Much, Much More

What with her £3,100, the assurance from Gordon Brown that such people will not be permitted to be Labour candidates next time entirely rules out any bid for re-election by Hilary Armstrong, of whom I for one really had thought a great deal better. But I was standing here anyway.

And I am still doing so anyway.

As a candidate Independent by name, answerable to no one but the voters. Independent by nature, with a mind of his own. Who has lived in this constituency almost all my life, never went to school anywhere else, and went to university within five miles of here. A long-standing local activist, councillor and school governor. A worker in all three of the public, private and voluntary sectors. Entirely State-educated, and non-Oxbridge.

Who buried his father at 13, has had major emergency surgery, has been unemployed, has been self-employed, and has been on Income Support because my former employer had not kept up stamps for Incapacity Benefit. Who holds two degrees, has been a councillor since the age of 21, was a primary school governor for two four-year terms from 21, and was a comprehensive school governor for two four-year terms from 22. Who still has decades of service to offer. Who is mixed-race, like one in five British children under five, but unlike any current MP. And much, much more.

I am pro-life, pro-family, pro-worker and anti-war. I am an economically social democratic, morally and socially conservative British and Commonwealth patriot. Mine are One Nation politics, with an equal emphasis on the One and on the Nation. I am a conservationist, not an environmentalist. I am far too left-wing to be a liberal, and far too conservative to be a capitalist. I am a practising Catholic. If elected here in 2010, I will light the fire for more such MPs the next time, more again the time after that, and the eventual re-emergence of a proper party that really speaks for us. And much, much more.

Which other candidate wants to guarantee that no one’s tax-free income to fall below half national median earnings? To abolish prescription charges, and restore free eye and dental treatment? To make employment rights begin on day one of employment and apply regardless of the number of hours worked, as promised by John Smith? To save council housing, and bring all council services back in house? To renationalise the utilities and the railways? To build a national network of public transport free at the point of use? To remove all nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons from British soil and waters? And much, much more. These are the things that I want to talk about.

Which other candidate wants to restore the supremacy of British over EU law? To return to preventative policing based on foot patrols? To make each offence carry a minimum sentence of one third of its maximum sentence, or 15 years for life? To restore grammar schools, restore O-levels, restore excellent Secondary Modern schools, and defend and restore Special Needs Education? To introduce a legal presumption of equal parenting, restore the tax allowance for fathers, and allow paternity leave to be taken at any time in the first 18 years of the child’s life? To help farmers and small businesses through a windfall tax on the supermarkets? To defend village services, save shooting and fishing, repeal the hunting ban, and make Gypsies and Travellers obey the same planning laws as the rest of us? To preserve the historic regimental system, rebuild the Royal Navy, and save the Royal Air Force? And much, much more. These are the things that I want to talk about.

Which other candidate is campaigning for nuclear power and clean coal technology? To restore British overall control of our defence capability? To dock Ministers’ pay if either spending or outcomes are lower in the North East than in Scotland or the South East? For immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan? In total opposition to lap-dancing clubs? For an MP’s office in Consett as well as in Crook? And much, much more. These are the things that I want to talk about.

I want to give back a voice to several traditions whose very existence is no longer permitted to be acknowledged, and may indeed genuinely be unknown, in the party that once "owed more to Methodism than to Marx", indeed owed nothing whatever to Marx, but which is now wholly controlled by people who were Communists, Trotskyists and fellow-travellers in the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s and in several cases even the 1990s.

The tradition of the trade unionists and Labour activists who in the early twentieth century peremptorily dismissed an attempt to make the Labour Party anti-monarchist, and resisted schemes to abort, contracept and sterilise the working class out of existence.

The tradition of the Attlee Government’s refusal to join the European Coal and Steel Community on the grounds that it was "the blueprint for a federal state" and that "the Durham miners would never wear it". Of Gaitskell’s rejection of European federalism as "the end of a thousand years of history" and liable to destroy the Commonwealth. Of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s unanimous opposition to Thatcher’s Single European Act. Of the 66 Labour MPs who voted against the legislation giving effect to the Maastricht Treaty, including, in Bryan Gould, the only resignation from either front bench in opposition to Maastricht. Of the every Labour MP without exception who voted against the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies every year between 1979 and 1997. And of that half of the French Socialist Party which successfully opposed the EU Constitution.

The tradition of Bevan’s ridicule of the first parliamentary Welsh Day on the grounds that "Welsh coal is the same as English coal and Welsh sheep are the same as English sheep". Of those Labour MPs who in the 1970s successfully opposed Scottish and Welsh devolution not least because of its ruinous effects on the North of England. Of those Labour activists in the Scottish Highlands, Islands and Borders, and in North, Mid and West Wales, who accurately predicted that their areas would be balefully neglected under devolution. And of the very strong Unionist feeling among Scots and Welsh (and English) Catholics, who have no more desire to go down the road of who is or is not "really" Scots or "really" Welsh (or "really" English) than Ulster Protestants have to go down the road of who is or is not "really" Irish.

The tradition of the Parliamentary Labour Party that voted against the partition of the United Kingdom. Of the Attlee Government’s first ever acceptance of the principle of consent with regard to the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Of the Wilson Government’s deployment of British troops to protect Northern Ireland’s grateful Catholics precisely as British subjects. Of the Callaghan Government’s administration of Northern Ireland exactly as if it were any other part of the United Kingdom. And of the two Ulster Unionist MPs who voted to save the Callaghan Government (both the fact that they did so and the reason why) when both Irish Nationalists abstained.

The tradition of the Catholic and other Labour MPs, including John Smith, who fought tooth and nail against abortion and easier divorce. Of the Methodist and other Labour MPs, including John Smith, who fought tooth and nail against deregulated drinking and gambling. And of those, including John Smith, who successfully organised, especially through USDAW, against the Thatcher’s and Major’s attempts to destroy the special character of Sunday and of Christmas Day, delivering the only Commons defeat of Thatcher’s Premiership.

The tradition of the Ministerial defence of the grammar schools by "Red Ellen" Wilkinson (of the Jarrow Crusade) and by George Tomlinson. Of the intellectual defence of the grammar schools by Sidney Webb and by R H Tawney. Of the vigorous practical defence of the grammar schools by Labour councillors and activists the length and breadth of the land. Of the Labour MPs who successfully defended Catholic schools in successive decades. Of the restoration of the Gymnesien by popular demand as soon as the Berlin Wall came down in what remains the staunchly left-wing former East Germany. Of the similar, and equally successful, campaign by the public at large to save the Gymnesien in solidly Social Democratic North Rhine-Westphalia. And of the support by national leaders of the Social Democrats for Christian religious instruction in the schools of Berlin.

And the tradition of Attlee’s successful dissuasion of Truman from dropping an atom bomb on Korea. Of Wilson’s refusal to send British forces to Vietnam, but use of military force to safeguard the right of the people of Anguilla to be British. And of Callaghan’s successful prevention of an Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands.

You do not have to agree with all of these. You do not have to agree with any of them. You just have to accept that they are legitimate, that they are part of the family, that policy and procedure should at least be aware of them and attend to their concerns.

When they existed, that political and procedural awareness and attention gave this country the universal and comprehensive Welfare State. They gave this country the strong statutory and other (especially trade union) protection of workers, consumers, communities and the environment. They gave this country progressive taxation. They gave this country full employment. They gave this country the partnership between a strong Parliament and strong local government. They gave this country co-operatives, credit unions, mutual guarantee societies, mutual building societies, and so on. They helped to provide the backbone of the Police, the Armed Forces and the Prison Service in much better days for all of them. And they helped to call millions onto the streets to celebrate such events as the Coronation in 1953 and the Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Informed as ever by Catholic Social Teaching and Distributism, and by their striking similarities in Methodism and in the various types of Calvinism found in different parts of these islands, it is time once again proudly to define ourselves as a social democrats as that term is understood by almost all English-speaking people, above all in the British Isles and the Old Commonwealth, and not in any sense as employed by those who have never recanted their Communist, Trotskyist or fellow-travelling activities in the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s and in several cases even the 1990s, activities including the forcible purging from the House of Commons of almost everyone standing in our authentically social democratic tradition. It is time to reverse that purging.

That was why I was standing for Parliament anyway, regardless of the events of the last fortnight.

And that is why I still am.