Party political debate comes to McEwan Hall

Hundreds of students gathered at the McEwan Hall last Thursday night to participate in a party political debate on economic policy in the run up to the General Election.

The event, hosted by the Edinburgh University Economic Society, was chaired by the Executive Editor of the Scotsman, Bill Jaimeson, and attended by spokesmen for Scotland’s four leading political parties.

Andy Kerr, the Labour finance spokesperson, faced repeated questions from audience members surrounding Gordon Brown’s accountability for the deficit. When asked whether he thought that Gordon Brown could be held responsible for the problems which led to the economic recession, Kerr’s response was evasive: "Ask him if he does take the responsibility".

During the course of the evening students, citizens, and political representatives grilled all the party spokesmen on issues ranging from public debt to personal and political accountability for the economic recession.

The event had little direct confrontation from the MSPs aside from minor gibes on the topic of Scottish Independence as Stewart Hosie, the SNP Treasury spokesperson, repeatedly contradicted the claims of Mr Kerr.

Mr Hosie’s remark that an independent Scotland would have survived the financial collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland was met by derision from Mr Kerr who replied that a vote for independence would be "pure folly".

It was the budget deficit, however, that proved the greatest point of contention in the debate as each spokesman sought to clarify and differentiate their party’s response from the rest.

Jeremy Purvis, the Liberal Democrats finance spokesperson, and Derek Brownlee, the Conservative finance spokesperson, were both keen to portray their parties as the party for reforming regulation of public spending and private lending.

Mr Kerr stressed that in his ten years as chancellor Gordon Brown presided over a period of sustained economic expansion. A member of the audience responded saying that to take responsibility for such growth Brown must also be held accountable for the deficit.