Letter: Most Importantly For Me, Angela Richardson Supports Leave

Published on: 10 Nov, 2019
Updated on: 10 Nov, 2019

Angela Richardson

From Christian Holliday

former Conservative borough councillor

See: Guildford Tories Choose Angela Richardson to Stand in General Election

Last week the Guildford Conservative Association selected Angela Richardson to be our Conservative candidate for the forthcoming general election. I voted for Angela for many reasons, including her campaigning experience and her knowledge and enthusiasm for our town and villages.

Most importantly for me, Angela supported the campaign to Leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.

Angela is now the only candidate in Guildford from any of the established parties committed to honouring the referendum result, a fact that highlights how little regard other parties have for our democracy if that democracy delivers a result counter to their own views.

I was pleased to see the previous Remain dominated, “Zombie” Parliament finally dissolved. It will not be missed by many. It was never sustainable to have a Parliament consisting of MPs who were so at odds with the public on the main issue of our times.

Patience among the electorate with politics is wafer-thin because of the time taken to bring about our withdrawal from the EU. Many voters have said they will never vote again if the referendum result is ignored and quite frankly who could blame them?

Democracy cannot be conditional on giving the answer expected by elites. We must ensure the next Parliament gets the job done. If it doesn’t, then the consequences for voter participation in future elections could be fatal for democratic legitimacy.

A vote for any party other than the Conservative party risks further delay, or worse, the cancelling of Brexit completely. Splitting the vote in this crucial election will only provide encouragement to those hell-bent on ignoring the referendum result to carry on with their subversion of our democratic decision to Leave. Rather than beginning the national healing process, we would then be on the road to even further division, political and social, that could last for years.

I share some of the concerns my fellow Brexiteers may have with the Prime Minister’s divorce settlement, but it will get us out of the EU and it should be viewed as the end of the beginning, not the final settlement.

We will have a transition period of one year to negotiate a longer-term relationship with the EU, and we’ll be doing so from outside the Treaty of Rome, a landmark achievement. Any further delay risks too much.

Those who want the referendum result implemented and democracy respected need to vote Conservative in the forthcoming general election.

Responses to Letter: Most Importantly For Me, Angela Richardson Supports Leave

Peter Gatford Reply

November 11, 2019 at 2:54 pm

I support this letter. For the sake of the majority of folk in this country of ours, we have to move on. Moving sideways or, as some wish, backwards, cannot be an option.

Whatever one’s view in 2016, to continue the indecisive political opportunistic behaviour of this last Parliament, can only be damaging to the future of all of us.

Angela Richardson and the Conservatives in Guildford, now have the opportunity to do what all true democrats should be doing, supporting democracy and undertaking the will of the people. Any other vote conflicts with those beliefs so dearly held in the DNA of all of us.
A Mallard Reply

November 11, 2019 at 5:00 pm

Now that the Brexit party has indicated that it will not put candidates forward to oppose candidates in constituencies where Conservatives won in 2017, let us hope that no-one will now put themselves forward in a way that is likely to split the Conservative vote.
Kevin Bezant Reply

November 11, 2019 at 5:26 pm

Christian Holliday misses the point in his appraisal of Angela Richardson.

Let’s not forget that Guildford voted to Remain by a clear margin and Christian Holliday should remember that the whole Leave campaign was based upon untruths and fabricated promises. The campaign and subsequent result cannot ever be deemed democratic; democracy requires voters to be given choices based upon truth and informed argument. Had this been the case, the result would have been very different, as we all know.

So for the Conservatives to field a Leave candidate in Guildford does smack of putting national policy above local views and I feel this choice will serve to boost the Lib Dem vote and elect a Member of Parliament in tune with constituency opinion.
- Russ Greenhouse Reply
  
  November 24, 2019 at 5:31 pm
  
  I agree with Kevin Bezant, Guildford did vote to remain, however as a country the vote was to Leave and that was a democratic vote which Parliament should be upholding.
  
  As for the Leave campaign being based on untruths and fabrication, the Remain campaign with scaremongering of economic doom immediately after a Leave result didn’t happen either and was no more truthful.
John Murphy Reply

November 11, 2019 at 5:48 pm

Good luck to Angela Richardson who, one hopes will be a team player, which is more that can be said for Anne Milton.
David Wragg Reply

November 12, 2019 at 12:38 pm

I agree entirely. Now that I know Angela Richardson’s stand on Brexit, I will be voting Conservative.
Dennis Paul Reply

November 13, 2019 at 11:51 pm

Christian Holliday is spot on. Many remain voters I talk to accept the Referendum result and see this election as an opportunity to break the gridlock and get Brexit done.

From what I know of Angela Richardson (the Conservative parliamentary candidate) she is very passionate about our NHS and levelling up educational opportunities for young people in Guildford. Delivering Brexit will help us all move on to the issues that matter to folk in Guildford.
Margaret Field Reply

November 16, 2019 at 2:13 pm

Just had a visit from the Liberal Democrat Party. Will the new Conservative candidate herself to Burpham?
Andrew Cohen Reply

November 18, 2019 at 2:28 pm

The referendum was a vote by the whole of the UK on a simple question, “in or out”. It was a referendum, not a planning application that one doesn’t much like.

Leavers would have respected the vote but doubtless continued the campaign to set our country free. The more the elite pull dirty tricks to arrange matters to their satisfaction and that of the countries to whom they owe loyalty, ie not ours, the more voters will turf them out.

I notice with amusement this lunchtime that Anne Milton is standing as an Independent. I am not a Conservative but I shall be voting for Ms Richardson.