Element Descriptor
A special form of public speaking, this involves knowing your party manifesto, knowing how to rebut attacks from competing parties without seeming, uh, partisan, and generally projecting an image of genial competence. Good luck!
Level descriptors
| Novice | Practitioner | Expert | Ninja |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thanks to very thorough and somewhat time-consuming preparation, you can give a basic explanation of your party’s manifesto and what it says it would do differently once in power. You can deal with the standard attacks and smears with a straight bat, without looking too polished or glib. | With little preparation you can give a compelling account of why your party is better than the rest, and deserves votes. You can deal with clever loaded questions and most heckles while keeping your equanimity. | With zero preparation to speak of you can give pithy, funny, fact-based answers to the nastiest of questions, deal with any and all hecklers and still look like a normal and worth-voting-for kinda person (because nobody likes a smart arse). | The best candidates of the other parties call in sick, knowing they are going to get flattened. You are able to give spell-binding yet humble mini-speeches, converting skeptical folks to your position. Pity you represent a party that has no hope of forming a government, even on the other side of the Eco-Apocalypse. So it goes. |
Element Overview Essay
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The reason that hustings are badly performed that is that hustings are, by definition, relatively rare that we have had three general elections in the last five years in the UK. Above and Beyond that, performance is often bad because it involves public speaking. (people often not good at) and it also needs a detailed knowledge of your own party’s manifestos and other partys’ manifestos and the ability to deal with heckling and aggressive and loaded questions from the audience. And mischaracterizations. from other panellists, being able to do deal with all of those, while keeping a straight face and a smile, and seeming reasonable and attractive politically, is a pretty hard thing.
The consequences of performing badly hustings are that your party doesn’t get votes, you may not get elected, reelected, and crucially, an image of not being organised not being thoughtful, sticks. And people remember a bad performance and hold it against you, or the next candidate, for longer than they remember a good performance. Don’t blame me, I don’t make the rules.
Fixes? Performing well at hustings is simply a question of preparation, preparation, preparation and learning from your own mistakes and other people’s as quickly as possible and anticipating the kinds of slurs and mischaracterizations and practising how to deal with them succinctly and with verve and humour.
Development Resources
Assessment Resources
