Philp bottles it up and rushes out of the ‘cesspit’ Facebook group – Inside Croydon

Croydon Mayor Jason Perry and Police Minister Chris Philp were in wide retreat after the London election, hastily trying to distance themselves from the “absolute past of racism and hate speech” they helped to fuel. promote on social media to try to help him. Nasty Party mayoral candidate Susan Hall.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Caught: how will Perry and Philp stir up racist hatred and anti-ULEZ vandalism now?

Within hours of Sadiq Khan being declared the winner of Saturday’s London mayoral election, Croydon’s Tories were batting down the hatches and closing shop on the secret Facebook group they set up that sought to make political capital out of racism and anti- ULEZ Fervor outside London.

It was September last year when Inside Croydon revealed the private group Croydon Say No To ULEZ Expansion, which published posts both celebrating and apparently condoning the vandalism of cameras installed for London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone.

The group had been set up with Jason Perry, the poor mayor of Croydon, as ‘Admin’ and (don’t laugh) listed as ‘Expert’.

Prominent among its 2,000 members was Chris Philp, the MP for Croydon South and, last time I checked, police minister

“Abuse is mandatory,” wrote one of their Facebook friends last year after another member boasted of shouting at Transport for London workers repairing a vandalized camera.

Ugly Party: Friends of Croydon Tories Jason Perry and Chris Philp wasted no time in shutting down their Facebook group.

A recent Greenpeace investigation identified 36 similar and equally secretive Facebook groups, set up by Conservative Party staff or activists around London, which not only supported the criminal damage to ULEZ cameras, but became a forum for Islamophobic attacks on Sadiq Khan, suggesting that he should be “done. ” and using racist language about the Mayor of London.

Rachel Cromie, a Tory councilor from Haywards Heath in Sussex, was listed as an administrator in all Facebook groups. Her register of interests lists Tory campaign headquarters in a section about employment and she was previously described as an area campaign manager for the Tory Party.

Greenpeace called the groups “an absolute hotbed of vile racism and hate speech, as well as a breeding ground for dangerous conspiracy theories”.

When caught wallowing in their own racist cesspool last year, Philp and Perry duly condemned the breach of the law and made weak enough excuses for not being responsible for everything posted on a group page. socialization…

With journalists checking their activities, the group’s “about” section was quickly updated to include a warning against posts encouraging ULEZ vandalism. Not that Perry or his fellow trustees – including his son, Tory Party official William Perry and Coulsdon councilor Luke Shortland – have done anything to support this respectable new rule.

Susan Hall, the Harrow hairdresser who the Tories backed to become Mayor of London, was listed as a member of at least seven of these anti-ULEZ Facebook groups.

Where they’ll go next time they want to stir up some racist bile, and Trump’s loathing of London is hard to tell.

It wasn’t long before 6pm on Saturday when a note appeared on the group’s page saying that Croydon Tories (so they were no longer trying to pretend this was a group set up by ordinary residents) had archived the page. Archiving makes it impossible for individuals to post additional comments – or pictures of downed lampposts – and hides them from searches.

Gone but not forgotten: Croydon mayor Perry gets away with incriminating Facebook page

The “Recent Activity” feature no longer works, and it’s impossible to tell if it was turned off on purpose or made inactive by archiving.

Perry and his little Willie were both removed as group admins, as was Shortland.

Philp ended his membership (or had an office swashbuckler do it for him).

According to what was accessible via the interwebs on Saturday, the last remaining administrators of the Croydon Say No To ULEZ Expansion were Cromie, Max Barnby (believed to be a Conservative Party colleague and another who has appeared as an administrator on several anti- ULEZ), Rhys Elsey and James Hillam, who has been selected as a Conservative Party local election candidate in 2022. Hillam is listed as a senior technology consultant at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust.

Meanwhile, the Police Minister remains silent and inactive on clamping down on the many examples of criminal damage and vandalism to public property in suburban London, costing hard-working taxpayers in his Croydon South constituency hundreds of thousands of pounds. Or, for that matter, against those responsible for encouraging such criminality.

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