Peter Garbutt is standing as the Green Party candidate in the general election in the Sheffield Hallam constituency.
On Wednesday 11th February I interviewed him for the 13th February 2015 episode of my Business Live programme on Sheffield Live 93.2FM, Sheffield’s community radio station with 40,000+ listeners.
Peter Garbutt is a teacher of English and Maths, and a former accountant. Born in Saltburn and raised in Bristol, he moved to Sheffield in 1988 and lives in Heeley. He is also involved on a voluntary basis with Abbeydale Road social enterprise, Strip The Willow.
The interview was the second of a series of interviews I conducted with prospective Members of Parliament, uncovering “the person behind the politics” and asking what policies they would like to introduce to support businesses and social enterprises.
On the 6th of February the Conservative Party candidate, Ian Walker, was on the show, and on the 27th of February the Labour Party candidate, Oliver Coppard took part. Links to their interviews are below.
Listen to the interview with Peter Garbutt:
Why are the interviews in this format?
Political interviews are frequently conducted in what could be termed the Paxmanian style – an interrogatory approach (more about this here). And there’s a time, place and value in this. But radio seldom has the time for long-form political interviews. As a radio presenter, and a resident of Sheffield Hallam, I wanted these interviewees to open up and, in their own words, to explain something of their experience, particularly in working in business and social enterprise.
Listen to the other Person behind the Politics interviews:
Ian Walker (Conservative Party candidate for Sheffield Hallam)
Oliver Coppard (Labour Party candidate for Sheffield Hallam)
(I invited Nick Clegg to be interviewed for this series, emailing and calling his office and his team several times; and suggested the Liberal Democrats could send an alternative interviewee if necessary – to date, there’s been no reply. However the Liberal Democrats have been interviewed by other Sheffield Live programmes.)
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