Further proof, as if any were needed, that Mario Creatura has been hired at considerable public expense by local Tory MP Gavin Barwell to spend much of his time managing his boss’s political career prospects, rather than actually doing any work for the people in his Croydon constituency.

Mario Creatura: busy revising history for his boss, at public expense

The Croydon Conservatives’ activist was rewarded for his assiduous arse-licking in 2012 when he was taken on the staff of the Croydon Central MP. Creatura is believed to be paid up to £33,000 as a parliamentary assistant.

He also now receives a further £11,000 in public-funded pay as a councillor for Coulsdon West.

Yet, as has long been suspected, “HMV”, as the gobby fac totum is also known, appears to spend much of his day trying to burnish his boss’s reputation, often issuing tweets from his boss’s Twitter account, and handling his other digital media activity, with varying degrees of success – and some failure. It’s a tough task, and probably takes up the majority of the parliamentary gofer’s time.

Today, on arriving at the House of Commons, and perhaps after his all-important first task of the day – making the teas – it appears that Creatura set about censoring his boss’s Wikipedia entry, to eradicate any possibility of objectivity about it by removing what might be regarded as a critical reference.

The Barwell Wikipedia entry changes, which got spotted this morning

It is an interesting insight into what passes for working priorities for Conservative MPs and their (state-funded) staff.

Of course, no one is supposed to write or edit their own Wikipedia entry. Having your office staff do that for you undoubtedly falls under the same “forbidden” and “unethical” heading. And getting the tax-payer to pay for the process definitely ought not to be allowed.

Undeterred by such matters as ethics and who is actually paying his wages, Creatura had made himself busy by excising a passage which drew attention to Barwell’s recent over-fondness for petitions (or what is transparently obvious an exercise is data-scraping of constituents’ email details in the run-up to the General Election).

Creatura decided to delete: “The local paper the [[Croydon Advertiser]] called on Mr Barwell to “stop launching campaigns” and persistent attempts at headline-grabbing in December 2014, saying “Gavin, we get it, there’s an election on.”{{cite news|title=Tory MP is told to stop pestering his constituents|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-mp-is-told-to-stop-pestering-his-constituents-9938085.html|accessdate=21 December 2014|publisher=Independent|date=21 December 2014}}”.

The change was spotted by Sutton-based Wiki guru Adrian Short, who highlighted via Twitter that a change to Barwell’s entry had been made from a (tax-payer funded) computer at the House of Commons.

What then followed was a car crash interview with the aforementioned Croydon Sadvertiser, in which Creatura demonstrated that he is far from being as clever as he likes to think he is.

MP for the Whitgift Foundation Gavin Barwell: he hasn’t got a clue, according to his closest aide

One of the Sadvertiser’s top, full-time reporters telephoned Creatura and in the course of the recorded discussion (oh, please do make the tape available as a podcast), HMV revealed:

“I can do whatever I like when it comes to that” (in answer to a question about whether he is supposed to be censoring reports about an elected official which he dislikes).

“It’s my job to try and protect [Barwell]… or at least try and make things as accurate as possible.” There is nothing inaccurate in the paragraph which Creatura deleted.

“I didn’t think having the comment ‘We get it, there’s an election on’ [was fair].” But it is accurate. And it is not for Creatura to determine what is “fair”.

“I hold my hands up. It was an error. I took the sentence out. It was a half-a-second thing.”

But this is the clincher. Expect it to be on every election poster in Croydon Central between now and General Election day on May 7 when “Gaffe-prone Gav” tries to be re-elected:

“Gavin’s not the most technically minded person. He generally has no idea. He trusts me to do whatever.”

It is ill-judged (although undoubtedly truthful) comments such as that which would make it very difficult for 2015-entry MPs, the likes of Chris Philp in Croydon South, to consider taking on a liability such as Creatura.

And if Barwell fails to be re-elected on May 7, then Creatura will be another Tory unemployment statistic.

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