Get Ready, Get Readies

The list of signatories to Laura Pidcock's Nomination Papers was one fifth as long as these things used to be, most of the people on it had never held elected public office, and the one member of the unitary Durham County Council had been elected for the first time a mere matter of days earlier. Gone are the days when all Labour County and what were then District Councillors nominated the parliamentary candidate because they just did, no matter how much they might have despised Hilary Armstrong personally, and when even some Independents also signed up.

There are now two Labour Parties here in North West Durham. One is long-established, and it is fairly leftish. It nominated Ed Miliband in 2010, Andy Burnham in 2015, and Jeremy Corbyn in 2016. It selected and reselected Pat Glass. It is far from Blairite. But it also has a long history of working successfully with this constituency's many Conservative voters (34 per cent last year) and with its many Independent Councillors, as well as with occasional Lib Dems, and with both Lib Dems and Conservatives at Parish level.

The other, however, is the Laura Pidcock Party. A handful of mostly undistinguished local activists, bussed in hordes from far and wide at election time, and a Facebook and Twitter army of her fans from hundreds of miles away. "All" I need is £10,000, and I really will contest North West Durham against Pidcock, with heavyweight local support, Labour until that point, and otherwise. Make it happen. I can be contacted on davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. All that we need are the readies.

Laura Who?

No, I am not "standing against" a person who this time last year had never set eyes on this constituency, who had to give a false address on the ballot paper (although she does live here now), about whose candidacy no one in the Constituency Labour Party had ever been asked, and the signatories to whose Nomination Papers were mostly less than prominent in local affairs. The list of those who had actively refused to sign would make for very interesting reading.

Her online fan club comes entirely from outside this constituency, where I have lived since before she was born. Her reputation rests on a speech that can only have impressed people who had never heard a speech before. When I was first introduced, by a person of some distinction, as "the man who should have been our MP," then she was still in school. If she chose to stand against me, then that would be up to her. But that would be what she was doing. And she would lose.

To Cancel Out His Enemies

Written and sent on Friday, before either the Owen Smith or the anti-Semitism, I do not yet know whether this has made it into any of the papers, but here it is:

Dear Sir,

Since becoming the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn has succumbed too much to those within his party who will never accept his Leadership. He has overlooked his supporters by appointing his enemies to frontbench and other positions. He has allowed some of them to worm their way back in, despite their having resigned in an attempt to force him from office. He has allowed a free vote on Syria, yet no one remembers a free vote on Iraq. He has whipped an abstention on Trident. He has acted against the social and ethnic cleansing of Labour Haringey, but not to secure justice for the 472 Teaching Assistants in Labour Durham. He is supporting the Government’s indulgence of the ludicrous theory of gender self-identification. He is hinting at support for the Customs Union. And he has gone too far in accepting Theresa May’s and Boris Johnson’s totally unproven attempt to blame the Russian State for the attack in Salisbury.

Jeremy Corbyn is the most culturally significant British politician in living memory, the most agenda-setting Leader of the Opposition ever, and the global leader of the opposition to neoliberal economic policy and to neoconservative foreign policy. The Corbyn Government will lead Britain and the world out of politically chosen austerity, and away from wars of political choice. But only if it is backed up by enough MPs to cancel out his enemies within his own party, since there is going to be either another hung Parliament or a tiny overall majority.

Yours faithfully, 

David Lindsay

(Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, North West Durham)

Marching On

As obscure Labour Party staffers ostentatiously resign in anticipation of tomorrow's appointment of Jennie Formby as General Secretary, today would have been a very good day to expel Tony Blair from the Labour Party and see whether anyone went with him.

For today is the seventh anniversary of the beginning of our war in Libya and, at least in London's and Washington's timezones, it is also the fifteenth anniversary of the beginning of our war in Iraq. Do not believe everything that you are told by politicians on "intelligence". If you are a politician, then do not believe everything that you are told as "intelligence".

Instead, demand a Coroner's Inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly. Demand the diversion of British funds from the "Free Syrian Police" and the White Helmets to the United Kingdom's own emergency services.

Bring an action before the International Criminal Court against those who have brought slavery back to Libya. Bring an action before the High Court of Justiciary of Scotland, inviting it to exercise its declaratory power against Tony Blair and his accomplices in the aggression against Iraq in 2003.

Oppose Donald Trump while understanding why people voted for him. And oppose Donald Trump on the grounds that led many of us to oppose Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. On those same grounds, we would have opposed Hillary Clinton.

You know what you have to do, brothers and sisters. You know what you have to do.

The Open Road

I am already working to bring to County Durham the Volkswagen Group's production for the British market.

Out of the Single Market, out of the Customs Union, and out of "a customs union" such as is advocated by both main political parties. But as part of my pursuit of a Brexit that served the needs of the areas, such as this one, that cast the decisive votes in favour of it, and as part of my work to integrate all parts of this country into the Belt and Road Initiative.

A company would be wholly owned by Volkswagen. One Director would be nominated by each of the Groups on Durham County Council other than the Labour Group, which is clearly unsympathetic to this project, and one Director would be nominated by those Councillors who had no formal political affiliation. A number of Directors equal to the number of non-Labour Groups would be nominated by Unite the Union, including one by Durham Unite Community. One Director would be nominated by the Durham Miners' Association. A Chairman appointed by Volkswagen would exercise the parent company’s veto over all decisions.

This new company would undertake to match (by such means as to avoid any conflict of interest) the Members' Initiative Fund of £2000 per annum at the disposal of each of the Councillors who were represented on its Board of Directors. It would underwrite the cost of the activities of Durham Unite Community. It would underwrite the Durham Miners' Gala. And it would underwrite the cost of maintaining the Durham Miners' Hall.

Similar things could, and must, be done around the country. Like this, they depend on being out of the Single Market, out of the Customs Union, and out of "a customs union" such as is advocated by both main political parties. All that, and we need the extra £350 million per week for the NHS to be written on the face of the legislation withdrawing the United Kingdom from the EU. Along with the restoration of the United Kingdom's historic fishing rights of 200 miles or to the median line, in accordance with international law.

You know what you have to do, brothers and sisters. You know what you have to do.

For A Start

Events somewhat overshadowed the Spring Statement, not that it was particularly thrilling, so you may not have heard that Britain now had the lowest economic growth in the G20. Conservative Party figures, so to speak, are always assumed to know about the economy, anyway. Journalists never question them on it. Their assertions are taken on simple trust, while their Labour counterparts are expected to bring along 10-year spreadsheets. Well, since I am not a member of the Labour Party, still less am I a spokesman for it, you will find no 10-year spreadsheet here.

Instead, you will find a call for the promised £350 million per week extra for the National Health Service to appear on the face of the legislation withdrawing the United Kingdom from the European Union. You will find a warm welcome for the additional billion pound investment in jobs and services in Northern Ireland, and a call for Scotland, Wales, and each of the nine English regions to receive the same per capita, as part of the application of Modern Monetary Theory, including the Land Value Tax. You will find a call for the Universal Basic Income, while continuing to campaign, through Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee, for full employment with the Living Wage, and thus for the bargaining power of the trade unions. 

You will find a call for the reassertion of democratic political control over the Bank of England, including that the approval of the House of Commons be required for changes to interest rates, and for the assertion of democratic political control over the City of London, with a Glass-Steagall division between investment banking and retail banking, and with the closure of all tax havens under British jurisdiction. You will find a call for a reorientation towards the BRICS countries, including the integration into the Belt and Road Initiative of all four parts of the United Kingdom, of all nine English regions, and of all of the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. And you will find a call for supporters of economic equality to be elected to the City of London Corporation, to the States of Jersey, to the States of Guernsey, to Tynwald, and to the legislatures of the British Overseas Territories.

For a start, anyway. Here in North West Durham, I have been politically active for more than 20 years. The next General Election will result, either in another hung Parliament, or in a tiny overall majority. You know what you have to do, brothers and sisters. You know what you have to do.

Answer Time

I have often been told by people who have done it that a first appearance on Question Time is more daunting than any other experience. Laura Pidcock did not do too badly last night, despite appearing to suggest that she obtained her seat both through an all-women shortlist and on merit. But politics is politics. This remains a matter of record, and every organisation or publication named on it is now aware of its existence. None has objected. Therefore, Laura has three options.

First, she could accept the endorsement of each and all of the Alliance for Green Socialism, the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, the Anarchist Federation, Class War, the Communist League, the Communist Party of Britain, the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee), the Communist Party of Ireland, the Communist Party of Scotland, the Communist Workers Organisation, the Economic and Philosophic Science Review, Éirígí, the Independent Working Class Association, the Industrial Workers of the World, the International Socialist League, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, Left Unity, Lewisham People Before Profit, London Black Revolutionaries, the New Communist Party of Britain, Old Swan Against the Cuts, the People Before Profit Alliance, the Republican Communist Network, the Republican Network for Unity, Republican Sinn Féin, the Revolutionary Communist Group, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), RISE – Scotland’s Left Alliance, the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement, the Scottish Socialist Party, Socialist Action, Socialist Appeal, the Socialist Equality Party, the Socialist Labour Party, the Socialist Party (England and Wales), the Socialist Party of Great Britain, the Socialist Party Scotland, Socialist Resistance, Socialist Studies, the Socialist Workers Party, Solidarity, the Solidarity Federation, the Spartacist League of Britain, the Stalin Society, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, the West Dunbartonshire Community Party, Workers’ Fight, the Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International, the Workers’ Party of Ireland, the Workers Revolutionary Party, and World Revolution.

Secondly, she could accept the endorsements of some of those, but not of others, specifying which fell into each category and why. Or thirdly, she could reject the endorsement of each and all of them. Which is it to be? Of course, any of them might also withdraw its endorsement of her, in which case it would be honour bound to field or support a candidate against both her and me.

Moreover, there is still the question of the Teaching Assistants, 472 of whom Durham County Council has deprived of 23 per cent of their pay, so that they are now paid less for full time work with children than the members of that council are paid for no formal requirement beyond attendance at four meetings per year. With another hung Parliament on the way, justice for the 472 would be a non-negotiable condition of my support for any Government. Can Laura say that? What is she doing about it? Does she reject the endorsement of the Leader of Durham County Council, Simon Henig? The Teaching Assistants are in fact in their current predicament because they took the political advice of the man who is now her Political Advisor, rather than taking mine. It is no wonder that my Campaign Patrons are two of their most stalwart supporters, the local government legend that is Councillor Alex Watson OBE and the trade union legend that is Davey Ayre.