By Community Correspondent Miles Dilworth

Zac Goldsmith, conservative candidate for Richmond Park, Tiffin Boys School in Kingston to discuss his plans for the borough and his political vision whilst he faced questioning from year 11 students on areas ranging from tax dodging to the Heathrow expansion.

Goldsmith opened the 45minute session by offering his thoughts on the state of politics in Britain today and shared his disgruntlement at the current relationship between politicians and voters. The expenses scandal is now almost becoming a clichéd topic for politicians, but Goldsmith suggested that this had nothing to do with a disintegration of trust, which had ‘not been brought about by the expenses scandal but merely confirmed by it.’ Instead he spoke of a need to examine in greater detail the political system as a whole claiming that ‘politicians, bar perhaps bankers, are the most unpopular people in Britain today’. To this he proposed his policy of ‘direct democracy... which means that ordinary people can call a referendum on any subject they want, providing they can gather enough signatures,’ hoping that this would create a more satisfactory voting system and allow the people to feel in charge. However, he left it slightly unclear as to how a prospective backbench MP would be able to implement such a radical idea.

One hoped that it was not the familiar idealist, outsider vision and his concept was contradicted when his non-dom status arose once more. Questioned about the allegations made in the Times that he claims non-domiciled status in order to avoid paying tax on several of his UK properties, which the Daily Telegraph claim are not actually owned by Goldsmith but are assets of a company based in the Cayman Islands, provoked the candidate to deny he claims such a status and that such accusations were the result of ill-informed sources.

Despite a few awkward moments, Goldsmith was able to move on to talk with confidence on down to earth policy, including his opposition to the Heathrow expansion and was forced to handle with care the clearly sensitive issue of the Tories clamp down on Grammar schools, bearing in mind Tiffin’s status as such an institution. He implied instead that there was no need to impede efficient and functional schools such as Tiffin, but merely to focus a greater proportion of resources on struggling comprehensives and to stop the construction of new Grammar schools.

The parliamentary candidate will be hoping that his performance has left a good impression on pupils for many of whom gained their first taste of a live political debate. He will also have wished to influence a generation that in two years time might have a chance to cross the box aligned next to the name Goldsmith.