Transparency note: I am the Reform UK candidate for Acle in the Norfolk County Council elections on 7th May 2026.
There is a recognised term for the practice of creating a misleading impression using technically true statements, selective omission, and carefully chosen emphasis: paltering. It is distinct from lying, in the sense that no individual claim need be false. It is not, however, distinct from deception.
I raise it here because it appears to be precisely what has been deployed in Green Party campaign literature ahead of the Norfolk County Council elections on 7th May 2026.
If you live in the villages of Acle, Lingwood, or Beighton, there is a reasonable chance a Green Party leaflet dropped through your door recently. You may have read it, formed a view about the candidate, and moved on. Three residents who know Jess Royal professionally, however, did not, and contacted me to question various statements within it as they thought it was misleading.
The leaflet promotes Ms Royal as the Green Party candidate for the Acle Division in the Norfolk County Council elections. It tells you she “has lived in Acle nearly all her life.” and she was “elected to Acle Parish Council in 2023.” It also tells you she is “speaking up for Acle Division.”
Nothing in those statements is, strictly speaking, false. That is precisely the point.
What the leaflet does not tell you is that the Acle Parish Council website records that Jess Royal has moved away and resigned her position. The Statement of Persons Nominated confirms her current address as Hoveton, in North Norfolk. The current County Councillor for Acle Division is Lana Hempsall, (Conservative)
So, the candidate has left Acle and moved to another district entirely, resigned from Acle Parish Council, and does not currently represent Acle at county level. However, the leaflet, through careful use of past tense and selective omission, leaves the reader with a rather different impression.
Jess Royal is the sitting District Councillor for Burlingham and Lingwood at Broadland District Council. Her campaign agent, Jan Davis, is the sitting District Councillor for Brundall and is himself standing for the Greens in Blofield and Brundall on 7th May. They both have experience in public office, and a clear understanding of how campaign material is interpreted by voters.
I wrote to Jan Davis on 27th April, asking him to clarify two straightforward questions: does Jess Royal currently reside in Acle, and is she currently serving on Acle Parish Council?
Jan responded quickly and he confirmed that the candidate’s current address is Hoveton, as per the Statement of Persons Nominated. The question of her parish council status was addressed, indirectly, by reference to other campaign literature in which, he says, her former role is clearly described. Specifically, he pointed me to an early newsletter stating:
“Hard-working local councillor for Lingwood & Burlingham and former Acle Parish councillor, Jess Royal, is the Green Party candidate to represent Acle at the County Council election on 7th May.”
And to a letter sent to postal voters, which states:
“I’ve been an Acle Parish Councillor and I’m currently the district councillor for Burlingham Ward…”
Jan’s position, in short, is that these earlier materials provide the necessary context. His response did not address the specific leaflet that had been delivered to residents, instead, he relied on other campaign materials to provide context, materials which those residents may not have seen.
He asked me to supply a photograph of that leaflet, so he could understand what residents were concerned about. I found that rather puzzling, as I would have thought that basic familiarity with one’s own campaign materials is a fairly modest professional requirement.
The postal vote letter was sent on or around 21st April. The leaflet residents contacted me about was delivered in Acle on 21st April and in Lingwood and Beighton on 24th April, meaning it landed on doormats at the same time as, or after, the postal vote letter.
More significantly, the leaflet contains polling data referenced to 3rd March 2026. It cannot therefore have been produced before that date. Material distributed before 3rd March cannot reasonably be relied upon to contextualise a leaflet that did not yet exist. A voter holding only this leaflet in their hands had no reason to seek out, or any means of knowing they should seek out, earlier materials to complete the picture.
I am not accusing anyone of lying. Each sentence in this leaflet may be individually defensible. but that is not the point. Campaign leaflets are not legal documents to be parsed line by line. they are delivered to people in their homes, read once, and designed to form an impression. The issue is not what can be defended after the fact. It is what a reasonable voter would understand at the point of reading, i cannot se who any reasonable voter would conclude anything other than this candidate lives in Acle and is a Parish Councillor.
You should be entitled to form an accurate picture of a candidate from a single leaflet. You should not need to compile a reading list, and the agent responsible for that literature should not need to ask you for a photograph of it.
The Green Party in general presents itself as a political force of purity; the ones who must hold the rest of us to account. As they will no doubt continue to discover, perfection is rather difficult to maintain.
