REFORM GETS SNAIL BRUSH-OFF

CRUMBRIA: 10.6.2026

TWO short months ago, the News & Shrug, Carlisle, printed a huge tear-stained spread about Labour councillors on Crumberland Council.

The sympathetic article, which would have brought a tear to a glass eye, provided emotive quotes about “abuse” they had received from the public.

Unexplored by the former newspaper was the small matter of why Joe Public might be behaving like a tank full of piranha fish.

Could it possibly have had anything to do with the decision by, er, Labour councillors to make Cumberland a “Council of Sanctuary” — a proposal opposed by more than 1,000 local residents?

The former newspaper did not say.

Fast forward eight weeks and journalistic cuddles for other political parties are thin on the ground at its sister paper down in Barrow — the Evening Snail.

Two days before polling day, wordsmiths at The Snail published a highly melodramatic piece about Reform’s campaign photos, writing up a simple background swap like democracy itself had been gunned down in a Dalton Road drive-by.

The explanation was hardly Watergate: a local business name had appeared in the background of a photo, but then asked not to be dragged into party politics, so the backdrop was swapped for a generic AI street scene.

No crowds of supporters were added. No fake canvassing army was invented. Just an anonymous background. That didn’t stop howls of online outrage.

Reform complained to the Editorette that The Snail had published the piece without an official comment in reply – otherwise known as “half a story”.

Reform also claimed that The Snail had taken keen notice of “the ramblings” of a man it said had conducted online “harassment” against its candidate.

His efforts to raise awareness among potential voters about the tweaked photos appeared, to some at least, to have gone well beyond civic-minded Facebooking.

The Editorette’s response to this alleged abuse?

A response so frosty it could have frozen Walney Channel.

Not one word!

Instead, Reform officials were brusquely informed that the paper would “Continue to create content in connection with your councillor” because readers of The Snail “deserve to be kept updated.”

So when Labour councillors report abuse, it’s an arm around the shoulder and tea and sympathy?

But when Reform mentions abuse, it’s a very firm: “We won’t stop writing about you.”

Funny how journalistic empathy evaporates when the rosette changes colour!

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