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I went to what amounted to my first election hustings last night at in Billingham.

I was there to judge the College's entry for the competition.

and last night was about seeing whether they could be one of four schools across the country who'll get to be the production team for the Special Schools Edition of Question Time later this year.

Their panel of five included the candidates from the three larger parties in the local constituency of Stockton North.

So that was , , and .

The panel also included a TUC representative and one of the college students.

But it was interesting to see a proper constituency debate.

The students told me they were keen for people to get a chance to see all three main party candidates who are competing to .

, and it should be said he hasn't as yet ruled out standing as an Independent - but the chances are one of the three candidates on show will be Stockton North's next MP.

The questions that came from the audience included Corus, Labour's connections with Unite, the state of the social care system, student tuition fees and immigration.

It was great to be an observer for once rather than the debate referee. That role went to - half Irish, half Iranian and raised in Teesside!

There was some political knockabout, but generally a good standard of debate.

Of course I can't tell you what I made of it in too much detail, as my judge's verdict has to be confidential, and there are 14 other schools in the running who I won't see.

But I was impressed by the intelligence, commitment and organisation of the students who performed every task from serving refreshments to selecting the questions.

Many will be first-time voters at the coming election, and all the research involved in the exercise does mean they're probably now amongst the most politically-informed 18-year-olds in the country.

They should find out how they around Easter time.

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