Audio recordings
Including interviews, oral histories and radio programmes. Highlights here include an interview between Mark Abrams (social scientist and businessman) and his grandson, and interviews conducted throughout 2019 with Female MPs, Rebel MPs and Academics.
Showing 351 - 375 of 432 Records
UKIP campaign manager, Lisa Duffy, and her colleagues
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/23
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Date : - 2015-4-18 (creation)
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Description : - Interviewed while campaigning in King's Hedges. As described by the depositor: Graham said: “I have just joined UKIP – they were saying the type of things about this Country and the way it is going. I don’t want to be ruled by Brussels but I am not anti-Europe.” Lisa told us: “Today we are delivering 4,000 leaflets, and we are very pleased with the turnout of the members, we should cover the whole ward. As an agent my days are very, very long, designing the literature, getting the people out there, and social media is getting bigger but it is not replacing what goes through the door, it has not overtaken paper stuff yet. “I know that with leaflets, the majority do go in the bin, but with a good headline message and decent photo you can sway people, so I would say less is more. You have ten seconds to capture their imagination.” Richard went with us to deliver leaflets through doors with his long plastic dog proof spoon, to ensure his hand did not get bitten: “It is a bit odd, putting leaflets through doors with a blue spoon but it works. I would like to build a base and through putting my name on the ballot paper locally as a candidate I give people a voice.”
Labour 'Big Footing' event
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/24
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Date : - 2015-2-25 (creation)
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Description : - Interviews on Harrian Harman's pink bus, including with Harman, and members of her team Sally Gimson, from the Labour List website, and Ann Sinnott a Cambridge Councillor. As described by the depositor: We asked Harriet, how many places her pink bus would be visiting and why the colour of the bus had provoked so much criticism? She spoke of how important the women’s vote was to her party. Harriet told us: “There has been a lot of controversy about the colour, but I can’t really regard it as negative publicity because how can you have a debate about something so insignificant. As we have gone around the Country, women are concerned, not about the colour, but about what is going on in women’s lives and what local government and national government can do for them. The women’s vote is very important to Labour and for women to vote. Last time in 2010, 9.1 million didn’t vote. I think it is important that we hear women’s voices that women have their say and exercise their vote. Politics is too important to be left to the boys.” Sally Gimson, from the Labour List website, said: “People are hooting on the motorway as the pink bus goes by. It has been mocked but not viciously attacked. It has made people look at women’s issues. All publicity is good publicity. The cost of living, people’s income, child care, DV, the grooming of children, sexual harassment, are big issues for women as well. The battle has not yet been won for women and that is why we are out on the pink bus.” Ann Sinnott, a Labour City Councillor since May 2014, said: “I was delighted with the pink bus and there is nothing wrong with the colour. The mediation service we visited, do very good work, and there were other representatives there working with vulnerable women and women with DV. It costs the police huge amounts of money each year, it is costly and there is a human cost too. DV is the biggest crime anywhere.”
Green 'Big Footing' event
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/25
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Date : - 2015-4-15 (creation)
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Description : - From a a special Green debate with the Guardian journalist Zoe Williams at Downing College, Cambridge. Includes interviews with Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett, Zac, her national campaign manager, and local activists in the audience. As described by the depositor: Natalie told us: “On Climate Change, we have really been left behind while the rest of the World, Countries like China, are towering ahead. That is one of the things our Manifesto focuses on not just energy conservation but renewables. The Green surge has grown more than four fold in the past year in a range of seats we are seeing growth and a whole range of possibilities.” Zac, the National campaigns assistant for the Green Party in England and Wales said: “We have just past 60,000 members in England and Wales so the Green surge is continuing. The green party isn’t really about Natalie it is about the ideas and policies we have got to create a fairer society. We are also challenging Norwich South, the second best result for us last time after Brighton. Cambridge was third for us in 2010. I think we are really moving into multiparty politics, which I think is a more mature system. “ Dennis O'Malley of the Stop the War coalition said he had attended the Hustings to find our “directly” what the Green Party had to say on a number of issues particularly foreign policy: “Yes, we can ask questions directly to the Leader of the Party and get them to talk about issues that they might otherwise avoid.”
Hustings: part one
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/26
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Date : - 2015-4-4-2015-4-15 (creation)
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Description : - Covers the Unite Against Fascism in park picnic, April 4th; the Bike Debate hustings, April 7th; the Keep Our NHS Public hustings, April 13th; and the Buddhist hustings, April 15th. As described by the depositor: After a recent racist attack upon a woman wearing a head scarf in Petersfield Park in Cambridge City Centre, the Unite Against Fascism team sprang into action and organised a rally. Richard Rose, the organiser of the event said: “We want people to stand side by side with the victims of racism – we wanted to show that all sides were united against this attack, a broad swathe of people.” Cambridge is a cycling city, and the Cycling enthusiasts and discontents organised a Bike Hustings. The Green PPC Rupert Read told us: “There is a lot of concern about various transport issues in Cambridge, and a lot of concern about air pollution and gridlock on the streets etc. These are strong areas for us in the Green Party to campaign on”. Margaret Ridley Chair of Keep Our NHS Public, said: “We wanted to help people decide how to vote on the NHS. We had two hours and people could have gone on for longer. The candidates were wilting a bit at the end.” Jean Simpson, a member of Keep Our NHS Public told us: “The audience were more informed than the candidates on many of the issues and we wanted to inform them, TTIP (The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) was one of them. They had not done their homework. I would vote on the single issue of the NHS.” Priananda Joseph, Organiser and Buddhist teacher said: “I wanted the members of this community to have an opportunity to meet the candidates and see how they respond to a wide range of issues. We don’t just sit under trees and meditate, we need to be as informed as possible, that was my desire. Buddhists lean in a green direction. If you believe in unlimited growth you are either mad or an economist.”
Hustings: part two
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/27
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Date : - 2015-4-20-2015-4-28 (creation)
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Description : - Covers the Unite Against Fascism hustings, April 20th; the Housing hustings, April 23rd; the U3A hustings, APril 27th; and the Anglia Ruskin Student hustings, April 28th. As described by the depositor: Nazarene told us why as a Muslim woman and activist she had organised the event: “I did invite UKIP and they could not come. We are building our numbers. All across the country there are Stand Up To UKIP branches. People are getting negative reaction to wearing the headscarf. I get micro aggression, people are always asking about my heritage.” Duncan Stott the organiser of the event said: “People are being priced out of the housing market in Cambridge. House prices are over £300,000 and the average earnings are ten times less than that. We wanted to ask the candidates how they would address the housing crisis in the area, and bring pressure to the politicians to show this is an issue that matters to people. It does help people decide how to vote but it allows direct access to the candidates too and people can ask where they stand on this issue.” Beth Morgan, one of the event’s organisers (Steve Marshall was the other) said: “We are both interested in politics, it was good to let the candidates say what they wanted to say rather than hear them on the radio where the presenter just jumps in after five words. Everyone submitted their questions in advance and then it was a bit random. I slipped mine in on income distribution. “Democracy is a very fragile thing and I think everything to encourage it should be done, we totally take it for granted. We have always had it but it doesn’t always have to be the case, you have to work at these things to keep them going.” Beth Price, the Programme Controller Cam FM and organiser said: “We are a student radio station and this was our second hustings broadcasting live. We have a student based audience among Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin students so the candidates have to target what they say. Students make up 17 per cent of the voters in Cambridge so it is a very important night for them too. We are tweeting but live streaming a video too.” Two students we later interviewed were first time voters and a third had voted for the first time in 2010. They said they were interested in a range of issues such as: “Tuition fees, student grants, and the minimum wage.” One commented: “Trust is important to me too, there is so much uproar, it is difficult to know who to vote for”. All were still undecided as to how they would cast their votes. Perhaps the national pollsters, who got the result so wrong, should have spoken to them or come with us to a Hustings event.
Hustings: part three
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/28
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Date : - 2015-4-27-2015-4-29 (creation)
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Description : - Covers the Middle East and Palestinian hustings, April 27th; the Cambridge Assessment Staff hustings, April 29th; and the Churches Jubliee hustings, April 29th. As described by the depositor: Mona, The Chair and a PHD student, said: “I think it went quite well, everyone has their passions and the situation in the Middle East is difficult and that was reflected on the panel. It was a good turnout, the foreign policy issues are important. People wanted to know how will the PPCs words translate into actions in the coming parliament. UKIP did not attend but they were invited.” Simon Lebus, CEO of Cambridge Assessment said: “ We wanted to give our staff an opportunity to see what the candidates thought about education but also about Cambridge. As a big employer it is good for our staff to engage politically and find out what the candidates have to say for themselves. They were concerned about the practical issues of living and working here, the cost of housing and cycling too. “As the Chair of the event, I personally have found it very helpful, the PPCs are a thoughtful bunch. It is nicely unpredictable to be at a live hustings event, but too often questions are used as a platform for making more general political statements rather than being concise and listening to the answers of others. This was their 26th husting and it must be completely exhausting for them.” Jonathan Tame the organiser said: “We are using Twitter and a Hashtag and we have two audiences, those who are here and those not coming but who are keeping an eye on us on Twitter. We have 800 followers and it is growing fast. There are different churches here and we are trying to educate Christians about how to engage in politics, public life and the economy. Freedom of religion, freedom of expressions, poverty, food banks, we are expecting that there will be a number of hot potatoes that will come up and also immigration too probably. House prices, congestion, generation rent, these are all issues in Cambridge.”
Hustings: part four
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/29
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Date : - 2015-5-2 (creation)
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Description : - Covers the Cambridge University European Society hustings, and discussion of the King’s College hustings, held on April 30th with discussion on May 6th. As described by the depositor: Anna, the Outreach Officer of the Society told us: “I am German and I can see that the European issues are not being tackled enough in this Election debate. The Conservatives have said they might leave the EU so it should be talked about more. UKIP are not here tonight, they were invited.” Matteo Mirolo, Vice President said: “I am French and Italian. I think we shouldn’t amalgamate everything and create fear about immigration. These people are war refugees, I respect everyone’s opinion so long as there isn’t any amalgamation of the fear and the issues.” Sophie a young woman student in the audience said: “I wanted to see the candidates in the flesh. I am quite interested in their response to the UKIP stuff and the Europe question. Yes their answers will influence me I am quite undecided as to how to vote at the moment.” Guy an older member of the audience said: “In 66 years I have never been to a hustings. I Googled it at the last minute, found a website that listed all the hustings and this was the last one. I am decided on my vote but definitely think we should be in Europe and I won’t be voting UKIP.” Eleni Courea told us:” I took the questions, there were a huge variety of questions from students from nuclear power to the NHS and this government’s record on it. The students were most passionate talking about the Living Wage and the bedroom tax. “Tuition fees was not one of the major focuses of the event. The most heated debate was over the bedroom tax, and we asked Julian why he voted for it and he had to defend it. That was the most divisive issue. People had checked his voting record on the Huppert Check website which showed he had voted with the IDS reforms to Welfare over 90 per cent of the time. “I personally ensured that it was Chaired impartially. Julian stayed around with students to talk to us afterwards. It was a heated hustings. They are crucial events, people can see, hear and talk to their candidates, and they are good for democracy. “
Post-hustings interviews with Daniel Zeichner and students
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/30
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Date : - 2015-4-30 (creation)
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Description : - Interviews conducted after the final hustings in the city. As described by the depositor: Daniel told us: “I am free at last!” And what did he find most challenging?: “The tedium, hearing the same arguments time and time again and remaining civilised. I think there were too many, next time I will organise it so we have a more rational approach. It is talking to people one to one that makes the difference not the Hustings.” We then asked two students at the Husting, Seana and Chris to tell us their reaction to what the panel said on Europe. The absence of UKIP was commented on. As students they found registering to vote easy but said – “Why can’t there be an app to vote?”, said Chris. While Seana said: “The debate has informed my voting I will be more progressive in voting in a General now”!.
Political Correspondent, Cambridge Evening News
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/31
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Date : - 2015-4-23 (creation)
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Description : - Interview with John Vale, Political Correspondent, Cambridge Evening News. As described by the depositor: The NHS Hustings at Wesley Methodist church on April 13th had been controversial and gave rise to negative national media coverage for the Conservative PPC, Chamali Fernando, the only woman standing for the seat. The story about what Chamali was “supposed” to have said as a member of the Health panel about the mentally ill wearing coloured wristbands when answering a question from a member of the audience at the Hustings event, was tweeted by a local blogger. The saga became known as the so called “wristband gate” affair and escalated to a dispute with one of her opponents the LD Julian Huppert. We asked local Cambridge Evening News political correspondent, John Vale, to give us his take on the story just after he had Chaired a Housing Hustings (April 23rd) with all the candidates. If you go to our Candidates Section you can also here Chamali’s comments about the saga, and how she became the subject of “death threats” and abusive Tweets. She had months earlier removed herself from Twitter due to what people term “Trolling”, unwanted threatening attention from individuals. John told us: “I have been to a dozen hustings, and there are very few hustings where the candidates have put a foot wrong. They are, under very intense scrutiny. The controversy is an offshoot of how many events there are in Cambridge and the coverage. We have very prominent citizen’s journalists and they go to a lot of events, and while there are certain issues about what they say and their interpretation the dedication and coverage they provide is invaluable. “Scrutiny is so important in politics, you get it at the Hustings, and at the grassroots level bloggers give a lot of scrutiny, whereas I have to prioritise more. I don’t go to everything, perhaps I should, but they go to more events and provide that scrutiny so I can’t fault them. I am a big fan of new media and a broad range of coverage. “I pick the highlights of a story, the most credible points, but the bloggers will have their video and I can link to that and that gives people the option of reading my article quickly or if they have more time, they can see the event, I think that is brilliant. When I am at a Hustings I will normally send out 20 or 30 Tweets of live coverage, but tonight I was chairing the event. “Hustings, certainly matter in Cambridge, the level of debate and knowledge is staggering. To be a political reporter here is wonderful. If I write something wrong I am told about it. If I called up one of the candidates they might give me a slanted answer, whereas here it is raw, you get the whole picture rather than relying on second hand information or spin.”
Deputy Political Editor of the Financial Times and Political Editor of the Guardian
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/32
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Date : - 2015-4-30 (creation)
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Description : - Interview with Elizabeth Rigby Chair of the Parliamentary Press Lobby and Deputy Political Editor of the FT and Patrick Wintour, Political Editor of the Guardian . As described by the depositor: Elizabeth told us: “This is a very tight election and both sides are very nervous that any gaffe or mistake can swing the polls, so they are running a very, very tight contained and controlled Election. They don’t want journalists causing trouble and pulling people off message. They really want to avoid the sort of blow ups that walkabouts can create. They have intense media scrutiny, Twitter, Facebook, BuzzFeed, you have the national newspapers all with their online operations, you have 24 hour news channels. With so many media outlets it is very difficult to control the message, so all the political parties have responded by trying to control access. “Stories come on Twitter and disappear within a few hours. As journalists we try and step back and give our readers an intelligent distilled version of the “noise”. It is important to step back from Twitter and the daily thrust of a campaign, and convey to our readers the big themes and say these are the things that matter and that you need to know.” Patrick told us: “Most leaders travel by train or helicopter, the battle buses are left over from a different era that they pretend to be involved with. And the same thing with rallies, David Cameron on an industrial estate rally recently was basically him in a corner of an industrial estate with broadly about 50 people there. The photos on TV looked as if a large number of people were there, but they are all artificial. “I have about 38 or 39000 followers on Twitter. I was forced to Tweet by the paper at a G8 Summit in London and I was really cross about it. I thought this was a ridiculous format to try and explain in the number of characters you had (140) what was going on at the G8, which was very complicated with the collapse of the World economy, and I didn’t tweet for many years afterwards. “My front page lead today about the Coalitions proposed £8 billion of welfare cuts, came about because somebody I know trusted me, and told me. Twitter is a fantastic source of stories but if you don’t have friendships and loyalties as a political journalist you are not going to get big stories really.”
Cambridge Evening News: part one
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/33
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Date : - 2015-4-23-2015-4-27 (creation)
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Description : - Interviews with John Vale political editor and reporter at the Cambridge Evening News. As described by the depositor: After attending one Hustings event and chairing another John told us: “It is very important that people know where their candidates stand on a wide range of issues. People need to know the full range of issues from what the candidates will do about potholes to the big humanitarian crisis facing us, such as the Palestinian situation. The Conservative and UKIP candidates were invited and didn’t turn up to that one today on Palestine, so people need to know that too. “What I try and do with Twitter is not to give any sort of interpretation but to give an account of what was said. The candidates go within two hours from talking about how you solve dyslexia to how you solve the crisis of the Middle East. “Twitter has 140 characters and we very rarely go beyond 600 in a story in the paper. It is only possible to capture 10 or 20 per cent of the debate, so it’s not an easy task, what I find interesting might not be interesting to others, but I do my best. There is a lot of knowledge to get on the page.”
Cambridge Evening News: part two
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/34
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Date : - 2015-5-5 (creation)
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Description : - Interviews with Chris Elliot, political editor and reporter at the Cambridge Evening News. As described by the depositor: When we met Chris in the Boardroom of the CEN two days before the General Election he was getting his troops in order. He said: “For the first time ever we are not going to produce a newspaper on the morning after the Election because the results don’t come through until 4 or 5 O’clock. From a production point of view we are going to do it online. “We are going to have Twitter, a live blog on our website, separate stories will be posted direct from the count via email and our laptops straight onto the CEN website. It is a revolution compared to previous elections. Social media is a lot more up and running now than it was in 2010. “We have 9 counts and we are going to have reporters at five of them, picking up details from the other four. They will be emailing their material to another member of staff who will be at home, not even in the office, who will feed them into a live blog. Twitter is the fastest way to get the results out there, it will be on our individual Twitter accounts and then onto our website. “We now have a 30 or 40 thousand readership and on a daily basis we get 50 to 60 thousands hits on our website. It is a big change from the days when I started in journalism 30 years ago when we would sell 60 or 70 thousand papers a night, the website isn’t up to that speed yet but it is getting there. “My first General Election was in 1979, when Thatcher came to power, we then had three terms of Tony Blair, then John Major, and I have covered all of these things through the prism of Cambridge. “In the office we are monitoring Twitter all the time in case something pops up that is of interest to us. The national papers can be political and support a particular party but we have to be factual. We have ensured that all the parties have had a fair say and we are pleased about that and now we have to wait and see what happens on Thursday. “
Technology blogger
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/35
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Date : - 2015-5-7 (creation)
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Description : - Interview with Phil Rogers, technology blogger. As described by the depositor: Phil said he has resigned from the LD Party over its policy on tuition fees in 2010. He said: “I have a blog about Cambridge politics and it has some data visualisation, I am a former political activist interested in political issues and a Software developer. “It is 12.45, at the verification stage with the ballot boxes still but from the Gallery in the Guildhall you can see if people are cheerful or not cheerful. It is going to be evident from up here in the gallery – those empty racks that stack up later - what the result is from the numbers of pieces of paper, but we are not able to communicate that until it has been prepared and announced officially. Social media is a useful adjunct to a campaign but the election campaigns are fought on the doorstep and with pieces of paper and I don’t see that changing. “I tend to delve into the data to see what the data is telling us and what we can find out from it. I am active on Twitter there is quite a Twitter community around Cambridge politics, the “Guildhall Groupies”, as we are called. Mainstream media do a great job in Cambridge but I am really writing for not such a broad audience but for those who are engaged in what the issues are and want to look at them in a bit more detail, such as other political activists. I do try and keep people amused as well as informed. “
Voters, tellers and party workers.
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/36
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Date : - 2015-5-7 (creation)
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Description : - Assorted interviews from the day of the vote itself. As described by the depositor: The voter: On the day of the count we accompanied one voter Alison Litherland, from her home to the polling booth at St Matthew’s Church - a walk that lasted 7 and a half minutes. Alison said: “I am not a member of any political party. I have watched some of the national debates and I have been to some of the Hustings and I have also had lots of leaflets through the door, most of which I have not really read. I do know the policies of all the main parties and I generally vote for the party whose policies I agree with. I have thought about tactical voting, but that way madness lies. “There are more posters and leaflets than I have seen before, the parties have been very active. There is a lot of concern around here about social justice and a lot of scepticism about the Conservative government’s claim to have to reduce the national debt. “I have never told the Party Tellers who stand outside the polling booth in the Church hall how I am going to vote, I give them my number and that is it. They do it to knock up people who they have canvassed and who have said they will vote for them.” The Tellers St Matthew’s: One Teller at St Matthew’s Church Hall told us: “We are taking people’s polling card numbers; we record them so we don’t “knock them up” later in the day so we know if those people have voted.” Another Teller said: “It is all confidential,” while a third Teller commented: “We are given a full official briefing and told what the regulations are even to how big our rosettes are. We are not allowed to go into the polling station or campaign and give leaflets out or talk to people or each other about a politics.” The Party Workers: We visited the Labour campaign hub in Alex Wood Hall in Norfolk Street, twice on the day of the vote. In the morning party workers spoke to us as they were getting polling returns and tallying these against their potential voters. Labour activist Ken, narrated the scene in front of him. Ken told us: “We have previously been round finding out who will vote Labour and we have used that information to create a list. We call it our “knock up” list and as people pass the polling station, we collect the polling card number from their card and collate this in order that we don’t then go and knock up the voters who have voted. If anyone is left on the list we then go and remind them that it is polling day, normally at mid-day or after traditional work hours around 5pm in the evening. “We can drive them to the poll if they are disabled or have a disability but most of it is about reminding them it is Election Day. We are representing Petersfield ward today, where the office is based, but there will be similar offices in people’s homes in the wards they represent so that we are in striking distance of the voters.” Poster voter activist: In the morning we spoke to one voter Phil, who had driven to the Labour HQ to get some Vote Labour boards that had been taken down in his street Pretoria Road, leaving only Vote LD posters standing. Phil said: “Someone stole all the vote Labour posters in my street in Pretoria Road, Cambridge, so I have come to the Labour HQ to get some more and replace them. I am a supporter of the Labour party but not a member. They left all the LD ones, I thought people shouldn’t steal these things so I came and got some more. I have voted already. It is a bit terrible really, it feels underhand to me. ” An elderly voter: Brian Butler, 84, in Abbey Ward, walked with us to his polling booth with his wife. Brian told us: ”Three months before the election you get a card through your door to fill in and if you are on the list you don’t fill it in and if you aren’t you fill it in and get given a number. A fortnight before Election Day you get given a polling card and told where to vote and get given a number. I am 84 and I have voted in every election since I came out of the Forces. I vote for the person I think will do something for Cambridge, irrespective of what party they are. My wife and I are number 44 and 46!” The Tellers Abbey Ward: Martin a Liberal Democrat Teller at Abbey Ward Polling Booth told us: “We are ticking our supporters off so we know if they have voted”. “Mostly people are happy to give us their numbers but if not we don’t ask for them. I think it is a really important means of ensuring we get our people out to vote.” Martin is also a “Knocker Upper”, he said: “Mostly because people have already said they will support us they are generally happy to see us and they ask us if we are going to win. We would send a car if they wanted a lift but we don’t walk them to the polls.” He thought the present system of voting served us well: “This is a very secure way of voting rather than online, but if it went online you wouldn’t have Tellers. To me it doesn’t make any sense to hold an Election on a working day, I would have it over two days and at least one of them a weekend day. With online voting it is hard to secure, this is a low tech process but it works.” Another Abbey Ward Teller of 20 years Martin a Labour supporter said: “People use their body language if they don’t want to give a number”. “We were told at about 10 am that 20 per cent had voted already which sounds a good turn out.” Julia Ball another Teller said: “I have been a Teller for about the last ten years for the Labour Party, it is quite useful.”
Student voters and Green party activist
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/37
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Date : - 2015-5-7 (creation)
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Description : - Various interviews at Newnham. As described by the depositor: The Student voters: Later we travelled across the City to Newnham where Robinson College University of Cambridge students Richard and Amy were queuing to vote and refused to give their polling number to the Tellers. We asked them to self-narrate the scene as they moved slowly down the queue of 50 or more so that historians of the future could picture it. The student vote is said to have won the seat for Labour from the Liberal Democrat’s by just 599 votes. Richard said: “The queue is surprisingly long, longer than what I expected, about 50 and a lot of them at this time of day, midday are students. I applied to vote and chose to vote here rather than back home as this is a marginal and my vote will make more of a difference. A lot of these people couldn’t vote in 2010, the tuition fee hike gets people interested. Because the polls are predicting a tie between Labour and Conservative you feel you need to come out here and do something about it. The election will be to the wire even after the results are announced because we don’t know what is going to happen. I looked things up online as well and got emails and letters from the candidates Julian and Daniel, in an attempt to engage us – things are moving onto the internet, the Green Party is good on Facebook. I decided how to vote two weeks ago”. Amy said: “The Scottish Referendum and talk of an EU Referendum makes people more interested in politics now. I have been on the internet and watched some of the parody videos that mock the system. There are quite a lot of quizzes around that are very unreliable that tell you what you are supposed to be voting for. I decided how to vote yesterday, there is a lot of scare mongering and policies not set in stone that I don’t trust yet.” One Green Activist Ruth Lambert from Newnham had literally “plastered” the front of her house with posters: Ruth said: “I think we are on the cusp of a Whoosh!” “I think we are not looking at a future as we were before, there is going to be a surge in greens, humanity and people centred policies rather than power centred policies. We need to rebuild community and that is the point of this window.”
Labour Councillor and voters
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/38
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Date : - 2015-5-7 (creation)
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Description : - Interviews with Kevin Blencowe, Labour Councillor, and assorted voters. As described by the depositor: Alison again with friend Juliet: On the night of the count at 6pm we returned to find our St Matthew’s voter Alison Litherland with a friend, Juliet, in front of the telly waiting for the close of polls. Both had already voted. Alison said: ”Because I have spent time living around political people I realise the enormous amount of work that goes into running an election and all of it behind the scenes. Workers have to deliver leaflets and knock on doors and they suddenly come out and do an awful lot of work. They gather the lists of names and tick them off, they give a huge amount of time it is impressive.” Juliet said: “I read all the literature that came through my door, it was just a whim. I had left it all sitting there and then a couple of days ago I thought I would just read through it all. It took me about half an hour and about 20 leaflets in all. I was probably going to Vote Green but I read them all. It could have influenced me if there was something in there that had really grabbed me. I thought long and hard because it is a marginal here, and then I thought “No” because Labour and Lib Dem are ultimately the same and I won’t get the things I want like end of austerity and end of Trident.” Kevin Blinco, Labour supporter. Labour Party HQ, Alex Wood Hall, Norfolk Street We found Labour activist and councillor Kevin Blinco at 9 pm at night in the Alex Wood Hall in Norfolk Street still working and getting his “knocker up” list to go out and encourage other Labour supporters to vote. Kevin said: “The people we have identified as probable Labour voters and they haven’t voted - we try and dig them out, we either phone them or knock on the door and say you have another hour to vote. It was a very good start to the day, lots of people queuing up to vote and I think that the good weather helped. I am always hopeful.” Ann, another party worker had given Kevin the “knocker upper” list. She said: “We have been very busy, we are working away like mad, we are still phoning some of the area, but in others where there are elderly people living it is not appropriate. Kevin is taking the last batch of the knock ups. I won’t celebrate until I get the result, we are hoping for a good result!” Students: Rob, India, Eleanor and Raff: We then at 9.20 pm captured the very last Hustings of the campaign at the famous Cambridge Union Society where the Footlights team were engaging students in political satire and spoke to four students. These four first time voters, who had all cast their vote, collectively concluded: “Every student and everyone our age should be out there and voting.”
Result announcement, interviews with journalists and candidates
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/39
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Date : - 2015-5-7-2015-5-8 (creation)
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Description : - Interviews and results anouncements from the Cambridge Guildhall on the night of the vote, and an interview the morning after with the winning candidate, Labour's Daniel Zeichner. As described by the depositor: Ashley Perry, the Council’s Marketing and Press Officer, gave us two minutes of his time at 10.10 pm when he was busy helping the media ensure they could get their results back to their respective bases. Ashely told us: “Vicky is down there with her Electoral services team and working on it all. We have Sky, ITV, the BBC, local bloggers and some student reporters from student media here in the Gallery tonight overlooking the floor of the Guildhall and the count. It is a real mix, and it will be a busy evening and we are tight for space in the Gallery. We could have the first box of results coming in soon as there is a polling station very close by. “ That same night we spoke to two media studies students working for Sky, Anthony and Laura, who had been employed specially to send pictures back but not report on the count for Sky. Their camera showed just one shot all night, but it was a new innovative media practice for Sky. Anthony said: “It is fantastic to be here. We definitely wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t’ for the fact that technology allows so many people to be given a job on the night”. Anthony also read out that first surprising Sky and IPSO Mori exit poll for us. Laura said: “We are students working with Sky tonight and we are one of a 150 live links across the Country. We got one days training and we are media students, and we had an hour’s tuition on how to use the live links. It is an amasing opportunity to be here tonight it is going to make our future.” The Cambridge Evening News political journalists John Vale and Chris Elliott again narrated the scene for us from the press balcony overlooking the count at the Guildhall. John said: “I can see and feel buzz. The Exit Polls are giving the Tories a majority which has got everyone on the ropes a bit. The CEN did its own Exit Poll when between 5.30 pm and 8.30pm I stood outside a polling station and asked 150 people in West Chesterton, which is a tight seat between Lab and Liberal Democrats, how they would vote. It was 54 to LD and 53 Lab, 23 to Greens and 20 to Cons and none for the others. I stand by it. This is the practical heart of the election when you stand in the Guildhall Gallery and look down on the count.” We listened in as Chris Elliott interviewed Daniel Zeichner for the Press Association just after 5pm when Daniel told Chris he had “quiet optimism”. Chris asked if he had in fact taken the seat? Daniel replied: “Never believe rumours, I have a fantastic team around me, we don’t know yet!” We captured the audio of the count and proclamation being made by Ms Jackson. And then we heard Daniel Zeichner tell the people of Cambridge: “Well good morning Cambridge!” Daniel also thanked: “Vicky Breading and her staff who worked tirelessly” and thanked “the voters of Cambridge for entrusting me with your vote in Cambridge”. Daniel also acknowledged how hard Julian had “worked for this city”, as had David Howarth and Anne Campbell the two former MPs one LD and one Labour. Daniel told the gathered supporters and activist: “I will try and follow that tradition.” He said it was: “A tremendous victory for Cambridge Labour” and thanked his team, his colleagues and organisers and campaign manager. A loud cheer went up. Julian Huppert also thanked his team, as did the other candidates as they took to the stage on the Guildhall floor one by one. Julian repeated what he had said at many of the Hustings meetings that he had in fact dealt with “32,000 pieces of casework” as the MP for Cambridge. The CEN political reporter John Vale then quietly told us, as the results were being announced by Ms Jackson, that there was just “599 votes in it” and that there had been a few recounts from individual wards but that the Electoral Services team were saved from doing a full recount of all the wards and that he for one, due to the late hour of the declaration was: “grateful for that!”. We spoke again to Richard Howitt MEP, Labour’s regional organiser about Labour’s success in Cambridge but failure nationally. Richard told us: “There have been some difficult results tonight but it is a fantastic one in Cambridge. It was a slim margin but a clear victory for Labour. We won the City Council last year and the Parliamentary Seat this year. It has been a challenging night. Tuition fees were a milestone around the neck of Julian Huppert. The winning candidate for Labour, Daniel Zeichner, spoke to various media outlets soon after the vote was declared about his success and we stood by his side to record his interview with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Breakfast Show presenter Dotty McLeod. You will hear Daniel’s voice but not Dotty’s. Daniel told Dotty: “Cambridge Labour has been working very hard to win the City back for Cambridge and I will now be working closely with the Labour Council. We will be tackling the problems of transport, the cost of housing for young people and many other problems the City has. We will be working Nationally with people from the other parties to sort out these problems.” Daniel’s closing remarks to Dotty were poignant: “ I feel for people who have lost their seats all over the Country, including Julian Huppert.” But for Daniel his first comments on hearing he had indeed won Cambridge for Labour were profound: “Good morning Cambridge”. It was for him one of our six PPCS – Prospective Parliamentary Candidates - a very good morning indeed.
Unused audio
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/1/40
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Date : - 2015-4-4-2015-5-5 (creation)
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Description : - Alternate versions of interviews that were not ultimately used. Includes extended version of Rupert Read from the Bike Debate (part in SOBA 5/1/11); a combination of the interviews with City Council’s Marketing and Press Officer, the City Council’s Electoral Services Manager, and a reporter from the Cambridge Evening News (SOBA 5/1/8 and 5/1/34); a shorter version of the Julian Huppert interviews at the Unite Against Fascism events (SOBA 5/1/13); and an extended version of the Nat Bennett interview (SOBA 5/1/25).
Harriet Harman's Pink Bus
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/1
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Date : - 2015-2-25 (creation)
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Description : - Interviews with Daniel Zeichner (candidate) and Harriet Harman MP on Harman's Pink Bus.
Vicky Breading, City Council’ Electoral Services Manager, recieves election Writ
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/2
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Date : - 2015-3-31 (creation)
Unite Against Fascism picnic
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/3
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Date : - 2015-4-4 (creation)
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Description : - Includes discussions with Julian Huppert MP; Oscar Gillespie, local Green Party City Council member; and Richard Rose, organiser of the event.
Rupert Read at Bike Hustings
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/4
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Date : - 2015-4-7 (creation)
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Description : - Interview with Rupert Read, Green Party general election candidate