Thursday 6 July 2017

"Just Feed In, Lasses"

The email from the Teaching Assistants reads:

Please come and join us at Durham Miners' Gala on Saturday.

Yes, times are difficult; some are feeling tired, and rightly very angry. Let's show everyone that we're here and we're still fighting.

Let's walk with pride and dignity like we did last year. Let's walk in memory of Davy Hopper who had full faith in us and supported us when many wouldn't.

We are marching to show solidarity with everyone attending as well as fellow TAs, and we have much appreciated support from around the country, from members of the public to other unions, Derby TAs, and councillors.

Please remember that we are there to support the miners and remember Davy, not to shout, sing, chant or bang drums. Again, please no placards, either.

I know everyone is angry about the last week, but our time for waving the placards, chanting and singing will be here soon enough.

Let's do this for us and our families.

Meet us in Durham Market Place from 8.30 am.

Talk to me (and really do) about Laura Pidcock's potential after she has participated in this march. Talk to me about her actual achievements when the TAs have won.

Until then, I have seen many a Golden Boy come and go, and a Golden Girl strikes me as no different.

Although I cannot remember a Golden Boy who complained about having to make do on £74,962, to the point of bemoaning the lack of council housing for those in such abject poverty.

Look, she might be as good as they say she is. But she has yet to show any sign of it. There are MPs from the 2017 intake on the front bench now. She is not one of them.

I have been banned from Labour Party membership for as long as she has been old enough to vote, and the party locally is trying to frame me in a criminal trial. Loyalty is as loyalty does.

22 comments:

  1. This is outrageous.
    How are they trying to frame you?
    What can we do?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, it's been in the papers.

      The extreme weakness of the prosecution's case against me was evident at my Plea Hearing on 13th June, and its lack of preparation was disrespectful to all concerned, including one of the investigating Police Officers, who was present in the public gallery.

      Indeed, the judge was highly annoyed that the correct material had not been uploaded. "This is the Crown Court," he reprimanded counsel, one Louise Harrison.

      The Crown Prosecution Service has no case against me unless and until it produces the alleged fingerprint evidence, but on that day it failed to do so three months, to the day, after I had first been arrested and fingerprinted.

      I am starting to think, not only that a Solidarity March and Rally really could be held on the first day of my trial, Wednesday 6th December (yes, December!), but that the Police might participate in it. They certainly ought to do so. In its incompetence, the CPS has treated their work with contempt.

      Delete
  2. They should buy you a nice sticky bun and a cup of tea when they apologise

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They have set in chain events of which they are in danger of losing control. They are out of their depth.

      Delete
  3. Will you be in your linen number on Saturday. You always look so dapper. A very handsome young man.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I wouldn't dream of wearing anything else.

      But I'm 39. And I look it. Perhaps that is the point?

      Delete
  4. and you must keep wearing a tie. It shows leadership qualities and panache. My sis goes quite weak at the knees.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As long as they hold up while she's marching.

      Delete
  5. I suspect you can keep your head above water and were a good little swimmer

    ReplyDelete
  6. shes 84 you know. always says you look the part. reminders her of her alfred in the war.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 39 is a very good age to do service for Her Majesty

    ReplyDelete
  8. A good age for parliamentary service

    ReplyDelete
  9. Its Thursday; half a dozen eggs and a sausage after I get our pension on a Thursday. Wednesday is Bingo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So it is. Trying to set up two businesses makes one day blur into the next.

      If they really took off, then I might well be too busy to stand for the council or for Parliament (and the new seat will be very far from safe for anyone). Giving those enterprises a helping hand would be far more efficient and effective than trying and failing to have me banged up.

      You all know where I am.

      Delete
  10. You mustn't tyre yourself out. Two businesses seems quite a lot. Da never got beyond the rag and bone but Burnopfield was a different place then

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sis thinks you should have a hat. A nice trilby or a brown derby.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have thought about a Panama in the past. And perhaps a trilby in the winter. But my St Helenian hair grows like Topsy. I'd be a martyr to hat hair.

      Delete
  12. You should get a Panama from that nice shop in North Road for the gala tomorrow. It is important that you continue to set the satorial tone of the thinking classes in Durham

    ReplyDelete
  13. If you can get it froom Parkins it will make it easier for sis to spot you. She will be in her usual spot in the Swan. She's partial to a gin on gala day

    ReplyDelete