Today's by-election... how do you think it will go?

[Westfacing]

A few months back according to the media it was Reform's for the taking - now it's a three-way bet between Labour, Greens and Reform

I agree with you. I would like to see the voting split between the 2 towns. I strongly suspect Gorton voters kept Reform out. Such awful times politically.

Just seen the results. I used to live in this area. I’m just happy that Reform didn’t win tbh. I’m in the Labour Party so am obviously disappointed but the main thing is that the fascists haven’t won.

Sadly I think it will but i Think there will still be a surge in 18-25 voters who haven’t previously been bothered to vote. They now have a choice that really represents them and they are motivated.

Ds was giddy when he rang me from the after party, he's been door knocking all week in Denton & Gorton. He is a candidate for the local elections in May for our area, I really hope he gets elected, he's worked so hard helping people with local issues. He's been a Green Party member since he was 14 & absolutely loves it all.

Why wouldn’t they be?

What’s his day job?

It's straight from the Trump right-wing playbook of trying to cast doubt on the veracity of votes. It's pathetic, but the problem is the MSM will embrace it because they are running scared now that Reform won't win the GE like they think. That's why the Daily Fail is now running a 'Beware the Green menace' campaign.

Green won because they weren't divisive in a community that embraces many races and religions and people are fed up with the Reform rhetoric and Labour's leaning into it.

My point was that you can criticise a vote as ‘just a student choice’ almost as if it means less but it’s still valid.

Despite all the money spent, the endless airtime, the racism and fear mongering, Reform didn't come anywhere near to a win. 69% of G&D's turn-out voted for a left leaning party.

I find all that very heartening.

It's possible you're right. At the very least, it's shown both the Greens and Reform that they can be serious contenders in May in an area of the north in which they had no presence of note previously.

I don't think the Greens got in because everyone has warm and fuzzy liberal feelings. I think it is because it is a historically left wing area with a large Muslim population and Israel is higher up the hate list than LGBTQ+ people.

He's a student at University studying Urban Studies & Planning, he wants to either be a planning officer or a town planner.

Is there any substance to rumours that two people at a time were entering voting booths and ballot papers were being photographed?

The Telegraph is also being quite hysterical and doing some really vile shit stirring.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/306fa66ce65d72a3

Funny that, isn't it.

Well so are Reform but they sure as he'll aren't cultured. I will give it to farage is very eloquent, though and very good at rhetoric.

It appears to only be small numbers.

Reporting in the Manchester Evening News says that visits by observers only found it happening 32 times at 15 different polling stations.

I have no idea how long the observers were at each polling station. If they were there all day, then 32 votes out of tens of thousands means nothing.

In contrast, if they were at each polling station for only a very limited amount of time and observed 32 votes then that might be a different story.

The same reason no one liked to talk about grooming gangs. ‘Cultural cohesion’.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/26/election-observers-raise-concerns-over-secret-ballot-breaches-at-gorton-and-denton-byelection

Election observers say they witnessed 32 incidents of "family voting". But didn't report any of these at the time. Which seems odd.

Refuse collection - can't yet be done with AI, doubt if it ever can be, a computer driven bin truck would get stuck somewhere and be unable to right itself.

40 years ago I was friends with a chap that worked at Marconi and can remember him telling me that in the future when someone calls you they'll be a display and you'll be able to see the number - I thought thats science fiction talk, but look where we are now.

Same goes for supermarket cashiers, 40 years ago I would have laughed if you'd told me there would be a machine to do self check out

Refuge collection may change to everyone putting there rubbish in large containers at the end of the road (happens in France now) and a machine picking this up in an automated vehicle

https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/green-manifesto/

I respectfully call you out and thank you in return. If you have missed the Green's support men's rights and their stance on GC views within the party then you may wish to read this and any other number of assessments of their policies and what this means for women, especially vulnerable women. Don't wince and look the other way - think about what this means for women in reality, and the reality is in my previous post. The other parties are at least waking up to the damage done to women, albeit some are slower than others - the Greens have doubled down on this issue.

What do you think denotes culture?

From the Guardian article I linked: “In the other recent Westminster parliamentary byelection in Runcorn and Helsby we saw family voting in 12% of polling stations, affecting 1% of voters. In Gorton and Denton, we observed family voting in 68% of polling stations, affecting 12% of those voters observed.”

It was a good slap in the face for Farage and his Trump Playbook politics. Must have added salt in the wound that the new MP is a young blonde woman.

I can’t imagine family voting was huge, but postal votes… they have to go. Ds has a postal vote. I could put anything on it and send it off.