overview
On Friday 2 June as part of Digbeth First Friday, Grand Union invites you to join us for a conversation with political thinkers, and party candidates in lead up to the General Election on 8 June.
Confirmed speakers include: Zack Polanski from Progressive Alliance, Demi Nandhra founder/editor of journal Contemporary Other, and Dominic Hardwick, Liberal Democrat candidate for Burton-on-Trent with more names tbc.
From 6pm, we invite you to contribute your ideas, reforms, or issues on our Manifesto Pledge Wall.
From 7pm, we begin the evening’s discussion chaired by essayist and activist Nathaniel Grant. Our guests will begin to layout the political landscape in lead-up to the General Election, opening up to discuss Proportional Representation as a system. Do they support the first past the post voting system in the UK? What are their thoughts towards tactical voting? Can they see a future in party coalitions under a system of Proportional Representation?
The talk forms an extension to the themes that feature in our current show The Dutch Window by the artist Seecum Cheung. In March 2017, Cheung invited art critic and writer Morgan Quaintance to interview fringe party leaders in the Netherlands, to discuss their core objectives in lead up to the Dutch elections held on 15 March. The Dutch electoral system runs on a Proportional Representation with a low threshold, resulting in a higher number of parties campaigning for seats in the House of Representatives. In total, 28 parties ran for this year’s electoral race, 14 of which were new entries.
From 8pm, you will have another chance to watch The Dutch Window as we resume our normal programme.
