Hustings.

It was an interesting evening at the local hustings. All seven candidates turned up - Green, SNP, Labour, Conservative, UKIP, LibDem, and Left Unity (irritatingly at the right of the stage).

Sarah Beattie Smith, the Green candidate, won on the evening: she spoke convincingly, coherently and passionately.

Deirdre Brock, for the SNP, had a bit of passion in her voice, but seemed a bit keen to toe the party line and mentioned Nicola Sturgeon many times.

Mark Lazarowicz, the Labour incumbent, wasn't as good a speaker as I would have expected, given his many years' experience.

I thought Iain McGill, the Tory, and the UKIP guy whose name I forget were both pretty hopeless.

Martin Veart, the LibDem, seemed very reticent and ill at ease, which was disappointing.

The Left Unity guy was passionate and surprisingly good.

The audience was pretty mixed, although judging by the questions and the applause, I reckon they were more to the left than the panel. There were a few Tories seated in the row behind me, but most people seemed to support the Greens, with fewer SNP and Labour supporters.

There were questions on devolution (surprise!), TTIP, housing, tax, unions and so on.

There was hardly any heckling. We were very well behaved. There was some sarcastic laughter at points made by the Tory, Mr UKIP, and the SNP. Both the Tory and UKIP deserved heckling on some of the comments, though, and I'm somewhat disappointed that I failed to do so.

It won't however influence how I vote: it seems to be a two horse race, and since I don't want an SNP MP, I think Mr Lazarowicz will get my vote.