Gorton & Denton by-election thread

[fromorbit]

This dramatic byelection to be held on Thursday 26 February 2026 is looking likely to have a confrontation over sex and gender with the Conservative's just announced candidate Charlotte Cadden being a trustee for Sex Matters. Another factor is with a large Muslim population in the area the group Muslim Vote has endorsed the Green candidate despite one of their aims to be remove teaching about LGBT issues from schools when religious parents object. Obviously in conflict with Green policy.

Candidates

• Angeliki Stogia will be the Labour candidate in this year's election. Ms Stogia moved to the UK from Greece in the 1990s and has served as a councillor in Whalley Range since 2004.
• Reform UK have selected GB News presenter Matt Goodwin as their candidate. He studied at the University of Salford and went on to have a career as a commentator and academic.
• The Liberal Democrats have selected local campaigner Jackie Pearcey as their candidate. She lives in the constituency and previously won 2,600 votes at the 2017 elections.
• The Green Party have put forward Hannah Spencer to stand for them at the by-election. She is a plumber by trade she is from Bolton and has lived in Greater Manchester all her life, and is based in Hale where she is a councilor. She doesn't believe biology is important in deciding gender.
• The Conservative Party have chosen former detective chief inspector Charlotte Cadden as their candidate. She served for 30 years in GMP and London's Met.
• The Re-join EU Party have announced that Joseph O'Meachair will be their candidate. He is a member of the party's executive committee and lives in the North West.

Sebastian Moore (Social Democratic Party)
The Social Democratic Party announced on Friday 30 January that the current SDP North West Chair Sebastian Moore will be running as their candidate in the by-election.

Nicholas Brendan Buckley Advance UK

He is a British charity worker and political figure who previously represented Reform UK.

Dan Clarke is the Libertarian Party candidate

Sir Oink A-Lot
Sir Oink A-Lot is The Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidate

https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/parl.gorton-and-denton.by.2026-02-26/gorton-and-denton/

The just announced Conservative candidate has serious form:
Former detective chief inspector Charlotte Cadden is a lesbian served for 30 years as a Police Officer, both for Greater Manchester Police and the Metropolitan Police - Charlotte is a trustee of the charity Sex Matters, a member of the LGB Alliance Business Forum. She coordinates the Women’s Rights Network in Greater Manchester, In 2023, she set up the national Police SEEN.

Galloway's Worker's Party have now decided not to stand. They may have attracted a bunch of Muslim votes which will now go elsewhere.

Any hustings are going to be rather interesting.

He said on one of the Epstein threads.

Please don't tell women off for asserting their boundaries.

Posters may not all feel the same but its perfectly reasonable for Merveille to seek women's company on a feminist forum, on a site for mothers.

I don’t think any poster can be asked to leave (if the content of the posts is ok). I’ve read posts from men who are GC on here.

I have pulled up @1984Now on other threads occasionally. He has some good contributions to make but he does have a tendency to mansplain and to tell women what to do. I agree that a male username would be courteous, and some reflection on his part about how he interacts would be good

Well, if you think you can police mn, good luck to you

With that in mind, I'm male.

I get your point, completely. I try not to post too mannily and respect the fact this is mainly a female space. I don't want to preface every post with an asaman.

I appreciate @1984Now 's contributions.

I think there are other men on here where it isn't immediately obvious and who don't use 'male' names. And there are women who post under 'male' names too. I personally don't think there's any need to flag if a poster is a man in that this is not a forum where sex does matter much. It's about ideas not bodies. Yes most posters on the wider site are women and I do think that is reflected in posting style on here. I think you can usually (but not always) tell from writing style who is male and who is female.

But I appreciate that not everyone shares my views and they should be free to say what they think.

I personally think it would be a shame if we put the decent blokes off from posting though. Diversity of (logical, coherent) views is important and it would be a shame if we make this a space men who share our view that women are full human beings don't feel comfortable. We're going to need women and men to fight the erasure of women's rights.

Yes I agree with this.

Hi everyone, happy to dial it down, sorry to have been a bit loud or overly pushy. Just my boyish (as I hit 62, lol) enthusiasm. I'll make like a church mouse from now on.

I, personally, would just ask that men don't post stuff along the lines of:

"What women should do is....."
"I don't understand why women don't ....."

For some reason, the fact I mentioned I'm likely on a bit of the ADHD spectrum (suggested to me by my therapist) and I often find I'm hyper aware of those around me similarly bestowed, and I think (and that's all that it is, think) I sense it in certain politicians, and thought this relevant to a thread on politics, set someone's teeth here on edge. If that's truly a no go statement, it means I'm setting myself up as something (that I'm not), and that conflates into mansplaining etc, then inadvertently I've realized that my presence and innocent comments are offensive.
Other MNers are able to bring their personal life experience to these boards, but maybe not as easy for this male.
I'll clock off.

I just think you are posting according to your character and temperament, as we all do. Don't worry about it!

I don't think 1984 has done that.

I did, once or twice, words to the effect "Scottish women of MN, you can't vote SNP"
Easy to do. I do get why that would be irritating, have laid off that.

Well, unlike the TiMs on here, it's not my intent to offend.

I don't think anyone has been offended, anymore so than some will always get offended at posts they disagree with, or take issue with in some way.

Also, you suggested that posters stop responding to the boundary-violating HSTS on the school thread yesterday. Since posters will be mainly women, you were effectively telling women what you think they should do about another male poster who is also telling us what we should do.

Don't worry about it!

You are asking him to ignore what other women are saying? You are apologising on our behalf?

I'm speaking on my own behalf. You don't speak for everyone. I don't think he has to worry about anything, anymore than anyone else posting here. Just because he's male it doesn't mean he has to worry about upsetting you just through posting his perspective on topics. He's not been offensive or called anyone names, he's not hating on women. There are no rules saying that only women can post here.

Gotcha, loud and clear.

Good, because you are not going to lay down the law for who can post and who can say what.

I have not tried to do that. I made a couple of suggestions, which @1984Now agreed with. Read my posts. You, however and tellingly, have jumped straight in to smooth his male ego and apologise to him.

I did not expect that expressing a personal preference for interacting only with women on a forum called Feminism and Women's Rights, where the desirability of female-only spaces is frequently discussed, would prove controversial!

So you are just a man who self identifies as ND with magical powers on feminist sites? Do you also self identify as a feminist?

It should't be, but it is what it is.

You recognised mansplaining when you saw it. Mnet doesn't prohibit mansplaining, so its up to us to call it out when we see it and other posters can make up their own minds.