Croydon Council’s last meeting before the local elections: calm before the...
“Profoundly shocking” is how Tory leader Mike Fisher describes the “nature of the revelations made by the review” of the police handling of the Stephen Lawrence commissioned by the Home Secretary....
View ArticleThe Public Gallery: Boris and Lucas on the campaign trail ’14
Caroline Lucas MP raises Green spirits even further than usual Shouts to Andrew Pelling of ‘are you going to join the Greens next, Andrew?’ were the first thing I became aware of when I joined the...
View ArticleWho should lead Croydon? Mike Fisher and Tony Newman go head-to-head
This Thursday, Croydon will go to the polls and elect a new council. It is very probable that one of these two men will lead it. Mike Fisher, the Conservative incumbent leader of Croydon Council, has...
View ArticleThe Public Gallery: Were you still up for Kellett?
Labour wins control of the council by 40 seats to 30 After weeks of a narrowing poll lead and an increasingly competitive campaign, the Croydon Council election proved to have a decisive outcome. The...
View ArticleThe Public Gallery: A new mayor and a new administration
I like the public gallery in the Town Hall Council Chamber. It inspired the name of this column for a number of reasons. One is that it reminds me that I attend meetings as a member of Joe Public, the...
View ArticleThe Public Gallery: Adjusting to power (and to opposition)
Labour claims a flying start on flytipping Labour’s back. In more ways than one – the new cabinet contains faces familiar to those who watched the last Labour council, which left office in 2006, in...
View ArticleThe Public Gallery: Gone fishin’
So what did I miss? I had a very lovely time at the Edinburgh Fringe (and you can see a snapshot of what I was up to here), but I did wonder about what I was missing back home. Luckily for me, it was...
View ArticleThe Public Gallery: Thirty-two Thursdays
Like many observers, I was unhappy about the Fixed Term Parliaments Act of 2011. It seemed to be making a major constitutional change – fixing the exact dates of our elections in advance – for the...
View ArticleThe Public Gallery: from Cherry Orchard Road to Westminster and Hong Kong
The council tax freeze, 2015, and you The leader of Croydon Council, Labour’s Cllr Tony Newman, announced to a full council meeting on Monday that Labour’s manifesto pledge to freeze council tax for...
View ArticlePrint Archive: October 2014 News Magazine – Happening here
It should come as a surprise to no one that Croydon, with its claims to being the birthplace of major figures in art, music, and cinema, should have a thriving cultural scene. But even Croydon’s most...
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