To wonder if the majority of new councillors realise what they have signed up for?

[Bobbingtons]

After the local elections and the huge shift to reform I do wonder if the majority of newly elected counselors actually realise what they have signed up for.
Bring a counsellor is not an easy task and on average the commitment is around 22 hours a week. The job involves reading reports, helping constituents, sitting on committees and running a large complex organisation with hundreds of departments, it's not just a case of having a title, but having a whole extra job.
We saw in Kent when reform took over it fell into chaos and bickering. I know a number of reform candidates were experienced political operators, but with so many newly elected I do worry they haven't as actually considered what happens next and how much work is actually involved.
I'm highly politically motivated and have thought about standing in the past, but realised that the commitment is far too much for me to handle!

Popcorn sales have risen 🍿🙂

The are also Labour, greens, lib Dems and plaid who believe that women can have penis's and will happily sacrifice women's sex based rights and safety for this cause.

That doesn't make racism (as opposed to strong views on immigration rates) acceptable, but there is a lot more judgement of one group and set of challenging views compared to the other. It is right that these councillors are challenged and managed from within their parties, whichever party that may be.

There are good, motivated, hard working politicians in all parties and there are the opposite in ALL parties.

No they are then Independent.

This is the case I was thinking of, so Corbyn didn't sue for the reason I thought.

www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/jeremy-corbyn-mp-receives-damages-and-apology-false-and-defamatory-tweet-conservative

I agree. Lots more criticism of Reform though.

The charmer who suggested melting down Nigerians hasn't been suspended, apparently. He is being "investigated".

The process was tightened up ahead of 2026 elections.

Who is this person? I have not been able to find anything about this in news or press.

Because many are here illegally obviously.

Tice declines to condemn councillor’s ‘Nigerians should be melted down to fill pot holes’ remark | ITV News https://share.google/38nJ3kDp1SUjAHaDa

I posted this up thread.

You haven't looked very hard!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2pyy6ngz0o

Reform do not campaign on being racist.

And there we have it. QED.

The beeb is reporting it share.google/HwyqS5kH2dOPOmAQp

In our ward -filled with Reform-voting knuckle draggers- we managed to elect to the County Council a Green Councillor, who beat out Reform by six votes - nail-biting stuff! However, she had been a local councillor, so knows what she’s getting into. A very good one, I might add. We now (West Sussex) have no overall control, with Lib Dem’s & Reform at 23 each, then Cons, Greens, a couple of Labour. It’s going to be interesting!

This from HOPEnothate is illuminating

https://hopenothate.org.uk/2026/04/30/60-reasons-and-counting-to-not-vote-reform-on-may-7th/

This is a hate post directed at a demographic you don’t approve of?

I think for the job of councillor, the effort people put into it varies.

The new councillors will obviously be pretty green (in a job sense not a political one). But maybe there are benefits with that - a fresh willingness to try to make an effort, and a lack of complacency that comes with the belief you will always get voted back in.

The drawback of course that they have no experience and are going to take time to come up to knowing how the system works and what can and can't be done, as well as wasting time and effort on their own new vanity projects, like new incumbents always do.

But in a situation where the existing councillors are complacent, and have been doing the same old old for years maybe change is a good thing to try to shake the system up and make some things better.

We had a new Reform councillor where I am recently. Some of the more established politicians were talking about how interesting it would be to see how he does and how much work he puts in. In fact it appears he works quite hard, always does his opinion piece in the local rag and turns up to monthly meetings.

So my judgement would be that although he was pretty green, he puts the work in, and the situation although at the moment is largely unchanged from what it was, is certainly no worse than it was before.

Something to ponder...

What has pp said that is hateful?

Are you ok with people doing the same but for other groups?

Newly elected councillors expelled

Jay Cooper (Sefton): declared “not welcome” by Nigel Farage following reports of him calling the Holocaust a hoax.

Stuart Prior (Essex): expelled by Reform and resigned after “he was accused the week before the elections of creating racist and Islamophobic posts on social media.”

They will still keep their seats though 🤬

My friend is a reform MS and former councillor, she runs her own business, has school age daughters and is not a man. She is white but she is white in an almost exclusively white area (97% white according to Google), so hardly surprising or undemocratic. @BadBadCat

I am on holiday this week with DH on a cruise ship. DH has brought lots of policy documents with him so he's abreast of policy's before first meeting on 17th. He's also read a lot about the workings of local councillors before applying as an applicant.

Putting up images to mock online is poor, no matter who it is. They’re people elected to work on a council and there’s nothing to say the three below personally deserve online attacks.

ETA someone did a vomiting emoji, would they for any other group