CROYDON COMMENTARY: Are you a ‘Mr’, a ‘Ms’, or a ‘Mx’? You’re unlikely to be a ‘Mix’, unless you’re a member of the Labour Party in its troubled Croydon East CLP. KEN TOWL, pictured right, explains

A couple of days ago, I read Sherlock Holmes And The Mystery of the 24 Unaffordable Flats. It is not a long-lost but recently-discovered addition to the Conan Doyle canon, but rather a news story on Inside Croydon about claims by a councillor that they had managed to persuade the planning committee to protect an “important building…an important part of our local history and character”.

‘Saved’: Or is it? Conan-Doyle’s blue-plaqued former home in South Norwood has no planning protections from development

This apparent victory of the people over property developers is a phantom, however.

Inside Croydon explains: “The first planning application at the first meeting of the LabCon stitched-up planning committee at the start of a new council administration is almost certain to be appealed to the government’s Planning Inspector, potentially at huge public cost, after the new committee managed to refuse permission for a scheme to build 24 flats in South Norwood in the middle of a housing crisis.”

Appealed, and Inside Croydon predicts, overturned.

It is all very well to make speeches, as Councillor Melanie Felten did last Thursday about a “valued part of our community”, but such vague assertions butter no parsnips in terms of the viability of building development, as Nicola Townsend, the senior council employee at the planning meeting, warned.

It appears likely that the developer, Walker Properties Ltd, will be able to overturn the current decision with the Planning Inspectorate, and be awarded the costs of the appeal.

And so there we have it. Politics. A victory must be declared, however prematurely, just as every pot hole or fly tip must be pointed at and every baby kissed. The important thing is not actually to do anything, but rather to be portrayed as the sort of person who is in favour of doing something. Gesture politics.

Gesture politics: Labour’s Mix Melanie Felten delivering leaflets with Mix Joel Bodmer, at a time when they were both officials in the local Labour Party

It was just such gesture politics that led me to stop paying my monthly subscription to the Labour Party last year. It wasn’t the only factor, but it was the final straw.

It came after the suspension of a corrupt local party, the removal of members’ rights to select local candidates, a London Labour organisation that treated members with contempt and a generally toxic atmosphere locally that discouraged anyone who wasn’t part of a hostile clique that operates as a party within a party.

Any of that should have been enough, but it was still a wrench for me when I finally decided to hang up my Labour clogs. I had first joined the party in 1976, half a century ago. I was 15, living in Caerphilly. There was only one political party in Caerphilly back then. It has been part of my life for so long. Like an abusive partner, it was difficult to leave. You keep convincing yourself that they will get better. You love them and you can’t imagine being with anyone else, not even the lovely Green one that promises to tax billionaires.

So what was the gesture that led me to cancel my direct debit?

It was a motion presented to Croydon East constituency Labour Party, one that called on the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, who is also the Minister for Women and Equalities, to mandate the use of the honorific “Mix” in all official correspondence.

There is no typo there.

The honorific Mx exists already, and is widely (and indeed “officially”) accepted as a gender-neutral alternative to Mr, Miss, Mrs or Ms. But notwithstanding the existence of Mx, it is now the official policy of the Croydon East Constituency Labour Party that we must support the introduction of the letter “i” into it.

Perhaps this will render it even more gender-neutral and reduce violence against women and girls?

As an alternative, should the imposition of “Mix” prove a step too far for the minister, the CLP motion asked for the promotion of Ms as the primary honorific for women. This is the most egregious of all gesture politics. To ask for something that is already available is pure virtue-signalling.

I spoke against the motion but could quickly see from the froideur of most of those present that it was going to pass. So, I tried an alternative, an amendment, the removal of the letter “i”, so that we could at least ask for the promotion of a gender-neutral honorific that actually existed, rather than throw a new one into the, erm, mix. I didn’t make that joke at the time, of course. I can read a room.

Someone else suggested that the passage of such a motion would cause the constituency party to be ridiculed if the media got hold of it, and you know how awful the media is.

No objection was to be brooked, however and, by a large majority, the motion was passed, and it is now the official policy of Croydon East Constituency Labour Party to fight for the right to be a Mix.

Now my erstwhile  CLP, Croydon East, is the same CLP which is at the centre of a vote-rigging trial that has attracted national attention (pesky media!), with four Labour Party members in the dock at Southwark Crown Court yesterday. You’d think they’d have plenty to deal with beyond gestures. Or maybe not.

After the meeting, in the bar of Ruskin House, I spoke to Mix Chris Galpin. Mix Galpin is a smart man. So smart that he successfully campaigned to keep the bike rack at East Croydon Station. He didn’t just make do with having his photograph taken pointing at bike racks while looking cross.

I asked him what he thought the chances were of the Rt Hon Mix Phillipson promoting Mix in official correspondence. Mix Galpin explained to me that, of course, Mix Phillipson would not do so, but that wasn’t the point. It was about having the debate. Or something like that.

And the promoter of the motion? None other than Mix Melanie Felten, though now she has dropped the Mix in favour of another honorific, that of councillor. The very same councillor who last week was making speeches about saving heritage buildings, when those heritage buildings are far from saved.

Maybe there’s something in gesture politics after all.

• Ken Towl is a regular contributor to Inside Croydon who works as a teacher. In his time in the Labour Party in Croydon, he volunteered as branch treasurer and spent a year as a CLP delegate on the Local Campaign Forum – which never held a single meeting.

• Anyone can write a Croydon Commentary, a platform for our readers to offer their personal views and experiences about what matters to them in and around our corner of south London. To submit an article for consideration for publication, email us at inside.croydon@btinternet.com, or post your comment to an Inside Croydon article that has caught your attention

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