CROYDON LABOUR IN CRISIS: Some fear it is a case of out of the frying pan into the fire with the imposed election candidate in South Norwood. By our political editor, WALTER CRONXITE
Nothing to see here: Christopher Herman has been busy trying to erase his Twitter past
The Local Campaign Forum, the committee at the centre of controversy for its bungled handling of Croydon Labour’s candidate selection process, is withholding the identity of the candidate it wants to impose on the people of South Norwood… while they check on a raft of recently deleted tweets.
Christopher Herman was selected last night at a somewhat perfunctory LCF meeting, which excluded Labour members in the ward from having any say in the choice of person to represent them at the Town Hall elections being held on May 5.
With the election candidate declaration deadlines looming, the crisis-hit LCF needed to replace 24-year-old Elliott-Jay Munroop, who had withdrawn on Friday.
This website revealed last week that, not for the first time, Joel “Bodger” Bodmer, the chair of the LCF, and his committee had failed to conduct any proper checks on one of their “approved” candidates.
Munroop’s recent Twitter history included a cascade of abusive, homophobic and sexist slurs.
Bodger: Steve Reed apparatchik Joel Bodmer
The LCF, meaning the Steve Reed flunkies Bodger and fellow party official Nuala O’Neill, cobbled together a short-list from those on the approved candidates’ list who responded to a hurried appeal put out on Saturday.
For some of those approached, with the prospect of a candidacy in a usually safe Labour ward, it was a last-gasp chance to preserve their status as a councillor.
“The dregs,” was how the short-list was described by one Katharine Street source.
On the list alongside Herman were current sitting councillors who had failed to get re-selected in the wards they have been supposed to represent: Ollie “Shitshow” Lewis, the cabinet member responsible for closing libraries, shutting the Purley leisure centre and overseeing the fiasco of the Fairfield Halls, and “Silent” Mary Croos, who has an impressive collection of selfies, but little else to show for her four years as a councillor.
According to several sources, also on the LCF’s South Norwood short-list was Safwan Choudhury, who had done so much to help his father, Sherwan Choudhury, finally get selected in a safe Labour ward in Broad Green, plus ever-hopeful ex-councillor Raj Rajendran, Femi Yusoof and Coulsdon resident and rugger enthusiast Stuart Brady.
“That’s what scraping the bottom of the barrel looks like after it has already been scraped two or three times,” according to one senior source in the local Labour Party.
Deleted: one of the tweets that election candidate Herman would prefer you not to see
Herman was the only short-listed candidate who actually lives in South Norwood. It is thought to be to only ward in which he had sought selection when the LCF’s creaking and crisis-hit process got underway six months ago.
Herman is also known to be an obedient member of the Steve Reed fan club.
Yesterday’s LCF meeting to conduct the rushed selection is the only time that Bodger has called together the committee since February.
Deleted: Self-professed cricket fan Herman has been very diligent in the last 24 hours
“It was six o’clock on the evening of Mother’s Day, and there wasn’t much appetite among members to conduct any other business other than the most pressing issue at hand,” one source said.
The LCF has immediately hit a snag, however, and it has delayed making any announcement of the replacement candidate’s identity.
Herman, who says he “mostly tweet sober” (sic), is away on holiday, although that has not stopped him deleting vast swathes of his own Twitter history in the last 24 hours, suggesting that he, too, might have posted material that is less-than-wholesome.
In case it helps bumbling Bodger and his shambolic mates to do their job properly, they might always try this, or they could have a look at this…
Read more: Labour candidate in South Norwood quits over abusive tweets
Read more: No apology from candidate for abusive and homophobic tweets
Read more: Campaign disarray as Broad Green candidate is de-selected
Read more: ‘It’s an utter joke’: councillors unhappy at selection stitch-ups
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How I wish more people read Inside Croydon, maybe then the message would get through to the local Labour bods. And why, oh why, hasn’t Red Flag HQ got involved? Croydon Labour will run out of feet to shoot.
What is and isn’t acceptable Twitter content for a political candidate?
Surely a few expletives isn’t on the same level as racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, ableist or xenophobic language and sentiments. I certainly think anyone who expresses the latter bigotry has no place standing as a Labour councillor (and arguably no place in the Labour Party, entirely, or indeed *any* political party), but I don’t want to see a Big Brother/Guido Fawkes style scenario where *every* single online statement is scrutinised for potential offence, and thus potentially good candidates are excluded from standing for daring to express anything that isn’t the most banal or impersonal statement.
Although I pride myself on diplomacy, I’ve occasionally felt compelled to use expletives and rude language on Twitter when dealing with bigots, and I can imagine that where one is personally affected by racism, and other forms of identity-based bigotry, the compulsion to tell a bigot to simply ‘**** off’ can be particularly, and understandably, strong. Also, I wouldn’t want to see a situation where individuals are denied political opportunities on account of their candor regarding personal issues and experiences, like mental illness, family problems, alcoholism, homelessness and so on. If anything, we should be encouraging a diverse array of councillors with genuine life experiences (assuming they aren’t criminals/haven’t committed acts of violence/abuse against others).
So what does Herman have to hide by deleting his tweets?
I effing pride myself on my diplomacy And tact.
Herman clearly must really love his Mum. I can imagine him sitting in an armchair at 1pm on Christmas day, with paper hat, beer spilled down his front, and some crisp fragments, tweeting to admiring friends, and I can hear them laughing. I wonder if she read the tweet too, and what she would have really felt ?
Is all his life just one big joke?
Foul mouthed and foul-minded? Or just childish, or moronic ? Or all ??
Ubiquitous use of control +alt + delete – all in the best possible taste?
One has got used to the term scraping the barrel but the LCF have made it appear to be scraping the cess under the barrel.
Perhaps good candidates are thinking guilt by association and are put off? Maybe the apparently kangeroo style operations (dare one say ”court) decisions lend to a poor field of acolytes?
Mr Bodmer does quite a lot of work for the Labour Party but could perhaps do with some effective mentoring on how not to create a bad smell with both his work and decisions?