Gonzo journalism assignment: Bordon and Whitehill residents weren't seduced by the words of Damian Hinds.

The hall where the local conservative Mp for East Hampshire was about to hold a conference for the residents of Bordon and Whitehill was partially bare, with chairs only filling half of the hall. At the front there was a table and chair ready for the guest speaker, with a conservative campaign poster propped up against the table leg, other than that there was no conservative campaign posters to be seen. Placed on all of the chairs were leaflets, on one side depicting David Cameron and a quote, and on the other side five bullet points telling the reader what they intend to do. The residents attending the meeting were all greying, wrinkled and noticeably disgruntled. Damian Hinds entered the hall with a confident stride, shaking hands and introducing himself to every single person in the room, until he reached the table at the front of the room. A surprisingly youthful appearance was present on the Mp, with only a few traces of grey indicating his maturity; the formality of the meeting was shown through the sophisticated suit he wore. As he reached the front of the room he stared down perplexed at his watch and said: “let’s give it another five minutes, give others a chance”, despite this, ten minutes passed before he was forced to start the meeting. It was easy to detect the slight disappointment he felt at the number of people in the room, as in the minutes that were spent waiting for others to appear he mentioned that “at the meeting in Binstead there were not enough seats”, clearly he thought this would be the case today.
To re-establish the formality of the meeting Damian reintroduced himself with his political title included this time. Before he even started, he made a brief observation on the noise next door, as a constant thud could be heard, which was a blend of feet stamping on the floor and the prominent bass of music speakers, a woman shouting could also be heard during the intervals in the music. This prompted Damian to make a guess at the on going activity next door “it seems we are competing with an aerobics class next door” he added. To add structure and give a rough time guide of each segment of the talk he went on to outline the direction of the meeting stating that his approach was not to “waste time slagging off the labour party, which they seemed to be doing a lot of at the moment”. This joke to break the ice caused a wave of laughter through the room, melting the icy disposition of the meetings participants, transforming serious expressions into toothy grins, which after a minute or so transformed back into frosty stares. Through out this, he looked bold and enthusiastic, despite the grim faces of the local residents, who held his gaze unconcerned with his intimidating presence. However when he moved on to talk about the three key areas of the conservative manifesto his confidence seemed to falter, he was vague going into little detail and merely stating what they would change, but at no point did he mention how they would create these changes. Economic policy was the first thing he mentioned in which he said “We are opposed to the national insurance scheme that Labour is proposing” general nods of approval followed this comment. Then listing what they intended to change he stated “we will give help to small businesses, restrict child tax credits” he listed just a few points from the manifesto, with animated hand gestures, he did this for his topic on family, again listing what would be done. The final topic followed the same structure, but this time a sincere apology was embedded in the plans “we intend to restore people’s faith in politicians, and recover from the expenses scandal” he announced, to which he then added "that this will not happen again". A firm edge in his tone makes it clear that Damian is trying to distance not only himself, but others from being associated with the scandal. This seemed to increase the tension in the room, as this brief overview did not seem to inspire any confidence.
The main bulk of the meeting focused on the issue of turning Bordon and Whitehill into an Eco town. Damian started this topic off by stating that the armies plans to move out of the area provoked the plans and that the land was to be used for housing. This sparked outrage as the mutterings “not big enough” of the residents spread through the room, showing the general view was that the town was not big enough for this kind of development. The mention of a referendum by Damian helped to ease the distaste for the project as it offered some form of hope to those present that the plans may still fall through, to show his position on the matter he quickly announced, “I am in favour of a referendum”. However this offered no reassurance, an elderly gentlemen with thick rimmed glasses, a knitted green jumper that partially covered his brown trousers asked “what can you personally do about this”, to which Damian replied: “I personally can’t do anything about this, it is a decision made by the local council”. To try to settle the outbursts of droning “mmmm’s” he tried to reassure the less than impressed listeners with this statement “that only when the army moves out of Bordon and Whitehill will the Eco town be a possibility”.
Eyeing the clock at the back of the hall nervously his speech slowed, as he muttered in between his closing comments “I need to go”, to which he drew the meeting to a close before apologizing for his departure, thanking people as he power walked out of the hall to his next local meeting. The unsatisfied looks upon the faces of those vacating the building conveyed the impression that the promises made had not completely seduced them, and that doubts still remained surrounding the controversial issue of turning Bordon and Whitehill into an Eco town.