Why I Want To Be In Parliament

From my longstanding home and political base here in Lanchester, I shall be contesting the new seat of West Durham and Teesdale at the 2020 General Election.

Both the ultra-Left and the racist Far Right have already declared in no uncertain terms their opposition to my candidacy, and their determination to fight me very hard at the polls.

Here are some of the reasons why.

I am active in the campaigns for justice for Durham County Council’s mistreated Teaching Assistants, against the proposed drastic cuts to hospital provision in County Durham and Teesside, and in defence of the public transport on which, as a disabled person, I am reliant.

I opposed from the start Tony Blair’s privatisation of England’s public services in general and NHS in particular, as well as Blair’s victimisation of the disabled, and Blair’s continuation of the previous Conservative Government’s assault on civil liberties.

I always opposed the abandoned austerity programme of the sacked George Osborne, unlike the Liberal Democrats until May 2015, unlike the Labour front bench until September 2015, unlike the Conservative Party until July 2016, and unlike 172 Labour MPs to this day.

I have opposed every military intervention of the last 20 years, unlike the Liberal Democrats on all but one occasion, unlike the Conservative front bench and almost all Conservative MPs on every occasion, unlike the Labour front bench on every occasion until Jeremy Corbyn became Leader, and unlike one third of Labour MPs even after that.

I campaigned successfully for traditional Labour areas such as the North East to decide the EU referendum in favour of Leave, and thus to make themselves the centre of political attention.

I am mixed race, I was born in the British Overseas Territory of St Helena, and I recognise the need for immigration controls in order to deliver public services.

I oppose any approach to climate change that threatens jobs or workers’ rights.

I would seek to rescue issues such as fathers’ rights and male suicide from the likes of Philip Davies and Milo Yiannopoulos, whose economic policies caused the problems.

I have long worked throughout the English-speaking world and beyond to bring together the opponents of neoliberal economic policy and neoconservative foreign policy among traditionalists and libertarians, conservatives and liberals, social democrats and democratic socialists.

Locally, I have co-operated for more than 20 years with Independents, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour Party members and supporters, activists on the wider Left, and entirely nonpartisan community stalwarts.

I remain banned from several leading political websites because I have been pointing out for at least 15 years the links between Harriet Harman and the Paedophile Information Exchange.

From outside any party since October 2006, I bring all of this to bear as a friendly critic and a critical friend of Jeremy Corbyn.

I am medically unable to drive, but I undertake that, if elected, I would spend one weekend per month in the parts of the constituency previously falling within each of Gateshead, Derwentside, Wear Valley, and Teesdale.