Five Years in Which To Organise

Congratulations to Richard Holden, who was acquitted in minutes of an obviously false charge that should never have come to court. As I would have been in April, had the prosecution not caused the discharge of the jury by causing its comically incredible star witness to disappear overnight in Minnesota halfway through his testimony by videolink. And as I would be in March, if they proceeded with the fourth attempt at a trial.

So I look forward to working with Richard over the next 59 months. And then to spending the sixtieth month unseating him. While you have to play the game until the final whistle, of course I always knew that I was going to come bottom of the poll, and as soon as Watts Stelling entered the fray then I knew that I was going to lose my deposit. But the next General Election is not going to be a snap one, nor is it going to be only two and a half years after this one. See, instead, here:

The result of the 2019 General Election has given us five years in which to organise for the next one. The Brexit Party will no longer exist in 2024, when Watts Stelling will also be unlikely to contest a fourth General Election. Therefore, I remain the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for North West Durham. One of my Campaign Patrons is Councillor Alex Watson OBE, who led Derwentside District Council for many years, who chaired the North East Regional Assembly, and who chaired the English Regional Network. My other Campaign Patron is Davey Ayre, who is a legendary local trade unionist. In 2019, I was proposed as a parliamentary candidate by Alderman Clive Robson BEM, who is a former Deputy Leader of Durham County Council.

I was born in 1977, and I have lived in North West Durham since 1982. I was an elected member of Lanchester Parish Council from 1999 to 2013, a governor of Lanchester Endowed Parochial Primary School from 1999 to 2007, and a governor of Saint Bede’s from 2000 to 2008. In April 2017, I was elected unopposed as one of Derwentside’s public governors of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

Richard Holden talks about a more inclusive politics than Laura Pidcock’s, but I intend to identify a number of projects on which to campaign in each of the former District Wards, equal to the former number of District Councillors, and as the MP 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.

Since I believe in family values, with parents as the first educators of their children, I also believe in economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends. Therefore, I support Brexit, Modern Monetary Theory, the Universal Basic Income, publicly owned utilities, the abolition of NHS charges, the extension throughout the United Kingdom of the Scottish model of free personal care, and, as a disabled person, hugely expanded public transport, free at the point of use.

I am pro-business, being in favour of a strict Glass-Steagall division between investment banking and retail banking, with democratic political control over monetary policy, and with large amounts of central government credit, at low interest rates and over a long term, to build great national projects that would then pay for themselves many times over. I support pro-business tariffs and subsidies, and a pro-business National Bank to promote the growth of productive enterprises rather than speculation. Public bodies and their contractors must be compelled to buy local goods and services. We need very low, or if possible zero, business rates on independent shops. And we need a windfall tax on the supermarkets, to fund agriculture and small business. This would all be possible outside the EU Single Market and Customs Union, and beyond Boris Johnson’s “level playing field”.

I support rural working-class representation, fathers’ rights, mass classical education, lifelong learning for its own sake, and the same benefits for apprentices and trainees as for students. As a mixed-race person, I support immigration controls. I support Julian Assange, the British coal and steel industries, nuclear power, the Belt and Road Initiative, putting Tony Blair on trial for Iraq, and putting David Cameron and Nick Clegg on trial for Libya.

I oppose Trident, NATO, Saudi Arabia, all of the currently illegal drugs, all aspects of the sex industry (I was the first journalist to try and expose the links between Harriet Harman and the Paedophile Information Exchange), gender self-identification, and any approach to climate change that endangered industrial and scientific progress. The problem with the world is not that it has people in it. Which people, exactly? Even the resources of the Solar System must not be beyond our reach as a species. The IHRA Definition of Antisemitism silences Black And Minority Ethnic, refugee and migrant voices, and that way lies Windrush and Grenfell Tower. It also betrays the ancient indigenous Christians of the Holy Land, and that way lies the ongoing worldwide persecution of Christians.

I can be contacted on davidaslindsay@hotmail.com.

Please give generously. Very many thanks.

Prevent This

I’ve got the key to the door, never been 42 before. But among the birthday cards today was also the following:

Dear Mr. Lindsay,

As the holder of a politically protected position within Durham County Council that makes it impossible for me to identify myself, it gives me great pleasure to inform you that the Council has finally referred you under the Prevent Strategy. Your extremist views on Brexit, economics, NATO, Trident, antisemitism, Julian Assange, abortion rights, transgender rights, the right to die, so-called “fathers’ rights”, Russia, China, Syria, Iran, Yemen, sexual offences, drugs, immigration, climate change, and a wide range of other issues have no place in our County. You are a professional misogynist, transphobe, antisemite, religious fundamentalist, ally of dictators and climate change denier who bases himself on the Left for recruitment purposes as a well-known radicaliser of young men and teenage boys. Some of us have been fighting for this referral for a very long time. The relevant authorities will be in touch. David Lindsay MP? David Lindsay in HMP, more like.

Now, I have had all sorts of funny stuff over the last two and a half years. But this one might be worth keeping an eye on. Bring it on, say I. My election literature is already going to say “Banned From Twitter”.

Another hung Parliament is coming, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. A new party is now in the process of registration. After nearly 30 years of suggestion, speculation, and even a sort of preparation, I will stand for Parliament here at North West Durham. The crowdfunding page is here, and buy the book here. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.

It Pays To Advertise?

Bang on its 400-word limit, this was sent to The Northern Echo’s Consett and Stanley Advertiser, which is not shy of publishing contentious letters for the benefit of every household, free through the door. But as we await the full fanzine treatment for Trigger as soon as the General Election is called (and for Kevan Jones, but he is not my concern), this has not been printed:

I am the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for North West Durham. My Campaign Patrons are Councillor Alex Watson OBE, who led Derwentside District Council for many years, and Davey Ayre, a legendary local trade unionist. I was born in 1977, and I have lived in North West Durham since 1982. I was an elected member of Lanchester Parish Council from 1999 to 2013, a governor of Lanchester Endowed Parochial Primary School from 1999 to 2007, and a governor of Saint Bede’s from 2000 to 2008. I am one of Derwentside’s elected public governors of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. I was elected unopposed. I first appeared on television in defence of Shotley Bridge Hospital in 1997.

There is going to be another hung Parliament. 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, together with not less than the level of hospital provision in Consett in July 2019, and together with the implementation of the plan for the rail service that had been advanced by The Northern Echo in June 2018.

The Conservative candidate won 34.5 per cent in 2017. Labour holds fewer than half of the County Council seats in North West Durham. The Liberal Democrats cut the Labour majority in half in 2010. An Independent kept his deposit both in 2005 and in 2010. 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. I would also appoint a Political Advisor from within each of the Independent, Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat blocs.

There is nothing left-wing about Laura Pidcock. She is not a supporter of Brexit, Modern Monetary Theory, the Universal Basic Income, Julian Assange, Chris Williamson, the County Durham Teaching Assistants, the revival of the British coal and steel industries, or putting Tony Blair on trial for Iraq. Nor is she an opponent of Trident, NATO, Britain’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, gender self-identification, or the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism. I am all of those things. I can be contacted on davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.

Oh, well. The crowdfunding page is here, and buy the book here.

Echo Chamber?

This has not made it into The Northern Echo, but here it is:

Dear Sir,

Laura Pidcock is unsuitable to be the Member of Parliament for North West Durham. The Conservative candidate won 34.5 per cent in 2017. Labour holds fewer than half of the County Council seats. The Liberal Democrats cut the Labour majority in half in 2010. An Independent kept his deposit both in 2005 and in 2010.

There is nothing meaningfully left-wing about Ms Pidcock. She is not a supporter of Brexit, Modern Monetary Theory, the Universal Basic Income, Julian Assange, Chris Williamson, the County Durham Teaching Assistants, the revival of the British coal and steel industries, or putting Tony Blair on trial for Iraq. Nor is she an opponent of Trident, NATO, Britain’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, gender self-identification, or the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism.

I am all of those things, while at the same time 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. I would also appoint a Political Advisor from within each of the Independent, Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat blocs. I can be contacted on davidaslindsay@hotmail.com.

Yours faithfully,

David Lindsay

Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for North West Durham

The crowdfunding page is here, and buy the book here. Very many thanks.

Dedication

A number of people have asked to quite how many people my very short new book was dedicated. Well, you would find out if you bought it. But here is in fact the dedication:

This book is dedicated to my Campaign Patrons, Alex Watson and Davey Ayre; to my stalwart constituency supporters, Norman Bolton and Michael Parker; to my newfound comrades, Nathan Allonby and Toby Kelsey; to the Honourable Gentlemen, Kelvin Hopkins and Chris Williamson; to the County Durham Teaching Assistants; to The Word and OffGuardian; to their Editors and thus mine, Alan Davies and Kit Knightly; to the fearless Paul Embery and Eddie Dempsey; to the ever-stimulating Giles Fraser and Piers Corbyn; and to those who joined me in the Basket of Deplorables by signing the following letter, which was sent to several newspapers, and which was published in the Morning Star’s weekend edition of 12th and 13th November 2016:

The American Democratic Party has been defeated in the person of the most economically neoliberal and internationally neoconservative nominee imaginable. From the victory of Donald Trump, to the Durham Teaching Assistants’ dispute, the lesson needs to be learned. The workers are not the easily ignored and routinely betrayed base, with the liberal bourgeoisie as the swing voters to whom tribute must be paid. The reality is the other way round. The EU referendum ought already to have placed that beyond doubt.

There is a need to move, as a matter of the utmost urgency, away from the excessive focus on identity issues, and towards the recognition that those existed only within the overarching and undergirding context of the struggle against economic inequality and in favour of international peace, including cooperation with Russia, not a new Cold War.

It is worth noting that working-class white areas that voted for Barack Obama did not vote for Hillary Clinton, that African-American turnout went down while the Republican share of that vote did not, and that Trump took 30 per cent of the Hispanic vote. Black Lives Matter meant remembering Libya, while Latino Lives Matter meant remembering Honduras.

The defeat of the Clintons by a purported opponent of neoliberal economic policy and of neoconservative foreign policy, although time will tell, has secured the position of Jeremy Corbyn, who is undoubtedly such an opponent. It is also a challenge to Theresa May, to make good her rhetoric about One Nation, about a country that works for everyone, and about being a voice for working people.

David Lindsay, George Galloway, Neil Clark, Ronán Dodds, James Draper, John Mooney, Mietek Padowicz, Aren Pym, Adam Young

Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum habitare fratres in unum.

Crowdfunding My Parliamentary Campaign

Here: 

I am the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for North West Durham. My Campaign Patrons are Councillor Alex Watson OBE, who led Derwentside District Council for many years, and Davey Ayre, a legendary local trade unionist. I was born in 1977, and I have lived in North West Durham since 1982. I was an elected member of Lanchester Parish Council from 1999 to 2013, a governor of Lanchester Endowed Parochial Primary School from 1999 to 2007, and a governor of Saint Bede’s from 2000 to 2008. I am one of Derwentside’s elected public governors of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. I was elected unopposed. I first appeared on television in defence of Shotley Bridge Hospital in 1997. At around that time, I was the first journalist to try and expose the links between Harriet Harman and the Paedophile Information Exchange.

There is certainly going to be another hung Parliament. 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, together with not less than the level of hospital provision in Consett in July 2019, and together with the implementation of the plan for the rail service that had been advanced by The Northern Echo in June 2018. In Lanchester, the three projects would include proper flood defences, and the restoration of full bus services. In Weardale, I would require the Sixth Form provision on which the former MP had said a lot but delivered nothing.

The Conservative candidate won 34.5 per cent in 2017. Labour holds fewer than half of the County Council seats in North West Durham. The Liberal Democrats cut the Labour majority in half in 2010. An Independent kept his deposit both in 2005 and in 2010. 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. I would also appoint a Political Advisor from within each of the Independent, Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat blocs.

I believe in economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends. Therefore, I support Brexit, Modern Monetary Theory, the Universal Basic Income, mass classical education, publicly owned utilities, Julian Assange, Chris Williamson, the British coal and steel industries, nuclear power, the Belt and Road Initiative, a British Glass-Steagall Act, democratic political control over monetary policy, the abolition of NHS charges, and putting Tony Blair on trial for Iraq. I oppose Trident, NATO, Saudi Arabia, all of the drugs that are currently illegal, and the so-called sex industry. The problem with the world is not that it has people in it. Which people, exactly? Instead of a halt to industrial and scientific progress, even the resources of the Solar System must not be beyond our reach as a species. Gender self-identification denies the basic scientific fact that is biological sex. As a mixed-race person, I support immigration controls. The IHRA Definition of Antisemitism silences Black And Minority Ethnic, refugee and migrant voices, and that way lies Windrush and Grenfell Tower. Being disabled, I support hugely expanded public transport, free at the point of use. I support fathers’ rights. I am a practising Catholic. My pamphlet The People’s Voice is available on Amazon. I tweet @davidaslindsay. I can be contacted on davidaslindsay@hotmail.com.

The People’s Voice

“I don’t agree with it.” Rod Liddle

The next British General Election will certainly result in another hung Parliament. In this eagerly anticipated pamphlet, David Lindsay powerfully makes the case for his membership of that hung Parliament in general, and specifically for his election as the Member of Parliament for his home seat of North West Durham, where he has lived since 1982.

David Lindsay is a local, experienced and inclusive candidate whose radically practical policies are grounded in his radically traditional values. In passing, he demolishes the ongoing abuse of the criminal justice system to try and silence The People’s Voice. Based in Lanchester, County Durham, David Lindsay tweets @davidaslindsay.

Buy the book here.

"We Therefore Endorse"?

The following has just been sent to the people described:

Being a straightforward matter, the following will be sent to the local and national media at 12 noon on Monday 5th August 2019. One trusts that the other MPs for County Durham, and the Chief Whip, will forward it to all other Labour MPs in good time, and that the Councillor for Lanchester will forward it to all other Labour Councillors:

Dear Sir,

We endorse the parliamentary candidacy of Laura Pidcock at North West Durham against David Lindsay and against the Conservative Party. Since each is on 30 per cent, any could be the First Past the Post. 

David Lindsay is a supporter of Brexit, of Modern Monetary Theory, of the Universal Basic Income, of Julian Assange, of Chris Williamson, of the coal industry, and of putting Tony Blair on trial over the war in Iraq. He is an opponent of Trident, of NATO, of Britain’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, of gender self-identification, and of the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism. He is a sympathiser with Fathers 4 Justice. He is a practising Roman Catholic. He is a defender of shooting and fishing. He is a mixed-race advocate of immigration controls. He would have Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Independents on his staff. He is still fighting Durham County Council over the Teaching Assistants. He is a friendly critic and a critical friend of George Galloway. We therefore endorse Laura Pidcock.

The invitation to sign this letter was extended to all Labour members of the House of Commons, to all Labour members of Durham County Council, and to all Labour members of Lanchester Parish Council.

Yours faithfully,

All Systems Go

It is clear from this afternoon's appointments by Boris Johnson that the General Election campaign has now begun. 

Anyone in a position to help my candidacy at North West Durham (campaigning, funding, signing nomination papers, telling us what the issues are in each community, anything), please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. 

Very many thanks, and spread the word.

The People’s Voice

My latest for OffGuardian announces that a new party is in the process of registration.

Then Here I Am

Never bet on anything these days, but it does look as if Theresa May is going to lose tonight, although she will still be able to claim some kind of victory since at least it will probably be a smaller defeat than it was last time. I have been sceptical of talk of an impending General Election, and I still am. But who knows? Therefore, we need to be ready for one at any moment.

“David Lindsay has generated a brilliant reconciliation of the conflicting strains of the Labour Tradition and is worthy of the closest attention.” Dr Maurice Glasman, Lord Glasman of Stoke Newington and Stamford Hill; Senior Lecturer in Political Theory and Director of the Faith and Citizenship Programme, London Metropolitan University; founder of Blue Labour.

Current orthodoxy – both in economic policy and right across the board – has so manifestly failed us that we desperately need some fresh thinking and a different way of looking at our problems. That is precisely what David Lindsay provides.” Professor Bryan Gould, Labour MP for Southampton Test, 1974-1979; Labour MP for Dagenham, 1983-1994; Shadow Cabinet Member, 1986-1994; Leadership Candidate, 1992

“Before Red Tory and Blue Labour there was David Lindsay. He was arguably the first to announce a postliberal politics of paradox, and to delve into the deep, unwritten British past in order to craft, theoretically, an alternative British and international future. It is high time that the singular and yet wholly pertinent writings of this County Durham Catholic Labour prophet receive a wider circulation.” Professor John Milbank, Professor in Religion, Politics and Ethics, University of Nottingham.

Those commendations were written in 2012. The next General Election will certainly result in another hung Parliament, regardless of who led any party, but simply because of what is now the shape of the three polities across which it will be held: England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. One MP will therefore be able to make a huge amount of difference. Here in North West Durham, it has become a commonplace that the Labour Party, the Conservative Party and I are each on 30 per cent support, so that any one of us could be the First Past the Post.

I have no interest in being a paper candidate. But I will stand if I can raise the £10,000 necessary to mount a serious campaign. Anyone in a position to help, however much or little, please contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. I am a local, experienced and inclusive candidate whose radically practical polices are rooted in radically traditional values. Those may be read about in some detail here.

That will also comprise the first half of my next book, of which the following has already been written: “I warm to its spirit. It represents an important strand of thinking and feeling in our country which we ignore at our peril.” Those are the words of Professor Robert Skidelsky FBA, Lord Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy in the University of Warwick, author of Keynes: The Return of the Master, and co-author of How Much is Enough? The Love of Money and the Case for the Good Life.

I have nothing against the present MP personally, and she may or may not be the Labour candidate next time. But at the turn of 2017 she had never set eyes on North West Durham, and there was no local involvement whatever in her selection as a candidate. She has never expressed any of the opinions articulated here. Indeed, she has expressed very few political opinions altogether. Hers is a certain mood or tone, rather than any specific programme or philosophy.

She was still in school when I was first introduced as “the man who should have been our MP”. Once Labour has imposed an all-women shortlist, then it has imposed one forever, and the Conservatives will usually also insist on a woman where that is the case. But this constituency has had a woman MP since 1987, a very rare record indeed, so what injustice is supposedly being addressed here? Yet here we are. Politicised young men, of whom there are so very many, my candidacy is your only chance of ever becoming the Member of Parliament for North West Durham in due course. Anyone, my candidacy is the only chance that any son or grandson of yours might ever represent this seat.

This is probably also my only chance. I am 41. By the time of a General Election on 5th May 2022, the last possible date, I would be 44. To give some context, Tony Blair was four days short of his forty-fourth birthday when he became Prime Minister. Never say never, but if I had already been defeated once, then I would take an awful lot of persuading to give this another go when I was nearly 50. So if you like anything set out in the link above, or even if you would just like any of it to be on the agenda, then here I am. Very many thanks.