A Test of Credibility

By the time of a General Election in 2022, then I shall have lived in North West Durham for 40 years. I have already been politically active here for more than 20 years. By contrast, the sitting MP had never set eyes on North West Durham at the turn of 2017.

I was present when, absent from the count at which she was losing her own seat on Northumberland County Council, she was introduced for the first time, but already as the parliamentary candidate, to everyone who mattered in political life here. Despite having nominated Jeremy Corbyn for Leader in 2016, the Constituency Labour Party had been permitted no role whatever in the selection process. The extremely short list of signatories to her nomination papers included precisely one member of Durham County Council, and he had been elected for the first time mere days before he must have lent his name.

 

I am not a member of the same political party as Tony Blair. I have never accepted any of the Government’s claims about Salisbury or Douma. My problem with the recent bombing of Syria was not merely with the lack of a parliamentary vote, but with the bombing itself. I would force another Commons vote on the arming of Saudi Arabia. I am opposed to any variation on the Customs Union. If any of these is your view, then I need £10,000 in order to stand for Parliament with any chance of winning. But if you would rather have the sitting MP, then do not pretend to hold any of those views. This is a test of credibility.

 

I strongly support the exploitation of the vast reserves of coal in this country and in this county. That, and the extension of civil nuclear power, are the means of delivering high-wage, high-skilled, high-status, unionised jobs while securing independence from Arab oil, from Russian gas, and from coal that has been mined using child and slave labour. Horror stories about how coal was burned or mined in the Britain of the twentieth century have no relevance to the Britain of the twenty-first. At the same time, I am totally opposed to the open-casting of the Pont Valley or anywhere else, digging up hardly any coal while employing hardly anyone. If this is your view, then I need £10,000 in order to stand for Parliament with any chance of winning. But if you would rather have the sitting MP, then do not pretend to hold this view. This is a test of credibility.

 

I reject the theory of gender self-identification, I support fathers’ rights, and I fight against drugs, prostitution and pornography. None of these can possibly be the view of a person who has been endorsed as a potential Prime Minister by Owen Jones. But if any of them is your view, then I need £10,000 in order to stand for Parliament with any chance of winning. If you would rather have the sitting MP, then do not pretend to hold any of those views. This is a test of credibility.

 

I would move to expel Anne Marie Morris from the House of Commons for her public use of the n-word, which would now be career-ending in South Africa or in the Southern United States, and I deplore the imported New York practice of smearing black activists as anti-Semitic when they become so uppity as to disturb the Liberal Establishment. The sitting MP makes great play of her supposed anti-racist credentials, but no motion to expel Morris has been tabled in her name. If any of these is your view, then I need £10,000 in order to stand for Parliament with any chance of winning. But if you would rather have the sitting MP, then do not pretend to hold any of those views. This is a test of credibility.

 

My Westminster office would be a global centre for the broadly based alternative to neoliberal economic policy and to neoconservative foreign policy, and I am both a product and a feature of the political pluralism of North West Durham, where Labour holds fewer than half of the County Council seats, the Conservative parliamentary candidate won 34 per cent of the vote last year, the Liberal Democrat candidate cut the Labour majority in half in 2010, and an Independent kept his deposit both in 2005 and in 2010. Wear Valley was controlled for a time by the Liberal Democrats, who remained numerous on it until its abolition. Derwentside was in practice controlled by an alliance between the Independents and that section of the local Labour Party which now supports my parliamentary candidacy; its Leader from that time, Councillor Alex Watson OBE, is one of my Campaign Patrons.

 

Therefore, I would appoint an Independent, a Labourite, a Conservative and a Liberal Democrat in each of the County Wards, ideally including at least one person in each of the former District Wards, to work with me and with local people. The price of my support for any Government would be the necessary support for a number of projects in each of the former District Wards equal to the former number of District Councillors, together with justice for the 472 Teaching Assistants whose pay Durham County Council had cut by 23 per cent.

 

If any of these is your view, then I need £10,000 in order to stand for Parliament with any chance of winning. But if you would rather have the sitting MP, then do not pretend to hold any of those views. She prides herself on her inability to conduct civilised relations with people who are not of her political persuasion, and she has appointed as her Political Advisor the man whose political advice has led the Teaching Assistants to their present, sorry state. Alex Watson has been one of the Teaching Assistants’ champions, as has my other Campaign Patron, a legendary local trade unionist called Davey Ayre. This is a test of credibility.

 

I can be contacted via davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.

Low Tone

Today, Tony Blair refused to apologise for his role in the case of Abdel Hakim Belhaj. My parliamentary candidacy is not endorsed by Tony Blair. Is Laura Pidcock's?

My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.

Both A Product And A Feature

Topped and tailed by my left and right hands (how’s that for a mixed metaphor?), this has been submitted unsuccessfully to numerous national and local media over the last month. The sitting MP, who is a tabloid caricature of a left-winger and who is surrounded by MI5, is clearly very well-protected indeed:

Dear Sir,

Here in North West Durham, Labour holds fewer than half of the County Council seats, the Conservative parliamentary candidate won 34 per cent of the vote last year, the Liberal Democrat candidate cut the Labour majority in half in 2010, and an Independent kept his deposit both in 2005 and in 2010. Wear Valley was controlled for a time by the Liberal Democrats, who remained numerous on it until its abolition. Derwentside was in practice controlled by an alliance between the Independents and that section of what was then the local Labour Party which now supports the parliamentary candidacy of David Lindsay.

David Lindsay is both a product and a feature of this political pluralism. He has undertaken that, as the Member of Parliament, he would appoint an Independent, a Labourite, a Conservative and a Liberal Democrat in each of the County Wards, ideally including at least one person in each of the former District Wards, to communicate the concerns of local people to him, and then to work with them and with him to address those concerns. All past, present and aspirant Independent Councillors, and all former Labour Councillors, ought to join us in signing David Lindsay’s nomination papers. 

Yours faithfully,

James Draper, Lanchester, County Durham
Norman Bolton, Consett, County Durham
Michael Parker, Crook, County Durham; @Michael45759951
Adam J. Young, Going Postal (personal capacity); Burnopfield, County Durham; @JustALocalSerf

All of this is, of course, perfectly correct. Furthermore, I have undertaken, that, in the hung Parliament that is the most likely outcome of the next General Election, the price of my support for any Government would be the necessary support for a number of projects in each of the former District Wards equal to the former number of District Councillors, together with justice for the 472 Teaching Assistants whom Durham County Council had deprived of 23 per cent of their incomes.

My Campaign Patrons are Councillor Alex Watson OBE, who was the Leader of Derwentside District Council during the period described, and Davey Ayre, a legendary local trade unionist. Both are stalwarts of, among many other things, the Teaching Assistants’ campaign. By contrast, the sitting MP has appointed as her Political Advisor the man whose political advice has reduced the TAs to their present, sorry state.

My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.

Occupying The Territory

The Golan Heights are in Syria. Have you got that? They are in Syria. The Syria that Israel has been bombing with impunity. The Syria where the Iranians, like the Russians, are present at the invitation of the internationally recognised Government that is the bulwark against Islamist terrorism of the very worst kind.

That is in the starkest possible contrast to Israel, which is certainly not in the Golan Heights by invitation, and which is using that illegally occupied territory to aid and abet that Islamist terrorism, a cause to which Priti Patel attempted to divert British public money. She ought to be prosecuted under anti-terrorism legislation. But who will demand that she be so? My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.

Similarly, the White Helmets are funded by Western governments and work exclusively in Islamist-controlled areas, having been founded by the British Army Officer turned mercenary, James Le Mesurier, who had been the intelligence co-ordinator for Pristina City during the NATO war crimes that created the nightmare Islamist and neo-Nazi statelet of Kosovo, that centre of people-trafficking and of heroin trafficking, and that source of countless illegally held firearms on the streets of Britain.

The money that Britain spends on the White Helmets and on the "Free Syrian Police" ought instead to be diverted to our own emergency services. But who will demand that it be so? My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.

British Officers are in the control room of the Saudi bombing of Yemen, the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in the world today. They have been, and they are, training the Saudis in and for the war in Yemen. And of course, the Saudis are the power behind Jaysh al-Islam, the Army of Islam, "our" side in Syria. The Syrian Arab Army, it should be added, reflects the Syrian population in being 80 per cent Sunni Muslim. This is not a sectarian war. This is a war between those who value the immemorially pluralist Syria, and those, organised and funded from outside, who want to destroy it in favour of something else entirely.

The supply of British arms to Saudi Arabia needs to be brought back to the floor of the House of Commons as a matter of the utmost urgency. The rather good Labour Chief Whip ought to publish in advance the list of MPs with leave of absence. For anyone else, abstention this time ought to mean deselection in due season, and universal moral revulsion with immediate effect. No such person ought to be re-elected. Therefore, no such person ought to be reselected.

At least in view of the continuing failure of Labour to pursue this course of action, who will do so? My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.

Another Commons motion needs to be tabled, this time supporting the Government and opposing the Trump Administration on Iran. Let that smoke out the likes of Michael Fallon, let it expose quite how paleoconservative Jacob Rees-Mogg really is or is not, and let it hold up to general derision the Labour MPs who will vote with and for Netanyahu and the House of Saud even if that entails voting against not only Jeremy Corbyn, which is nothing to them, but even Barcak Obama and Hillary Clinton, which most certainly is not. Obama and Clinton deserve very rare credit for having broken with Tel Aviv and Riyadh on this.

There is no sign of this motion from the Official Opposition, so who else might force this issue? My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.

And buoyed by our newfound credibility and leverage with Iran, a deputation of British politicians needs to board a plane to Tehran, unannounced, with their smartphones in their hands so that one of them might tweet immediately before landing that they would not be leaving without Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Abbas Edelat.

But they won't. They haven't yet, and they won't. Tulip Siddiq hasn't yet, and she won't. Emily Thornberry hasn't yet, and she won't. Sadiq Khan hasn't yet, and he won't. Jeremy Corbyn hasn't yet, and he won't. In which case, who will? My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.

As for the Chosen One, who is so called because she spookily did not have to undergo any kind of selection process in order to become a parliamentary candidate, which of these things has she done? Has she sought to have Priti Patel prosecuted under anti-terrorism legislation? Has she sought to divert to our own emergency services the money that Britain spends on the White Helmets and the "Free Syrian Army"?

Has she sought to bring the supply of British arms to Saudi Arabia back to the floor of the House of Commons? Has she sought to divide the House on a motion in support of the Government and in opposition to the Trump Administration on Iran? Has she made an unannounced flight to Tehran, tweeting immediately before landing that she would not be leaving without without Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Abbas Edelat?

She has not, any more than she placed a Chambers and Partners Band 1 legal practice, which to my utter astonishment had already heard of me, on standby to pursue an action to bring about a Coroner's Inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly, to pursue an action before the International Criminal Court against those who had brought slavery back to Libya, and to pursue before the High Court of Justiciary of Scotland an action inviting it to exercise its declaratory power against Tony Blair and his accomplices in the aggression against Iraq in 2003, while also keeping a very close eye on the situation in Syria.

All of these actions are to begin immediately upon my election to the House of Commons. My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.

Amnesty Without Limitations?

If you give one lot an amnesty by means of a Statute of Limitations, then how do you oppose the same thing for another lot once there has been a change of Government? But this is not really about some squaddie in Northern Ireland so long ago that he is now an old man. This is not even about some squaddie in Afghanistan or Iraq.

I can confirm that a Chambers and Partners Band 1 legal practice, which to my utter astonishment had already heard of me, is now on standby to pursue an action to bring about a Coroner's Inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly, an action before the International Criminal Court against those who had brought slavery back to Libya, and 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. We are of course also keeping a very close eye on the situation in Syria.

All of these actions are to begin immediately upon my election to the House of Commons. My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.

Speaking of amnesties, my own case as a legally persecuted political dissident has been referred to Amnesty International. I do not even have a trial date now, even though it is rightly a criminal offence in itself not to turn up to one's trial. The legal persecution of me, which has been going on for well over a year, was initiated only in order to deter me from seeking public office or to prevent my election to it, and its continuation is only to one or both of those ends. Amnesty International is on the case.

Crowded Out

GoFundMe has taken down my parliamentary candidacy's crowdfunding page. Oh, well, just email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead. And that address takes PayPal. I will not be silenced or suppressed.