A sparky and lively hustings at the Silverman Hall this afternoon, expertly chaired by Jonathan Steele of the Guardian.

The organisers, Mohammed Asif, the Chief Executive of Engage, and Waqaus Ali teed things up perfectly with the event running, more or less, to time.

The Lib Dem, Afzal Anwar, extracted a confession from me that I had wrongly accused him of being responsible for the conveyance of Brierfield Mills to the Birmingham based charity, Islamic Help, who planned to establish a 5,000 place boarding school for Muslim girls. When I apologised I got a big round of applause. I must apologise for mistakes more often.

I thought Andrew Stephenson put in a solid performance. I needled him with a jibe about the tax dodger, Lord Ashcroft.

He can’t say – and he didn’t – that Ashcroft is not a tax dodger. Game, set and match on that point.

For me, it was always going to be a bit tricky. I was going to be up front on my personal position on faith schools, knowing there are people out there in the audience straining at the leash to set up Muslim schools.

I open by saying my politics are secular. That I don’t look at the world through the prism of religion. Muslim and non Muslim.

I see the rich and the poor. The landlord and the tenant. The oppressed and the oppressor. These can be found in people of any and every religion.

The question of Muslim faith schools cropped up early on. The three parties have similar policies: if people want faith schools they can have them.

Fair enough. But in a place like Pendle with its rapidly changing demographics, I want to see young people grow up and learn together, sharing each other’s company, absorbing their different cultures.

The Government has poured countless millions into East Lancashire. Every secondary school in Burnley, next door, is brand new. And here in Pendle we also have two brand new ones and major re-builds for the other four.

Let’s fill them up with children and young people – not create new ones we don’t need.

The idea of the next generation growing up in racially and religiously segregated enclaves is not appealing.

Just as things are drawing to a close, a young man stands up and, with all the certainty of the true believer, tells us that democracy is against Islam.

I tell him that democracy is something we should cherish and defend. The idea that people can throw out their Governments if they don’t like them is a precious thing.

I tell him that there are 48 Muslim majority countries in the world yet only a tiny handful are democracies in the sense we understand the term. They are all autocracies in one form or another. Is that what we want?

I am uncertain how this blunt truth will be received.

I hear a round of applause.

Get-out-and-vote is making a difference.