1. The law that applies here
Cookies and similar storage technologies in the UK are regulated by regulation 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), as supplemented by the UK GDPR where the cookie processes personal data. Non-essential cookies require your prior, specific, informed and freely-given consent before they are set. Strictly necessary cookies do not require consent but must still be disclosed. This page does both.
2. What is a cookie
A cookie is a small text file stored on your device by your browser when you visit a website. Cookies let a site remember things across pages and visits (such as that your form submission is in flight) or help the site stay secure (such as blocking automated abuse). The rules also apply to similar local-storage technologies (such as HTML5 localStorage, used here only to remember your own cookie choice).
3. Cookies this site uses
3.1 Strictly necessary cookies (no consent needed)
These keep the site functioning and secure. They are exempt from the PECR consent requirement under regulation 6(4) because they are strictly necessary to provide the service you have requested. You can still block them in your browser at the cost of some functionality (for example you may not be able to submit a form).
- Vercel edge cookies. Set by the hosting platform to route requests to the nearest server and to protect the site from abusive traffic. Type: HTTP-only, first-party. Lifetime: session.
- __cf_bm , set by Cloudflare on behalf of the database provider, Supabase. Used to distinguish humans from automated traffic when the forms talk to the database. Type: HTTP-only, third-party. Lifetime: up to 30 minutes from the last interaction.
- admin-session , signed session cookie used only when an administrator signs into the password-protected admin area. It contains an HMAC-signed reference to the administrator’s allow-listed email, not the email itself. Type: HTTP-only, first-party, SameSite=Lax, Secure. Lifetime: up to 30 days, refreshed on each visit.
- cookieConsent , technically a localStorage entry rather than a cookie. Records whether you have accepted or rejected non-essential cookies, so the banner doesn’t keep asking you. Lifetime: until you clear it or click Change cookie choices above.
3.2 Analytics cookies (only set after you click Accept all)
With your permission the site loads Google Analytics 4 (GA4), provided by Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland). GA4 helps me understand which pages residents actually use, which links they follow, and how new visitors find the site, so I can keep the things that work and fix the things that don’t. IP addresses are anonymised before processing.
- _ga , the GA4 identifier cookie, used to distinguish unique visitors. Lifetime: up to 2 years from the last visit (you can clear it at any time).
- _ga_<container-id> , the GA4 session cookie tied to the specific property on this site. Lifetime: up to 2 years from the last visit.
I use Google Consent Mode v2. That means before you click Accept all, GA is loaded in a denied state , no cookies are set, no client identifiers persist. If you click Reject non-essential, GA stays in that denied state for your entire visit and no GA cookies are ever set.
I also run a privacy-friendly, in-house pageview counter that records the page you visited, the site that referred you and a generic browser type. It does not set any cookie and does not store your IP address. This counter also waits for analytics consent before firing, so if you Reject non-essential nothing is recorded.
3.3 Advertising and tracking cookies
None. No advertising network is loaded on any page of this site. Google Analytics is used in measurement-only mode (no Google Signals, no advertising features, no remarketing).
3.4 Social media cookies
None. Outbound links to external services (Reform UK, Facebook, X) open in a new tab. Social-media embeds are not used.
4. How consent works on this site
The first time you visit, a banner appears with three options: Accept all, Reject non-essential, or Manage (a link to this page).
- If you click Accept all, the analytics cookies described in section 3.2 are loaded and Google Consent Mode v2 is set to granted.
- If you click Reject non-essential, Google Consent Mode v2 stays at denied, no GA cookies are set, the GA4 client never persists an identifier, and the in-house counter does not fire.
- Strictly necessary cookies (section 3.1) load either way , they are exempt from consent under PECR.
- You can change your mind at any time using the Change cookie choices button at the top of this page. Withdrawing consent stops further analytics processing immediately and removes the GA cookies on your next visit.
5. Controlling cookies in your browser
You can clear or block cookies in your browser at any time. The links below take you to the relevant guidance for the most common browsers.
6. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
This site does not load advertising trackers, so the legacy Do Not Track header has no practical effect here. The newer Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal is treated as a rejection of non-essential cookies: if your browser sends GPC, the banner is auto-dismissed in rejected state on first load.
7. International transfers
Some cookies set by my suppliers (notably Google Analytics 4) may involve a transfer of data outside the UK. Those transfers are protected by the UK extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the receiving organisation is certified, or by the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (or the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the UK Addendum) where it is not. See the privacy notice for the full international-transfer disclosure.
8. Changes to this policy
I may update this policy if the site’s cookie use changes. Any new non-essential cookies will be introduced with a fresh consent prompt before they are set, and your previous consent will be requested again. The latest version will always live at this URL, and the “last updated” date at the top tells you when it was last revised.
9. Questions and complaints
If anything in this policy is unclear, email Winfieldreformuk@gmail.com and I’ll explain. If you are unhappy with how cookies are handled on this site you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.