Comment – Page 15 – thecumbriachronic.co.uk

CRUMBRIA: 7.7.2026

WITH Nigel “Five-homes” Farage announcing his self-inflicted resignation this afternoon, local churnalists in Crumbria started desperately scrambling around for a “local angle”.

But the one local rag unlikely to be getting an exclusive from the Barrow branch of Reform UK is the dying, if not dead, Evening Snail.

Newsroom insiders inform the Chronic that the local branch appears to have ghosted the fuck out of the former Barrow newspaper, which is now thrown together from Kendal: like shit at a wall.

So why might the local rag have been given the old rubber ear?

It may or may not be related to the fact that barely a month ago, The Snail produced what was widely regarded, in Reform circles at least, as a total hatchet job on the Barrow Reform candidate; retired Barrow teacher, Hazel Edwards.

With voters 48 hours from ticking the box in the Barrow by-election, The Snail kicked up an almighty front-page fuss.

The massive scandal? Reform made a minor background edit to her campaign photo after a business in the original snap asked not to be dragged into politics.

No fake crowds. No fake party supporters — just a change of background to make the photo look like nowhereville.

But, influenced by a couple of persistent fusspots on Facebook, The Snail wrote up this minor photo edit and ran wailing to its readers, about “faked campaign images” and “dishonesty”.

The hit job missed and Hazel romped home.

When the dust settled, Reform Barrow approached the Snail’s distant “Group Editor”, pointing out a few home truths and floating the possibility of an apology.

The Editorette did nothing of the sort.

In fact, she doubled down and defended the paper’s news-gathering tactics — which seem to involve scraping Fakebook for storms in a teacup and then setting victims absurd deadlines to explain themselves.

Flexing her journalistic muscles, the Editorette also wanted to squeeze a second story out of the “faked images” non-event.

In light of today’s developments in Reform UK, the Sunderland supremo may have painfully discovered that memories on the insular peninsula last longer than an elephant’s.