Oliver Coppard is standing as the Labour Party candidate in the general election in the Sheffield Hallam constituency.
On Friday 27th February I interviewed him for my Business Live programme on Sheffield Live 93.2FM, Sheffield’s community radio station with 40,000+ listeners.
Oliver Coppard was born and raised in Sheffield Hallam, attending Porter Croft, Silverdale and High Storrs schools, going on to study Politics and Parliamentary Studies at the University of Leeds. He worked in the US Congress and the UK Parliament, and returned to Sheffield in 2009 to manage an Olympic legacy project. He then went on to work in the Dearne Valley on behalf of the local LEP, developing the low carbon economy.
The interview was the third 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 13th of February the Green Party candidate, Peter Garbutt took part. Links to their interviews are below.
Listen to the interview with Oliver Coppard:
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)
Peter Garbutt (Green 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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