Who says Inside Croydon doesn’t promote local Tory events? Rhetorical question, to which the answer is the self-serving MP for Croydon Central, Gary Barlow.

Look what the Croydon Conservatives sent out to anyone on their email circulation list yesterday, including many who have repeatedly asked to be removed from the questionably run database.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, is giving a little talk deep in the south of the borough next week (odd how he’s not visiting the riot-scarred and fly-tipped northern bits of Croydon, isn’t it?).

The email says Boris will “be taking questions”. It’s unlikely he’ll offer any answers, though.

People still want to know the truth to: “Boris, why did you duck selection for Croydon South?” Or: “Why don’t you try to get elected for parliament in a Tory marginal, like Croydon Central?” And: “Will you run for the Conservative Party leadership once you’re an MP again?”

But our London Mayor Boris doesn’t do answers. Since he was elected Mayor in 2008, he has not done a single regular press briefing at City Hall (Ken Livingstone used to do them weekly). So any attendees next week probably won’t be allowed to get past “How do you do?” to the adulterous Old Etonian, Bullingdon Club bluffer.

But what’s this, you say, there’s more?

Yes, yet another leaflet distributed by the Arfur Daleys running Croydon Conservatives which fails to state its true intentions.

Read down the email, and you’ll find this:

Tickets £10?

So Croydon Conservatives are now charging people to get a chance to speak to their elected representatives? Really? A tad infra dig, as Latin-spouting BoJo might say, don’t you think?

What it doesn’t state is for what purpose the 10 quid is being collected.

Is it for the 2014 local election campaign fund? Is it to get Gary Barwell re-elected in Croydon Central in 2015?

Or is it for Boris’s own campaign to get elected as leader of the Conservative Party?

The local Tories really should learn to be a little more frank and honest with their publicity. But then co-ordinating this latest Boris stunt is Ian Parker, the soon-to-be-ex-councillor for Coulsdon West who in 2010 was given a judge’s warning for not declaring proper election expenses for the Croydon Central and Croydon South MPs’ campaigns.

“All Conservative supporters welcome”, the email says. Though since Parker and Co sent it to many non-supporters as well, presumably we can all pile up on the day to hear the London Mayor “take questions”. “Sir” Tricky Dicky Ottaway might end up calling out the police again if any octogenerian pensioners turn up that he doesn’t recognise.

• Desperately devious: Barwell appeals to women of Addiscombe
• Barwell given a lesson from economics professor on Twitter
• Parliamentary standards commissioner rebukes MP Barwell

Coming to Croydon

• LNK Apprenticeship Week launch, Mar 7
• Fairtrade stall at Food Market, Haynes Lane, Mar 8
• Upper Norwood Library Book Club, Mar 15
• Norwood Society talk, Upper Norwood Library, Mar 20
• South Norwood Lakes Playground group workshop, Mar 25
• David Lean Cinema: Basically Johnny Moped, Mar 27-28
• Croydon Half-marathon, Mar 30
• David Lean Cinema: 12 Years a Slave, Apr 3
• David Lean Cinema: The Great Beauty, Apr 10
• David Lean Cinema: Inside Llewyn Davis, Apr 17
• Opening of Marlpit Lane bowling and putting greens, Apr 17
• David Lean Cinema: Short Term, Apr 24
• Crystal Palace Overground Festival, June 26-29

Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 516,649 page views (Jan-Dec 2013)

If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com