Local, National and International

Regular readers will be familiar (though not as familiar as I am - his insanely abusive comments have to be rejected several times per day) with "Break Dancing Jesus". I know exactly who BDJ is, and I sometimes find myself wondering what I have ever done to him, certainly compared to what he once did to me, to no long-term good on his own part, nor any long-term harm on mine. Yet somehow or other, he has become quite, quite demented in his embittered hatred of me.

But anyway, for and on behalf of the New Labour Establishment as it imposes itself in these parts, he lately threatened me with Oona King as the Labour PPC for North West Durham. Well, bring her on. The rumours to that effect now reach me daily, and I can think of only one reason why they might not turn out to be correct, namely that New Labour believes the people of County Durham, being overwhelmingly either of or from the white working class, to be borderline, if borderline, Nazis (actually a middle-class movement, but the semi-educated New Labour lot cannot be expected to know that). Of course, they do believe that. But dare they say so explicitly, by quashing the rumours and not running Oona King after all?

Not that hers is the only name that one hears. Another is that of Sharon Hodgson, an MP whose neighbouring seat is to be abolished by boundary changes. But she falls between two stools: she has a heavy Tyneside accent, making her too Northern for New Labour, and the wrong sort of Northern, arguably for Consett, and certainly for Crook. Here in County Durham, we do not like to be treated as the backyard of Tyneside or Teesside. Of course, New Labour does regard us as such. But dare they say so explicitly, by running someone who could not get herself selected for the successor to the Gateshead seat that she already holds?

There is pointedly no rumour of a local Labour candidate, and, what with the all-women shortlist, I for one cannot think of who such a local Labour candidate might be. Can anyone else?

In any case, of course, people have rumbled what they are being asked to vote for by voting for New Labour, or the Tories, or the Lib Dems. That cartel offers nothing to this country's mainstream of economically social democratic, morally and socially conservative British and Commonwealth patriots. In the next Parliament, it plans the reduction of the NHS to a pure commissioner of services, the introduction of school vouchers while even state schools are permitted to charge absolutely any fees they like (far beyond the value of any voucher), war against Iran and Russia, and the complete abolition of public transport, local government and social housing. Among many other delights, of course.

Some of us are determined to provide a voice for the mainstream. First and above all else, we need candidates for June's European Elections. The likes of student discussion boards and Sixth Form social networking by photograph can wait. If that's how you like your politics (i.e., with the politics taken out), then you already have the options of New Labour, the Cameron Tories and the Lib Dems.

And the rules are the rules, the law is the law: we really will act against people using our name without approval, which is against the law. Again, if you prefer student union politics to the real thing, then you already have the options of New Labour, the Cameron Tories and the Lib Dems.

Do get in touch. All you have to do is follow the link above. How hard is that? On it, you will even find an email address. Or alternatively, feel free to contact me directly - davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Once again, how hard is that?

If you have not done either of these rather basic things, then you have no right to complain. Nor, indeed, have you if you have done them and then found that we are not to your way of thinking. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, you already have the options of New Labour, the Cameron Tories and the Lib Dems.