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Lording over democracy: what reforms we really need
Our report from the House of Commons on the Lords Reform debate produced several insightful comments from Inside Croydon readers. Reform of the second chamber may not be the most important matter...
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Sutton shows its neighbours the power of volunteering
With Croydon Council failing to back any local summer fairs or concerts, ANDREW PELLING joined thousands of other residents from the borough at yesterday’s environmental fair in Carshalton Croydon used...
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LibDem MP happy to put the Brake on Sutton seat changes
Tom Brake, the Sutton LibDem MP who could see his Carshalton and Wallington seat broken up in a merger with safe Tory Croydon wards, believes that the coalition government’s boundary changes are dead...
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Promotions for Grant and Deighton; but nothing for Barwell?
The ConDem government’s week-long reshuffle has included much interest for locally based figures, with Helen Grant, who has a solicitors’ practice based on the Purley Way, getting promoted to a job at...
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‘MPs are being chosen by tiny bunches of people’
Local democracy is in a state of terminal decay, through disinterest, apathy, disgust with politicians and general ignorance, with the effect that unrepresentative cabals are dominating the national...
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East is East for Barwell after boundary changes change
As former MP ANDREW PELLING observes, the revised proposals for the parliamentary constituencies in Croydon and Sutton suggest that in this part of south London, at least, the LibDems have driven a...
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Halloween horror: How did your MP vote on the EU budget?
The ConDem government was defeated in parliament on the EU budget last night – Halloween – after 53 Conservative MPs defied their party over the issue. Tory rebels joined with Labour to pass an...
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Election questions: Marisha Ray, Liberal Democrats
The Croydon North by-election is on November 29, and Inside Croydon has put to candidates a set of questions. We will be putting the responses on the record, published without the artifice,...
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Sutton’s Tories in meltdown as they face “yellow wash”
The Liberal Democrats defied all national trends and their party’s unpopular part in the ConDem coalition to hold Stonecot ward with a 7.7 per cent swing from the Conservatives in last Thursday’s...
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Mayday! Croydon hospital on CQC’s staffing danger list
The NHS safe in their hands? So this is how the coalition works: in the General Election the Conservatives promise “no top-down re-organisation” of the NHS. Having failed to win the election, the...
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Ashes to ashes: Only Boris can stop Viridor incinerator now
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Did Sutton’s LibDems last night grant planning permission to Viridor for its £1bn incinerator project at Beddington Lane just so that someone else could make the tough decision to...
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Sutton Tories look north for infusion of fresh blue blood
The Conservative party in Sutton are clearly unconcerned that they are perceived to be a party of arrogant posh boys who don’t know the price of a pint of milk (copyright 2012 N Dorries). They have...
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Syria, Parliament and the local MPs who want it all ways
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Where do local MPs stand on the issue of intervention in Syria after Thursday night’s votes in the House of Commons? In some cases, it is hard to say, writes ANDREW PELLING,...
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Mayday! Mayday! Croydon hospital among the country’s worst
Well, if you weren’t gloomy enough about life in Croydon already, as shown by the Prime Minister’s “happiness index” published yesterday, today’s news about the standards of our country’s hospitals,...
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Baronetcy true blue blood comes to Labour’s aid in Sutton
Croydon, twinned with Arnhem in the Netherlands, has strong attachments with the Parachute Regiment. This may explain why political candidates of all parties are so readily parachuted into the area so...
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Noted: How our local MPs voted to oppose food bank motion
On Wednesday, in the House of Commons, the Labour party put forward a motion that called for the government to look into the use of food banks in Britain. The number of people – many of them...
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Sutton’s LibDem MPs face election defeat, says pundit
The LibDems in Sutton could be facing a Bluewash at the 2015 General Election, and may lose both the borough’s MPs, the “charismatically challenged” Tom Brake, the deputy leader of the House in the...
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Bad day for LibDems in Sutton – and for St Helier Hospital
Stephen Fenwick, a councillor in Sutton, was forced to resign as a Liberal Democrat yesterday after pleading guilty in court to racially aggravated assault. Fenwick was given a conditional discharge...
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Labour poised to take control of council as Tories blame UKIP
We will be reporting live through the night on the local election results in Croydon, and we welcome your comments by email and Twitter. Keep checking back every 30min or so for updates and additions –...
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Foreign aid on agenda at Thornton Heath debate, Jan 15
The charity Child Aid Lanka is staging a Question Time event in Thornton Heath next Thursday, January 15, with an impressive panel of guests, including Dominic Grieve MP, the Tories’ former attorney...
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