By Rosy Matheson
It’s easy to forget the man on the street when the Westminster bigwigs roll into town during conference season.
But thanks to a BBC Radio 5 Live debate, people from Brighton have been given a chance to have their say.
And they gave their reaction to government policies, recent coalition changes and Liberal Democrat stories that have been making the news.
“The difference between syphilis and the pox,” was how one member of the audience described the difference between the Lib Dems and the Tories.
“And you wouldn’t want either of them,” another said.
It’s fair to say that the crowd who went along for the Victoria Derbyshire Show at the Lib Dem Conference yesterday (Monday 24 September) weren’t entirely sympathetic to the Lib Dem cause as they sat around waiting for recording to begin on a wet Monday morning in a seafront night club in Brighton.
About 250 participants had struggled through lashing rain to make it, only to sit in a cramped circle under a glittering disco ball, surrounded by BBC staff and their recording equipment.
Maybe they were desperate to have their say or perhaps it was the promise of free coffee that lured them along.
But there was no aroma of fresh beans here, only the faint smell of beer: apparently there had been a foam party the night before.
Victoria Derbyshire, the presenter, said that she hoped this event wouldn’t be quite as messy but some people who were feeling the pinch were threatening to draw blood.
There were disability rights campaigners who were worried about cuts, students who had taken on loans, disillusioned NHS workers and apprentices who would have been “better off on the dole.”
Derbyshire explained exactly what she expected from the audience. No swearing, no sudden gear changes and remember to give it “some welly”.
A panel of four would kick off the debate starting with Shana Pezaro, a 33-year-old woman who had multiple sclerosis and who was a member of the Lib Dem Party.
Then it was the turn of student, Ewan Atkinson, who was attending a local college.
Next up was Susie Maxwell Stuart, a carer who was looking for work.
And finally it was Mathew Hulbert an outspoken Lib Dem councillor who wanted to see a change in the Lib Dem leadership.
