Letter: Politicising the Pancake Races Was Inappropriate

Published on: 9 Mar, 2019
Updated on: 9 Mar, 2019

From Jan Todd

In response to: Pancake Politics Cause a Stir – Council Leader Accuses ‘R4GV’ of ‘Overstepping the Mark’

This year was the first time I had ever attended the Pancake Races in the High Street. I congratulate the organisers for all their hard work in making it possible. I have no knowledge of the guidelines laid down by the Charity Commission governing such events, but I was surprised at the time to see R4GV supporters leafleting the crowd.

Even before reading that there had been a complaint, their presence at this event felt to me to be ill-judged. It seems a little disingenuous of the organisers to suggest that R4GV’s presence was not political. From everything I have read about this organisation on The Guildford Dragon NEWS, they are surely, to all intents and purposes, a political party?

In a recent interview with Joss Bigmore, the organiser of the group, he mentions the number of candidates they intend to put up at the local election, while another article was headed: “New Residents for Guildford Group Name 10 Independent Candidates for Council Seats”.

I have no strong political affiliations, but I tend to agree with Cllr Spooner that the distributing of political literature was inappropriate at this event and it seems slightly unfair for this to then be used against him by suggesting he has used his position on the council to ‘do down a local charity’.

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