Vote David Lindsay, Vote For The Teaching Assistants

Vote David Lindsay

Vote For The Teaching Assistants

I have supported them from the very start

I secured them the support of several national trade union leaders in August 2016

I secured their landmark meeting with Jeremy Corbyn

I secured the signature of Angela Rayner on their petition

I secured the support for them that George Galloway regularly expresses on his radio programme and to his quarter of a million followers on Twitter

Their champion, Councillor Alex Watson OBE of Consett North, is the Patron of my Campaign

Thursday 4^th May

Vote For The Teaching Assistants

#VoteDavidLindsay

Published and promoted by, and on behalf of, David Lindsay, 13 Foxhills Crescent, Lanchester, Durham, DH7 0PW.

“Like My Father, I Will NEVER Forget About Burnhope”

You have eight candidates for County Councillor

 

Only David Lindsay has ever lived in Burnhope

 

Son of the late Canon Richard Lindsay

 

“Everyone else has forgotten about Burnhope. But, like my father, I will NEVER forget about Burnhope.”

 

Thursday 4^th May

#VoteDavidLindsay

 

Published and promoted by, and on behalf of, David Lindsay, 13 Foxhills Crescent, Lanchester, Durham, DH7 0PW.

A Healthy Development

I am now a Governor of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

Representing Derwentside, so feel free to get in touch about anything relevant.

Save The Date

Twenty-eight days have now passed since, in the words of George Galloway et al., a "shameful and shameless political hit job" that "recalls the darkest days of Northern Ireland or the American Deep South, with no dividing line between the Police, a massively dominant local political party, and a secret society bound by oaths."

I refer to my arrest, without having been given the opportunity to accompany the Police voluntarily, on the "grounds" that a single word on this site corresponded to one in a threatening letter that had allegedly been sent to Labour members of Durham County Council. The whole thing was dutifully leaked to The Times, where a senior position is held by a man who has been conducting a vendetta against me for almost the whole of the present century.

The only purpose of any of this, including the incomprehensible fact that I remain on (albeit unconditional) bail, was and is to intimidate me out of contesting the local elections on 4th May. But I am contesting the local elections on 4th May. In its own terms, then, this "racist, sectarian and partisan hit job" has failed.

My bail ought to be cancelled, and the items seized on 14th March, not all of which were mine, ought to be returned forthwith. One of the Officers who took those items complained that they were not new enough. Clearly, he had expensive tastes in other people's property.

If I were indeed to be made to answer bail on 31st May, then George Galloway and others have called on the Teaching Assistants, the Durham Miners' Association, Durham Unite Community, and all their supporters from around the country and beyond, to join them in marching behind me from the Miners' Hall to Durham City Police Station, and then in marching back again for a rally. Save the date.

As to whether the David Lindsay March and Rally ought to become an annual event, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Urge Restraint

Jeremy Corbyn, who has been ever so slightly proved right about these things in the past, has released the following statement via social media:

 

The US missile attack on a Syrian government air base risks escalating the war in Syria still further.

 

Tuesday’s horrific chemical attack was a war crime which requires urgent independent UN investigation and those responsible must be held to account.

 

But unilateral military action without legal authorisation or independent verification risks intensifying a multi-sided conflict that has already killed hundreds of thousands of people.

 

What is needed instead is to urgently reconvene the Geneva peace talks and unrelenting international pressure for a negotiated settlement of the conflict.

 

The terrible suffering of the Syrian people must be brought to an end as soon as possible and every intervention must be judged on what contribution it makes to that outcome.

 

The British government should urge restraint on the Trump administration and throw its weight behind peace negotiations and a comprehensive political settlement.

This Shameful and Shameless Political Hit Job

Organised by the great man, Adam Young, this has failed to make it into the Northern Echo. Nevertheless, here it is:

Dear Sir,

On Tuesday 14th March, despite having been given no opportunity to accompany the Police voluntarily, the Lanchester-based writer and activist, David Lindsay, was arrested on the “grounds” of supposed similarities between his letter published in the Northern Echo on Friday 10th March, and a threatening letter allegedly sent to Labour members of Durham County Council. When questioned by the Police, he comprehensively refuted the suggestion of any such similarity. He was released without charge and on unconditional bail [which would not have been imposed at all in a less corrupt part of the country, which is to say, in any other part of the country]. 

This shameful and shameless political hit job recalls the darkest days of Northern Ireland or the American Deep South, with no dividing line between the Police, a massively dominant local political party, and a secret society bound by oaths. It is impossible to rule out an anti-Catholic aspect to this case, and impossible to ignore the fact that David Lindsay is mixed-race. 

We are delighted that David Lindsay is indeed a candidate for Durham County Council on 4th May. He secured the support for the Teaching Assistants of several national trade union leaders, of Jeremy Corbyn, and of George Galloway. He is also a powerful critic of the closure of the DLI Museum, of the amassing of vast reserves while services have been and are being cut, of the bailing out of Durham County Cricket Club despite those cuts, of the mismanagement of relations with the Regional Assembly, of the selling off of care homes at discounted value, of the scandal of Windlestone Hall, of the circumstances that necessitated the award of enormous compensation to a teacher, of the substantial additional cost of the failure to pay that compensation promptly, and of the lavish expense of entertainment by senior Councillors and Officers.

And he is the originator of the proposal that unites the trade unions with Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Independents, to bring the whole of the Volkswagen Group’s production for the British market to County Durham after Brexit. Racist, sectarian and partisan hit jobs must not be permitted to prevent his election as a County Councillor. If David Lindsay were indeed to be made to answer bail on 31st May, then we call on the Teaching Assistants, the Durham Miners’ Association, Durham Unite Community, and all their supporters from around the country and beyond, to march behind him from the Miners’ Hall to Durham Police Station, and then to march back again for a rally. We ourselves would certainly do so.

Yours faithfully,

Adam J. Young

George Galloway

James Draper

John Mooney

Krystyna Koseda

Neil Clark

Sean Caden

By My Own Hand

Sent: 18 March 2017 16:02

To: john.simpson@thetimes.co.uk

Cc: [Solicitor]; general.enquiries@durham.pcc.pnn.gov.uk; PCVC.Media@durham.pcc.pnn.gov.uk; pat.glass.mp@parliament.uk; echo.news@northeast-press.co.uk; mail.news@northeast-press.co.uk; news@eveninggazette.co.uk; ec.news@ncjmedia.co.uk; jnl.newsdesk@ncjmedia.co.uk; richard.moss@bbc.co.uk; mark.denten@bbc.co.uk; tellmystory@bbc.co.uk; look.north.comment@bbc.co.uk; pamandian@itv.com; george@galloway.global; letters@peoples-press.com; articlesubmission@thewordmedia.org.uk; daviesjamesalan@hotmail.co.uk; bringdownsun@gmail.com; peter.stefanovic86@icloud.com; giles.fraser@guardian.co.uk; rliddlemonkey@hotmail.com info@counterfire.org; brendan.oneill@spiked-online.com; editor@weeklyworker.co.uk; peter.hitchens@mailonsunday.co.uk; peter.oborne@dailymail.co.uk; admin@durhamminers.co.uk; durhamcsc@gmail.com; lanchestervillagevoice@yahoo.co.uk; strobes@private-eye-co..uk; afshin@afshinrattansi.com; enquiries@ipcc.gsi.gov.uk; contact@hmic.gsi.gov.uk; inquiries@ipso.co.uk; canonspence@btconnect.com; team@order-order.com; martindaubney@hotmail.com

Subject: Further to your piece about me on page 19 of yesterday’s Times

Dear Mr Simpson,

Further to your piece about me on page 19 of yesterday’s Times:

First, I was not “planning to stand as an Independent” for the council and for Parliament. I was planning to stand with No Description, since, although I am a member of no party, I am part of several partially overlapping political networks. That remains my firm intention.

Secondly, when Fidel Castro died, then I wrote as a qualified critic of the Cuban Revolution, accepting its achievements in healthcare and education both at home and abroad, and pointing out that it had persecuted homosexuality only while that was also the case in the United Kingdom [I ought also to have mentioned its role in the war in Angola, which dealt a body blow to the apartheid regime in South Africa], but otherwise saying merely that it had replaced a ghastly regime, that its enemies in Miami remained morally and politically bankrupt, and that Cuba had at least fared better than neighbouring and comparable Haiti.

Thirdly, I have not worked for The Times’s rival, the Daily Telegraph, in around 10 years.

Fourthly, I had been given to understand that the offensive letter, which of course I did not write or send, had not left Police hands. How, then, did The Times obtain it, in order to quote from it very extensively? In covering this case, The Times alone has named me, and The Times alone has carried my photograph. [No other media outlet has been in touch, to this day. But the local ones, in particular, know me, and they certainly know where I live.]

Fifthly, the enormous sums of money cited are beyond my imagination.

Sixthly, as many readers of The Times will have noticed, “Blood will have blood” is a quotation from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Seventhly, I have never written about Rojava, I have rarely mentioned Kashmir (and never in any depth), I have only ever reproduced other writers’ work (with acknowledgement) about Rousseff and Brazil, and I have never written about Duterte and the Philippines.

Eighthly, as will be set out in a further email to my solicitor and in a note appended to the Police copy of this email, the irrelevant fact that I live with my mother, which you mention without reference to my disability, is certainly known to a senior member of staff on The Times, Oliver Kamm, a column by whom pointedly also appeared yesterday. Kamm has pursued a vendetta against me, among others, for many years. He has tweeted gloatingly about your piece.

Ninthly, Kamm and his circle have a history of snide remarks about the fact that my books so far have been self-published. Those books, Essays Radical and Orthodox and Confessions of an Old Labour High Tory, are both available on Amazon. The eminent persons who commend the latter, which you name, include two members of the House of Lords and three Professors, one of whom is a former MP, Shadow Cabinet member, and Labour Leadership candidate. By contrast, the vicious reviews on Amazon bear a strong resemblance to the views of Oliver Kamm or of those who might be seeking to curry favour with him.

When questioned by the Police, I was asked if I knew of anyone who hated me enough to do this to me. In shock, and thinking purely locally, I could name no one. I am no longer in shock, and I am no longer thinking purely locally. I do not accuse Kamm of anything. I say that he hates me, and that his name would be my answer to that question if it were to be asked of me again. He has certainly had some kind of contact with Durham in the past, such that he has been able to do me damage. You name only the Daily Telegraph and the Huffington Post as publications for which I have previously worked. There are others, and I have a current column on a print newspaper, The Word. But it was Kamm who conspired with forces at Durham (my then tutee, Vincent McAviney, who was the Editor of the student newspaper, Palatinate, and who is now at LBC) to have me removed from the Telegraph. I also strongly suspect that his influence is the reason why the Huffington Post no longer publishes my submissions. The man who sacked me from the Telegraph, Damian Thompson, has retweeted Kamm’s tweet about your piece.

Tenthly, I did work at Durham for Teikyo University in Tokyo, but I have never been to Japan. Eleventhly, the quotation from my friend, Councillor Carl Marshall, is a week or more old, and it therefore predates my arrest. And twelfthly, although I was given no opportunity to accompany the Police and to answer their questions without needing to be arrested (as I would gladly have done), nevertheless I am uncharged, I am on unconditional bail [I would not be on bail at all anywhere other than here in the 1960s theme park that is Poulson County, Mississippi], and I am continuing to campaign and to raise funds, including by means of crowdfunding, for May’s local elections.

By my own hand, a printed out, paper copy of this email will be at Durham City Police Station on New Elvet within one hour of its having been sent electronically. [It was.]

Yours sincerely,
David Lindsay (Mr)