Guildford Labour Party Welcomes Leadership Result

Published on: 13 Sep, 2015
Updated on: 15 Sep, 2015

In a press statement this afternoon the Guildford branch of the Labour Party announced that their members: “..welcome their new leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who has been overwhelmingly chosen to lead the party, with Tom Watson as the deputy to support him.

The statement continued: “The local party has already been actively working with the many new members to develop a local vision for Labour in the Guildford constituency until 2020 and there will be a meeting on Monday September 14 to look at how that vision can work with the new leadership to make Labour a force for good change in Guildford and Waverley.

“One of the first discussions will be to influence Guildford and Waverley’s response to the refugee crisis.

“In addition to the positive work which is planned, the local party, like the national one, is, of course, very keen to get back to the core business of opposition to the Tory domination in Guildford, Waverley, Surrey and at Westminster.

“These are exciting times for Labour and Guildford’s Labour party will be working with renewed enthusiasm for the future.”

Angela Gunning keeping up with the news last month. Yes, that’s Private Eye she is reading with the headline “Loony Lefty Sweeps to Power”.

Angela Gunning the sole labour councillor at Guildford Borough Council had already told The Guildford Dragon News in an interview in August that she expected to vote for Jeremy Corbyn.

Shortly after this yesterday morning’s (September 12) announcement of the leadership election Cllr Gunning was asked a further question:

Last night, on the BBC’s “One Show”, people interviewed in Guildford High Street showed that they supported many of Jeremy Corbyn’s policies e.g: re-introducing a 50% tax rate for those earning more than £150,000, scrapping university tuition fees, re-nationalising the railways, stronger anti tax avoidance measures, and rent controls.

But would you personally support some of his other favoured policies: leaving NATO and scrapping Trident, further quantitative easing (i.e. printing money to reverse austerity measures), a maximum wage, women only railway carriages?

Angela Gunning responded: “In my opinion Trident has served no useful purpose, and cost millions which could have been put to better use. As a long time member of CND, I would support a policy to cancel any further expenditure on Trident.

“Labour has always been against the speed and extent of this government’s austerity measures, so Jeremy Corbyn’s proposals are a step in the right direction.

“The suggestion of a maximum wage needs very careful consideration of context. I’m not sure how this could be introduced and managed. The more important issue requiring close examination is the insidious bonus culture, together with ‘golden hallos’, ‘golden handshakes’ and other perks to employees on already very high salaries. Better, and more important to look at those on the lowest wages and bring them up to a decent level.

“As for women only carriages? Well give it a try – but one has to ask why such a thing should be necessary. Badly lit stations and car parks at night can be unpleasant, scary places – and no one should have to travel in fear.

Responses to Guildford Labour Party Welcomes Leadership Result

Tony Edwards Reply

September 13, 2015 at 3:09 pm

As MP for Islington North, Jeremy Corbyn has been a heckler in the stalls for more than 30 years – shouting insults and abuse at the various acts as they performed on stage but showing no inclination to climb up there himself and do a turn.

But now, as he finds himself back-stage in the number one dressing room, putting on his make-up ready for his debut performance as top of the bill, I sense that while he may have a few worthy one liners up his sleeve, this would-be leading man doesn’t, in fact, have an act.

Prime Minister’s Questions each Wednesday in the Commons will turn the spotlight on this untested performer but there are already rumours that he intends to sub-contract the gig to his deputy, Tom Watson, and he’s asked Labour cronies to suggest some questions to put to David Cameron at the dispatch box. That doesn’t sound to me like a seasoned performer with a well-honed act – just a lucky amateur who’s won the Labour party’s talent contest.

And if Watson takes centre stage on his behalf, will he be speaking from a Corbyn script? I don’t think so; there are already divisions between the two men – notably Trident which Corbyn wants to scrap and Watson’s wants to keep. At this rate, Corbyn will be lucky not to be booed off stage by Christmas.
- Sally Parrott Reply
  
  September 14, 2015 at 7:31 am
  
  Corbyn’s ‘heckles’ have almost always turned out to be correct and prescient:
  • his opposition to apartheid
  • his support for the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, whose wrongful convictions were eventually quashed
  • on Iraq, when in the 1980s, he opposed the UK selling arms to their then-ally Saddam Hussein. In 2003 Jeremy saw through the claims of WMD and voted against the Iraq War in 2003. The collapse of Iraq was directly responsible for the rise of Islamic State, now out of control in the Middle East.
  • on PFI, where we will end up paying over £300 billion for assets worth just £54.7 billion
  • on world peace: Jeremy has always believed in talking to all sides in conflicts, and has been viciously attacked for speaking to the underdogs, mainly the IRA and later the Palestinians. ‘Respected’ figures are currently repeating lies, such as that he ‘called Bin Laden’s death a tragedy’, without giving the whole of Corbyn’s statement, that it was a tragedy the US had killed the al-Qaida leader rather than putting him on trial.
  
  Polling shows most people now agree with Corbyn on public ownership of the railways, Trident, and going to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  
  Mr Edwards’ amusing theatrical allegory is inappropriate because Corbyn’s role is too important for the future of most people in the UK. Corbyn has consistently argued against the need for austerity, rather than economic growth. Osborne’s austerity budgets have resulted in a double-dip recession, the loss of our AAA credit rating, and the rise in the UK’s debt from £1 trillion in 2010 to around £1.5 trillion today.
  
  Austerity, and increasing income inequality, are causing untold misery, with over one million people using food banks, rough sleeping up 13 per cent in a year in London, wages and work conditions deteriorating, and people dying because their social security benefits are withdrawn.
  
  Mr Corbyn is surrounded by enemies, throughout the mainstream media, and within his own party, even before he starts his job – to represent ordinary people and oppose the Tories, who have nothing in common with one-nation Conservatives like Macmillan and Heath.
  
  He’s been elected with a huge majority, and Labour party membership already up by 15,000 since Saturday. Those who oppose a return to Victorian levels of starvation, homelessness and despair in this still wealthy country would do well to support him, or at least be silent and give him a chance.
Stuart Barnes Reply

September 14, 2015 at 9:02 am

Now that the socialist party has got a socialist leader, maybe the so called Conservative Party could get a Conservative leader?

Just asking, or perhaps dreaming, but it would be nice to see the back of the unprincipled Dave.

I suppose that there is one plus to the Corbyn win – his opposition to the corrupt EU.
Jenny Procter Reply

September 18, 2015 at 7:10 am

However Jeremy Corbyn fares as labour leader, his election and his popularity are an indication of the disaffection in general for the patronising top down party politics which have dominated in recent years. Real people want a real voice and someone representing them who listens to it.