The Tory Insurgents March On!

"the push for a mayoral putsch, which has aroused passions amongst those in favour but barely any other reaction at all, seems quite exciting and, well, insurgent. I can easily see it succeeding: probably a low turnout with 80% in favour of a mayor, or something bizarre like that."

Well, that was my prediction ten days ago for the Croydon Mayoral referendum, and lo!   

• Turnout: 21%
• In favour: 80.4%

Every single ward voted in favour of switching to the elected-mayoral system, which gives the Left pause for thought: they thought their client minorities (who are in fact the majority in the north of the borough) could be persuaded otherwise.  Now the serious politicking starts, in particular within the People's Party, which having inevitably campaigned for the status quo (hence the original blog post) now have to scramble together a position for May's election.  They are posting tweets asking for forgiveness for things they said in the anti campaign (e.g. it was white middle-class men who wanted to switch to the mayoral system).  I won't bore you with the Toytown minutiae, but there are several amusing aspects:

• the Croydon North MP Steve Reed (Lab) was prominent in the anti-campaign: but he's Starmer's Shadow SoS for Communities and Local Government and his official policy for the nation as a whole is, ahem, pro elected mayors!
• he and the rest of his crew campaigned on the slogan "No Fat-Cat Mayor".  The lefties are now attacking, errr, themselves - for "fattist sloganeering" (sic) (!)  You couldn't make it up, and indeed I haven't.
• the famous local turncoat Andrew Pelling, once Tory MP for Croydon Central, deprived of the whip over allegations of wife beating, whereupon he switched first to run again (unsuccessfully) as an Independent, then as Labour (for whom he now holds a Council seat) ... having campaigned for the anti-mayor cause, now proclaims that this was only because the nasty folks in his new-chosen Party twisted his arm, and of course he's really very keen on elected mayors, particularly ones whose first name is Andrew and second name is Pelling.

And people wonder why Labour languishes in the polls, even in today's dire circumstances.  Well actually, no, they don't.

ND