the Welsh Government... But maybe they'll be able to contribute some useful ideas.
It should be interesting but as you say education is a devolved responsibility. What makes it even less of an issue for the Westminster candidates is that decisions about closing schools is devolved to County Councils and within that to the Cabinet. So neither MPs or AMs have any say over the future of secondary education in this area nor do the local County Councillors because they are not part of the ruling confederation of largely Montgomeryshire Members who make up the very small Cabinet which will make a final decision in this matter. Talk about democratic deficit.
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