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.

Read All About It

It is not every day that you are offered a national newspaper column six days per week. Yes, in print, and sold in shops, and everything. Not until later in the year, but even so. Watch this space. 

Meanwhile, @ProudWhitePower tweets: "If #JaydaFransen is no longer legally eligible to be our parliamentary candidate here at North West Durham against @davidaslindsay, our candidate will be @TRobinsonNewEra. David Lindsay will be defeated. #BritainFirst"

Over, then, to Britain First, the British National Party, the National Front, National Action, the Britannica Party, the British Democratic Party, Ulster Resistance, the Orange Volunteers, the Red Hand Defenders, the Real Ulster Freedom Fighters, the Springbok Club, the London Swinton Circle, the Conservative Monday Club, the League of St George, the London Conference on Intelligence, of the Ulster Institute for Social Research, the Mankind Quarterly, Candour, Spearhead, Redwatch, Black House Publishing, Focal Point Publications (which is David Irving’s global nerve centre of Holocaust denial), Steve Bannon, Roy Moore, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Heinz-Christian Strache, Emil Kirkegaard and Toby Young.

Each and all of those either endorses Tommy Robinson against me, or it endorses some other candidate at North West Durham. In which case, who, exactly, and why, exactly?

Have they ever heard of me? Well, they have now. The British Far Right ones certainly always had done. The Ku Klux Klan interfered from America to support Neil Fleming against me as the successor to Hilary Armstrong sometime in the second Blair term. In the meantime, I have written for The American Conservative. And for Telegraph Blogs at the same time as Toby Young, who went to the trouble of blocking me on Twitter as long ago as that. Altogether, that furnishes more than enough ties to the Continent, too.

Well, now they all get to meet me. Bring it on.

Conviction Politics?

Following the convictions of Jayda Fransen and Paul Golding this afternoon, what is to become of this, which was seen around this constituency in late January?



BRITAIN FIRST

A General Election could easily come in 2018.

David Lindsay is preparing to stand here in North West Durham: the REAL THREAT of a MIXED-BLOOD MP for this WHITE AREA.

Jayda Fransen, Deputy Leader of Britain First, and famously retweeted by Donald Trump, will stand in North West Durham against David Lindsay.

Jayda will be actively supported by Britain First, the British National Party, the National Front, National Action, the Britannica Party, the British Democratic Party, Ulster Resistance, the Orange Volunteers, the Red Hand Defenders, the Real Ulster Freedom Fighters, the Springbok Club, the London Swinton Circle, the Conservative Monday Club, the League of St George, Candour, Spearhead, Redwatch, Black House Publishing and Focal Point Publications.

Steve Bannon and Judge Roy Moore will travel from America to speak for Jayda against David Lindsay. So will Marine Le Pen from France, Geert Wilders from Holland and the new Vice-Chancellor (Deputy Prime Minister) of Austria, Heinz-Christian Strache. 

Contact: Britain First, PO Box 119, Swanley, Kent, BRB 9DY 

0208 914 8212 or 020 3409 6216

In response to that, tweeted by someone who informs us that “Keeping [me] out is the number one priority for Nationalists at the next General Election,” I say then as I said now, bring it on. I can scarcely wait to take the fight to Jayda Fransen, Britain First, the British National Party, the National Front, National Action, the Britannica Party, the British Democratic Party, Ulster Resistance, the Orange Volunteers, the Red Hand Defenders, the Real Ulster Freedom Fighters, the Springbok Club, the London Swinton Circle, the Conservative Monday Club, the League of St George, Candour, Spearhead, Redwatch, Black House Publishing, Focal Point Publications (which is David Irving’s global nerve centre of Holocaust denial), Steve Bannon, Roy Moore, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and Heinz-Christian Strache.

A month and a half later, and despite considerable publicity online, none of them has denied it. Of course, they remain free to do so. But in that case, then they would need to say whom they endorsed instead as a candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham. The same is true of other Far Right figures with whom, or with whose supporters, I have been publicly sparring in the meantime: Toby Young, Emil Kirkegaard, the London Conference on Intelligence, the Ulster Institute for Social Research, the Mankind Quarterly. Arising out his association with the rest of those, as well as his history as a sexual assailant and as a supplier of Class A drugs, I intend to pursue a formal complaint against Young through the Charity Commission over his role as Director of the New Schools Network. But he could beat me at the ballot box instead, either a candidate for North West Durham, or through the candidate that he had endorsed. After today, there may very well be a vacancy for such a candidate, due to the unavailability of Jayda Fransen.

In the absence of Fransen, Young would obviously have the endorsement of Emil Kirkegaard, of the London Conference on Intelligence, of the Ulster Institute for Social Research, of the Mankind Quarterly, just as they would obviously endorse Fransen if she were able to pursue this after all. If I am wrong about that, then whom, exactly, would each of them endorse instead, and why exactly?

Fransen if available, or Young if not, would obviously have the endorsement of Britain First, the British National Party, the National Front, National Action, the Britannica Party, the British Democratic Party, Ulster Resistance, the Orange Volunteers, the Red Hand Defenders, the Real Ulster Freedom Fighters, the Springbok Club, the London Swinton Circle, the Conservative Monday Club, the League of St George, Candour, Spearhead, Redwatch, Black House Publishing, Focal Point Publications, Steve Bannon, Roy Moore, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and Heinz-Christian Strache. If I am wrong about that, then whom, exactly, would each of them endorse instead, and why exactly?

It is still just about possible that Young might endorse the Conservative candidate. In that case, would the Conservative candidate accept the endorsement of Toby Young? Would the Conservative candidate accept the endorsement of Emil Kirkegaard, of the London Conference on Intelligence, of the Ulster Institute for Social Research, and of the Mankind Quarterly? Would the Conservative candidate accept the endorsement of Jayda Fransen, Britain First, the British National Party, the National Front, National Action, the Britannica Party, the British Democratic Party, Ulster Resistance, the Orange Volunteers, the Red Hand Defenders, the Real Ulster Freedom Fighters, the Springbok Club, the London Swinton Circle, the Conservative Monday Club, the League of St George, Candour, Spearhead, Redwatch, Black House Publishing, Focal Point Publications, Steve Bannon, Roy Moore, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and Heinz-Christian Strache?

I do rather assume not. In which case, I look forward to contesting this seat of North West Durham against Jayda Fransen if available, or against Toby Young if not, who will in either event enjoy the active support of the other and of Britain First, the British National Party, the National Front, National Action, the Britannica Party, the British Democratic Party, Ulster Resistance, the Orange Volunteers, the Red Hand Defenders, the Real Ulster Freedom Fighters, the Springbok Club, the London Swinton Circle, the Conservative Monday Club, the League of St George, the London Conference on Intelligence, of the Ulster Institute for Social Research, the Mankind Quarterly, Candour, Spearhead, Redwatch, Black House Publishing, Focal Point Publications, Steve Bannon, Roy Moore, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Heinz-Christian Strache and Emil Kirkegaard.

Bring it on.

However Dressed Up Or Dressed Down

This was sent on Tuesday, just before the sky fell in. Newspapers do not always put letters on their websites, so I do not know whether or not it has appeared anywhere. But here it is:

The Customs Union locks out food and other produce from the developing world. It would prevent us, as it does now, from enacting anti-dumping laws in order to protect the British steel and other industries. It would forbid, as it does now, individual trade deals with the BRICS and other countries, including the desperately necessary integration of every part of this country into the Belt and Road Initiative.

Yet by the end of this week, however dressed up or dressed down, membership of the Customs Union will be the policy of both parties. [If that has not come to pass today, then why is Anna Soubry so pleased?] The Labour MP here at North West Durham, a solidly Leave-voting area, is not merely a broad supporter of Jeremy Corbyn’s. As we have already seen in relation to his words without actions on the issue of Durham County Council’s Teaching Assistants, she is an uncritical supporter of Jeremy Corbyn’s.

Whereas I am as opposed to the Customs Union as Corbyn was this time last week, and as Tony Benn was to his dying day. I am also totally committed to justice for the Teaching Assistants, 472 of whom have had their incomes cut by 23 per cent. They are now paid less to work full-time with children than the Councillors are paid for no formal requirement beyond attendance at four meetings per year. The TAs have been reduced to that position because of the political advice of the man who is now the Political Advisor to the MP for North West Durham.

There could be a General Election this year, and whenever there is one, then it is going to result either in a hung Parliament or in a tiny overall majority. I humbly ask you and your readers for support as the Independent parliamentary candidate for North West Durham. I can be contacted on davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. 

To which, today, I can only add this: Laura Pidcock, do you accept the endorsement of Michael Heseltine, who finished off Margaret Thatcher’s destruction of the Durham coal industry, and who recently said that the former Durham coalfield was now better off as a result? Yes or No, Laura? Yes or No?