Surrey Pride cancelled for this year due to lack of funding

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8w739g8y7o

Surrey Pride has been postponed until 2027, organisers have announced.
Pride in Surrey said rising costs and a decline in pledged corporate sponsorship had made it "impossible to proceed" with the event.
The parade and festival in Guildford were due to take place on 8 August.
Organisers said in a statement posted on Facebook they were making the announcement with "great sadness".
"This year, many Pride events across the country have faced similar cancellations," they wrote.
"We sincerely appreciate your understanding during this difficult time."
It comes after Surrey County Council withdrew its official support for the 2025 event, meaning its staff and services did not officially attend.
The local authority said at the time Pride in Surrey was not "truly representative" of the whole LGBTQ+ community following "concerns" that had been raised.
Stephen Ireland, the former founder of the county event, was jailed for raping a 12-year-old boy in June 2025.
The BBC understands this was a factor in the authority's decision, although it had not actively sponsored Pride since 2021.

Given its abysmal record on safeguarding, this is good news for the people of Surrey, especially the more vulnerable ones who were so badly let down by all concerned before.

Good News. Its all so bloody ridiculous.
LOOK AT ME, I'M GAY! Oh feck off

"Pride in Surrey" should be totally dissolved. It is extricably linked with Stephen Ireland, child rapist and prolific poster on social media. It was always transparently his personal vehicle for promoting his career as an influencer and media personality.

I'm sure there is a need for a local organisation that represents lesbians, gay men and bisexual people, but someone will need to step up to create an organisation that genuinely does that. It wasn't ever what "Pride in Surrey" was originally about, and it can't pivot to filling that role now.

Fuck them. Just go about your lives.
You dont need to march, you have liberation

Isn't one of Ireland's exes still on the committee of pride in Surry

So did you raise alarm bells about Stephen Ireland @NattySnake ?

NattySnake hi there.
Thank you for engaging with this thread a bit.

You understand the concerns around Surrey Pride, yes?

I really wouldn't expend this level of energy on behalf of a provincial pride parade that was set up by a child predator. That's why it's experiencing a "decrease in corporate sponsorship".

I'm sure you can find other pride parades to defend that are struggling to find funds to proceed for innocent reasons such as the rise in the cost of living.

They don't any more, but if, having achieved what they set out to achieve, they stopped, then the groups who support them would no longer have an excuse for blagging money out of the general public and out of organisations like the Liberal Party and local councils in order to fund the marches.

It is quite usual for campaigns which want to achieve this or that aim to be set up, get what they were after, and then rather than gracefully dissolving their campaign to continue, asking for something different and raising money for that instead, for the sake of the organisers' egos. That sense of self-importance is deeply addictive.

Of course, in some cases it's more sinister than that; Surrey Pride, for instance, with all that lovely access to children who've had their awareness of wrong subverted.

We were proud, in 1971. I for one no longer am: that organisation has had its day, and become sadly despicable in too many cases.

The current chief executive, Charlie Watts, is Stephen Ireland's ex-fiancé.

The entire non-profit was Ireland's personal fiefdom, and organised by him, and for him, to the point that when members said he wasn't qualified to single-handedly run a "young people's" helpline from his own mobile phone, they were expelled.

That same year, Ireland launched a helpline for young people. Creepily, again, it was called “You Are Not Alone”. It was run from a single mobile phone, which he kept on him at all times. No one else was allowed access.

“He was adamant that he was the only person qualified to deal with it. He was not in any way, shape or form qualified,” says Marion.

After challenging Ireland, Marion received a “cease and desist” letter and was warned by chief operating officer for PiS and friend of Ireland, Lisa Finnan Cook, that unless she complied with it, she could be reported to police – and arrested for her alleged behaviour and discrimination. “I was told if I turned up to the event I had tickets for, which I had helped to arrange, I would be arrested,” she says.

Source: Jukie Bindel

It's an unsalvageable organisation. Anyone still there has proven that they are easily manipulated and over-awed by a man like Ireland, and thus they are a safeguarding risk to children and vulnerable adults.

Now that gay is mainstream, is Pride even needed?

Not as we originally thought of it, no. We got what we'd asked for, though of course it is disappointing that Church of England officials are not allowed to perform homosexual marriages.

And since it has become a party for perving at, in large part, it's probably not needed at all.

Likewise Southend Pride has been cancelled
'The annual event, usually held in Warrior Square, has instead been postponed until 2027.
Organisers made the decision following a review of current funding levels and operational requirements, concluding that proceeding this year would risk compromising the safety, accessibility and quality expected by attendees, partners and performers.'

Some small bit of it is going ahead but the majority of it cancelled.

show us the hateful rhetoric?

but what have you got to say @NattySnake about Pride in Surrey ?

Oooh listen to you, judgy judgy judgy!

Why don’t you read what the organiser of Surrey Pride did, and then get back to us with your ill informed judgmental
attitude.

ooops.

PBP, I assume. Moving on ...

After challenging Ireland, Marion received a “cease and desist” letter and was warned by chief operating officer for PiS and friend of Ireland, Lisa Finnan Cook, that unless she complied with it, she could be reported to police – and arrested for her alleged behaviour and discrimination. “I was told if I turned up to the event I had tickets for, which I had helped to arrange, I would be arrested,” she says.

It’s unbelievable. I presume Lisa is a woman? Surely she should have some investigation of her eagerness to defend a paedophile so energetically? Or is she going to slink off to some other job with no consequences?

Not entirely sure why I was deleted earlier and thought I was within guidelines but who knows anymore.

I'm still glad it's been cancelled but I'm not going to tell you why 👀😂

Her role at Pride in Surrey was probably an unpaid role. But you know what paid position she does have, right now?

She's a local lib-dem councillor at Surrey Heath Borough Council! surreyheath.moderngov.co.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1

The podcast by Julie Bindel linked up thread is very interesting. She was chucked out of the event last year for asking a lot of very inconvenient questions about the organisers and asking why the event wasnt cancelled out of respect for the victims. The MP and various Councillors were there and happy to speak/be recorded until they realised they were very ill informed eg claiming that “someone” would have checked on the safeguarding after all the problems… to then be informed by Julie that no such checks had happened…. It was embarrassing for them but instead of putting their hands up and saying they’d investigated they got Julie chucked out. One Councillor said they’d decided not to cancel because once an event stopped it was really hard to get going again…. We can but hope.

So MNHQ is censoring free speech again, I will post yet again….

thrilled it has been cancelled, Pride is outdated and has been taken over by the unhinged with a predatory agenda.

They don’t represent me I am part of LGB only and won’t indulge in this Emperors New Clothes pantomine.