Letter: Let’s Find Out How Many Labour Supporters We Have in Guildford

Published on: 31 May, 2017
Updated on: 31 May, 2017

From Howard Smith

It was very disappointing to read Martin Giles’ piece [Can These Guildford Hustings Be Believed?] on the election hustings which took place in Guildford last week (and yes I do realise it was an opinion piece).

I’m afraid apart from a factual inaccuracy in the original article (the Lib Dems did not win in 2010!*), he has shown his bias towards the Liberals, finally putting to bed any claim The Guildford Dragon NEWS might have once had to being neutral.

It’s true, the Labour candidate at the 2015 election came third but it was a narrow third, and, of course, that result would have been affected by the tired old message that somehow the Lib Dems can win if they can get enough Labour people to vote for them. Well, they have tried trick again and again, and it has failed.

So I’m calling on all Labour voters, along with all the disillusioned Conservatives, Greens and Lib Dems (who, on the basis of the latest national polls may well have no MPs in the country let alone Guildford!) to put their faith in Labour this time.

Let’s find out how many Labour supporters we have in this constituency. I think we could be in for a pleasant surprise.

*Yes this was an unfortunate typo quite quickly corrected. Apologies. Ed

Responses to Letter: Let’s Find Out How Many Labour Supporters We Have in Guildford

Lisa Wright Reply

June 1, 2017 at 8:27 am

Howard Smith will be pleased to know that I can conclude, as a result of a chat with my children this evening, after the televised debate, our younger voters support Labour!
Shelley Grainger Reply

June 1, 2017 at 12:17 pm

The failure of the Lib Dems to win in Guildford in 2010 demonstrates categorically that tactical voting does not work in this constituency.

The year that the Coalition won the Lib Dems were advocating a progressive manifesto which appealed to a lot of Labour voters (which they quickly u-turned on once in office). That year the Labour vote was unusually low in our constituency which indicates a lot of Labour voters chose the tactical approach. If they did not win here in 2010, with Labour voters’ support, they are not going to win this seat in 2017 – however many dodgy graphs and “winning here” signs they put up.