Twitter first for Surrey Comet election reporting

ELECTION 2010: No gaffes, no glory in Kingston and Surbiton debate

Since the paper started in 1854, reporters have covered scores of candidates debates but this was the first to experiment with the use of live real-time updates using social networking site Twitter.

Chief reporter David Lindsell sat with pen and pad, camera and a laptop to capture the candidates comments as they made them.

Anyone signing up for the Surrey Comet updates would have been able to keep one eye on the Kingston and Surbiton debate if they were drawn away by the national leaders debate or the football.

Mr Lindsell said: "I tried to approach the debate with a reporters' eye for what the candidates said, but also with a sketch of the reaction from the audience to keep readers at home checking updates on their computers or phone engaged.

"It wasn't perfect. There were more spelling mistakes than my editor would usually allow but I think it captures a flavour of the cut and thrust of the meeting.

"I also snuck away from my laptop to take some photos of the candidates in action too, which were updated live on Twitter as the evening went on."

Several of the candidates also use Twitter to keep their followers up to date with their thoughts and opinions including Edward Davey, Helen Whately, Max Freedman, and Jonathan Greensted.

The Surrey Comet also used Twitter to cover Tuesday's crunch promotion play-off between Sutton United and Kingstonian with score updates and pictures from the game

Click to follow the Surrey Comet's Twitter feed

The Twitter updates are in reverse order so begin at the bottom of the page and read upwards. 

- Ed Davey shaking hands with audience members a la the #leadersdebates !

- And we finished off with closing statements. Good hustings, well-chaired and interesting answers from all. 

- Says people should vote for him and he will give everyone his mobile phone number so they can phone him up and hold him accountable about 14 hours ago 

- UKIP candidate Jonathan Greensted says only three people can win - Ed Davey , Helen Whately and him which gets a big laugh. 

- But Ed Davey says some Christians want him to vote one way and others another 

- Says mainstream Christians would be disappointed in the way he has voted about 

- Trevor Archer has challenged Edward Davey on whether as a Christian he toes the party line on moral issues like abortion 

- Tony May CPA wholeheartedly agrees with Christian school 

- Max Freedman - No 

- Helen Whately - Agrees with Edward 

- Ed Davey - "One thing I am worried about is I don't believe in a restrictive admission policy" 

- Chris Walker Green NO 

- "Would you like Christian secondary schools yes or no?" 

- Q about north Kingston school. Questioner says leader of council Derek Osbourne told him he was opposed to secondary school being Christian 

- Just turned around and I reckon there are 80 people here 

- Just a reminder: This is an experiment in tweeting by the Surrey Comet for the #kingstonandsurbiton hustings for #ge2010 

- @helenwhately and @eddavey have given answers about the importance of marriage but I was taking photographs

- If it comes to a conclusion of threatening hospital he will oppose it but doesn't want to halt review in case there are positives 

- Freedman LAB says this has not been a LKAb plan to close hospital. Says its a bureacratic thing for southwest London. 

- Davey finished off by saying he was right to go public. Greensted says he will fight to keep #KingstonHospital open

- Surrey Comet has a lot of stories about this too so if you are interested to make up your mind on the threat go here http://bit.ly/cHoSC0 

- But says decided to go public and was accused of scaremongering. Mentions leaked report showing the threat with 18 options. 

- He says NHS figures told him about a threat to hospital, with a 1in2 chance of losing A+E . Could have conspired with NHS to keep it quiet 

- Now Davey is up (he has been criticised for scaremongering by Tories over Kingston Hospital) 

- Claps for her 

- Says there is a possibility A+E and maternity could be threatened but if there is a CON gov it will be safe. Mentions Cameron visit. 

- She says she has taken great care not to scare people about Lab review of NHS. Says hospital being closed is not on the radar 

- She says McKinsey is working on gov review of NHS in southwest London but she has not been involved at all 

- Q from audience about Kingston Hospital. Points out Whately CON works for McKinsey which he says is believed to be a threat to hosp

- Greensted UKIP says children are the future of the country.

- Greensted says he is part of PTA and known as "barbecue guy" ... Says he wants to help schools look after themselves. 

- I think that should have been raise income tax but I will need to check 

- Trevor Archer has picked him up on the cost of 20 a class. Walker says scrap in come tax andTrident. 

- 20 in a class would make a big difference in this reporter's opinion. Might have learnt a bit more myself but is it realistic? 

- Chris Walker Green got forgotten there. Says Greens do have a policy, much more rooted in communities, bringing class sizes down to 20. 

- Mr May says open children's eyes and provide moral teaching. Appears to be checking his notes. Didn't say anything about north Kingston shcl

- Tony May CPA asked about other groups running schools. CPA has previously told the @SurreyComet north Kingston school should be church-run 

- Helen Whately namechecks Tory Education secretary Michael Gove who wants parents and businesses to run schools. 

- Headteachers reading vast files. Spots a woman shaking her head. Maybe she's a headteacher. 

- Whately CON says love of learning is important and teachers struggle with fads constraining their teaching and vast government guidance.

- That was terrible spelling. I'll do that again. Proposed sampling exercises.

- Children in the middle or bottom left out so targets do have an effect, although some other testing is good. Prop;osed sampling exercies. 

- Q about education now and Davey (LIB DEM) kicks off saying teachers focus on children just below a grade to get them up a level. 

- Says she is worried about this story http://bit.ly/b4Z7x9 which she says may give the wrong impression of last night's husting 

- Says worried about talking about subject because Tories have been seen as nasty party 

- Helen Whately CON gets lauigh and claps for saying "Max you did a much better job than Gordon Brown at apologising for your record"

- Criticises Home Office for the way it deals with the sheer caseload of immigration cases - taking too long 

- Freedman LAB says he has worked for an inner city MP who has largest case load of immigration cases (its Kate Hoey by the way) 

- Think he is about right on pushing the candidates a bit - If he says "answer the question 14 times" I might change my mind 

- He says PM< and others are not listening

- Max Freedman talking about Labour policy on immigration but Trevor Archer says desperation has forced people to vote for far right parties

- Worth pointing out Edward Davey has been Lib Dem spokesman on foreign affairs for a while 

- Discussion is largely about national issues at the moment 

- Max agrees with Ed asylum seekers should be allowed to work ...Will #iagreewithed catch on? 

- PAstor Trevor Archer refers to Gordon Brown's "Bigotgate" in asking LAbour Max Freedman about his views 

- Unless they have been here 10 years in which case there should be allowed to stay 

- Davey says good immigration and bad immigration and thinks asylum seekers should be able to work. Illegal imigrants deported. 

- Qs about immigration. Sorry for the short delay.

- Oh no wait. He doesn't. He does agree with increasing ageing costing more money 

- Freedman (LAB) he agreeswithhelen! 

- Says increasing ageing etc means more spending just to keep standard we are at 

- That would not work 

- GP = doctor - not GPS satellite navigation system - SORRY! 

- Wants power to GPS to have power over budgets 

- Top down culture has got worse and worse since then- Says politicans need LESS power over NHS. Bureaucrats in Whitehall. 

- Helen Whately says she did work experience when she wanted to become a doctor and saw enormous frustration amongst hospital staff 

- Helen Whately says get rid of targets.

- Trevor Archer says he rang @KingstonHospital and was told the telephone system had been upgraded and it now took longer to get throughWhoops

- He DID say theres lots of ineffiency in the NHS. Get rid of expensive computer system and get rid of strategic health authorities. 

- He didn't actually say "Let's go Copenhagen" That was a RT from Danny Kaye by me. 

- Davey points to Denmark - "Let's go Copenhagen" 

- Pastor Archer wants an example 

- Davey (LIB DEM) says too much looking to sec of state and not worrying about local health needs 

- Save Kingston Hospital campaign bound to get a mention here

- OK away from trivia and back to the next q about NHS. Trevor Archer wants to know that they would do to improve health service. 

- Not bothered about the Liverpool game. Edward Davey's team Notts County won 5-0 this week. Not sure who the other candidates support? 

- Now it is about federalism which he is against. Also wants local decision making 

- Tony May Christian Peoples Alliance says in favour of referendum but it was set up to bring about peace and reconcilitation 

- But she says she wants to renegotiate, promoting cries of "you can't do that" - carries on to say there should have been a referendum 

- Pastor Archer points out to Conservative Helen Whately tat her party is notoriously divided on this issue 

- Green Chris Walker says mixed views on Europe. Wants decisions to be taken at the lowest possible level 

- Says we need referendum which people would vote to get out of Europe

- UKIP Greensted, who by the way is on Twitter too @votegreensted, says he can foresee the collapse of Euro 

- This is not SKY TV but the audience seem to be getting into it 

- Q about European community and role therein. No zingers tonight yet. 

- Not sure what his point was really 

- Now another audience member accuses Davey of being a Europhile and says Lib Dems want to abolish regional assemblies 

- Audience member says cruise missiles can be easily shot down but Davey says defence experts have been advising him 

- Davey says there are other options that are cheaper 

- Is he the new Paxman? He's pressing the candidates tonight 

- Pastor Trevor Archer says giving away nuclear deterrent would be out of step with other parties and Europe 

- You're getting some detailed policy tonight, folks! #kingstonandsurbiton #ge2010 

- Also criticises backing for replacement of nuclear deterrent Trident by other two parties 

- Longer term tackling public section pensions consensus with other parties - can make bigger savings over 20 years with decisions now 

- That apparently comes to £10 bn

- whoops Davey LIB DEM says he hasn't found the whole £40 bn but child tgrust fund, tax credit funds for top 210 earners, regional assemblies 

- Davewy LIB DEM about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Whately says efficiency, ID cards, but the moment they see books they can see how bad the situation is 

- Trevor Archer interrupts again. Citing Institute of Fiscal Policy. Wants specifics. 

- She says its rare for an opposition to be so frank and promise wonderful spending programmes. Says it has not gone down well with electorate 

- Whately CON says Labour need to take responsibility for the deficit 

- Pastor Trevor Archer interjects quite spectacularly and points out it was on Labour's watch. An audience member pipes up. Bit of heckling! 

- Admits efficiency savings not going to be enough to tackle deficit but says people who did not cause the deficit are the poor 

- He says he doesn't have that information but will be tackling deficit through cuts, tax rises and getting the economy going 

- Freedman LAB gets a laugh when he says "nice easy question" 

- Q about national debt asking candidates to "come clean" on where the cuts will fall #kingstonandsurbiton 

- OK Issues now 

- She says Conservatives have a vision for Government and she wants to see change in the country 

- Conservative Helen Whately says she got into politics to fix NHS but it hasn't turned out to be that easy #kingstonandsurbiton 

- They've al;l kept to their time limits! 

- Green Anthony Walker says budget deficit, climate change and inequality are main issues. Says beware of "greenwash" from other parties. 

- Claps for Tony May - lots of the audience are from the church which looks after the building 

- And later I will stop tweeting for a few mins and get some pics 

- Any spelling mistakes forgive me, typing live is tough! 

- Anthony May from Christian Peoples Alliance says he has been an activist on social justice issues based on bible teaching

- UKIP's Jonathan Greensted sayswe have been cheated by major parties over a referendum on Europe. Claims "£45m" we give to Europe "too much" 

- Labour's Freedman says we have done well out of a Labour government with hospitals, crime. "We have got a good story to tell in Kingston" 

- Davey says there has been an economic and political crisis and environmental crisis and Lib Dems best placed to deal with them 

- They're being asked for a two minute statement each #kingstonandsurbiton - Liberal Democrat Ed Davey first 

- And here they are. L-R May, Whately, Freedman, pastor Trevor Archer, Davey, Greensted and Walker http://twitpic.com/1jfkuz 

- The atmosphere is building as the audience filter in - who cares about the leaders? #kingstonandsurbiton http://tweetphoto.com/20390438 

- Lets start tonight's debate with a pic of the King's Centre Chessington - would do Cameron, Clegg and Brown proud http://twitpic.com/1jfi2j 

- To keep up with the debate follow Surrey Comet chief reporter @dlindsell and hear what the candidates have to say abt #kingstonandsurbiton 

- ELECTION 2010: #kingstonandsurbiton candidates debate half an hour away from starting here in the Kings Centre Chessington