Tuesday 19 March 2024

Beyond The Golden Ferns

The BBC carefully, and altogether misleadingly, announces that "Russian allies including China, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and Belarus" have congratulated Vladimir Putin, "as has India." You get it. I get it. But no one would suggest that Penny Mordaunt got it.

Mordaunt carried a sword at the Coronation, so she should be Prime Minister? In Britain, that makes perfect sense, at least to the people who decide these things. William Shawcross was the Queen Mother's official biographer, so he should be in charge of counterextremism and counterterrorism. Naturally. And Mordaunt should be Prime Minister because she carried a sword at the Coronation. Naturally. The Royal Family's big announcement will be about Counsellors of State, or something like that. To them, that is a big announcement.

Mordaunt is part of that single largest bloc of Conservative MPs whose only fixed philosophical or political principle is gender self-identification. With its concept of the self-made man or the self-made woman, Thatcherism has inevitably ended up as this, which was unknown in Britain in 2010, meaning that it has arisen here entirely under a Conservative-led Government. Indeed, it was unknown outside anything like the British mainstream even in 2015, meaning that it has arisen entirely under a Government with only Conservatives in it.

In December 2022, Margaret Thatcher was depicted on British television for the first time in quite a while, in Prince Andrew: The Musical, the title of which spoke for itself, and in which she was played by one Baga Chipz, a drag queen. Well, of course. A figure comparable to Thatcher, emerging in the Britain of the 2020s, would be assumed to be a transwoman, just as Thatcher herself emerged in the Britain of everything from Danny La Rue and Dick Emery to David Bowie and The Rocky Horror Show.

Hence Thatcher's destruction of the stockades of male employment, which were the economic basis of paternal authority in the family and in the wider community, an authority that cannot be restored before the restoration of that basis. Thatcher created the modern Labour Party, the party of middle-class women who used the power of the State to control everyone else, but especially working-class men. Truly, as she herself said, her greatest achievement was New Labour. Leo Abse, who had had the measure of the milk-snatcher, also had the measure of Tony Blair's androgyny.

Speaking of Blair, expectation management is in full swing, with even my old university housemate Tom Hamilton doing his bit. Tom is not one of them, but there are members of our generation to whom it is forever 1997. Hey, I was young then, too. But I grew up. Clearly, they have never needed to. Blair was the same. Compare him to Boomers from Gordon Brown to George Galloway, whom I once heard congratulate Tom on having made "the speech of the night".

"This is not 1997" articles manifest a healthy disbelief in the ludicrous Labour poll leads. Theresa May called the 2017 General Election when the Conservatives were 20 points ahead. They lost their overall majority, and if a mere 2227 people in the right constituencies had voted Labour, then Jeremy Corbyn would have become Prime Minister. His party's own staff made sure that that did not happen, in between abusing Diane Abbott, including racially in the case of a man whom I have known eight years longer even than I have known Tom.

Every Branch of Hackney North and Stoke Newington Constituency Labour Party has nominated Abbott to be its parliamentary candidate this time, as has every affiliated organisation. Who would even sign the nomination papers of a Labour candidate against her, much less do any campaigning? The man whom the Forde Report found had called her an Angry Black Woman should be that candidate, or he is a coward.

The Conservative Party and the Labour Party are about to receive their lowest numbers of votes in 100 years, since the electorate was less than two thirds of its size today. And when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Monday 18 March 2024

39 Weeks On

Nominations have been closed for 39 weeks, so when is the election?

If you know, you know.

A comment last week called this, "An odd little consequence of the miners' strike. Take out the NUM, and who do they even ask to suggest names?" There is something in that. Durham City has its posh university, its teaching hospital, its public school that even in its present form dates from 1414, and its role as a major centre of the Church of England. The less coaly south of the county has a bit in the way of squirarchy and that sort of thing.

But the old coal and steel belt? Without the NUM, then where do you even begin to look? And the NUM went away a long time ago. Once you have taken out the people with potential conflicts of interest, the already overcommitted, and the emphatically retired, then even out of, say, 90,000 people, you can arrive at one name. This I know, because twice in six years, that one name has been David Lindsay.

The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 251

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.comby each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.comby each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.

And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The CPS Challenge: Day 251

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from contesting the next General Election.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank to strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.

And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Nominations, Leadership and Remuneration Committee, currently Kathryn Stone, Stephen Parkinson, and Monica Burch.

And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 955

I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.

Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 955

As already stated on the day after my release: "The instant that Labour lost control of Durham County Council, then I was granted an unsolicited tag for more than 10 weeks of future good behaviour. I invite each and every Member of Parliament for the area covered by Durham County Council, each and every member of Durham County Council, and each and every member of Lanchester Parish Council, to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know." The current total is zero.

Since  Lanchester is be moved into North Durham by the boundary changes, I invite each and every other candidate for that parliamentary seat to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. In this case, names most certainly will be published, including as part of my election literature. The current total is zero. If that remained the case when the next General Election was called, then my literature would state that each and all of my opponents, by name, did not think that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. At least in that event, then I challenge Oliver Kamm to contest this seat.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

Process of Elimination

Neither Jeremy Corbyn nor Diane Abbott would be "standing against the Labour Party". They would be the incumbents seeking re-election, so Labour would be standing against them. If Abbott is subject to "an independent process", then which independent organisation runs it, within what terms of reference, and why does it not apply to anyone else who has been suspended from the Labour whip, including Corbyn?

Likewise, if Labour plans to, say, grow the economy, then what specific policies does it propose to pursue to that end? If, most obviously, Rachel Reeves ran any risk of bringing about substantial or even superficial change, then she would already have been torn apart by now. There is more than enough material that might be deployed to that purpose, whether against Reeves or against any of the rest of them. It says it all that that deployment has not happened, nor will it.

But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Putin It In Perspective

Of course the Russian Presidential Election has been rigged, but Vladimir Putin would have won it anyway, just not by as much. At least two of the other three candidates, including the one who came second, would have been even worse from the point of view of the people who were making a fuss, and at least one of them would have been so from the point of view of almost anyone. The former point, and arguably the latter, would also have been true of Alexei Navalny, if anyone much in Russia had ever heard of him before, albeit under prison camp conditions, he had dropped dead of natural causes as we fortysomethings sometimes do. It is we cockroaches that survive.

Having kicked out the French, the mighty Mali has now kicked out the Americans. Good luck to either of those against Mali's new patron, Russia. The stalemate in Ukraine is exactly as predicted in that link. Well under a fifth of Ukraine's territory is under Russian occupation, mostly areas that, by the heavily Ukrainian Soviet elite, were put into the Ukrainian SSR in a clearly unsuccessful attempt to make its independence impossible. They are full of Russians. Letting them go would not be a surrender. It would be a solution. The Ukrainian regime's persecution of a wide range of political parties, of trade unions, of independent media, of religious organisations, and of the Russian language and its speakers, is of a piece with its glorification of Nazi collaborators and with its fondness for their symbolism. There is no good side in almost any war, and there is certainly none in this one.

Most of the parties in the House of Commons are worse than useless in their understanding, or lack of understanding, of these matters. But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Sunday 17 March 2024

The International Working-Class StoryFest

I am pleased to pass on the following:

Join us for the International Working-Class StoryFest!

The Working-Class Studies Association, The Working-Class Theatre Makers and The Working-Class Collective have united in solidarity to share working-class stories, as told by working- class creatives.

The International Working-Class StoryFest will take place online, and through local live and streamed events in Leicester, England, and Placerville, California, from 22-24 March 2024. With a truly international focus, presenters and audiences will be joining from the UK, Canada, Australia and the US. However, we welcome global audiences to tune in from wherever they are! Free tickets can be purchased online here.

Featuring poetry, prose, theatre, audio drama and discussions from new and established working-class creatives, we invite you to join us in celebrating working-class stories and the people who make them. The art of storytelling in working-class communities has always been and still is an important way to build solidarity and recognise the talent, diversity and experiences of the working class. This is an international event that aims to establish a global dialogue, platform under-represented talent and build solidarity with all working-class people.

A Global Showcase of Working-Class Creativity, Online and On-Ground

The Working-Class Collective will be kicking things off on Friday 22 March, with poetry and prose from the festival’s contributors, an interview with author Kerry Hudson, and a presentation on the collective’s first ‘Working Class Fantastic Spaces’ event at Bestwood Village – an ex-mining community in Nottinghamshire.

Saturday 22 March features an eclectic line up of working-class writers, activists, academics and theatre makers. Starting with a presentation from Class Divide, day two will continue with an event hosted by the Working-Class Theatre Makers and streamed live from Upstairs at the Western in Leicester, England. In the afternoon, writers Tommy Sissons and Jim Gibson will be discussing writing from a male working-class perspective, and each will perform a reading of their work. The day ends with a theatre showcase from our festival contributors.

Storytelling Sunday: Tribute to Working-Class Women Showcase & Open-Mic

The festival wraps up on Sunday 24 March with a special ‘Storytelling Sunday’ event at the Green Room bar in Placerville, California. Working-class poet and president of the Working-Class Studies Association ‘Storytelling Sunday’ founder, Rina Wakefield. In solidarity with the International Working-Class StoryFest and in celebration of Women’s History Month, the showcase will include creative work that tributes working-class women and voices the lived experience of work, women and class.

The Working-Class Collective is a community of working-class creatives founded by working-class academic Lisa Mckenzie. It began with the publication of The Lockdown Diaries of the Working Class, which told the stories of working-class people and their experience of the first lockdown in 2020. Its most recent project, ‘Working Class Fantastic Spaces’, is a celebration of the places that shape the working class, and the stories of community told through a working-class lens. Connect with the Working-Class Collective on X: @WorkingClassCol and Instagram: @workingclasscol.

The Working-Class Studies Association is an international group dedicated to developing working-class studies as a field within higher education and public discourse. The WCSA is a non-profit organisation whose members have written and contributed to works including the Journal of Working Class Studies and Working-Class Perspectives. The organisation also holds an annual WCSA Conference with panels, plenaries and exhibits on all aspects of working-class life. Connect with the Working-Class Studies Association on X: @wcstudies.

To continue to platform our contributors, the Working-Class Studies Association will be publishing content from the festival on the Creatives Corner section of its website. The aim is to build an online space that actively promotes working-class voices and start a much-needed dialogue on class barriers in the arts and other industries.

Behind The Veil

Our young priest from Nigeria has veiled the statues for Passiontide, and this morning he preached on the meaning of that. Deeply, deeply, deeply sound. Welcome to the mission field. The first time that I met him, then he knew who I was, because he already owned a copy of this. I must be big in Africa. Unlike the pygmies to whom we must sadly turn on yet another Sunday.

It has been 19 weeks since Sunday 5th November, when the Police were informed by two people in the United States and by two people in the Philippines, and I confirmed, that I had been imprisoned on what was incontrovertibly a lie, a lie told by the individual who was trying to have me imprisoned again. It turned out the next day that the Crown would not even call that person as a witness, preferring to rely solely on a suspended Police Officer who then proceeded to delay matters by a further seven months by disappearing off the face of the Earth. As for the other person who lied to have me sent to prison, the Forde Report has found him to have called Diane Abbott an Angry Black Woman. The whole world knows him to be everything that I had always said that he was. But at least he is not still stalking me.

My stalker now complains of being unemployable, so once we were into the Paschal Season, then I intend to tour the better restaurants of Newcastle, to enjoy the fare that could no longer be afforded by one who had to walk around ringing a bell and crying, "Unclean! Unclean!" Neither Pat Buckley, who must live on something, nor Oliver Kamm, who has expressed sympathy for my stalker in the past, seems to care enough to pass on one penny piece. Nor does anyone else. Jolly good.

Do the four known suicides of wronged subpostmasters prove their guilt? And there is always a Paula Vennells, isn't there? There is always Her. That said, there is no suggestion that Vennells deliberately and systematically pursued a suicide, as that of Canon Michael McCoy was pursued, and as mine continues to be, albeit at no risk of success.

Here is your weekly reminder that this could not have been an executive summary of this. That would have been impossible, since they bear no resemblance to each other. It is all here, including on the ludicrous definition of "grooming" that was used to hound Canon McCoy to his death, and including on the nonsense about Fr Timothy Gardner OP. Something has changed since 3rd May. What is it? And where is the original report?

I have no qualms about styling Fr Timothy Gardner OP as such, since he has not been laicised, nor, unless I am very much mistaken, has he been dismissed from the Order of Preachers. A hearing as part of his latest persecution was held at Newcastle Crown Court last month, with more to come in July. The star, and perhaps the only, witness against him deliberately drove Canon McCoy to suicide for sport, as I strongly contend, and lied to have me sent to prison, as I can prove beyond reasonable doubt. She is already unemployable in any capacity.

I do not resile from this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this or this. Rather, I reiterate every word of each and all of them. There was no cathedral sex party. The move from the old Bishop's House to the new one made a profit. There was no allegation of sexual assault against Bishop Robert Byrne CO, who should sue every media outlet that had suggested one.

Although I am often asked, I know neither where nor how Bishop Byrne is. But I am often asked. I am not doing Marko Rupnik, because that would involve siding with the people who had done nothing for Bishop Byrne. They and Rupnik can all go to Hell in the same handcart. Nor am I interested in anything that you might have to say about Bishop Joseph Strickland unless you had fought for Bishop Byrne.

I may not, but I may, accept the present report when Bishop Byrne had done so, and to the extent that he had done so. His Lordship has yet to do so to any extent. At least while that remains the case, then I reject the whole thing out of hand, and so should you. The sum total of the charge sheet against Bishop Byrne is that he did not automatically do as he was told by the hired help. But Buckley does not like Bishop Stephen Wright, so Bishop Wright must be all right.

Indeed, His Lordship preached well at his Enthronement. He clearly has a deep spirituality. There was also a speech by a self-identified survivor of clerical sexual abuse, one Maggie Vickerman. Neither her case, nor those to which she referred, had anything to do with Bishop Byrne, if they really happened at all. How do we know? At most, they were long before his brief time in this Diocese. If anything, certain people with some responsibility for them were in that sanctuary. Nor did Ms Vickerman make any attempt to disguise her theological agenda. Well, nor do I make any attempt to disguise mine.

Force To The Warnings


Supporters of assisted dying need to grasp that they will almost certainly get more than they say that they want. You will have to judge whether they really are as moderate as they claim, or whether they reckon – with good reason – that legalising assisted death will allow them to expand their scheme in ways that would horrify many now. The campaign to legalise abortion on demand was never, in my view, frank about its true aims. Nor is the similar campaign for assisted dying.

Reform of the abortion laws in 1967 was supposed to help a minority of women trapped by terrible circumstances and a brutal, unforgiving law into dangerous actions. In Britain, the argument of safety was paramount. This version is still current. The TV series Call The Midwife has more than once included vivid, emotive and one-sided storylines in which the pre-1967 law is portrayed as unjustified, harsh, inflexible and even fatal.

Claims were made in the 1960s that between 50,000 and 250,000 women were at risk each year from botched illegal abortions. Such cases were tragic but there is little hard evidence that these horrors were as common as claimed.

In April 1966, the British Medical Journal carried a report from the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. It argued from known figures: ‘If there are 100,000 criminal (including self-induced) abortions being performed annually, this means that they are attended by a mortality rate of only 0.3 per 1,000. The risks of criminal abortion are established to be high, so the known number of deaths suggests that the total number of such cases must be considerably less than that alleged.’ The College also noted that ‘therapeutic’ abortions, based on the pre-1967 law, were being carried out in significant numbers in NHS hospitals – 2,800 in 1962. Many more were taking place in private clinics.

Now legal abortions run at almost 215,000 a year in England and Wales. They show no signs of diminishing despite (or perhaps because of) decades of sex education, the ready availability of contraceptives and the ‘morning-after pill’. Many abortions are now carried out with little medical intervention, by the use of ‘pills by post’. And this huge action – in which I believe a human life is destroyed – may very soon be freed from any further legal restraint. A planned amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, which has wide support among MPs, would abolish sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 plus the 1929 Infant Life (Preservation) Act. Its effect would be that ‘no offence is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy’.

Even some liberals think this goes too far. I think it is a warning of how far assisted dying will go, if we let it happen. Sir Keir Starmer is promising what is called a free vote. That is, one in which MPs have no need to tell voters what they plan to do before they do it. But they are under huge pressure from liberal conformism to support assisted dying.

There is another worrying aspect. Until recently, abortion advocates at least claimed to think disposing of an unborn person was bad and should be uncommon. Its American supporters, notably Bill and Hillary Clinton, proclaimed in the 1990s their aim was to make abortion ‘safe, legal… and rare’.

Interestingly, modern feminist advocates of abortion reject any suggestion that it should be ‘rare’. Amelia Bonow, a co-founder of the pro-abortion-rights group Shout Your Abortion has said: ‘I cannot think of a less compelling way to advocate for something than saying that it should be rare. And anyone who uses that phrase is operating from the assumption that abortion is a bad thing.’ In 2012, the US Democratic Party dropped the word ‘rare’ from the abortion section of its official policy platform.

I suspect we are dealing, in the case of abortion and assisted dying, with something much deeper than compassion for the suffering. A new anti-religion, the belief that above all things we should control our own bodies, has rushed into the space left by the death of Christianity. You will hear it all the time if you challenge any modern cause, from drug taking and abortion to the transgender movement: ‘What right have you to tell me what to do with my own body?’

But in many cases those who take this view are putting themselves in danger, from drugs or from invasive medical procedures they may one day regret. The losers in almost all such cases are the close families of those involved. The law, and society, will no longer support them in any pleading they may make.

This gives force to the warnings of those who argue assisted dying in this country will rapidly copy the frightening system in Canada. By 2022, that country was ending the lives of 13,200 people a year, 4.1 per cent of its annual deaths.

The unborn baby is short of defenders when the case for abortion is made. He or she has no voice and is regarded as not yet human by many pro-abortionists. But how much voice will the chronically sick have if it becomes legal to snuff them out?

Many feel guilty about the burden they place on their loved ones. As a society we badly fail to provide the palliative end-of-life care which would surely be the best answer to the needless suffering visited on so many in their final months.

But I think it is worse than that. These changes are a retreat from Christian civilisation into a Brave New World where all who get in the way become disposable. We have dehumanised the unwanted unborn and are about to dehumanise the inconvenient old and ill. Who’s next?

Desperate Neglect


Schools are finding beds, providing showers for pupils and washing uniforms as child poverty spirals out of control, headteachers from across England have told the Observer.

School leaders said that as well as hunger they were now trying to mitigate exhaustion, with increasing numbers of children living in homes without enough beds or unable to sleep because they were cold. They warned that “desperate” poverty was driving problems with behaviour, persistent absence and mental health.

The head of a primary school in a deprived area in north-west England, speaking anonymously to avoid identifying vulnerable children, said: “We have a child who we put in the shower a couple of times a week.” He described the family’s bathroom as “disgusting” and said they couldn’t afford to buy cleaning products.

His school routinely washed uniforms for children whose families didn’t have a washing machine.

The school recently stepped in to help after discovering a pupil begging outside a supermarket and its free breakfast club was “really needed”. But lack of sleep had become another big symptom of poverty – and a barrier to learning.

“We’ve got a lot of kids in homes with not enough beds or a mum sleeping with two or three children,” the head said. Support staff would often take children out of class who weren’t coping because of exhaustion to let them sleep for an hour or two. “Some children are falling asleep in lessons, and not just the little ones,” he said.

The school had many children living in “desperate neglect”. “Kids are sleeping on sofas, in homes with smashed windows, no curtains, or mice,” he said. “I come out of some of these properties and get really upset.”

A report published on Friday by the Child of the North campaign, led by eight leading northern universities, and the Centre for Young Lives thinktank, warned that after decades of cuts to public services, schools were now the “frontline of the battle against child poverty”, and at risk of being “overwhelmed”. It called on the government to increase funding to help schools support the more than 4 million children now living in poverty in the UK.

Anne Longfield, founder of the Centre for Young Lives and the government’s former children’s commissioner, said: “The government has dismantled public services over the past decade and schools are the last people standing. They need proper support to tackle child poverty.”

Katrina Morley, chief executive of Tees Valley Education trust, which runs four primary academies and one special school, all with exceptionally high numbers of children on free school meals, described sleep as “a real issue”. “We have children without beds or they might have to share with siblings,” she said. “Some don’t have enough bedding and no heating so they can’t sleep because they are cold.”

The trust works with local charities to provide families with support on issues like finding beds, and has also discreetly donated blankets over the winter.

A teacher at a primary school in the south-east who works with children at risk of exclusion, 90% of whom are from working families relying on food banks, said children were vaping and buying cheap energy drinks “to suppress their hunger”. Their behaviour was “erratic” as a result. “Every child I deal with is fighting issues that would keep us off work,” he added. “We can’t just teach in a bubble and ignore that.”

Jonny Uttley, chief executive of the the Education Alliance, which runs 11 schools in Hull and East Yorkshire, said hunger or an inability to replace or wash uniforms were the most overt signs of poverty they saw. Some of their schools now provided some children with PE kits and washed them between lessons.

“We’ve got families who can’t afford the electricity to run a washing machine, or it’s broken and they can’t replace it,” he said. “Or parents are simply struggling to cope.”

But in secondary school, where teachers didn’t see parents at the school gate and many young people felt ashamed to admit their family was suddenly on the edge, working out how to step in could be harder, he said. His trust relied on pastoral staff who keep in touch with families, but Uttley warned that although “poverty is in every school in the country now” many cash-strapped schools were being forced to cut pastoral staff just when they were needed most.

Ben Davis, head of St Ambrose Barlow RC high in Salford, said: “There is this simplistic, romantic idea that education lifts people out of poverty, but you have to do something to mitigate the impacts of poverty or children can’t learn.”

His school employs a full-time therapist, and she encounters many young people who feel ashamed of growing up in poverty. Davis said this made them vulnerable to criminal exploitation. “We feel if we don’t try to help, who else will?” he added.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We understand the pressures many households are under, which is why we have extended eligibility for free school meals more than any government in the past half a century – doubling the number of children receiving them since 2010.”

The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 250

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.comby each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.comby each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.

And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The CPS Challenge: Day 250

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from contesting the next General Election.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank to strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.

And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Nominations, Leadership and Remuneration Committee, currently Kathryn Stone, Stephen Parkinson, and Monica Burch.

And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 954

I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.

Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 954

As already stated on the day after my release: "The instant that Labour lost control of Durham County Council, then I was granted an unsolicited tag for more than 10 weeks of future good behaviour. I invite each and every Member of Parliament for the area covered by Durham County Council, each and every member of Durham County Council, and each and every member of Lanchester Parish Council, to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know." The current total is zero.

Since  Lanchester is be moved into North Durham by the boundary changes, I invite each and every other candidate for that parliamentary seat to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. In this case, names most certainly will be published, including as part of my election literature. The current total is zero. If that remained the case when the next General Election was called, then my literature would state that each and all of my opponents, by name, did not think that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. At least in that event, then I challenge Oliver Kamm to contest this seat.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

Saturday 16 March 2024

The Writing On The Wall

If, after 55 or so years in politics including 37 as the MP for Stamford Hill, Diane Abbott refuses to do the Labour Party's ridiculous "anti-Semitism training", then good for her. Central to that is the mural hoax. The most basic of checks would have confirmed that the mural, and the wreath, and the "not understanding English irony", and the "friends from Hamas and Hezbollah", and all the rest of those, were complete dross, as everyone who did bother to check did find out.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission found precisely two cases in its entire report, neither of them involved Jeremy Corbyn or indeed anyone who was still a member of the Labour Party, and even in relation to those, it was found in court that it was, "arguable that the Defendant [the EHRC] made an error of law in relation to Article 10 ECHR." Rather than defend that at judicial review, the EHRC settled with Ken Livingstone, whom it had continued to pursue despite knowing that he had Alzheimer's disease, and with Pam Bromley. As a matter of record, "Labour anti-Semitism" never existed.

But it does now. Labour has expelled more Jews under Keir Starmer than under all its previous Leaders put together, most or all of them for what has been found to be the protected characteristic of anti-Zionism; there would not be enough time left in this Parliament to change the law on that. It is no wonder that Andrew Feinstein is standing against the Leader who has turned Labour into an anti-Semitic party.

Every week, listen to Starmer and Rishi Sunak "clashing" under parliamentary privilege over whether or not Starmer had tried to put an anti-Semite into Downing Street, and whether or not he had changed the Labour Party from one in which anti-Semitism had been "rife". Pure fiction, but what else would they have to "clash" over? If they have any point of political disagreement, then it is that Sunak has not handed over the health portfolio to someone who was still a paid lobbyist for the privatisation of the NHS, but had appointed a Foreign Secretary who was at least occasionally willing to criticise Israel. 

The threat to Abbott has brought attention to her reposting of #ItWasAScam tweets, and thus to the exposure of that gigantic fraud. But since we are about to have a General Election about nothing else, then such talk in front of the servants will never do. What next, vulgarly mentioning that Starmer had deliberately caused the 2019 General Election to be held at all, specifically in order to lose it?

If the 2017 Parliament had run its course, then a General Election no later than June 2022 would have returned a hung Parliament with Labour as the largest party. Terrified at that prospect, and having been publicly ordered by Tony Blair to deliver "a rugby tackle" to bring down Corbyn because he was leading in the polls and he was defeating the Government in the division lobbies, Starmer announced the lethal policy of a second referendum on EU membership. Boris Johnson seized his chance, and we all know what happened next.

Having seen off that idea of a second referendum at the now forgotten Leadership Election of 2016, Corbyn should have sacked Starmer and said that the policy remained the 2017 manifesto commitment to leave the Single Market and the Customs Union. Even then, though, the damage would have been done. Of the 54 seats that, having endorsed Corbyn's economic and foreign policies in 2017, changed from Labour to Conservative two years later, 52 had voted Leave.

This is before we start about how the 2017 Election was thrown by the Labour Party's own staff, the same people whom the Forde Report found to have abused Abbott in terms that the former Ruth Smeeth is being allowed to try and blame on Corbyn. The fundamental flaw in the Corbyn project, its Original Sin, was its failure to sack the party's entire staff on day one and start again from scratch.

Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent is most notable for having lost her seat to Jonathan Gullis, but she literally led a lynch mob through the streets of London against one of Britain's most distinguished anti-racists, Marc Wadsworth. An MP for only four years, and never more than a Parliamentary Private Secretary, why does she have a peerage, and what is the basis of her vast influence under Starmer?

Still, when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Mad Or Bad, And Dangerous To Know

Quite apart from the fact that she no longer lives in Britain, domestic policy causes such as the struggles against drugs and pornography would now be better off without Melanie Phillips. And "I saw on it on YouTube so it must be true"? That is The Times these days, is it?

Phillips has been hiding in plain sight for 20 years. She not only expects her audience to believe that Tony Blair was sincere about there having been weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but she also expects her audience to think that those weapons really did exist, hidden in chambers under the Euphrates. Presumably, they are still there.

Phillips has taken to purveying the notion that there is an alliance of Leftists, Islamists and neo-Nazis against Israel, Red-Green-Black, "the Palestinian colours". Of course, the colour of Nazi parties is brown; black is Christian Democrats and that sort of thing. Moreover, the Browns have been lined up with Israel for decades, and if you think that that is "ironic" or something, then you do not know what you are talking about. Israeli flags are ubiquitous at Far Right events the world over, and have been throughout this century. Well, of course.

Nick Griffin has not mattered in that world in years; he is no "Tommy Robinson". Griffin was at least ostensibly pro-Israeli when he managed to be elected, and most people assume that he has become a security asset acting as an agent provocateur, if he has ever been anything else. Would that we could hold out such hope for Phillips.

The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 249

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.comby each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.comby each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.

And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The CPS Challenge: Day 249

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from contesting the next General Election.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank to strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.

And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Nominations, Leadership and Remuneration Committee, currently Kathryn Stone, Stephen Parkinson, and Monica Burch.

And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 953

I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.

Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 953

As already stated on the day after my release: "The instant that Labour lost control of Durham County Council, then I was granted an unsolicited tag for more than 10 weeks of future good behaviour. I invite each and every Member of Parliament for the area covered by Durham County Council, each and every member of Durham County Council, and each and every member of Lanchester Parish Council, to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know." The current total is zero.

Since  Lanchester is be moved into North Durham by the boundary changes, I invite each and every other candidate for that parliamentary seat to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. In this case, names most certainly will be published, including as part of my election literature. The current total is zero. If that remained the case when the next General Election was called, then my literature would state that each and all of my opponents, by name, did not think that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. At least in that event, then I challenge Oliver Kamm to contest this seat.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

Friday 15 March 2024

Block Votes

If Keir Starmer were to win a General Election late this year or in January of 2025, then he would be 62, and thus seeking to remain Prime Minister until he was at least 67. But if Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott really are the "bed blockers" that Starmer's overmighty staff suggest, then let 25-year-old Keir and Keira be put up against them, one at Islington North, and the other at Hackney North and Stoke Newington. Go on. I dare you.

That said, I have known since 1989 the then Labour Party official whom the Forde Report found had called Abbott an Angry Black Woman, and he called me a Mulatto for years. A former London Regional Director of the Labour Party, he should be its candidate against her, or he is a coward.

When I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Penny Dreadful

To give this Parliament its fourth Prime Minister, they are said to be preparing to crown Penny Mordaunt, who is responsible for this, and who supports the gender self-identification that has materialised out of thin air since Governments came to be comprised entirely of members of the Conservative Party. Apparently, she is the candidate of the Right. Well, of course she is. This is on the front page of the Daily Mail, so even if it is not really happening, then it is what some very powerful people want to happen.

But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Keir Starmer Is Dead Wrong

Kevin Yuill writes:

Keir Starmer has promised to give MPs a free vote on legalising assisted suicide if Labour wins the next UK General Election.

He made the pledge earlier this week, in response to Esther Rantzen, the veteran broadcaster who is also a vocal advocate for assisted suicide. Starmer told her: ‘I’m personally in favour of changing the law. I think we need to make time. We will make the commitment.’

Starmer may have a terrible track record when it comes to keeping his promises, but there is reason to fear that the notorious flip-flopper might actually make good on this one. He has, after all, continuously supported legalising assisted suicide. As an MP in 2015, he voted in favour of it. And when he was director of public prosecutions, in 2010, he issued guidelines that strongly discouraged prosecutions against anyone who helped a terminally ill person end their life. Indeed, his position on assisted dying may be the only consistent one he has ever held.

It looks as if the UK public backs Starmer, too. Earlier this week, a poll found that the vast majority of voters support changing the law to allow assisted suicide or euthanasia. Those in favour would do well to look elsewhere around the world to see where introducing a ‘right to die’ has led.

Starmer has promised that any change in the UK law must be accompanied by ‘safeguards with teeth to protect the vulnerable’ from abuse. But herein lies the fundamental problem with legalising assisted dying. In almost every country where it has been legalised, the safeguards that were initially put in place have been trampled on. Like a cancer, the so-called right to die inevitably spreads.

Canada is perhaps the most grim example of this. In less than a decade, its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) programme has expanded to a dystopian degree. When it was first introduced in 2016, euthanasia was only legal when a patient’s death was ‘reasonably foreseeable’. Now, just about anybody suffering from an illness or disability can access a state-sponsored death. In 2027, the law is set to expand further still to allow those suffering with mental illness to apply for MAID.

This has happened to a similar but lesser extent in those US states where assisted dying is legal. Places like Oregon and California are often held aloft by campaigners as stalwart examples of where safeguards have kept limits on who can access an assisted death. But even there they have clearly failed. Assisted suicide is being offered to an ever-wider section of the population. Laws to expand assisted-suicide eligibility were passed in California (2021), Hawaii (2023), Oregon (2019 and 2023), Vermont (2022 and 2023) and Washington State (2023). In the past three years alone, the criteria for assisted dying has expanded, or is in the process of expanding, in half the US states where it is legal.

Expansion of the criteria is a feature, not a bug, of assisted-suicide laws. Once the right to die is enshrined in law, safeguards are almost immediately called into question by those who feel they are suffering unbearably, but do not qualify under the existing rules. There’s a grim logic to it. When death comes to be seen as the best treatment for suffering, then how can the state deny it to anyone who suffers?

As a result, some truly disturbing cases have emerged from the places where assisted dying is legal. In Alberta, Canada, a 27-year-old autistic woman was approved for MAID earlier this year. Her father has gone to court to try to stop her from being euthanised. He has argued that, aside from her autism diagnosis, she is perfectly healthy. Despite this, two doctors signed off on her death. The case is still ongoing.

It’s a similar story in the Netherlands, where assisted suicide and euthanasia have been legal since 2002. Between 2012 and 2021, 39 people suffering only from autism and / or other intellectual disabilities have been euthanised. Nearly half of them were under 50.

One such case was an autistic man in his twenties. His record said that he was a victim of regular bullying, that he ‘had felt unhappy since childhood’ and that he ‘longed for social contacts but was unable to connect with others’. On this basis, and on his request, his doctor euthanised him.

The essential problem with assisted suicide is that it turns death into a ‘solution’ to life’s problems. It does not alleviate people’s suffering. It merely encourages them to seek death, as an alternative to decent medical treatment or proper social support. Keir Starmer ought to think twice before setting the UK down this path. For once, his flip-flopping would be more than welcome.

Milei’s Authoritarian Libertarianism

Thomas Fazi writes:

Javier Milei, Argentina’s self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” president, enjoys an almost Christ-like status among heterodox conservatives and MAGA-style Right-wingers, almost on a par with Trump himself. Like lovestruck teenagers, a certain type of conservative drools over Milei’s over-the-top mannerisms and “based” speeches against “libtards” and “communists”.

There is, however, a problem: aside from his questionable hairstyle and swamp-draining rhetoric, Milei actually has very little in common with Trump. For all his faults, Trump stood on a platform that rejected the neoliberal orthodoxy that had defined the Republican Party ever since the Reagan era. Trump’s agenda, by contrast, was markedly anti-libertarian: he advocated economic nationalism and protectionism, lambasted globalisation, promised to protect social welfare programmes, vowed to support local industries, and even courted the labour movement.

Though he didn’t deliver on all those fronts, Trumpism, like analogue national-conservative movements in Europe, encapsulated an intuitive understanding that the values cherished by conservatives — family, community, religion, solidarity — can only flourish in a context where the state intervenes to restrain the socially destructive effects of unfettered capitalism. Trump’s former US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer captured the new conservative zeitgeist when he said that libertarianism is “a philosophy for stupid people”.

In this regard, as Sohrab Ahmari has noted, Milei represents a rejection of “nearly everything ‘MAGA’ populists… claim to stand for”. Milei is a self-described ultra-libertarian and pro-market extremist who has vowed to “liberalise and privatise everything” (including organ transplants), slash welfare programmes, gut workers’ rights and permanently shackle the Argentine economy to the Federal Reserve by abolishing the Central Bank of Argentina and adopting the US dollar as the national currency. “The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself,” Milei said at the latest WEF summit, echoing Reagan’s famous inaugural address.

And yet, his agenda doesn’t so much resemble the Western neoliberalism of Reagan and Thatcher as the much more extreme neoliberal regimes implemented in the Seventies and Eighties by the US-backed military juntas that ruled much of Latin America at the time. Even Milei’s rhetoric seems to be plucked straight out of the Eighties playbook: he claims to be on a holy crusade against “communism”, which he accuses of being the root of all Argentina’s, and indeed the West’s, ills.

Of those ills, none is of greater concern to ordinary Argentines than inflation — or rather, hyperinflation. The country has been suffering from soaring prices for years. By the time of last year’s presidential election, the rate of inflation had reached a staggering 150%. No wonder Milei’s anti-elite rhetoric and promises to take a sledgehammer to the economy resonated with so many Argentines. Unfortunately, however, Milei’s slash-and-burn policies will only make a bad situation worse.

While Milei has only been in power for a few months, the consequences of his scorched-earth economic approach are already being felt. His first decision was to devalue the Argentine peso by 50% — part of an “economic shock therapy” that he claimed was necessary to fix the country’s problems. Yet, as was to be expected, the drastic devaluation of the peso has only caused inflation to skyrocket even further, almost doubling to 250% since Milei took office in December. Since then, the price of gas has doubled, while food prices and healthcare costs have risen by roughly 50%, according to official government data. Meanwhile, salaries and pensions have failed to keep up, leading to the largest contraction in workers’ purchasing power in decades.

To make matters worse, Milei has stayed true to his promise of taking a metaphorical “chainsaw” to public spending, slashing subsidies in a wide range of sectors, from transport to utilities — on top of shutting down half of the country’s ministries. For ordinary citizens, the effects have been devastating. According to a recent study by the Catholic University of Argentina, poverty levels have risen to 57% — the highest level in 20 years, and an almost 10% increase since the end of last year, when Milei took over.

“Milei has stayed true to his promise of taking a metaphorical “chainsaw” to public spending.” Milei says this is a necessary pain the country must endure before things get better. But there’s no evidence for this. If anything, the worst is likely yet to come, considering that Milei’s drastic fiscal austerity will probably lead to a further economic contraction amid already-floundering growth. No wonder the IMF has already slashed Argentina’s GDP forecast for 2024.

So why, Milei’s defenders might weigh in, does a recent poll show that a majority of Argentines continue to support him? Because, as the Argentine journalist Lautaro Grinspan explains, Milei “has placed responsibility for households’ mounting economic difficulties on his ‘inheritance’ from Peronist predecessors, and the blame game seems to be working”. But for how long? After all, resistance is already mounting, with workers going on strike in several sectors and anti-Milei mobilisations filling the streets. If his policies don’t start to deliver results soon, Milei could find himself with a full-blown social uprising on his hands, similar to the one that shook the country in 2001.

Faced with such disorder, Milei has already started to crack down on the right to protest — including proposals to identify protestors and then bill them for the cost of mobilising security forces and even remove them from welfare support lists. Some fear even harsher forms of repression. According to one lawmaker in Milei’s coalition, protestors should be dealt with with either “prison or bullets”.

More than anything, the threat served as a telling reminder that while neoliberals like Milei often claim to be libertarian and anti-statist, in practice neoliberalism requires powerful, even authoritarian, state apparatuses to impose its logic on society — and stifle any challenge to the dominant order. It’s no coincidence that the extreme free-market experiments pursued in Latin America in the late 20th century relied on extensive state terror. Nor is it surprising that Milei has repeatedly sought to downplay the crimes of the military junta that ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983, and which was responsible for the death and “disappearance” of an estimated 30,000 people — though it certainly calls into question the president’s commitment to “freedom”.

Moreover, contrary to Milei’s claims, many of the economic problems faced by Argentina can be traced back to the legacy of those policies — not to “communism” or statism. Even after the end of the military rule, several Argentine governments experimented with “pro-market” neoliberal policies. Under Carlos Menem, who ruled from 1989 to 1999, Argentina “flexibilised” the labour market, deregulated virtually every sector of the economy, privatised several state-owned companies, liberalised international trade, pegged the peso to the dollar, and took on large amounts of dollar-denominated debt. Those policies dealt a serious blow to the country’s competitiveness, eventually resulting in a deep recession that the government was unable to overcome. The experiment ended catastrophically with the financial collapse of 2001.

This was followed by a decade-long economic recovery and boom, buoyed by strongly redistributive policies. The subsequent slowdown led the conservative Mauricio Macri to attempt to rekindle the economy by once again embracing market-oriented reforms — and taking on more dollar-denominated debt. When the country’s foreign-debt obligations ballooned to unsustainable levels and the peso collapsed against the US dollar in 2018, Macri made the questionable decision to take another $50 billion loan from the IMF — its largest-ever credit package.

To make matters more precarious, in recent years, the economic impact of the pandemic, the rise in commodity prices and then the Federal Reserve’s post-pandemic interest rate hikes have all contributed to the massive inflationary surge. Thus we can see that Argentina’s problems aren’t rooted solely in “excessive government spending” and “money printing” — in fact, Argentina’s fiscal balance was actually in line with the regional average throughout the decade to 2022, and last year was smaller than the US’s — but more specifically in the country’s over-reliance on dollar-denominated debt and an outward-oriented development model. It goes without saying that further tying the Argentine economy to the American one by going for full-blown dollarisation would only make things worse. It would mean fully submitting Argentina to American monetary governance — though it would, of course, once again make the country “safe” for global capital.

But if this is true, why are so many MAGA-conservatives attracted to Milei? It’s partly down to the growing importance of culture-war issues in the formation of people’s political outlook: Milei’s non-conformist stance on issues such as vaccines and climate change automatically makes him “based” regardless of what his economic policies may be.

In more strictly political-economic terms, however, it shows that conservatives, particularly in the US, still very much live in the shadow of Reaganism: they adhere to a cartoonish form of libertarianism, where the state is the source of all evil and oppression, while the self-regulating market — or “true capitalism” — is framed as a promised land capable of delivering freedom and prosperity.

This is tragically naïve. For all the problems of government overreach that we face today, and its threat to human freedom and autonomy, conservatives would do well to reflect on the fact that the alternative — subordinating social life to the logic of the market — leads to equally toxic outcomes: it breaks down social and communitarian bonds, weakens forms of collective identity, and breeds atomised and alienated individuals. In this sense, it’s not an alternative at all; it’s the world we already live in, one in which authoritarian states coexist with equally authoritarian, socially destructive market-based logics. By contrast, as Karl Polanyi observed, the true “conservative” alternative consists in “embedding” the economy in society, in subordinating it to its citizens’ material needs, beliefs, values, customs and traditions — in other words, the opposite of Milei’s authoritarian libertarianism.