The packed Park Hotel”s ballroom had the atmosphere of a bear pit during heated exchanges at The Courier hustings in Montrose.
With the General Election just over a week away, a vocal crowd gathered to see the men who want to represent Angus in Westminster answer questions with platitudes and passion.
The candidates who attended Alberto Costa (Conservative) Sanjay Samani (Liberal Democrat), Mike Weir (SNP) and Kevin Hutchens (Labour) answered questions from the floor which ranged across local, national and international topics.
There was an empty space on the dais where the potential parliamentarians were seated as UKIP candidate Martin Gray was a no-show, for reasons as yet unexplained. His vacant seat served as useful no-man’s-land when the debate turned bitter between incumbent SNP candidate Mike Weir and Tory hopeful Alberto Costa.
The debate was chaired by Courier political editor Steve Bargeton, who began with a question on whether the decision to release convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al Megrahi was right.
Mike Weir said under Scots law any prisoner with a terminal illness may be released to spend their final days with their family.
Kevin Hutchens said the decision had been wrong, and suggested al Megrahi might have been placed in protective custody along with his family.
Alberto Costa said the convicted bomber should have been released to his family’s home in Newton Mearns, where he could have been protected by the police, with the bill being footed by the Libyan government.
Sanjay Samani said his party would not have released al Megrahi, but there were wider issues about the positive effect of criminals being confronted by their victims.
Next was a question about what can be done to help an unemployed single mother of two, who has a degree and has applied for 106 jobs with no success. All candidates said it would be their party which would create jobs.
A member of the public asked about Mr Costa’s work for PR companies in Aberdeen. The Conservative candidate made it clear he believed the questioner was an SNP activist and the question was designed to embarrass him. He then said he had volunteered the information being levelled against him, and had actually been working as a lawyer on a government project regarding wind farms. The crowd were becoming more animated.
It was at this point Steve Bargeton introduced a question about the collapse of HBOS and RBS, and whether an independent Scotland would have survived their demise.
Mike Weir said the financial crisis had “destroyed the argument for free-market capitalism,” but Scotland had oil wealth. He didn’t see “Americans petitioning to rejoin the British Empire because their banking system had collapsed.”
Alberto Costa was persistent in his view that if it had not been for the UK as a single entity, “Scotland would be bankrupt,” and following the global economic collapse, the “SNP’s central premise has been blown out of the water.”
The other two candidates said Scotland’s economy is almost purely based on financial services and that it was announced yesterday that Lloyds had returned to profitability and would be beneficial for taxpayers.
The next subject was MPs’ expenses and the employment of family members. Mike Weir defended his position and attacked the Tory leader’s expenses. Alberto Costa promised to be a cheaper alternative to the incumbent.
Then came the subject du jour in Angus, the defacing of Tory, and to lesser extent Lib Dem, campaign posters. “It is unacceptable,” Mr Costa told the crowd.
While Conservative supporters made their outrage clear and the SNP chuckled, both Labour and the Lib Dems agreed that all vandalism is wrong.
The SNP were then challenged on the non declaration of accounts and the argument between Mr Costa and Mr Weir verged on anger, with each launching accusation and counter accusation, and supporters on both sides shouting out their opinions.
Accusations on the funding of offices, non-dom donors and the role of the election commission were thrown back and forth across the table.