As the dust settles on another election I thought I’d share some reflections. As ever, it was an interesting election night. I love the drama and tension of elections, they are always fascinating to take part in. Below is one of the images of us, amongst the crowd at the count, from Stockport’s Nub News.
For the Independent Ratepayers, we were extremely pleased to maintain our vote with six parties on the ballot paper, and to extend our unbeaten run of 97 years’ standing. More broadly the fragmentation of politics across multiple parties has brought unpredictability to wards within the borough and beyond. Many councils have gone to no overall control, whilst Stockport has bucked that trend by changing to a Liberal Democrat led administration after they secured a narrow majority.
There were a number of changes to Stockport’s councillor cohort. Those who chose the manner of their going headed for the door with light hearts; whilst for those who didn’t, the end came via brutal rejection at the ballot box. Seeing the heartache and disappointment of that close up has given me greater regard for politicians of all stripes who are brave enough to stand for office. It undoubtedly takes guts and dedication. Something that possibly isn’t as recognised as it should be in the public discourse.
As we arrived at the Town Hall for the count, we bumped into one of the councillors who represents a distant ward. Chatting briefly, he said “I see you’ve had it bad with the hate on social media over there.” I was surprised events here in Heald Green ward were so visible. This was a conversation repeated quite a number times over the night with other colleagues.
Since the election I’ve been enjoying a digital detox. I’ve been reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, inspired by a recent podcast. The basic premise of the story is Alice has fallen into this strange irrational world where random characters come onto the stage, do strange things, say nonsensical made-up things for no apparent reason and are generally quite unpleasant to poor Alice. Themes, you might imagine, which resonate right now.
On the subject of made up things, the dodgy bar charts we highlighted pre-election turned out, unsurprisingly, not to be accurate: https://fullfact.org/politics/election-2026-leaflet-results/. Ours, of course, was an accurate prediction being pretty close to the result last time.
For Anna and I, having our image targeted and outlined in red during this election campaign, and being told to ‘Hang our heads in shame’ for no reason was a new online low, and a very curious choice of words. It’s a relief to see in the strength of our election result that this is a niche view.
We’ve deliberately paid more attention to the online space this campaign, and what we’ve seen ain’t pretty. Once you start fact checking you realise there is so, so, much garbage out there. Online misinformation posts we’ve spotted include:
- “I’ve voted Ratepayer for last 30 years but I’m not doing so this year.” We checked a number of people making this comment and we know they simply aren’t true. For a start some weren’t even registered to vote here.
- “I emailed you two years ago and you did nothing.” It’s possible emails miscarry or we don’t receive them as they go into spam folders. If we’ve not responded give us a ring. We couldn’t find any details of several people making this type of complaint.
- “Ratepayers have never canvassed the street I live on.” We have canvassed every street in the ward in the last three elections at least, so again this isn’t true.
With our ‘Truth About…’ posts we’ve gone out to challenge the significant lies that have been perpetrated by one online group. Given our viewing figures were well into the tens of thousands perhaps it isn’t surprising that people are starting to see this in distant locations and the truth is at last cutting through.
When one of our haters decided to launch a fact check, on our fact check… well at that point it was clear we had truly gone down the rabbit hole. The thing is, their fact check on our fact check was wrong. Maybe I’ll write a fact check on their fact check on our fact check in the next few weeks. You see, Lewis Carroll definitely does have relevance, that is surely a statement that wouldn’t seem out of place at the Mad Hatter’s tea party?
On election day in previous years there have been a number of attempts at dirty tricks. Anna simply casting her vote in her local polling station was spun on line as electoral interference in 2023. We were braced for similar dirty tricks this time, and we weren’t disappointed, first off…
The reason I did this was because it is, of course, perfectly legal. ‘Anonymous’ had been told this by the officer, but ridiculously still tried to discredit me with this post. That wasn’t even the weirdest post that day. That dubious honour goes to this post below, which seems to have been widely circulated in Heald Green groups. It suggests I am blaming the old people for the housing shortage. The problem is that this is completely made up. The author has deliberately doctored the text to leave out a key passage I wrote. It also says the evidence is based on a withdrawn government factsheet. It was withdrawn in September 2025, long after I wrote the original blog in December 2024, it is also one of at least five references given. The time is probably ripe to revisit this topic, given the recent interest. The actual passage I wrote says “The biggest driver of our housing shortage is that people are living much, much longer. It’s the old people. Which is, of course, an amazing thing to celebrate.” You can check it here. I categorically did not “blame” older people for anything.
That someone can go to the time and effort to construct official looking election campaign material based on a complete lie is just wild. Absolutely wild. Why would any person feel the need to do this? It’s an inverse compliment in a way, and an act of desperation that the haters are again resorting to totally making stuff up. My great worry though, is that some people believe it and this impacts on how people vote. It is, to continue the Alice analogy, “Through the Looking Glass” that people feel they can do this. To present lies as the truth to fit to their own distorted reality. I realise after this that you really cannot believe most of what is shared on social media.
It’s highly likely this toxic social media environment, which hits harder on women, is helping put women off being local councillors. Something the MEN has suggested in a recent article: The Uncomfortable Truth Behind Greater Manchester’s Local Election Results. I can understand that. Similarly, the BBC have highlighted the impact of increasing abuse on councillors generally: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’: Councillors report rise in abuse. As a councillor you are totally on your own when it comes to responding to all of this; there is absolutely no one there to support you. But then perhaps in this dystopian wonderland the truth doesn’t matter anymore and I’m naïve to think it does. Or maybe one day I’ll wake up, and all that hate has just been a bad dream!
I’ll sign off on a positive note, and say again, a huge and heartfelt thanks to the 1,700 plus people who kept the faith, who took the time to seek out the truth and vote for our candidate Anna Charles-Jones. We are incredibly grateful, and for the encouragement that many of you have shared along the way.