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.

Ready And Willing, I Just Need To Be Made Able

Theresa May will bring back no other deal than this. At that point, the DUP will at least abstain rather than save her Government from the Motion of No Confidence that Jeremy Corbyn will then table. The Government will therefore lose, and there will be a General Election.

That will lead to another hung Parliament, meaning that one MP will be able to make a huge amount of difference. I will stand for this parliamentary seat of North West Durham, if I can raise the £10,000 necessary to mount a serious campaign. By common consent, Labour, the Conservatives and I are each on 30 per cent support, so that any one of us could be the First Past the Post. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.