If a Croydon politician tells you that they don’t read Inside Croydon, it is entirely possible that they’re being economical with the actualité.

As evidence, please see the Twitter profile summary of the leader of the council, Tony Newman, at the beginning of this week…

BEFORE

Tony Newman’s Twitter profile at the start of the week

This was before Inside Croydon highlighted that Westminster politicians had been recommended not to make silly claims about supporting football teams and such like, and that whoever it is who handles Newman’s Twitter account had managed to ascribe to the Woodside Labour politician support for Croydon AFC, a football club that does not exist.

Real “Man of the People” stuff. Not.

AFTER

Hey presto… as if by magic, Newman’s folksy Twitter profile is corrected. But where’s mention of the League club that he really supports?

Today, and Newman’s Twitter profile is transformed. Well, corrected.

In his desperate attempt to boost his street cred with the football supporters of Croydon, Newman’s actually managed to get the name of the non-league club he claims to support put right. Or had someone do it for him.

Despite being busy at the only full council meeting to be staged in five months on Monday, or attending the Mayor’s Banquet on Tuesday night, Newman has managed to find the time to tweak this vitally important detail on social media, presumably in an attempt to avoid further ridicule.

Of course, the MPs’ guide to Twitter also recommends that politicians of all political parties should “tell the truth”. Presumably, this also covers deceit by omission.

So it is odd that Newman has decided to continue to avoid mentioning the Football League club in west London of which he has long been a supporter. Some might see this as a Craven mistake.

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