Letter: People of Guildford Are Saying No to a Political Town Council

Published on: 25 Feb, 2026
Updated on: 25 Feb, 2026

From Angela Richardson

former Conservative MP for Guildford

In response to: Those Who Say They Are Apolitical Are Being Dishonest

I don’t know whether to take Cllr George Potter’s shovel off him or hand him the keys to an excavator so he can keep digging. I’d like to think that he doesn’t mean to be so condescending, but perhaps I am wrong.

Why are the Lib Dems fighting this campaign for politicisation of a potential Guildford Town Council so hard? What are they afraid of?

In both of Cllr Potter’s articles he is particularly focused on environmental issues. Perhaps it is the Green Party riding much higher in the national polls taking a chunk out of the Lib Dem vote that keeps him awake at night.

When politics is one’s whole obsession, then it is difficult to imagine that people outside that world can just have values. Simply their own values that do not need a political label put on them.

They are people who have time and energy, love the place they live and want to contribute. They are just as capable as those involved with political parties at good decision-making. Sometimes more so when they bring real business and life experience over ideology.

I think the Lib Dems would be wise to listen to what the good people of Guildford are clearly saying to them. They are saying “No!” to a political Town Council.

Put the shovel down George.

Responses to Letter: People of Guildford Are Saying No to a Political Town Council

George Potter Reply

February 25, 2026 at 1:20 pm

Ms Richardson makes the same mistake she has made her whole political career of confusing a few comments on The Dragon as being representative of public opinion as a whole.

I can assure her that the vast majority of residents really don’t care that much who wears what rosette, just so long as the services they need and expect are working the way they need them to. Politics, for most people, is something they engage with at election time, and don’t really think about otherwise.

Discussion and debate and reporting on The Dragon is certainly interesting to those who follow politics closely, but that still doesn’t make it any way representative of what the typical Guildfordian is actually thinking or concerned about.

George Potter is a Lib Dem borough and county councillor