"I think some politicians are really posh," says a man over an upbeat folksy guitar rhythm, "I don't think Andy is, he's a really nice bloke."
The rest of the video continues in much the same way; genuine sounding people describing Andy Stranack as someone who "really does care", who "understands" and is "prepared to work 25 hours a day". One word not used during the three minute clip is "Conservative".
His opponents, particularly those backing Labour's Steve Reed, claim the video is part of a Tory ploy to distance their candidate from his party's "toxic" reputation in Croydon North.
While some of their reasoning stretches the limits of credibility (they attacked the lack of party branding in an endorsement video featuring Education Secretary Michael Gove) perhaps they have a point.
Ever since Stranack was selected, the party has welcomed his label as '
not your usual Conservative'.
You could list the prospective Tory MPs with cerebral palsy who gave up their jobs, sold their house and moved on to a council estate to research the causes of poverty, on a postage stamp.
But could his selection itself be part of this elaborate plan to hoodwink the electorate?
"I don't think so," said Stranack. "The Conservative Party is changing. If you look at the selection process, the three people who were shortlisted were myself and two BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) candidates.
"There's a broader selection coming through and I think that's good for the party. I don't think it was a conscious attempt but I think it's a natural flow of what is happening.
"They are drawing from a wider base and therefore the people coming to the top are perhaps not what you would consider."
I asked the party about the people in the video, called
About Andy by Others. Some are from the job club he runs in New Addington, others the congregation at Croydon Jubilee Church, in London Road. They have known Andy for many years and, I am told, none of them are members of the Conservative Party.
They appear to sum up why the Tories claim they selected him. He portrayed as a decent, hard-working person from Croydon who puts in the time and effort to help the borough where he lives.
Is it that his opponents don't believe it's possible to be these things and be a Conservative?
"I would say I've always been a natural Conservative as I've always believed in sharing responsibility between the state and individuals," replied Andy when asked whether he had ever been tempted to join another party.
"I believe empowering individuals is more important than throwing money at them. My natural instincts are Conservative. Whether I would have expressed them without Cameron coming in and talking about the Big Society, I don't know.
"But I wouldn't have expressed it had the kid on the estate not been killed."
It's an event Andy mentions a number of times during our interview, but first it's worth exploring how he reached that point. In 2001, he gave up his £30,000 policy officer job at Croydon Council, sold his house in Birdhurst Rise, South Croydon, and moved on to the Monks Hill estate near Selsdon.
Why? Despite writing the Lottery bid which helped rebuild Thornton Heath leisure centre, he realised his work, and that of the council, was having little impact on the troubled kids he wanted to reach.
So he approached the leader of Croydon Jubilee Church, where he had helped run a youth club, and decided to move to Monks Hill and study poverty first hand.
To begin with, he helped the church to manage its finances, putting in business plans and submitting bids for funding. Soon he got the front line experience he was looking for.
"A boy I had got to know through one of the clubs we were running had been smoking cannabis," said Stranack.
"I asked him when he started and he told me that he had bought it off his grandmother when he was eight.
"When I first came across him he was on the verge of an ASBO and his mum and dad were about to get evicted from their house because of their behaviour. The police knew him by his first name.
"What I realised is that there's no silver bullet to solving these problems. They are multi-generational.
"There are so many factors – poor education, drug addiction, and welfare dependency – and they all come together to create the problems we're now facing.
"The policies I had been writing were about giving them six-week football or ten-week tennis courses, when actually you need to build relationships and trust."
In September 2004, Stranack learned what life on the street can be like when he witnessed one of the young people he had been working with being attacked. After taking him to hospital he was then told the boy's cousin had been stabbed to death.
"It made me seriously question whether I was doing anything good there," said Stranack.
"If it wasn't for my faith and the church, I would probably have given up. That was the point I decided that if I was going to solve these problems I've got to get further up the policy ladder."
His voluntary work led him to a role on Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Centre for Social Justice. I ask him what impact a think tank has had on poverty in places like Monks Hill or Thornton Heath?
Stranack replied that raising threshold of income tax to £9,205 will lift "50,000 people in Croydon North out of tax altogether" and that for a person on minimum wage their tax bill has halved.
"We introduced community right to buy, a challenge that's saying to the council 'you're not the only people who can run these services'," he said.
"Upper Norwood Library, Stanley Halls – these are projects where we are breaking into the public sector and saying the community can run these facilities much better.
"We're empowering these people to run communities themselves and that's what I'm passionate about."
On this point, at least, Stranack and Reed have some common ground. Though the Labour candidate
hates the comparison, both his co-operative council and The Big Society are, in theory at least, about giving power back to the people.
I ask Stranack about Cameron's big idea and whether it has made any difference to people living in Croydon North. He cites the West Croydon Community Forum, a resident and business-led group set up following last summer's riots. He believes the Big Society help establish the forum but when challenged he struggles to give a reason why. Finally, he concedes the group, which he is involved with, would have been formed anyway.
"With the Big Society you are promoting a philosophy," adds Stranack.
"The trouble with it is if you get the state to say 'this is how you're going to do it', you're going down the wrong route. It's got to be from the bottom up."
His problem, however, is that the constituency needs more than projects which are hard to define or have to occur naturally.
Following the riots, the main word on people's lips was 'neglect'. Underinvestment in areas like London Road and Thornton Heath can be traced back beyond this current Conservative council but when the constituency reached its lowest point, the people who live there were promised change. It takes time, of course, but they have seen precious few examples.
Inevitably people will hold Stranack's party responsible, more so after delays to compensation and insurance payouts, then being told the majority of the £23 million pledged to the borough by Boris Johnson will be spent outside of Croydon North.
"I think the way it is being done is the right way," said Stranack.
"The reality is that a few months ago there was talk that West Croydon might get a bit of money. Now it's a significant part of the £23m. At the beginning the money was going to be spent on bricks and mortar, now £5m is going on social regeneration. There have been changes and that has come through people listening."
So why do the Tories have so little presence in the area?
"Over the years there have been demographic changes and the Conservatives have been slow to engage with them," he said.
"It was a white party. Under Margaret Thatcher it did really well engaging with white working class people but they have been slow to catch up with changing demographics in terms of ethnicity."
But you're white, I point out.
"Yes, but I come from the most under represented minority, both in the country and in Parliament," replied Stranack, who overcame being told by doctors at the age of five that his cerebral palsy meant he would never walk.
"You could say my culture understands what it's like to be a minority, perhaps more than other people.
"I completely understand what it's like to walk down the street and be laughed and spat at just because of the way I walk. So I understand some of the hurt of being outside mainstream society."
Critics of the Tories deride the party for being out of touch with reality but perhaps Stranack shows they are listening. Certainly it's difficult to detect from talking to him a cunning plan to dupe the electorate.
In a number of ways he's a typical Conservative. He rationalises cuts to policing budgets,
closing police stations and deducting – or removing – benefits for those who fail to attend work programmes.
Maybe his opponents are unnerved because he doesn't fit the caricature of the dastardly Tory stealing milk from children and kicking old ladies out of hospitals. Even Reed called him a "nice guy" and praised his charity work in an
open letter to his rival.
The worst you could say about the man is that he might be too nice for the cut-throat world of politics. Certainly he allowed other candidates to talk over him during the Advertiser's election debate.
Throughout our interview Stranack stresses his love of a challenge. He will certainly be up against it when Croydon North decides on Thursday. But, if people do vote for him, they will definitely be voting for a Conservative.
![Croydon North: Are the Tories avoiding the C-word?]( "Croydon North: Are the Tories avoiding the C-word?")
