The Brexit Campaign Continues Throughout The Borough

Published on: 11 May, 2016
Updated on: 14 May, 2016

The Brexit stall on Guildford Town Bridge, Christian Holliday second from the right.

With just six weeks to go until the crucial EU referendum, “Brexiteers” in Guildford are working hard to deliver their message locally.

“Vote Leave” campaign coordinator Christian Holliday who is also a local Conservative councillor for Burpham, said: “Politically, it has been clear for many years that the drive towards a single European state is incompatible with our democratic traditions and our belief in a strong independent nation states, freely co-operating with each other.

“Economically, we cannot afford to be tied to a stagnating customs union that costs us £350 million a week and which prevents us trading freely with the Commonwealth and the rest of the world.

“We run a trade deficit with the EU and all recent UK Government savings made through austerity cuts are cancelled out by the ever increasing costs of our EU membership. As we saw from the Prime Minister’s attempt to negotiate a new deal for the UK, meaningful reform is quite simply impossible. It is time for us to leave.”

The Brexiteers say they are working closely with the Leave.EU/Go! group to co-ordinate events and activities up to polling day on June 23. They regularly set up street stalls to engage directly with local residents and have developed an active literature delivery network across the Guildford area, from Send in the north to Cranleigh to the south.

Christian Holliday added: “It’s a pleasure to campaign with motivated Brexiteers from all over Guildford and all walks of life, from students to businessmen.

“I’ve no doubt voters in Guildford will be able to see through ‘project fear’ and grasp the opportunity to once again give a lead to Europe by rejecting European Federalism. Europe Yes, EU no!”

Responses to The Brexit Campaign Continues Throughout The Borough

Sue Doughty Reply

May 11, 2016 at 5:13 pm

Yet again the Brexiters have failed to include the fact that the actual money we pay is around £250m a week, as the rebate is applied before payment.

More money comes back to us for poorer parts of the country and also in funding for other things like research where Surrey University is a strong beneficiary. Much more information about what is claimed can be found on this really helpful site
full fact.org.

Turning to democracy, it is true that there continues to be room for improvement and the growth of influence of the European Parliament will be important. But the deeply flawed UK government election system where a substantial minority of voters can elect a majority government using our first part the post system, and where the second chamber comprises appointed and hereditary peers who can stay in post long after their competence fades is hardly a shining example of democracy. At least in Europe there is a constant process of change and review.

It is also worth noting that when I was Guildford’s MP I secured an agreement with Jack Straw, the then Foreign Secretary, to bring an end to our ministers attending secret meetings in Europe with our people being unaware of what was discussed.

Now in Hansard there is a report whenever a minister attends a meeting of what happened. I’m afraid that the argument about lack of democracy would come much better if it were from a politician who showed the same commitment to bringing about improvements to democracy in our own country.

Please note originally this comment included a figure of £350 million in the first paragraph. This has now been corrected at the request of the author.

Sue Doughty is a former Lib Dem MP for Guildford
Robert Park Reply

May 11, 2016 at 11:18 pm

Well said Sue Doughty.

There is no drive towards a single European state, certainly as regards the UK is concerned, as we are outside the Eurozone and Schengen.

The EU is not incompatible with our democratic traditions. We have 73 freely elected members of the European Parliament.

Our Prime Minister is one of the elected Heads of State in the European Council. Each state has an EU commissioner. The UK commissioner, Jonathan Hills, appointed by David Cameron, has a big job in charge of Financial Affairs.

“Project Fear”, as it is called, is based on real fear of the ghastly uncertainty, loss of influence, loss of income and of jobs and investment that will almost certainly follow if the British public are misguided enough vote to leave.
Stuart Barnes Reply

May 12, 2016 at 8:46 am

Cutting through all the nonsense about World War 3 etc. it appears that the IN crowd have not got any sensible argument for staying in.

It is clear that despite all the nonsense they have thrown at the OUT crowd the movements of the polls are heading inexorably for exit.

It will be “Freedom Day” on 24th June.
John Armstrong Reply

May 12, 2016 at 4:13 pm

Response to Sue Doughty, former Lib Dem MP for Guildford

Yet again the Lib Dems take a rose tinted view of the EU and neglect to mention the irrefutable fact that the UK is a net contributor to the EU budget.

It does not matter how much they give us back; they don’t give us back as much as we give them. So all those in the UK who receive British tax payers EU money will still receive those funds, in fact they may even receive more money once the EU is out of the picture.

We also have to consider the tens of billions of pounds it costs UK industry to comply with EU rules even though only 6 per cent of our industry actually trades with the EU. I’m sure that this is a burden the remaining 94 per cent could do without.

As for jobs and prosperity. I think that EU graduates are better represented in British universities and the NHS than British graduates will ever be across the water.

The same is true, and massively so, at the low skills end. It seems that the overwhelming majority of job opportunities in Europe are right here in the UK.

For the sake of the EU, which is a political project mark you, not an economic one, our political establishment have sent most of the decent jobs offshore leaving us with the low skilled low wage sector, and then they have imported cheap labour to compete even for those jobs, leaving our own people to scratch a living.

As if that were not bad enough, our housing market has been opened up to international fraudsters who use it to launder their ill gotten gains, thus pushing up house prices so that young people are not only denied decent jobs but cannot buy a house either.

This has come about because British politicians have been in pursuit of a political dream and have forgotten where their true responsibilities lie.

John Armstrong is chairman of Guildford Ukip
- David Pillinger Reply
  
  May 14, 2016 at 9:30 pm
  
  1. What we pay to the EU buys us access to the single market, the most incredible project in the history of global trade. The benefits are measured in billions a day compared to not being part of the EU. £250m is peanuts in the context of a rich nation such our United Kingdom. I suggest you compare the amount to GDP, taxes raised, cost of our civil service etc. It really is a drop in the ocean, with multiple benefits attached.
  
  2. The reason we have more foreign students than we send students abroad is that the UK has a “comparative advantage” in education i.e. we deliver it well, and cheaply. A bit like Germans and their cars. So we export education (as well as other things we are good at) and Germans export cars. This is not an EU conspiracy. We should celebrate it and not impede it with a rant about migration. At the end of the day, it’s money in your pocket because UK universities hire people, pay them wages and they pay tax. Oh, and they innovate and discover things with positive consequences for UK industry.
  
  3. Foreigners committing fraud buying property is the UK is nothing to do with the EU, in the same way as British people committing fraud isn’t anything to do with the EU.
  
  4. Regulation: I presume most of the regulation coming from the EU is sensible stuff which we would implement anyway. Incidentally, the biggest regulation on UK industry is self imposed by the UK: 1) Planning law preventing the building of adequate levels of housing to keep up with the requirements of our vibrant economy and 2) Minimum wage legislation (I’m not saying it’s necessarily bad). The EU has nothing to do with either of these.
  
  The more I hear Ukip’s and Brexiters’ arguments, the more I think they have a strange agenda which is trying to do down our great nation, the United Kingdom.
George Potter Reply

May 14, 2016 at 10:30 am

We may be net contributors to the EU budget but the economic benefit we get from being members massively dwarfs the financial contributions we do make.

Nor do I trust our government to use those financial contributions wisely or as effectively if we were no longer in the EU.

We’ve seen today that both the Governor of the Bank of England and the head of the IMF both think that leaving the EU would cause a recession in the UK.

The 35p per person per day which we pay to the EU seems very good value for money in avoiding a recession alone.

And that’s without considering the employment rights (like a minimum of 20 days paid holiday a year) and freedoms (such as the ability to travel, study and work anywhere in Europe) that our membership fee also buys us.

I do have to wonder about the judgement of people who seem to think that by voting to leave we’ll be able to get all the benefits of being in the EU club (such as trade and the wealth it brings us) without having to pay our membership fee.

Let’s not forget that Norway isn’t in the EU and yet it still pays almost as much per person to the EU budget as we do.
D. Reddick Reply

May 15, 2016 at 12:07 pm

I wish the ‘remain’ supporters would stop using Norway as a comparison. It is like comparing an egg with a chicken. It’s not relevant.
John Robson Reply

May 16, 2016 at 12:32 pm

If we’re “net contributors” how does economic benefit “dwarf the financial contributions we do make”?

So Europe gave us holiday entitlement? Really? Or was it the efforts of the trade unions?

This country is in a permanent cycle of boom and bust, where is the stability that access to this gold plated European market should provide?

Every time the US or China catches a cold why do we get it if we’re part of Europe?

The Conservatives failed to secure sufficient concessions from the EU, we need a new approach to rebuild the economy and protect the interests of this country. We need to diversify our economy to remove the reliance on services and rebuild the manufacturing capability that we gave away for European grants.

The medicine may difficult to stomach for a while, but this country needs to cut the apron strings and learn to stand on its two feet again.