Question Time in Hobson

Abstract

Question time is often the liveliest and most interesting part of a political meeting. The audience receives an opportunity to dictate the course of events rather more formally and successfully than by heckling, and the speaker is forced to put on show his nimbleness and range of information, or his skill at using either to conceal lack of the other. Reporters do not, however, dwell extensively on questions; an occasional exchange is reported, but by and large the speech is the thing, for there are deadlines to meet, what the candidate says in his speech is what he wants to be printed, and reporters co-operate. During the author's covering of Mr V. F. Cracknell's 1966 campaign meetings in the Hobson electorate particular attention was paid to question time to see whether it revealed anything significant of the interests of the electorate, of the skill and image of the candidate, and of its usefulness as a means of expounding policy matters omitted, for reasons of time and theme, from the formal speech.