Nasser Butt's (Liberal Democrats)focus seemed to be on education. He was prone to ramble and was cut mid sentence frequently as his time would run out. Susan John-Richards, an Independent and former Conservative councillor, spoke with passion and said she stood for honesty (after the expenses saga). Sadiq Khan, (Labour) was unapologetic for the Labour government’s track record. He was mischievously tried to paint Mark Clarke as not being a "real local".

Mark Clarke (Conservative) spoke fluently and reminded the audience that there were some great local champions as candidates but the real issue was on the economy and the choice was between five more years of Gordon Brown or David Cameron. He also talked eloquently on the 'Big society' idea, reminding us that the gap between rich and poor had grown over the last 13 years and he was determined not to let inequality grow any further.

Strachan McDonald of UKIP seemed a straight talker but his clipped delivery was perhaps a bit to old school for some, he probably had the best line of the evening: "I was a banker but went straight 12 years ago!"

The last candidate was Roy Vickery (Green Party) with his large flowing beard he spoke in a very similar way to the softly spoken character from Family Guy. He urged us all to vote for him so the "world's resources could be shared equally". He got the largest audience applause: "we would tax the rich and if they move to Switzerland or wherever...good riddance".

It was the first hustings of the 2010 general election that I had been to and found it invaluable and would certainly recommend going along to one of the remaining hustings.