The candidates fighting it out for the Westmorland and Lonsdale Parliamentary seat last night took part in a Question Time-style election debate which was broadcast live on the Gazette website.

Gareth McKeever (Conservatives), John Mander (UKIP), Jonathan Todd (Labour) and Tim Farron (Liberal Democrats) all attended the Question Time-styled event at the Sun Hotel, Troutbeck Bridge.

Dozens of readers watched and listened live online, and posted their comments and reaction to the hustings.

The closeness of some of the views espoused by the three mainstream candidates was an interesting mirror of national political reality.

You could say that the differences between the parties these days have more to do with light and shade than black and white - or blue, red and orange.

Questions covered the whole gamut of political argument, including the plight of small businesses, European bureacracy, religious freedom and climate change.

The session opened with a dig at the Lib Dems for ‘littering’ South Lakes with their posters days before the election was called.

But most candidates agreed it had created ‘excitement’ over the prospect of the forthcoming poll.

The bureaucracy and tax burden on small business provided a big concern: perhaps not surprising, given the audience in the room of around 60 largely consisted of small business owners.

But if the candidates didn’t give each other a hard time, members of the audience weren’t as considerate.

Labour man Jonathan Todd, in particular, was given a fierce grilling on economic matters.

Mr Todd, the only candidate to be heckled on the night, battled on valiantly but in the end was forced to make a momentous confession.

“I’m not an expert on everything,” he exclaimed after one particularly fierce barrage of questioning.

In stark contrast to Mr Todd, Lib Dem Tim Farron got a much easier ride, as did Tory Gareth McKeever.

Both delivered confident, assured answers, although the latter’s performance was perhaps the more polished of the two.

Mr Mander, on the other hand, could have done with Nicholas Parsons and a buzzer to curb his bouts of deviation.

Unsurprisingly, he was more assured and statistically-armed in his responses when attacking European Union bureacracy.

To be negative, the session was half an hour longer than it needed to be but it did provide an opportunity to witness an intriguing democratic process in action.