TWITTER has been a load of rubbish this week.
Literally – the election campaign online has descended into a contest, it seems, for who can post the grottiest photograph of the borough.
The implication, from the Labour side especially of course, is that the council isn't and hasn't done enough to keep our streets clean – especially in the north of the borough.
And while the torrent of rubbish bags and streets strewn with junk on social media may have become a little overbearing after a while, there is a clear issue with the state of Croydon's streets – as the photos on page 26 of this newspaper, taken from a single Broad Green road, show.
What it also does is prove that, when it comes to where this election will be won or lost, the core issues aren't necessarily the incinerator or whether our council, for instance, does enough to promote Croydon economically.
It's far simpler than that, for most of us.
Collect my bin on time, make sure my kids' school is decent and drop those damned parking charges please.
Do that, and Mr and Mrs Croydon will have your vote.
Each week since mid-February, we've run a piece focusing on a particular ward in the run-up to the election and, for all the talk of a north-south divide in our borough, the issues being brought up are broadly similar.
Fly-tipping, parking, the need to protect independent traders – in other words, deeply local issues for a local election.
Those bin bags and piles of junk so omnipresent on our Twitter feeds this week fall into that category.
This is going to be a tight, tight election – whatever the result, and it'd be a huge surprise if there's more than three or four seats in it.
To get those crucial swing votes, the parties and their politicians must connect with the Croydon voting public.
Judging by our research of recent weeks, they might just be on to something with this barrage of bins.
Not such a rubbish idea, then.
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