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This evening's live tweet thread is from the @platf9rm hustings, held at their collaborative workspace in Hove Town Hall with a welcome from Seb Royle. On the panel are @BeatriceLibDem, @peterkyle, @Brunswick_Green, @robert_nemeth and @CharleySabel.
The chair/moderator is @montymunford who opens with a plea for "no bullshit" and asks candidates to keep their opening statements to 60 seconds max.
Conservative candidate @robert_nemeth gives a personal introduction: he enjoys beekeeping, running and has a special interest in maintaining the beach hust along the seafront.
Green candidate @Brunswick_Green is more political - says it's time to save the planet. Independent candidate @CharleySabel says her key tenets are running things on happiness and constitutional reform.
Liberal Democrat candidate @BeatriceLibDem outlines her Swiss-British international background. She used to work as a professional musician and is now training in law. "The Lib Dems are the party that say we unanimously want to stop Brexit."
Labour candidate @peterkyle says he voted against having #GE2019 
because he wants to keep focused on solving the big issues like getting the railways running properly again. "If I think it's in the best interests in our community, I will always vote that way."
because he wants to keep focused on solving the big issues like getting the railways running properly again. "If I think it's in the best interests in our community, I will always vote that way."
The first question is on the victimisation of women in politics. @CharleySabel says she doesn't think there is a huge exodus of female MPs. @peterkyle disagrees and says women, and in fact a lot of empathetic people in general, are being pushed out of politics.
Peter Kyle says Boris Johnson's attitude towards women is horrendous - he uses inappropriate language to see who will be shaken by it and repeats the words that cause most anxiety.
@BeatriceLibDem says UK politics has gone to a very aggressive level - as a female candidate you get daily security briefings. "At the back of my mind is Jo Cox and it does scare you how far people are prepared to go."
@Brunswick_Green says the abuse Diane Abbott and others get is "absolutely appaling". Sees it as a side-effect of polarised politics and the nature of our electoral system.
@robert_nemeth says adversarial set-up of House of Commons chamber doesn't help. Chair asks about PM's behaviour but he won't be drawn to comment directly on it.
@BeatriceLibDem says round chambers do encourage collaboration, but we have to look at actions as well - Boris Johnson's description of Muslim women as "letterboxes" led to a 300% spike in Islamophobic hate crime.
@peterkyle says there's a big difference between robust debate and abuse. UK politics does have moments of great oratory and collaboration - but we shouldn't accept abuse as a side-effect of adversarial politics.
Second question: "Robert Nemeth - too nice to be a Tory, what's the story?" @robert_nemeth says it's not about goodies versus baddies but whether society should be run by a top-down or bottom-up approach.
Third question: "Do you think the NHS is salvagable?" @CharleySabel says it's being mismanaged and abused so simply putting more money in won't fix it. She would support a small fee for those who see their GP multiple times per month to weed out hypochondria.
@BeatriceLibDem says the suggestion of questioning whether patients are genuine is highly problematic and against the founding principles of the NHS. Lib Dems would put a penny in the pound on income tax to raise £35bn for health and social care, and parity for mental health.
@peterkyle says most of the patients who need multiple appointments or miss appointments are the most vulnerable and least able to pay a fee. In 2009 more people believed in collective healthcare than 1940s/50s. "Policy has led us to this point."
Next question is from a physiotherapist who has just returned from the US where they pay "ten times more" for healthcare. He asks what we can do to improve public health.
@Brunswick_Green says the danger is in health services focusing only on diseases and not prevention. Clean air, clean water and exercise hugely important.
@robert_nemeth says he supports eco-tourism in our city, promoting things like walks in the South Downs, sports events and sea swimming.
@CharleySabel says happiness economics is the solution - we should focus on the importance of general wellness, GWP not GDP.
@peterkyle says the public know about hospital admittance problems, but often hospital discharge problems are even worse - patients can wait weeks for home care or an appropriate care facility so get stuck in hospital long after they are medically ready to leave.
Next question is on housing. @BeatriceLibDem says Lib Dems want to build 300,000 homes a year of which 100,000 will be for social rent, charge 500% council tax on empty homes and launch a help to rent scheme so young people can meet deposits.
@Brunswick_Green says homes should be shelter for people, not private assets. "The relationship between landlord and tenant has been skewed in favour of the landlord." Greens would end right to buy, build 100,000 houses per year for social rent and localise decision-making.
@CharleySabel says we need to bring more philosophy back into politics. She doesn't advocate building more houses to solve the problem. Cuts to legal aid have really impacted homelessness.
@peterkyle says the elimination of tax credits caused a massive spike in rough sleeping and all the pathways that used to exist need to be restored. We also have the local problem that 42% of all housing transactions in B&H are people coming down from London.
Next question is from a member of Extinction Rebellion about the climate emergency. @robert_nemeth praises the wind farm off our coast - @BeatriceLibDem is quick to credit @EdwardJDavey for this and audience heckles for lack of references to Conservative policy.
Audience member says @robert_nemeth shows the same complacency as Boris Johnson's failure to participate in the climate change debate.
@peterkyle says we can't be passive about this - Greta Thunberg is brave and inspirational. We have to realise things that will lead to net zero will change our society for the better.
@Brunswick_Green says he's delighted to see Labour adopting Green party policies - if they'd like to add proportional representation & others to the list, so much the better. "Green New Deal is a transformational programme" will cost a lot of money - but can't afford not to do it
@BeatriceLibDem says an emergency debate on climate change called by Layla Moran in the House of Commons only had around 30 MPs attending - there is far too much complacency. Lib Dems would invest £100bn in tackling the climate emergency, including tree planting and green energy.
Final question is on technology: AI, machine learning and automation will bring huge changes to how we live and work. What will you do locally and nationally?
@peterkyle says it is going to revolutionise our workforce: exciting if we get it right and scary if we get it wrong. The people who need education and retraining the most have the doors slammed in their face time and again. We need to fund individual pathways not institutions.
@robert_nemeth studied electrical engineering - this tech revolution all started about 20 years ago. He says with employment figures currently being high he isn't worried.
Audience member says automated checkouts etc. *are* taking away human jobs, it's reality not dystopian fiction.
@Brunswick_Green says he is concerned about ownership of big tech, data and democracy - it needs more regulation. Lifelong learning needs investment, especially further education.
Bizarrely the chair hasn't allowed either female candidate to answer the technology question - genuine overrun of timing, being new to the job, #everydaysexism or bit of all three?
@BeatriceLibDem takes next chance she gets to go back to the tech question - Lib Dems are introducing a skills wallet for lifelong learning and retraining. They will also introduce standards and support for digital literacy.
We're rounding off with some permitted audience heckles. "Stop buying things from China", "Climate doesn't know borders" and "Hove looks like an absolute shithole" have it.
