Two weeks early and most candidates are defeated – Inside Croydon

Irons under fire: Labour’s official endorsed candidate for Croydon East (police are still investigating the selection process) had plenty of support at last night’s meeting

Electoral sketch: As all other party candidates in Croydon East admit they will lose on July 4, Labor face off as new MP calls her borough party’s bankruptcy and role in illegal hacking ‘a load of nothing’ . .
KEN TOWL went to the hustings so he didn’t have to

I was searching for the truth last night and found more than I bargained for at Woodside Baptist Church.

These sales were run in collaboration with St Luke’s, the church across the road and the Hyderi Islamic Centre, all members of Citizens UK, a non-political community activist group. I spoke to the church secretary, Neil Scarse, who told me he is undecided between two of the candidates and hopes to make up his mind tonight after listening to them.

He told me that the Labour, Tory, Green and Lib Dem candidates had all accepted Citizens UK’s invitation, while the UK Reform candidate had not. Neil didn’t seem terribly disappointed that Scott Holman, the candidate for Nigel Farage’s racist vanity project, a limited company masquerading as a political party, wasn’t going to honor the church.

After Monday’s bizarre smoke and mirrors in Croydon West, a poorly disguised campaign rally for Donna Murray-Turner of the Taking the Initiative Party, everything was very civil. Until it wasn’t.

wishes: LibDem (for now) Andrew Pelling

The candidates, Natasha Irons, Tory Jason Cummings, Green Peter Underwood and LibDem Andrew Pelling, had been instructed not to criticize each other. This was a well-intentioned rule, but it ignores the painful fact that, unfortunately, many of our elected officials engage in suboptimal behavior and sometimes have to be called out for it.

For Pelling, a former Tory MP and ex-Labour councillor, the rule was particularly chilling given that his whole schtick is that the Tories have failed nationally and Labor has failed locally. I wondered how long he would be able to hold on.

Candidates were asked to introduce themselves, a chance to give a personal side, something beyond their party manifestos, explaining how they got into politics in the first place.

Cummings cast himself as a man of the people who entered the murky world of politics after working for a “faceless corporation just trying to make money,” which is an interesting description of his years running a co-op. Oh, and he was local. Very local, having lived, married and worked in the constituency. It seemed OK to make an oblique criticism of other candidates.

Cumming’s latest leaflet is more explicit: “Labour candidate has never lived in Croydon… and sees sitting here as a career move”. This was very mild, almost subliminal, compared to what was to come.

Irons alluded to her background when, growing up in a working-class household with mold on the walls and limited heating, she grew up unable to believe that “politics was for people like us”, how grateful she was to Labor for providing decent social housing with central heating and how she was inspired by hearing a speech by Labor MP Oona King.

She came, she said rather decidedly, from “just down the road from Mitcham.” And here she was, on this side of the neighborhood border, on stage with three middle-aged, middle-class white men, the kind of people for whom politics was forever.

It was “Super Thursday,” Pelling said very smoothly, alluding to the fact that there were two other explosions around the neighborhood that same evening. Why did he enter politics? Because at school he wasn’t very good at art or dance and so he chose to do something easy.

On reflection, he said, politics wasn’t easy – this was his 17th election here in Croydon – and he wasn’t very good at it. It wasn’t all good humour, although He built the Coulsdon bypass, opened the BRIT school and doubled the size of Croydon Council’s pension fund. Again, perhaps the most oblique criticism of the financial acumen, or lack thereof, of the recent Labor administration.

It became less oblique. Again, he waved as he licked his opponents: Peter Underwood should be on the council and would have been if there was a fairer and more proportional voting system; Jason Cummings was a decent One Nation Tory; Natasha’s merton was not far away. Then he took it up with the other: he was glad Natasha wasn’t a “Croydon working person”. He had been excluded from the Work because he was a whistleblower. This was a party that “associated itself with media hacking and was not to be trusted with the government”. There were a few gasps and muted applause.

Man of the people: Jason Cummings looks set to change Conservative Party policy on Gaza

Peter Underwood had to follow that. His path into politics came from the realization that life “wasn’t fair”, that some people got a leg up while others got kicked down. He mentioned Brexit but it didn’t seem to land. Perhaps we were all still reeling from its predecessor’s breach of etiquette.

There were questions about the provision of youth services, mental health and housing. There was a remarkable degree of consensus; all were unsurprisingly in favor of youth provision, mental health and housing, even in no-fault evictions. Yes, even Tory candidate Jason Cummings agreed that no-fault evictions should end, even if his party doesn’t.

And then came the Gaza question, and rather than a consensus, it caused a competition to outdo the others. Cummings said he changed his mind about that. His exact words were: “Only civilians are killed. I would support a ceasefire. What is happening cannot be justified in any way, shape or form.”

Irons called for an immediate ceasefire and raised the claim that Palestine should be recognized as a state in a two-state solution.

Pelling saw his status and raised it with a ban on the sale of weapons.

Underwood, with little room to maneuver, said he was proud his party called for the October ceasefire and believed in a two-state solution or even a one-state solution, and it was up to the Palestinian people to decide

It was a touch of humor. Candidates were asked what they did in their youth that might have prepared them for public service. Irons spoke first. He had been a St John Ambulance cadet. It could put you in the recovery position.

It was a nice metaphor and a good spontaneous response that elicited an appreciative purr from the audience. Underwood’s sharper remark that he probably shouldn’t talk about what he did in his youth now that he was in a church was met with laughter. He had been raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and had spent much of his childhood being picked up by his parents knocking on the door. He was still knocking on doors.

Pelling wryly noted that he had mis-spent his youth “getting his Tory councilors elected in this town”, while Cummings rattled off some virtuous-sounding stuff about respecting the value of work and how he applied that knowledge to managing finances the council. , always bearing in mind that Council Tax comes from someone’s work.

He made no reference to his involvement in taking 21% of people’s hard-earned money through Council Tax from 2023. It was characteristic of a low-key performance from Cummings, currently a Croydon councilor and cabinet member for finance, and just he was about to explain why.

The candidates’ carefully rehearsed closing statements were their chance to say whatever they liked because it would be too late to stop them anyway. Underwood admitted she wasn’t going to win. The idea was, he said, that all votes count. Even if your candidate doesn’t win, the number of votes they get could have an impact.

Summarizing: The Green Party’s Peter Underwood told the audience that all votes counted, even if your choice, or your party, didn’t get enough to win the election.

Pelling took this a step further. “You can vote with your heart here because the opinion polls show that Natasha will be elected. I really hope she changes Labor in Croydon.”

He alluded again to hacking of Inside Croydon and how Labor councilors spent more time passing motions criticizing the press than discussing the borough’s finances.

Iron’s closing speech was dominated by her immediate rebuttal: “Never doubt that a Liberal Democrat will say nothing.”

This wasn’t quite as witty as her earlier burst of spontaneity, and Pelling was heard to complain, “It’s very condescending.”

“Yes,” said Irons.

From behind the scene came the voice of Dr. Sarfraz Jeraj of the Hyderi Islamic Center: “No condescending remarks, please.”

Cummings had the last word and put the entire evening into perspective.

He didn’t even ask for our votes. He was resigned to defeat. “Vote for the party and the people you want to lead the country,” he said, “The party I represent is unlikely to form that government. I’d love to be your MP, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

I found this quite moving. Here we had a politician speaking with absolute candor.

This raw honesty in an environment typically characterized by facade and fireworks and carefully honed melodies was powerful and memorable. I don’t think I’ve ever empathized with a conservative before. There again, maybe Cummings should have bailed years ago before he started screwing up the country.

So here it is. No matter what Neil decides, and I hope the powers that be helped him decide, three of the candidates have already conceded defeat. We know who the MP for Croydon East will be. This decision was taken by just over a hundred Labor Party members on 23 March at an internal Labor Party organization at Coloma Convent School.

This is probably not a narrative that Labor welcomes, risking, as it does, the possibility of complacency on the part of Labor voters or distrust on the part of anti-Conservative Green or LibDem voters, but it may also inspire people to vote Labor in to cause as much damage as possible to a Conservative Party which, here in Croydon at least, seems to have given up the ghost.

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