Question Time debate from Watford Colosseum

To watch the hour-long programme in its entirety, click here.

Q: Is there any way to stop the type of attack that happened in France?

David Davis, Conservative MP said: “The simple answer is no and we should recognise that what we shouldn’t do is react to them in the belief we can stop them – they are trying to create a monstrosity and dominate the headlines, and make us behave in a certain way that is alien to our culture. But we can defeat their ideology and their barbarian approach, but to make any country completely safe is beyond the reach of any government. If I was able to orchestrate one reaction, I would have wanted every editor in Europe and the rest of the world to carry their cartoons. It’s important we stand shoulder to shoulder with the French and mean it.”

Broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer said: “We have to accept that we are allowing these attacks to affect us. The only reason I’m not wearing a t-shirt with the prophet Mohammed tonight is because I don’t want to be killed. The reason editors didn’t do what David suggested, is because they are scared. This is fear of religious fundamentalists. The right to exercise your freedom of belief is not the opposite of the freedom to speak freely; it is hand in hand with that. In this democracy we have a history of allowing people to offend – remember The Life of Brian? We have the right to offend in this country and if we don’t stand up to that we will see our freedoms ebb away very quickly.”

Q: Is David Cameron using the Green Party to avoid the televised debates?

Julia Hartley-Brewer said: “We appear to be having a debate about the debate between political leaders about which leaders should get to debate in the leaders’ debates!? It’s not in Cameron’s interests but it is in the other leaders. I don’t like the idea of politicians dictating who voters to get to hear debate. If Cameron doesn’t want to take part, go ahead without him.”

David Davis said: “Just have the Greens on – they’ve already got four parties. I think all PM try to control the agenda, particularly as they have to defend the agenda. I can’t see another General Election without the leaders’ debate. Get the Greens in but not so far as the SNP.”

Liz Kendall, Shadow Health Minister for Labour said: “He should be confident enough to go out and defend his record and what he will do in the future. I think he’s frightened.”

Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, said: “The reasons were not David Cameron’s own preferences. OFCOM decided what parties should be involved based on elections results, the number of MPs and voting shares etc, and this qualified UKIP for the debate and not the Greens, so he was relying on an independent regulator.”

Q: After serving his sentence for rape, should footballer Ched Evans be given a chance to continue with his career?

Liz Kendall said: “I was appalled Oldham were considering taking him on. He’s a convicted rapist and I think this is a high profile, highly paid job that is a role model for young men. I’m disappointed the FA hadn’t taken a stronger role – there’s still a casual attitude towards rape and violence. It’s another case whether two-and-a-half-years is long enough.”

Julia Hartley-Brewer said: “I couldn’t disagree more. There are three issues here – should someone convicted of an offence be allowed back in to employment? There are obvious exceptions where trust and safety come into it, like carers, teachers, lawyers etc, where actually the answer is yes. Ched Evans sentence was five years behind bars not a life time of unemployment. The second, that it’s a high paid, high profile job – well that’s his job and may be the only thing he can do bar stack shelves at Poundland, so he has the entitlement and should be free to ply his trade, bearing in mind other footballers have returned to work after killing people through dangerous driving, racism and other sex offences. The other point is - if he apologises, said what he did was wrong, and showed remorse then he would have done the correct Opera-style apology and therefore would be allowed to return to work - but he doesn’t believe he has committed a crime. Having looked at the crime in great detail, in what I have read, if I was on that jury, I would not have convicted him. I think if we are going to convict drunk men for drunk sex with drunk women who don’t remember, we are going to be convicting a hell of a lot of men. It comes down to a he said she said. In the event of doubt we shouldn’t convict, this is the rule of the mob and should be allowed to get on with his life.”

Liz Kendall said: “But the woman has also received threats of violence and whatever anyone thinks about what they’ve read about the trial, a jury convicted him....This is a point about being a role model for young men, it would show that you can have the life, profile and adulation even though you’ve committed and crime and been convicted by a jury.”

David Davis said: “I disagree with him demanding an apology when a case is still subject to a review. I started off in Julia’s position, when you’ve served your time that’s it, but that’s not true. If you commit fraud it would be hard to go back to being a lawyer or an accountant, if you commit a number of offences it is hard to be a doctor and if you commit a sex offence it is pretty hard to go back to the public-arena where you are a role model. So there is a big dimension to this and, I’m afraid, there are offences that destroy careers for a reason and I think this is one of those - it’s harsh but it’s necessary, and I don’t think he should appear in the public arena ever again unless he’s exonerated.”

Vince Cable said: “The audience have mixed feelings about this, as do I, in this case this man hasn’t served his time, he’s on licence, and the woman has been treated appallingly by this man’s fan club. You should treat the Football Association in the same way you would treat the medical or teaching profession where there are offences – it could be rape or killing someone when you’re drunk – that disqualifies you from practicing your profession.”

Q: Who is to blame for A&E waiting times - NHS, government or the public?

Vince Cable said: “Blame is not sensible – we look at the causes. There is a massive increase in demands - both good and bad - we have an older population, so there is more demand. The GP contract system has failed badly and so patients turn up at A&E and there are big problems where a lot of elderly patients can’t get out of hospital, the bed blocking problem, and so the whole system backs up into A&E. It is very serious in some areas and we have to deal through a mixture of ways, more money, and long term we have to make sure, with an aging population, that we deal with people in the community and we make sure people don’t go into hospital when they don’t need to.”

Liz Kendall said: “If you’re faced with an aging population and a huge increase in long term conditions, you do not cut the home care services that help to keep elderly people at home or district and cut community nurses that help people with diabetes, you do not cut nurse training places piling up problems for the future and the NHS is now recruiting from overseas and agencies.”

David Davis said: “You don’t solve this by a political spat – I could say about the ridiculously badly negotiated GP contract in 2004 that A&E usage went up from 15million to 22million, but that doesn’t solve anything. There’s a real problem with co-ordination of elderly people with social services, we have to deal with 350,000 people above the age of 75 then a few years ago. We are five days in to the election campaign, God save me in five months time, we’re now playing a game with the NHS, which we shouldn’t do - we are doing as good a job as we can with these pressures.”