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Author Archives: Zoe Franklin

Zoe Franklin was the Parliamentary candidate in Guildford in 2019

Thoughts from Guildford

By Zoe Franklin | Sun 22nd December 2019 - 4:44 pm

The results of the GE have not been easy to digest. As one of the many target seat candidates who almost made it, the results hold a double dose of sadness. Sadness that in Guildford we came so close yet didn’t succeed this time and also for our nation that it’s ended up with a government so unrepresentative of the values that I still believe it holds at its core – fairness, openness, welcoming of diversity and a desire for integrity in its politicians.

Locally and nationally we will review the election campaign in due course, but I want to share two of my take-aways from this election.

Never underestimate the passion and resilience of Lib Dem campaigners!

In recent years Guildford have struggled to build a team. Yes, we took the leadership of Guildford Borough Council in May but when the election was called my campaign manager and I questioned how we could deliver the scale of campaign needed. Our action days have been poorly attended, our delivery network had shrunk significantly, and the team of active campaigners had shrunk to 10 maybe 15. We couldn’t envisage what happened once the election was announced.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged 2019 general election and guildford | 10 Comments

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Recent Comments

Big Tall Tim
An excellent article Victor on the great work you are doing. It's a great shame people like David can't give credit where credit is due....
Scott Rennie
Couldn’t agree more Karen. It’s the best speech in a generation, and more importantly an opportunity to build common cause on things that matter to us, like...
Nigel Jones
I too thank you for this interesting article. Community has been in decline for decades in most parts of the country, but this seems particularly the case where...
David Le Grice
All whilst playing second fiddle to the Green party of course. And credit for toppling Labour goes almost entirely to them. Something that was completely avoid...
Nigel Jones
Sorry! in the above I meant to say " we should be heard more on NATIONAL issues when we are campaigning locally". How else can people know what we stand for on ...