10/05/2026
Hello everyone! As the dust settles after the election and all the appropriate people have been thanked and the celebration has been had, it is time to return to the tasks at hand. Inductions are planned, groups being assembled and all that kind of stuff that has to happen before taking office properly.
I then see here on Facebook that Stephen Pritchard of Labour has put out a highly misleading statement about a ballot paper that had "deport" written on it next to Yasmine Khan's name. This ballot paper did exist, I saw it as well, and it was deliberately hurtful by the voter and unnecessary. However, Steve incorrectly claims that the statement was somehow endorsed by us. It's not true. Our agent, who is the person that adjudicates the process of reviewing ballots, used similar words to mine just now and at the time. Also, Steve did not cry at the sight of the ballot paper.
I would like to add more context. While Steve complains so hard about this, he completely ignored plenty of very nasty comments on ballots aimed at us, I saw one aimed at me as well. Just to be clear: I don't care and I need no sympathy.
Here is the real kicker. The phrase "hate, fear and division" is thrown in our direction so frequently by the people who sow it constantly. Yesterday early morning I received an email from someone encouraging me to (censored for Facebook) unalive myself. Today I received a rather ominous threat, screenshot attached. This was alongside a quote of Steve's misleading Facebook post.
So, do I call Steve's intentionally misleading post incitement to violence? Should I contact the police? Or perhaps will Steve apologise for his misleading statements and email the person that emailed me, with myself CC'd, apologising and clarifying that we do not revel in "fear, hate and division" and admit that it is their rhetoric that is what caused an attack against us in the street by friends of a sitting Labour councillor? We are yet to receive any sympathy or apology from anyone involved over that.
All this awful stuff coming out of the Labour camp is exactly what we expected in Reform Crawley and we're all fine. I just hope they give it up so we can focus on things that actually matter to the good people of Crawley, West Sussex and ultimately this entire country. However, I suspect it will take a lot to de-radicalise the Crawley Labour camp. Probably a couple more elections, in fact.
Our future is looking brighter though, and good things will come. I wanted to address this nonsense first though.
Thank you all! Enjoy the rest of this grey Sunday and I hope you're enjoying your door NOT being knocked for a change. ;-)
