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.

No think it's agile blokes mainly with vehicles, long ladders and a head for heights. And no worry about how they are maintained- ie the cost. . Don't have to be local. Don't have to be patriotic or invested in their community. And the same for the organisers without the physical.requirement.
They could even be earning a few bob.
How would such a group be organised- would that be Freemasons?
Might there be Freemasons on here?
Interesting isn't it!

Do you really not think many of them were put up by people who believe in what they are doing? I know of plenty of people who support the flags going up, because I have all sorts of family members, family friends, former colleagues and classmates on my FB.

What do the Freemasons have to do with it 😂

I think you are deluded if you don’t acknowledge that these actions are supported as a protest by a sizeable proportion of the English white working class population who rightly or wrongly share concerns about immigration. They are the same people who want to vote Reform because they’re so fed up with the other parties. Burying your head in the sand about it is silly. I find your posts quite odd and detached from reality.

That's nice that you have so many people around you.
I think it's extremely difficult to get people to volunteer that consistently and in such a co ordinated way. .
But let's assume it happened - spontaneously-
Of course people can believe a flag is a good thing. I don't object to the flag. I do object to the rhetoric of some of the people doing it. And because I know about the spirit of that it doesn't feel patriotic to me to see ragged flags deteriorating on lamp posts. Looking like they could fly off and land on someone's windscreen.
It's a lack of respect for all the reasons you wouldn't do that in the first place.
So the organisation is sloppy haphazard and there's no thought to the actual cost. And the motivation is not British.
But some British people might like to see more flags if it didn't mean more potholes. Absolutely.

Flags are being out up as a protest, by white people?

So you are saying that organisers specifically sought out white people to put the flags up?
How did they do that?

Local comment here - no idea if it is working class or not - is disgusted at the amount the council has paid to remove a few flags, there are not many around. "Cost of maintaining them" - really? I dont think they are in a dangerous state yet as there have been no comments from locals to that effect. If there were any posts saying these are a driving hazard, take them down mates, I think they would have gone. They would then have been replaced as new ones are put up the moment the council takes them down - but most people dont actually care about whether there are flags up or not. They do care about the potholes.

The flags thing started as a reaction to lots of pro Gaza areas putting up Palestine flags on lampposts from what was being reported at the time. That's where they got the idea from.

I’m not engaging with your disingenuous nonsense any further.

I didn’t know that, but it doesn’t surprise me.

A lot of it started spontaneously in the summer to support the Lionesses. They're not a far right cause, I wouldn't think.

It got politicised quickly because some local authorities (hello Birmingham, hello Tower Hamlets) scrambled staff to take them down immediately citing health and safety, while Palestinian flags that had been up for months were left untouched.

This is the same Birmingham City Council that's so incapable of getting basic stuff done that rubbish is piled high on the streets and the city is overrun with giant rats.

The only thing I care about with respect to flags, is they hang the union flag the correct way up.

Luckily the symmetry on the English flag means they don't have to go 50/50 or phone a friend to get it right first time.

When it comes to decorating mini roundabouts, I just wish they'd do a decent job of it. I really don't object to a community decorating the space in which they live, up the gaiety of the nation I say.

A wonky red cross the thickness of a single spray just isn't it. It's not as if there is a shortage of people that can use a rattle can to make something decent. But no, usually looks like it was done by drunk in a hurry, "if you squint it's mint"

From 2024 in Tower Hamlets,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68565066#:~:text='Should%20have%20acted%20weeks%20ago,its%20infrastructure%20within%20the%20borough.

Decades ago I lived in Essex and remember the local Tory party sending a fleet of cars round to the retirement home on election day. Very impressive organisation, I thought. Based on the premise that all elderly people become more right wing I suppose.

On a another topic - I see Matt Goodwin says ' We will reward people who have more children and penalise those who don't . A big change is coming.' I'm not sure how this social engineering project will go down with all the exiled Tories in Reform. Increasing family allowance massively would be popular I suppose. But rather expensive and who will pay for it?

When I was young and childless I never gave a second thought to the tax arrangements or benefits of people with kids. I neither begrudged not envied them. But plenty of my workmates would whine about it when our payslips came around. God that dates me.

Charlotte Cadwell is a very impressive candidate. If she had any chance of winning I'd not hesitate to vote for her. Well , I'd vote for a pig's bladder on a stick if I thought it would stop Matt Goodwin.

I can see this going well.

Reform : produce BRITISH SMASHERS in greater amount, you can has Bigly Family Tax Breaks!

Immigrant families : pay no tax due to Bigly Family Tax Breaks

Reform : NOT LIKE THAT

Haha good point 😂

Ok but that is exactly what you said. Someone is organising white people to put up flags.

The reasons for putting up flags were a lot more varied than some people would have you believe. Flags around here were mostly support for the lionesses, so most of them disappeared after the win. Then there was this kid in Rugby https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/15/girl-union-flag-dress-school-culture-day-rugby .

Sure some of them were put up by racists, but by no means all of them.

Aren't reform saying that non brits won't be able to claim any benefits?

I dont know how realistic that is as a policy. Also, i dont know how many people are claiming benefits who couldnt get a british passport.

There is a problem with young working people wanting to start families, but not feeling they can aford it, i think this needs to be addressed. Older people want to see their adult children happy, and want grandchildren, so i dont think there is that much resentment between generation.

It was common practice in the 70’s in the area I lived in (solidly working class council estate) for parties to arrange lifts to the polling station (as well as to drive around with loud hailers urging people to vote for whoever).

1979 sticks in my mind as a canvasser knocked on the door and mum was persuaded to have a lift with the Labour party bloke to go and vote. When she got home she told me she had voted for Maggie 😄

Apparently the Labour chap driving the car was so bloody patronising towards her that she made her decision based on his behaviour.

Before postal voting was expanded, there were lots of people getting lifts in.

That’s really funny 😂 and I suspect reflects how many of us feel patronised by leftist men.

How much does a flying flag cost to maintain? Surely the wind operates it for free?

These messages are nit necessarily explicit and only spoken. The English are quite famous for our ‘unspoken’ rules. Even on here you can get quite a negative reaction for saying “I’m proud to be British” - I’ve seen some quite vitriolic responses. A bit like when Adele said she was proud to be a woman.

And try saying either of those things at a dinner party in certain left leaning social circles - you wouldn’t get invited again.

Unfortunately the other parties, who should most definitely not be ‘hapless amateurs’ are working hard to make Reform look good by comparison. They are not operating in a vacuum.