Audio interviews for Women’s Parliamentary Radio
Conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother
Showing 251 - 275 of 317 Records
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
Buddhist, Green Party hustings
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/9
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Date : - 2015-4-15 (creation)
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Description : - Includes interviews with Green Party leader Natalie Bennett at Green Party Hustings, and P. Joseph, organiser of a Buddhist hustings on the same day.
Unite Against Fascism hustings
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/11
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Date : - 2015-4-20 (creation)
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Description : - Includes interview with Julian Huppert, MP, and Nazarene, event organiser
City Council staff after the close of voter registration
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/12
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Date : - 2015-4-21 (creation)
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Description : - Includes interview with Vicky Breading, City Council’ Electoral Services Manager, and her assistant, Emily Watts.
Presiding Officer, Robert Osborn
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/13
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Date : - 2015-4-22 (creation)
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Description : - Interview with Vicky Breading , City Council’ Electoral Services Manager, and long serving Presiding Officer, Robert Osborn at a training night for Presiding Officers.
Housing hustings
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/14
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Date : - 2015-4-23 (creation)
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Description : - Includes interview with Chamali Fernando, Conservative party candidate, and Duncan Stott, organiser of the event.
Brunswick and North Kite, Residents Association; U3A hustings
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/15
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Date : - 2015-4-27 (creation)
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Description : - Includes interviews with Daniel Zeichner, labour candidate, at the U3A (University of the 3rd Age) hustings; and Sue Gordon- Roe, a postal voter who had helped organise the Brunswick and North Kite, Residents Association hustings.
Middle East and Palestinian hustings
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/16
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Date : - 2015-4-27 (creation)
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Description : - Includes interviews with John Vale and organiser Pam Manning and her chair, Mona.
Anglia Ruskin hustings, and interview with Liberal Democrat Campaign Manager
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/17
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Date : - 2015-4-28 (creation)
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Description : - Student hustings at Anglia Ruskin University, including interviews with interviews with students; and an interview Kevin Wilkins Campaign Manager for the Liberal Democrats in South East Cambridgeshire, held in their Ely office.
Churches Jubilee hustings
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Reference Code : - SOBA 5/2/18
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Date : - 2015-4-29 (creation)
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Description : - An event aimed at Christians, involving a group of churches. Includes interviews with organiser Jonathan Tame, and his events manager.