A big thanks to all those who turned up to the Nick Clegg public meeting at the Guildhall on January 29th. If you didn't go, you didn't miss much.
It wasn't that impressive. Nick Clegg answered the easy questions and dodged the tricky ones. He was obviously in training for a future 'Prime Minister's Question Time', but he's got no chance. He made out he had faith in what his Lib-Dem colleagues were doing in messing-up Northampton's town centre, including the market square, so he didn't go down well with the market traders and Cobblers supporters and the many students present. He did manage to get Tony Woods and Richard Church to stay for half an hour after he'd gone, to dodge a few questions. You could see they weren't happy.
Portly Woods sauntered to and fro like a latter-day Benito Mussolini, gesturing behind his own back as he spoke, which is a particularly interesting habit if you've ever studied body language and psychology. Woods even descended to calling the traders liars at one point, which shows he is really rattled.
Richard Church was too much of a gentleman to say that, of course. Church did a bit better than Woods on the whole, but occasionally pulled absurdities out of the air, like expecting to be making an income from the 'events area' after a couple of years into the recession, and a load of other 'blue sky' rubbish we've all heard before.
The students spoke up well in defence of the Fishmarket Arts Centre; another area in which the council are dragging their feet, as Legal & General have their eye on it; but Woods said he wasn't selling - yet.
So, to summarise: Clegg was lack-lustre and dodging the straight answer; Woods thought Church was making a good job of beggaring-up the market, and Church dreamed blue sky dreams. For the market traders and the art students and the people of Northampton, The Fight Goes On!
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