Simon Brew, a Conservative councillor in Croydon for the past 11 years, hasn’t had the best of luck with his campaigning on local issues when he has tried to use modern communication techniques – like videos.
Remember how he lobbied on behalf of profit-hungry private developers who wanted to demolish Purley town centre’s multi-storey public car park to make way for more than 200 lucrative retirement homes? In that video nasty, Brew seriously suggested that people wanting to visit Purley town centre could readily leave their cars at a railway station car park more than a mile away.
Brew, it seems, will say any old shit on behalf of his Tory mates, or shadowy businesses registered in the British Virgin Islands, notorious as a haven for money-launderers.
Video nasty: Simon Brew’s previous campaign films have not always been entirely reliable
Video star Brew’s most famous bit part, though, was from late 2021, when he recorded himself visiting the closed and neglected Purley Pool and made the wild (and untrue) claim that he and the Tory Mayoral candidate Jason Perry had a brilliant wheeze that could get the place re-opened and back in use for next-to-no money. Ha! How we laughed!
Purley’s residents’ associations (or at least those not under the thumb of Conservative councillors who weasled their way on to the committees of these supposedly “non-political” organisations), made their displeasure clear, saying that they are fed up of “misleading statements by our politicians”.
Goodness knows what the good people of Purley might make, then, of Brew’s latest delusional rant on video, posted to social media yesterday.
Remind you of anyone?
Poor old Simon Brew. Odd how he never made a peep of protest when the previous Conservative government imposed its non-improvement improvement panel, which has cost Croydon Council Tax-payers more than £1million in fees for their “expertise” over the last four years.
It was a report from that Tory-appointed improvement panel which prompted the current government to announce that it had lost patience, and faith, in Croydon’s less-than-dynamic duo of Mayor Perry and his hapless chief exec, Katherine “Borrow More!” Kerswell. The improvement panel described Tory Perry and Kerswell’s plans for additional borrowing as “impossible”, saying that it would lead to Croydon Council’s complete “collapse”.
What the real “Mr Angry of Purley” forgot to mention in his video rant was that government minister Jim McMahon described Croydon as “one of the most financially distressed councils in the country”, mentioning its debts of £1.4billion and his concern that Mayor Perry and Kerswell were seriously planning to increase that borrowing to around £2billion by 2029.
How odd that “Mr Angry” Brew failed to mention that in his video rant.
Totting up all the Emergency Financial Support given to Croydon since March 2021 at £553million, McMahon said: “This is simply not sustainable.”
Although Simon Brew, “Mr Angry of Purley”, seems to think it is absolutely fine to burden future generations of Croydon residents with even more debt.
Cheers, untrue Brew!
Read more: GLA rejects Polaska Purley Pool plan as ‘wholly unacceptable’
Read more: Tories warn residents: don’t dare complain about Purley pool
Read more: Panicked Perry admitted to Rayner: I can’t balance the budget
Read more: Kerswell’s ‘Stabilisation Plan’ has failed before it is approved
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
“They could tell him to massively increase council tax”???? I don’t think Perry needs any help with that one given what he’s done over the last three years. Was Brew on his way out of the hospital because he’d just had his memory wiped and his sense of irony removed? What a nana.
It’s what Councillor Brew doesn’t say that is more important than his vacuous trite utterings.
Why might Commissioners be coming to Croydon?
Because after three years in office, the leader of Croydon Conservatives, Mayor Jason Perry, has failed to “fix the finances”. Instead he’s making them worse while destroying public services and wasting money on vanity projects, like “cutting the grass” and publicising himself at our expense with the “Our Croydon” propaganda rag.
Simple Simon doesn’t want you to think about that
I didn’t realise they did lobotomies at Purley Hospital…
Simon’s cult comedy classic, “Polaska plan poleaxes Purley parking places”, can be watched by visiting this link https://tinyurl.com/brewfog
It’s a delight to see him scamper around car parks that are a mile away from Purley town centre while delivering breathless patronising explanations with his trademark cheeky grin, but do be warned – you’ll never get those 4 minutes of your life back
Lucky he didn’t come out of the Jolly Farmer at top speed. He must have been in the Purley Memorial Hospital for a cognitive check up. A man who has the visual presence of Ray Alan’s Lord Charles is and has always been a silly arse.
Showing your age with that cultural reference, Del Boy
Brew is no Mannekin Pis.
What a load of brouhaha, he’s definitely not my cup of tea. With the state of some of the councillors Croydon has no chance.
Can I just comment on one specific statement
Can I just comment on one specific statement in your piece about Simon Brew’s video: “Purley’s residents’ associations (or at least those not under the thumb of Conservative councillors who weasled their way on to the committees of these supposedly “non-political” organisations)…”
We at the Purley & Woodcote Residents’ Association have really struggled to fill committee posts and Simon and some of his colleagues have stepped into the breach to fill roles that would otherwise have gone unfilled, possibly leading to the PWRA’s collapse. Simon’s a nice guy but I myself have never voted for his party in my life, probably never will.
I suggest that if you and all the other keyboard warriors don’t like the political complexion of the PWRA, you emerge blinking into the sunlight from your back bedrooms and come and give us a hand. God knows, there is enough to do…
Still allowed yourselves to be taken over by third-rate politicians.
For all his supposed help he didn’t do much to oppose the hundreds of retirement flats an offshore company based in a tax haven wants to dump in Purley town centre did he? Infact he actively supports it. So much for having the best interest of Purley at heart.
Chris, your website https://www.pwra.co.uk is down / gone, your Facebook page has loads of ads for various home, car and beauty services and your few group posts suggest a very strong affiliation with Croydon Conservatives.
An improved internet presence and clear political neutrality might just help your cause. While the majority of people who took part in the Purley and Woodcote council elections cast their votes for the Conservative candidates, the majority of adults living there didn’t vote at all