Fatally Flawed

Today's whole-life order against Wayne Couzens has been welcomed by Jeremy Corbyn, who promised in two General Election manifestos to increase Police pay and numbers significantly. No "abolitionist" he. In practice, that is the Government, and the Official Opposition that is failing to oppose.

Following that sentence and today's equally significant, glorious victory for Kate Wilson, the likes of Harriet Harman, Keir Starmer, Wes Streeting on tonight's Question Time, and so on need to be asked very explicitly why they had abstained on the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act, and why they had no intention of repealing either that or what will soon be the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act.

With the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act, on which they also abstained and which they also have no intention of repealing, those Statutes are already internationally infamous as having "consigned the United Kingdom to the outermost fringe of international respectability" by "drawing a triangle of separation around that country".

Into Disrepute

Plenty of people at any given Labour Party Conference disagreed profoundly with Tony Blair, but he was only ever heckled once in all those years, that was over Iraq, and the late, great Walter Wolfgang was not suspended from the party. Plenty of people at any given Labour Party Conference disagreed profoundly with Jeremy Corbyn, but he was never heckled, and imagine what the reaction would have been if there had been the slightest punishment of anyone who had done so. But Keir Starmer was heckled by several people yesterday, and now the Labour Party is suspending them.

Variously, they had dared to call for the £15 per hour minimum wage that Conference had unanimously supported in line with 65 per cent of public opinion while only 14 per cent was opposed, for the proper payment of NHS staff, for opposition to the privatisation of the NHS, for facing up to the fact that Starmer's Brexit policy had caused the scale of Labour's defeat in 2019 (in fact, it had caused that General Election to be held at all), for the long overdue publication of the Forde Report, for an end to the party's toleration of the abuse of Muslims, for an end to its toleration of anti-black racism, and for an end to its toleration of racism against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people.

Richard Holden Promotion Watch: Day Seven

People have been in touch to ask why I never criticised Richard Holden. But I am highly critical of this Government, of which Richard is the strong supporter that he was elected to be. I like him, not that that has anything to do with politics. I like a lot of what he is doing, or trying to do. He is, however, a political opponent.

The reshuffle has put everything in place for a General Election in May 2023. Yet there is no sign of the name of a loyal, and obviously ambitious, former special adviser to several Cabinet Ministers.

Perhaps he has turned down offers? The alternative is that the composition of the Government is being determined by the Prime Minister's wife. Therefore, Richard needs to be asked the question. He may consider it asked here and now. And every day until further notice.

Advance Notice

By what magic power does Ofqual know how well GCSE and A-level candidates are going to perform next summer?

Do you remember any kind of debate about controlling those marks by quota? Yet here we are.

It Couldn't Happen Here

Nicolas Sarkozy is unlucky not to live in the jurisdiction that dealt with the overspending by the British Conservative Party during its unexpectedly successful General Election campaign in 2015. 

No one even bothers to try and deny the wrongdoing, but another General Election two years later, regardless of its result, is deemed to have cancelled out the previous flagrant criminality.

To Guarantee Safety and Competitive Fairness

We need to see what will come of it, but we may dare to hope that the UK Sports Councils have today begun to turn the tide against the desperate unfairness of people who had been through a male puberty, commonly known as "men", competing in women's sport.

Re-Tooling?

Can anyone hire SCO19 as armed security for their private function, or do you have to be a former Director of Public Prosecutions? I say hire, but who paid for this?

Thus guarded, Keir Starmer congratulated Marcus Rashford on having done the job that Starmer was paid to do. And he "announced" a policy on music teaching that I and tens of thousands of others had heard Jeremy Corbyn promise to the Durham Miners' Gala more than two years ago; it had not been new even then, although it had originated with the Corbyn Leadership.

But Starmer declared the return of the crude anti-intellectualism of Old New Labour, mocking the very suggestion of teaching Latin while demonstrating that he had no idea of the origins of the Schönheit der Arbeit. On the first point, he needs Professor Edith Hall and Dr Henry Stead to put him right. On the second, he is probably beyond help. Starmer implied that teaching Latin was incompatible with teaching digital skills. He needs to take a trip back to his own private school.

The Conservatives are eight points ahead today, while Labour has a poll rating lower than its result at the last General Election.

Labour Candidate Watch: Day 15

15 days after the Cabinet reshuffle that called a General Election for May 2023, there is still no Labour candidate at North West Durham, which in 2019 Labour lost for the first time and by only 1,144 votes.

By contrast, I have been a candidate for North West Durham at the next General Election since even before the last one, fighting 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. Contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com.  

Or contact nwdclp.campaigns@gmail.com if you wanted permanent austerity at home, if you wanted forever war abroad, and if you did not want a mixed-race MP for this seat. This post will appear daily until someone had proven to be so pro-austerity, so pro-war, and so racist, that even the Labour Party was sufficiently impressed.

The Adrian Hilton Challenge: Day 54

Adrian Hilton, I had to Google you, and I still have little or no idea who you are, so when, exactly, have I ever "stalked" you at all, much less "for longer than [you] care to remember"? 

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Oliver Kamm Challenge: Day 54

Oliver Kamm, whose signature to this do you claim that I forged? Name the name.

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever been found to have accused anyone of child abuse?

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever called for anyone to be murdered?

And Oliver Kamm, since I am a declared and active candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham, are you? If not, why not?

I could go on at very great length, but these questions will do for now.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 54

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.

Furthermore, I invite each and every other candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham 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.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 54

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.

Since, as private citizens, none of them has resigned as a Patron of my parliamentary campaign at North West Durham, I invite each and all of the 12 archbishops and diocesan bishops of the Red Wall dioceses of Birmingham, Hallam, Hexham and Newcastle, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Northampton, Nottingham, Salford, Shrewsbury, and Wrexham, 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.

And since none of them has resigned as a Patron of my parliamentary campaign at North West Durham, I invite each and all the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchal Vicar in Jerusalem, the Ethiopian Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Maronite Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Palestine, the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, the Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem, and the Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Amman, 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.

The scandalous allegation against me on 2nd March 2020 was recanted under oath at Durham Crown Court on 11th of that month, calling gravely into question my convictions the next day by exposing that key character witness as unreliable, a fact that was not mentioned in closing statements or in summation. Unless, as is widely assumed, the real reason for them is the content of this book, then the sanctions imposed upon me in my absence on 2nd March 2020 are void. I expect a written apology by 30th September 2021, and for it to be published in full in The Northern Cross. Financially, I would then settle for the reimbursement of my victim surcharges. One would not wish to have to sue the Church. If I were still subject to any sanction by the Church at the time of the next General Election, and if I were to be defeated at that Election, then I would seek to have that result overturned in the courts on grounds of undue spiritual influence.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

Richard Holden Promotion Watch: Day Six

People have been in touch to ask why I never criticised Richard Holden. But I am highly critical of this Government, of which Richard is the strong supporter that he was elected to be. I like him, not that that has anything to do with politics. I like a lot of what he is doing, or trying to do. He is, however, a political opponent.

The reshuffle has put everything in place for a General Election in May 2023. Yet there is no sign of the name of a loyal, and obviously ambitious, former special adviser to several Cabinet Ministers.

Perhaps he has turned down offers? The alternative is that the composition of the Government is being determined by the Prime Minister's wife. Therefore, Richard needs to be asked the question. He may consider it asked here and now. And every day until further notice.

The Faithful Durhams?

Following today’s excellent news about progress towards the reopening of the DLI Museum, the new administration at County Hall in Durham ought also to right the injustice against the Teaching Assistants, and to restore all bus services that had been lost since May 2008, while also addressing the situation, which boggles the minds of visitors from other parts of the country, that the older person’s bus pass did not give free travel until the middle of the morning.

The Liberal Democrats lead that administration. The Conservatives are part of it, as are those Independents from whose ranks any Independent candidate other than me would be drawn at the next General Election here in North West Durham; any candidate of a smaller right-wing party would also probably move in those circles. The administration was installed on the vote of the only Green Councillor.

Therefore, the Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Green candidates here, plus any other Independent or any candidate of a smaller right-wing party, could expect to be challenged by me on all three of the DLI Museum, the Teaching Assistants, and the bus services.

Simple But Powerful Words

So, Keir Starmer, precisely which policy in the 2017 or 2019 Labour manifesto, both of which were fully costed, rendered it "not a serious plan for government"? Which policy, exactly? And why, exactly?

Be careful not to pick one that the Conservative Government was already implementing, rather than one that it was going to implement eventually. In 2019, although not in 2017, there was one that the Conservative Government will never implement. The one that caused that General Election to be held at all.

It had not been due until the spring of 2022, when it had been expected to lead to another hung Parliament, perhaps even with Labour as the largest party. After all, despite the antics of the saboteurs on its own staff, Labour in 2017 had taken 40 per cent of the vote, and had experienced its only net gain in seats since 1997.

But you, Starmer, unilaterally announced the second EU referendum that Jeremy Corbyn had defeated by defeating Owen Smith, it is true that Corbyn then culpably failed to sack him, Boris Johnson saw the obvious opportunity, and the rest is history.

A Trivial Man

Trying to sell himself as honest is not going to work for a man who lied his way to the Labour Leadership, or who lionised Tony Blair, or who used to head the Crown Prosecution Service. "Boris Johnson is a liar" is not exactly news. And anyway, Keir Starmer, so are you. At least Johnson is not a hypocrite.

If you were wondering why a Conference that had unanimously passed a motion for a minimum wage of £15 per hour then gave this teenage fangirl reception to Starmer, then they were largely not the same people. Starmer's audience was packed with bussed in day visitors, although even then the hall was far from full, with no one in the galleries, which are normally packed for the Leader's Speech.

One of the wicked hecklers called for a minimum wage of £15 per hour while Starmer was blathering on about the dignity of work without mentioning any specific policy. That was quite a courageous act, because there were armed police at the end of every row. Not even Blair used to have that, and in Opposition this is purely a private event. Yet there they were, literally ready to shoot any "terrorist" who had really stepped out of line.

Having voted against it purely because of Sarah Everard, Starmer, who already uses armed police for internal party enforcement purposes, has no intention of repealing what would by then be the Wayne Couzens (Further Empowerment) Act. Thank goodness that that will only ever be an academic point, since he stands no chance of ever becoming Prime Minister.

Tough On The Causes

The Conservatives get nothing like the credit that they deserve from what are these days called the woke, and Labour gets nothing like the credit that it deserves from the war and order brigade.

The phenomena that are classified as wokery have arisen entirely since 2010, while Labour Governments have always been the most belligerent both abroad and at home.

Keir Starmer has just made it clear that the latter record would remain intact. We all know that the former will, and that neither Boris Johnson nor anyone else will ever be asked about it.

When Chris Mason asked Kim Leadbeater how Starmer's rhetoric, if it could have been so described, could be squared with Labour's votes against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, then all that she could find to say was that she had not been an MP at the time.

Only the murder of Sarah Everard prevented a Labour whip either to abstain on that internationally infamous Bill or to vote in favour it. The Leadership and its supporters have no played no role whatever in the mass opposition to it.

Starmer, or David Lammy, or Nick Thomas-Symonds, or some such person now needs to be asked whether or not a future Labour Government would repeal the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act. That would be a yes-no question.

Dopey Keir

If Keir Starmer rightly deplores the SNP's record on drugs, then why does he support its policy of de facto decriminalisation?

Although he says that he would not implement that policy in England. Despite agreeing with it in Scotland.

Or Changing Lives

Those heckling Keir Starmer about the NHS were demanding that he make a specific commitment to pay its staff properly. 

He, on the other hand, just wanted the audience to clap them. We could all see who was the mere sloganiser. And we shall continue to see it.

We Are All Dinosaurs Now

We old Blue Labour types remember when our leading lights saw David Lammy, late of the Archbishops' Council that is the central executive body of the Church of England, as the blue-eyed boy, the great white hope. But never mind his eyes. We now demand to see his cervix.

Not that he is in government, or ever likely to be. Caroline ffiske has the measure of the people who are: "Over the past decade, on the Tories' watch, the NHS has been increasingly captured by gender ideology. And [Sajid] Javid, despite health being his remit, is yet to say or do anything about it." Do read all of this vitally important article.

On Sunday, or at any time next week, will Boris Johnson be asked about any of this? Will he be asked whether he accepted that anyone with a cervix must be a woman? No, of course not. The governing party is never asked the culture war questions. We all know why not.

For All That You Have Done?

Keir Starmer is still trading on the reputation of Doreen Lawrence, so might that be the reason why the Forde Report has never been published? Does he fear her reaction? If so, then that says a very great deal about what its content must be like. 

And what does he have to say to her call for drastic changes from top to bottom in the Metropolitan Police and in the Independent Office for Police Conduct? What does she say to his reaction, of which his silence is a form?

Welcome Home?

Before Jeremy Corbyn arranged to have her made a Dame, Louise Ellman had been most notable for the fact that at the low turnout General Election of 2001, the constituency that had reelected her had had the lowest turnout in the entire country.

In 22 years in Parliament, what did she do? List her accomplishments. The 2001 abstention rate was rather more significant than she was. Hardly anyone noticed at the time of Tony Blair's second landslide, but the actual Labour vote had gone through the floor. If only to abstention at first, the habit of voting Labour had been broken.

Value Added?

Taxing school fees? They always dig out that one when they want to appear leftish for internal party purposes. There is never the slightest suggestion of doing it when they are in government, because it has to be kept in reserve. 

In any case, how would it be a good thing for the Left to force even more people to have to send their children to the schools that were the citadels of the Labour Right, the points at which the liberal elite met the municipal machine? What has either of those ever done for us? But they have done a hell of a lot to us.

For Reason In Revolt Now Thunders?

May we please have a definition of "Hard Left"? In practice, it now means the view that the minimum wage and statutory sick pay should be enough to live on, a view endorsed unanimously by the Labour Party Conference, a body that normally has a healthy aversion to unanimity.

A "Corbynista" is a 63-year-old who holds that view and who supported Andy Burnham for Leader in 2015, both of which one would rather expect of an old trade union solicitor and local councillor from Middlesbrough.

The Wilting Rose

This is the story of the Labour Party through five General Elections:

2017, 40 per cent of the vote, the only net gain in seats in the twenty-first century, and would have been the largest party if not for internal sabotage;

2019, called only because Keir Starmer's Brexit policy had given Boris Johnson his chance, or else a 2022 Election would have resulted in another hung Parliament;

2023, fewer Labour MPs than all other Opposition parties put together;

2027, fewer than 100 Labour MPs this time and forever thereafter; and

2031, so few Labour MPs that the Official Opposition becomes an alliance of all other non-Conservative parties apart from the DUP, including "Hard Left" parties and one that had grown out of Black Lives Matter.

Through all of this, the permanent Conservative Government implements much of the Labour manifestos of 2017 and 2019, secure in the knowledge that just as everyone would always laugh off the largely implemented 1983 manifesto as "suicidal" so long as there was never unilateral nuclear disarmament, so everyone would always laugh off the Corbyn years so long as there was never a second referendum on EU membership.

Labour Candidate Watch: Day 14

14 days after the Cabinet reshuffle that called a General Election for May 2023, there is still no Labour candidate at North West Durham, which in 2019 Labour lost for the first time and by only 1,144 votes.

By contrast, I have been a candidate for North West Durham at the next General Election since even before the last one, fighting 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. Contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com.  

Or contact nwdclp.campaigns@gmail.com if you wanted permanent austerity at home, if you wanted forever war abroad, and if you did not want a mixed-race MP for this seat. This post will appear daily until someone had proven to be so pro-austerity, so pro-war, and so racist, that even the Labour Party was sufficiently impressed.

The Adrian Hilton Challenge: Day 53

Adrian Hilton, I had to Google you, and I still have little or no idea who you are, so when, exactly, have I ever "stalked" you at all, much less "for longer than [you] care to remember"? 

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Oliver Kamm Challenge: Day 53

Oliver Kamm, whose signature to this do you claim that I forged? Name the name.

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever been found to have accused anyone of child abuse?

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever called for anyone to be murdered?

And Oliver Kamm, since I am a declared and active candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham, are you? If not, why not?

I could go on at very great length, but these questions will do for now.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 53

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.

Furthermore, I invite each and every other candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham 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.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 53

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.

Since, as private citizens, none of them has resigned as a Patron of my parliamentary campaign at North West Durham, I invite each and all of the 12 archbishops and diocesan bishops of the Red Wall dioceses of Birmingham, Hallam, Hexham and Newcastle, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Northampton, Nottingham, Salford, Shrewsbury, and Wrexham, 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.

And since none of them has resigned as a Patron of my parliamentary campaign at North West Durham, I invite each and all the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchal Vicar in Jerusalem, the Ethiopian Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Maronite Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Palestine, the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, the Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem, and the Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Amman, 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.

The scandalous allegation against me on 2nd March 2020 was recanted under oath at Durham Crown Court on 11th of that month, calling gravely into question my convictions the next day by exposing that key character witness as unreliable, a fact that was not mentioned in closing statements or in summation. Unless, as is widely assumed, the real reason for them is the content of this book, then the sanctions imposed upon me in my absence on 2nd March 2020 are void. I expect a written apology by 30th September 2021, and for it to be published in full in The Northern Cross. Financially, I would then settle for the reimbursement of my victim surcharges. One would not wish to have to sue the Church. If I were still subject to any sanction by the Church at the time of the next General Election, and if I were to be defeated at that Election, then I would seek to have that result overturned in the courts on grounds of undue spiritual influence.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

Richard Holden Promotion Watch: Day Five

People have been in touch to ask why I never criticised Richard Holden. But I am highly critical of this Government, of which Richard is the strong supporter that he was elected to be. I like him, not that that has anything to do with politics. I like a lot of what he is doing, or trying to do. He is, however, a political opponent.

The reshuffle has put everything in place for a General Election in May 2023. Yet there is no sign of the name of a loyal, and obviously ambitious, former special adviser to several Cabinet Ministers.

Perhaps he has turned down offers? The alternative is that the composition of the Government is being determined by the Prime Minister's wife. Therefore, Richard needs to be asked the question. He may consider it asked here and now. And every day until further notice.

Possible Shootouts

The CIA's plans to capture Julian Assange "included possible shootouts on the streets of London, crashing a car into a vehicle transporting him, or shooting out the tires of a plane taking him to Russia.

"In the lattermost scenario, U.S. officials allegedly even asked their British counterparts to aide in the mission by carrying out the shooting.

"A former senior administration official told Yahoo News that the British agreed with the plan."

Well, of course we did. Special Relationship blah Anglosphere blah blah shoulder to shoulder blah blah blah.

On The Right Road

Oddly enough, HGV drivers on the Continent do not fancy exchanging their permanent or long-term contracts with good pay and conditions for short-term contracts with bad pay and conditions.

So we are just going to have to extend such luxuries to our own holders of HGV licences. There is no shortage of them. 

And note that half a century of EU membership did nothing to raise them up to the level of their counterparts. It is Brexit that is compelling us to do that for ourselves.

Next up, the hospitality sector. As largely represented by the newly liberated Bakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union.

When Trust Is Broken

The Conservatives' renationalisation of the railways continues apace, as part of their implementation of much of the Labour manifestos of 2017 and 2019. Meanwhile, two conferences are being held in Brighton.

One is that of the Labour Left, a moderately but increasingly influential think tank that could make a lot more of an impact if it made a bit more of an effort. The other is that of the Labour Right, a political machine that has broken down beyond repair.

The Left's star turn is Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Leader at the time of those blueprint manifestos, and the only Leader to deliver a net gain in seats for Labour at a General Election this century.

But the Right's star turn is John Bercow, who was driven out of the Monday Club for adhering to an even more extreme faction, and whose presence declares that a Starmer Government would indeed pursue Keir Starmer's signature policy of reversing Brexit, but this time without a referendum.

Sadly, it is the latter that will be presenting itself to the electorate next time. Starmer will not even abide by a unanimous Conference resolution to do the very least that the Labour Party ought to be doing if there is to be any purpose to its existence, and one of the party's founding unions has disaffiliated during Conference. Did its delegates get up and walk out? If not, why not?

I have been a candidate for North West Durham at the next General Election since even before the last one, fighting 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. Contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.

Crush The Saboteurs

Ian Murray would know about sabotage. He had been due to be a founder member of Change UK, but he pulled out at the last moment, meaning that he had tried to sabotage two political parties within hours, and possibly minutes, of each other.

Labour's General Election campaign in 2017 was sabotaged by the party's extremely right-wing staff, who were scandalously later paid off. The founding mistake of Jeremy Corbyn's Leadership was that he did not sack the entire staff on day one and start again.

And then there is Keir Starmer, who caused the General Election in 2019. It had not been due until the spring of 2022, when it had been expected to lead to another hung Parliament, perhaps even with Labour as the largest party. After all, despite the antics of the saboteurs, Labour in 2017 had taken 40 per cent of the vote, and had experienced its only net gain in seats since 1997.

But Starmer unilaterally announced the second EU referendum that Corbyn had defeated by defeating Owen Smith, it is true that Corbyn then culpably failed to sack you, Boris Johnson saw the obvious opportunity, and the rest is history. Sabotage, indeed.

Labour Candidate Watch: Day 13

13 days after the Cabinet reshuffle that called a General Election for May 2023, there is still no Labour candidate at North West Durham, which in 2019 Labour lost for the first time and by only 1,144 votes.

By contrast, I have been a candidate for North West Durham at the next General Election since even before the last one, fighting 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. Contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com.  

Or contact nwdclp.campaigns@gmail.com if you wanted permanent austerity at home, if you wanted forever war abroad, and if you did not want a mixed-race MP for this seat. This post will appear daily until someone had proven to be so pro-austerity, so pro-war, and so racist, that even the Labour Party was sufficiently impressed.

The Adrian Hilton Challenge: Day 52

Adrian Hilton, I had to Google you, and I still have little or no idea who you are, so when, exactly, have I ever "stalked" you at all, much less "for longer than [you] care to remember"? 

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Oliver Kamm Challenge: Day 52

Oliver Kamm, whose signature to this do you claim that I forged? Name the name.

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever been found to have accused anyone of child abuse?

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever called for anyone to be murdered?

And Oliver Kamm, since I am a declared and active candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham, are you? If not, why not?

I could go on at very great length, but these questions will do for now.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 52

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.

Furthermore, I invite each and every other candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham 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.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 52

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.

Since, as private citizens, none of them has resigned as a Patron of my parliamentary campaign at North West Durham, I invite each and all of the 12 archbishops and diocesan bishops of the Red Wall dioceses of Birmingham, Hallam, Hexham and Newcastle, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Northampton, Nottingham, Salford, Shrewsbury, and Wrexham, 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.

And since none of them has resigned as a Patron of my parliamentary campaign at North West Durham, I invite each and all the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchal Vicar in Jerusalem, the Ethiopian Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Maronite Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Palestine, the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, the Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem, and the Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Amman, 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.

The scandalous allegation against me on 2nd March 2020 was recanted under oath at Durham Crown Court on 11th of that month, calling gravely into question my convictions the next day by exposing that key character witness as unreliable, a fact that was not mentioned in closing statements or in summation. Unless, as is widely assumed, the real reason for them is the content of this book, then the sanctions imposed upon me in my absence on 2nd March 2020 are void. I expect a written apology by 30th September 2021, and for it to be published in full in The Northern Cross. Financially, I would then settle for the reimbursement of my victim surcharges. One would not wish to have to sue the Church. If I were still subject to any sanction by the Church at the time of the next General Election, and if I were to be defeated at that Election, then I would seek to have that result overturned in the courts on grounds of undue spiritual influence.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

What Matters

What is the point of the Labour Party if it will not even campaign for subsistence levels of the minimum wage and of statutory sick pay? What, indeed?

"What matters is winning and being in government," Alison McGovern has just told Newsnight. And there it is. The end in itself. The attainment of the trappings of office. Winning for the sake of it, like football. Except that they are far more passionate about football. Such are the Labour Rightists of my generation, and if anything they are now even worse than they were 20 years ago.

Although he seems to have attracted a markedly smaller crowd than Andy McDonald, John Bercow has been doing the Conference fringe thing tonight. As soon as he was refused a peerage, then we knew that he would try and reenter the Commons, and as soon as Keir Starmer replaced Jeremy Corbyn, then we knew that he would try and become a Labour MP.

He obviously wants Islington North, but I challenge him to declare his interest in the apparently totemic seat of North West Durham. Half the Labour Party has moved here, but none of them would be as acceptable to Starmer as the former Secretary of the Race and Repatriation Committee of the Monday Club would be.

Caught In The Webbe No More?

If Claudia Webbe were to be convicted, then it would prove what I myself had been told, that there was no defence to a charge of harassment. The crime consists in having made the complainant feel harassed. If she says that she was, then she was. No lawyer would commit professional suicide by representing you if you tried to plead not guilty; I have that in writing. What matters is that the complainant is well enough connected to have her case taken up by the Crown Prosecution Service. If she is, then she and it are guaranteed a kill.

But if Claudia Webbe were to be acquitted, then, following the acquittal of Apsana Begum, Keir Starmer could not remain as a person who was considered fit to be seen or mentioned in public. He ought to enjoy being a former Director of Public Prosecutions in the prison to which he had tried to send two MPs from his own party. Due to events soon afterwards, I do not know whether the following was ever published, but it was sent to several newspapers on 23rd April:

We unreservedly condemn the Crown Prosecution Service for its racist persecution of Apsana Begum MP, of Claudia Webbe MP, and of other political critics of its former Director, and its preferred candidate for Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.

Yours faithfully,

David Lindsay, ongoing victim of such persecution; Independent parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, 2019 and 2024; candidate for General Secretary of Unite the Union, 2026

Claudia Murray, Black Lives Matter National Coordinator

South Asia Solidarity Group

Richard Holden Promotion Watch: Day Four

People have been in touch to ask why I never criticised Richard Holden. But I am highly critical of this Government, of which Richard is the strong supporter that he was elected to be. I like him, not that that has anything to do with politics. I like a lot of what he is doing, or trying to do. He is, however, a political opponent.

The reshuffle has put everything in place for a General Election in May 2023. Yet there is no sign of the name of a loyal, and obviously ambitious, former special adviser to several Cabinet Ministers.

Perhaps he has turned down offers? The alternative is that the composition of the Government is being determined by the Prime Minister's wife. Therefore, Richard needs to be asked the question. He may consider it asked here and now. And every day until further notice.

No Smear Here

An anti-vaxxer would be considered intellectually unfit to be Prime Minister, and perhaps also morally unfit. As would anyone who did not only question the policy response to climate change, as many of us do in the most vociferous terms, but who denied that the phenomenon existed at all. The same is true of someone who refuses to acknowledge that while a person without a cervix might be a woman, any person with a cervix must be a woman.

Therefore, we now know that Keir Starmer is intellectually unfit to be Prime Minister, and perhaps also morally unfit. Anyone who stood as a Labour candidate at the next General Election would at least be pretending to believe that Starmer ought to be raised to that office, and would therefore be equally unworthy of support.

We do not, however, know whether or not Boris Johnson is unfit on those grounds. He has never been asked. The Conservative Party never is asked the culture war questions. In the absence of the slightest evidence, and indeed in the presence of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, its representatives are assumed to hold views that in fact they almost never even claim to hold.

The media types who let them off almost never hold those views, either. Say what you like about The Guardian, and I certainly do, but the people who write its opinion pieces truly believe what they are saying. With extremely rare exceptions, the people who write the opinion pieces in the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail cheerfully do not believe a word of it in private.

We already have the Government under which the entire concept of gender self-identification has emerged. No one had heard of it on the last day of Gordon Brown's Premiership, and very few on the last day of Nick Clegg's Deputy Premiership. Yet today, it is a fact of life across the entire public sector and for everyone who does business with the State. Without anything so vulgar as a parliamentary vote, of course.

Does Boris Johnson accept that anyone with a cervix must be a woman? Does Richard Holden? Neither of them has ever been asked. I do. Anyone with a cervix must be a woman, say I. If you are here in North West Durham and you want an MP like that, then please vote for me. If you are anywhere and you want there to be at least one MP like that, then please give any assistance that you can, by contacting davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.

Free To Fight For Working People

Andy McDonald has been forced to resign rather than argue against a minimum wage of £15 per hour, and against statutory sick pay at the Living Wage; the real Living Wage, of course, not the Government's purely nominal one. Just think about that. Statutory sick pay at the Living Wage is what the Labour Party now opposes.

Once you have lost the Soft Left, then you have lost the Labour Party. Keir Starmer will be Leader until the General Election, which he would have lost anyway, but his Leadership of the Labour Party has for all practical purposes ended this week. No one any longer cares what, if anything, he thinks, says or does.

Starmer has ruled out the nationalisation of the energy companies, a hugely popular policy that is going to be overwhelmingly so after this winter. Is he still going to be holding that line when the Government has done it, having worked out that it was cheaper and easier than whatever else they might have had to do with them? He is going to look very stupid either way.

Labour has hardly ever won a General Election, and never against a serious attempt by the Conservatives to stop it. It has, however, been known to suggest things that, after having called them every name under the Sun and The Sun, Conservative Governments have then implemented because they were so obviously commonsensical.

Ed Miliband's energy cap was one such, much of Jeremy Corbyn's 2017 and 2019 manifestos will turn out to have been, and another has perhaps been proposed today by someone called Rachel Reeves. Phasing out business rates, by taxing the windfalls that the tech giants have made from Covid-19, is an idea with legs. It is very good think tank stuff. But Labour does not purport to be a think tank, as which it might be quite effective. Even against almost all historical evidence, it purports to be a potential party of government.

Therefore, Reeves aspires to be "Britain's first Green Chancellor". How unfair to the present Chancellor of the Exchequer. The thing about Insulate Britain and its Extinction Rebellion parent is that they are campaigning, apparently now to the point of risking incarceration, for something that they already have. 

But it is the lot of the Conservative Party to be disbelieved by foe and friend alike. No matter what it really does to demonstrate its true character, then its supporters and its opponents unite in insisting that it is really something else entirely. It is not.

And just as we already have a Government of Green zealots who accurately point out that the whole thing was pioneered by Margaret Thatcher's deindustrialisation in general and by her destruction of the coal industry in particular, so we already have the Government under which the entire concept of gender self-identification has emerged.

No one had heard of it on the last day of Gordon Brown's Premiership, and very few on the last day of Nick Clegg's Deputy Premiership. Yet today, it is a fact of life across the entire public sector and for everyone who does business with the State. Without anything so vulgar as a parliamentary vote, of course.

If you are here in North West Durham and you want an MP who will fight for a minimum wage of £15 per hour, statutory sick pay at the real Living Wage, publicly owned energy companies, and the rights of women and girls based on the fact of biological sex, then please vote for me. If you are anywhere and you want there to be at least one MP like that, then please give any assistance that you can, by contacting davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.

Labour Candidate Watch: Day 12

12 days after the Cabinet reshuffle that called a General Election for May 2023, there is still no Labour candidate at North West Durham, which in 2019 Labour lost for the first time and by only 1,144 votes.

By contrast, I have been a candidate for North West Durham at the next General Election since even before the last one, fighting 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. Contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com.  

Or contact nwdclp.campaigns@gmail.com if you wanted permanent austerity at home, if you wanted forever war abroad, and if you did not want a mixed-race MP for this seat. This post will appear daily until someone had proven to be so pro-austerity, so pro-war, and so racist, that even the Labour Party was sufficiently impressed.

The Adrian Hilton Challenge: Day 51

Adrian Hilton, I had to Google you, and I still have little or no idea who you are, so when, exactly, have I ever "stalked" you at all, much less "for longer than [you] care to remember"? 

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Oliver Kamm Challenge: Day 51

Oliver Kamm, whose signature to this do you claim that I forged? Name the name.

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever been found to have accused anyone of child abuse?

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever called for anyone to be murdered?

And Oliver Kamm, since I am a declared and active candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham, are you? If not, why not?

I could go on at very great length, but these questions will do for now.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 51

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.

Furthermore, I invite each and every other candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham 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.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 51

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.

Since, as private citizens, none of them has resigned as a Patron of my parliamentary campaign at North West Durham, I invite each and all of the 12 archbishops and diocesan bishops of the Red Wall dioceses of Birmingham, Hallam, Hexham and Newcastle, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Northampton, Nottingham, Salford, Shrewsbury, and Wrexham, 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.

And since none of them has resigned as a Patron of my parliamentary campaign at North West Durham, I invite each and all the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchal Vicar in Jerusalem, the Ethiopian Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Maronite Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Palestine, the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, the Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem, and the Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Amman, 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.

The scandalous allegation against me on 2nd March 2020 was recanted under oath at Durham Crown Court on 11th of that month, calling gravely into question my convictions the next day by exposing that key character witness as unreliable, a fact that was not mentioned in closing statements or in summation. Unless, as is widely assumed, the real reason for them is the content of this book, then the sanctions imposed upon me in my absence on 2nd March 2020 are void. I expect a written apology by 30th September 2021, and for it to be published in full in The Northern Cross. Financially, I would then settle for the reimbursement of my victim surcharges. One would not wish to have to sue the Church. If I were still subject to any sanction by the Church at the time of the next General Election, and if I were to be defeated at that Election, then I would seek to have that result overturned in the courts on grounds of undue spiritual influence.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

Study Leave

The point of student loans and tuition fees was that graduates went on to earn far more than the average.

In that case, then they ought not to have to pay those back until they were in fact earning far more than the average.

But this is hardly the biggest issue in the world, or even in the country.

Loss Leader

It is a thought, although not a pretty one. Might Keir Starmer feel so strongly on the matter because he himself has a cervix?

Anyone who has ever dealt with the Labour Right knows that they are ballot-riggers, and by no means only for internal party purposes.

This time, they have done it in order to render all Constituency Labour Parties politically as redundant as the one at North West Durham, and in order to restrict mere candidacy in Leadership Elections to Boris Johnson, but without the divorces or the talk of levelling up.

Nomination by one in five Labour MPs is an option open only to an older white man of proven heterosexuality at least in part, and of at least ostensibly conventional domesticity, impeccably upper-middle-class and extremely right-wing.

Richard Holden Promotion Watch: Day Three

People have been in touch to ask why I never criticised Richard Holden. But I am highly critical of this Government, of which Richard is the strong supporter that he was elected to be. I like him, not that that has anything to do with politics. I like a lot of what he is doing, or trying to do. He is, however, a political opponent.

The reshuffle has put everything in place for a General Election in May 2023. Yet there is no sign of the name of a loyal, and obviously ambitious, former special adviser to several Cabinet Ministers.

Perhaps he has turned down offers? The alternative is that the composition of the Government is being determined by the Prime Minister's wife. Therefore, Richard needs to be asked the question. He may consider it asked here and now. And every day until further notice.

Only A Woman Has A Cervix

We now know for certain that Keir Starmer does not accept this basic fact. Nor will the Labour candidate at North West Durham, should there ever be one. But does Boris Johnson? Does Richard Holden? Neither of them has ever been asked.

I do. Only a woman has a cervix, say I. If you are here in North West Durham and you want an MP like that, then please vote for me. If you are anywhere and you want there to be at least one MP like that, then please give any assistance that you can, by contacting davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.

No Balls About The Sphere

If the French have blocked the appointment of Theresa May as Secretary General of NATO, then they have done the Conservative Party a favour. After Chesham and Amersham, then it could ill afford a by-election at Maidenhead. It would be magnificently French to insist on a Secretary General of President Macron's choosing, and then, once that appointment had been made, to pull out of NATO's command structure again, in protest at AUKUS.

In what is generally a very good column, even if he does succumb to Monty Python on the Spanish Inquisition, Peter Hitchens at last makes reference to AUKUS. He is suitably dismissive, not even mentioning it by name. Our pursuit of this, and Trident, all that, instead of energy security, will make us "the only Third World country with a submarine-launched nuclear deterrent".

Hitchens is only substantially wrong today about Aretha Franklin, and Kenan Malik has the measure of the "Anglosphere" nonsense at the root of AUKUS. Although he could have done with Hitchens, or with someone like Geoffrey Wheatcroft, to set out that the British Empire and the American Republic had been active enemies for most of their shared history. Monarchy or no monarchy, and flag or no flag, Australia simply passed from being one rival's colony to being the other's many decades ago. But at least Australia admits it.

From Charity To Status

Even without the VAT, the fees for commercial schools are far beyond the reach of anyone in the middle of anything. You can go to school for free in this country, and most people do. But this needless expense makes very affluent people feel as if they are struggling, since they really do have to make certain sacrifices, by their own standards, in order to meet it. In turn, that makes them very vocal against, for example, a modest increase in their own direct taxation.

The condition of a commercial school’s continuing charitable status, including its exemption from VAT, should be its having been adjudged good or better by the same body, and using the same criteria, as for state schools, with the reports published, and with the value-added measure applied, thereby requiring those schools to have demonstrated how they had improved pupils’ abilities.

But while we are seeking to make the world better, then we still have to live in it as it is. It is not hypocritical to do so as best we can. The hypocrites are the highly activist Education Ministers, usually Conservatives, who buy their own children out of the practical application and implications of their policies. Their hypocrisy is never, ever called out. Well, it would certainly be called out by me.

And it must be said that the schools that they favour do regularly provide left-wing figures with a platform that they are seldom or never afforded by the schools of the municipal Labour Right. The Left and the working class, and perhaps especially the rural working class, need to bypass both the municipal Labour Right and the Liberal Establishment both in education and in the media. The EU referendum and the 2019 General Election have confirmed that the workers, and not the liberal bourgeoisie, are now the key swing voters who deserve direct representation on local public bodies, on national public bodies, in the media, and at the intersection of the public and media sectors.

It is in the running of state schools that the Liberal Establishment in academia and the media meets the right-wing Labour machine in local government. By all accounts, Jeremy Corbyn turned down several invitations to speak at public schools. George Galloway regularly accepts such invitations. Yet it is impossible to imagine that a state school might offer a platform to anyone from the Left.

We ought to be bypassing the weedy brains of the Liberal Establishment and the brainless brawn of the municipal Labour Right, in order to secure the representation that had never been afforded by those who had presumed to speak for our people, but never to our people. Yes, that would indeed involve doing deals with the Conservatives. We could not possibly get less out of them than we had ever managed to get out of the Keir Starmers of the world.

There's No One Quite Like Grandad

The Jim Crow system included something called the grandfather clause, which enabled people who would have failed the Poll Tax and literacy test requirements to inherit the franchise from antebellum ancestors. In practice, the beneficiaries were poor whites.

Today, the Labour Party stands poised to adopt its own grandfather clause, restricting the right merely to contest its Leadership to white grandfathers. Only an older white man of proven heterosexuality could ever hope to be nominated by one in five, never mind one in four, Labour MPs.

Moreover, he would also have to be impeccably upper-middle-class, making Keir Starmer's grandfather clause worse than the one that, in 1915, was ruled unconstitutional as an exemption to literacy tests, a ruling that disenfranchised tens of thousands of poor whites, much as our own 1832 Reform Act had disenfranchised women.

All this to stop a white grandmother, Angela Rayner, who is wrong about a very great deal, but who last night did nothing more than speak as she was routinely spoken about. The Left, even the Left as Soft as hers, is never, ever, ever allowed to answer back.

Labour Candidate Watch: Day 11

11 days after the Cabinet reshuffle that called a General Election for May 2023, there is still no Labour candidate at North West Durham, which in 2019 Labour lost for the first time and by only 1,144 votes.

By contrast, I have been a candidate for North West Durham at the next General Election since even before the last one, fighting 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. Contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com.  

Or contact nwdclp.campaigns@gmail.com if you wanted permanent austerity at home, if you wanted forever war abroad, and if you did not want a mixed-race MP for this seat. This post will appear daily until someone had proven to be so pro-austerity, so pro-war, and so racist, that even the Labour Party was sufficiently impressed.

The Adrian Hilton Challenge: Day 50

Adrian Hilton, I had to Google you, and I still have little or no idea who you are, so when, exactly, have I ever "stalked" you at all, much less "for longer than [you] care to remember"? 

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Oliver Kamm Challenge: Day 50

Oliver Kamm, whose signature to this do you claim that I forged? Name the name.

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever been found to have accused anyone of child abuse?

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever called for anyone to be murdered?

And Oliver Kamm, since I am a declared and active candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham, are you? If not, why not?

I could go on at very great length, but these questions will do for now.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 50

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.

Furthermore, I invite each and every other candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham 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.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 50

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.

Since, as private citizens, none of them has resigned as a Patron of my parliamentary campaign at North West Durham, I invite each and all of the 12 archbishops and diocesan bishops of the Red Wall dioceses of Birmingham, Hallam, Hexham and Newcastle, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Northampton, Nottingham, Salford, Shrewsbury, and Wrexham, 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.

And since none of them has resigned as a Patron of my parliamentary campaign at North West Durham, I invite each and all the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchal Vicar in Jerusalem, the Ethiopian Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Maronite Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Palestine, the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, the Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem, and the Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Amman, 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.

The scandalous allegation against me on 2nd March 2020 was recanted under oath at Durham Crown Court on 11th of that month, calling gravely into question my convictions the next day by exposing that key character witness as unreliable, a fact that was not mentioned in closing statements or in summation. Unless, as is widely assumed, the real reason for them is the content of this book, then the sanctions imposed upon me in my absence on 2nd March 2020 are void. I expect a written apology by 30th September 2021, and for it to be published in full in The Northern Cross. Financially, I would then settle for the reimbursement of my victim surcharges. One would not wish to have to sue the Church. If I were still subject to any sanction by the Church at the time of the next General Election, and if I were to be defeated at that Election, then I would seek to have that result overturned in the courts on grounds of undue spiritual influence.

This post will appear daily until further notice.