It was Mario Creatura, who has risen from desperate wannabe politician to become an MP’s gobby fac totum and a councillor for one of the safest Tory wards in the borough, who infamously said of Croydon North’s parliamentary constituency that it is “unwinnable and a waste of effort” for his party.
But you would still expect Creatura’s senior party colleagues at least to go to the trouble of spelling the name of their Croydon North Tory candidate correctly when they take to the twatosphere.
Sadly for Vidhi Mohan – the Fairfield Tory councillor who has been selected for the task of standing in “unwinnable” Croydon North at next May’s General Election – his Conservative colleague, Chris Philp, who has the much more cushty number of taking over as MP in Croydon South, this afternoon failed to get his colleague’s Twitter name correct.
This is doubly embarrassing, since self-made millionaire and Tory party donor Philp was “engaging” on social media to boast of how he has worked closely with “@MohanVidhiz” on coming up with a 20,000-word manifesto for Croydon. Clearly, not working with him closely enough to manage to get his name right…
Maybe Philp’s just not very good at typing (Gavin Barwell has his state-funded fac totum do much of that sort of manual work for him). But is it telling that Philp did manage to get Gary Barlow’s name correct, but not Mohan’s?
This is just further evidence of the Tories’ disdainful attitudes towards the north of the borough. Their local election campaign ads in May managed to omit an entire Croydon North ward, and not a single one of their sham candidates managed to turn up to debate at election hustings in Thornton Heath.
“Vidhiz” Mohan: even his fellow Tories can’t remember who he is
But surely the worst instance of the Tories’ utter contempt for the people of Croydon North is the very selection of Mohan as their candidate to stand against Labour’s sitting MP, Steve Reed OBE.
As a council cabinet member, it was Mohan who oversaw millions of pounds of riot recovery money being diverted away from the areas worst-hit by the August 2011 riots; Fairfield, Mohan’s own ward, got more than half of the Mayor of London’s £23million funding.
With Inside Croydon having revealed that “Vidhiz” was greedy enough to be one of Mike Fisher’s Infamous Five who seriously considered claiming ill-deserved back-pay on their councillor allowances, maybe in Winston McKenzie, UKIP have not picked the worst possible candidate to stand in Croydon North after all.
Coming to Croydon
- Soul Symphony Community Choir sessions, Sep 16-Dec 23
- Police question time, LNK at Centrale, Sep 17
- David Lean Cinema: Chef, Sep 18
- Norwood Society Talk: Remembering the Great War, Sep 18
- The Complete History of the BBC – Abridged, Spread Eagle, Sep 19-20
- Cinema Ruskin film show, Sep 20
- South Croydon business breakfast, Sep 20
- Open House London weekend, Sep 20-21
- David Lean Cinema: A Night At The Cinema in 1914, Sep 22
- Activity to Work back-to-work workshops, Sep 23
- David Lean Cinema: Jimmy’s Hall, Sep 25
- Streatham Common 6M race, Sep 27
- Fancy dress family funday, Sep 28
- Ukrainian choir concert, St John’s Shirley, Sep 29
- Tree Sides, Spread Eagle Theatre, Oct 2-4
- The Goon Show, Spread Eagle Theatre, Oct 8-11
- Norwood Society Talk: From Fire Station to Theatre, Oct 16
- Cinema Ruskin film show, Oct 18
- South Croydon business breakfast, Oct 18
- This Was The World and I Was King, Spread Eagle, Oct 23-25
- Albert Einstein – Relativity Speaking, Spread Eagle, Nov 12-15
- South Croydon business breakfast, Nov 15
- Norwood Society Talk: Lambeth’s Archives, Nov 20
- Choose Your Own Documentary, Spread Eagle Theatre, Nov 21-22
- The Last Sense of Sudden, Spread Eagle Theatre, Nov 27-29
- Ghost Stories for Christmas, Spread Eagle Theatre, Dec 3
- Fog Horn Funnies, Spread Eagle Theatre, Dec 6
- South Croydon business breakfast, Dec 13
- South Croydon business breakfast, Jan 24
Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 407,847 page views (Jan-Jun 2014) 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
All this just shows what a ludicrous and absurd electoral system we have, where most votes don’t count.
I’m looking forward (sort of) to going through this 20,000-word manifesto of stuff they might not actually be able to influence.
It’s not a manifesto; from the look of the key proposals, it’s a list of aspirations.