Exerting myself slightly more than I probably ought to, I came across the copy of The Trap that Jimmy Goldsmith gave me, with his note inside trying to bring me on board on the grounds that "this is not a Left-Right issue".
(Not bad, though I say so myself, for someone who - I'll have to check the date - was at the time either a state school Sixth Former or a bartender in a workingmen's club, either way in deepest County Durham. But, younger readers take note, it was perfectly possible to get oneself noticed in the right places even in what was, for almost everybody, that pre-Internet age. Those ways still exist, and still work. It's not all on here, you know. And it never will be.)
I didn't agree with him about Belgium, about nuclear power or about the ERM (advocated in the original French, but mysteriously omitted from the English translation). But if he were still alive today, then I have no doubt that he, too, would now be a supporter of nuclear power and an opponent of anything remotely resembling the ERM. Faced with the EU-globalist carve-up of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom, he would have no time for the cutting of Belgium, likewise, into easily digestible morsels.
But he's gone, and his Blue-Green son offers no hope. In any case, he only wanted to fight one Election, and he did. However, if anybody else out there feels like stumping up part or all of sixty thousand pounds in five thousand pound deposits (each repayble upon receipt of a mere 2.5% of the votes cast in an election in which hardly anybody is going to vote, greatly favouring the distinctive who can get out certain specific categories of voter), then do get in touch - davidaslindsay@hotmail.com
By so doing, you will be establishing on the scene a movement which, to say the least, certainly has no intention of dissolving itself after only one trip to the polls. We don't all have either masochistic trade unions, dodgy business associates and "tennis partners", or the practically limitless inherited personal wealth of the Shadow Cabinet to fall back on. What price real voter choice?
Did you know that if all the countries of which the Queen is Head of State added up their Beijing Olympic medals, they would top the table with 99?
ReplyDeleteHowever, if the EU added up all of its Beijing Olympic medals, it would top the table with 203.
Britain is, of course, the only country in both of these groups. And the leading nation in both of them. God save the Queen! And God save the European Union!
I'mnot sure if this comment is serious. But just in case it is:
ReplyDelete- we are not the "leading" nation in the EU, Germany is; and
- there is not some sort of choice between the EU and the Commonwealth (especially the inner Commonwealth of countries headed by the monarch), since the former might be made up of our friends, but only the latter is our family.
we are not the "leading" nation in the EU, Germany is
ReplyDeleteNot in Olympic medals, it's not. Hurrah!
Well, that's what matters, isn't it...?
ReplyDelete"Not bad, though I say so myself, for someone who - I'll have to check the date - was at the time either a state school Sixth Former or a bartender in a workingmen's club, either way in deepest County Durham."
ReplyDeleteSorry, you think being given a book by James Goldsmith is some sort of achievement? Why on earth would you think that? It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's hardly evidence that you were being "noticed in the right places", is it?
Well, that's what matters, isn't it...?
ReplyDeleteWell, so far as my comment is concerned, yes. It's what the comment is about. Didn't you notice?
Patriot, no. When I read something like "the leading nation in the EU", then I tend to assume that a political point is being made.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I never met him, and I never contacted him before he contacted me with his handwritten "come on board" inside his book. He must have known that I was at the time too young to stand for Parliament, so I can only assume that he had something else in mind for me. Alas, he died before I could find out.
Around the same time, I received, equally unsolicited, the Constitution and general material of Arthur Scargill's then-nascent Socialist Labour Party. But I've never been a Marxist.
I could tell you how these and various other people probably or certainly had heard of me. But think of that as a trade secret.
"I could tell you how these and various other people probably or certainly had heard of me. But think of that as a trade secret."
ReplyDeleteOh, go on. How did you get such political and intellectual giants as James Goldsmith and Arthur Scargill to hear of you.
Really? James Goldsmith headhunted you and out of nowhere, sent you his book with a written plea to come and join him? Even though you had never met him or contacted him in any way?
ReplyDeletePull the other one.
You Internet generation people wouldn't believe me if I told you. It was certainly not "out of nowhere"...
ReplyDeleteYou know David, with all this it's astonishing you haven't managed to make a success of yourself.
ReplyDeleteGoldsmith and Scargill, I might add for Liam's benefit, not only agreed on many things (among others, Goldsmith was very pro-coal, and rightly regarded Scargill as the problem with it in Britain), but have been proved right about most of them: coal, the EU, Trots (and, in Goldsmith's case, how they were taking over the conservative movement), the spread of warmongering, the priority of family and community over profit, and much else besides.
ReplyDeleteGoldsmith was, I suppose, a queer fish: the billionaire globalist with interests all over the place (much like Christoph Blocher), the advocate of traditional family values with several parallel families, the Jewish champion of Old Europe, and so forth. But we shall never see his like again.
Much like Scargill, in fact.
Who says that I haven't, Schwarz? There is a lot more to my life than my blog. And even that, while you might not agree with everything on it, is hardly a failure in its own terms. I am a very contended soul, let me assure you.
ReplyDeleteMuch as Goldsmith always said: Gross National Contentment was more important than Gross National Product. Of course, he himself was filthy rich!
Oh you're clearly very contented. But think of it this way - headhuinted out of obscurity by political giants in the mid 1990s, youngest ever parish councillor or something if I remember rightly - surely on the way to a meteoric career. And yet, and yet - still only a parish councillor, with not much national exposure. It's a crying shame. Will the BPA be your making? Fingers crossed!!
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience David. Goldsmith was a staggering personal corresponder for a man with so much hired help, and he knew where all the talent was.
ReplyDeleteConcerning the SLP, weren't you known as on the Labour Left in those days?
And you are right about the youth of today. If it's not on Bebo or Facebook then they don't believe it exists. I recently had to explain to one of them that Who's Who was not on the net and probably never would be. He couldn't believe his ears. I think he wondered where you plugged a book in. Starry GCSE results expected tomorrow.
Anonymous 17:23, we're back to that "if it's not on the Net" again, aren't we? Oh, dear. There is more to life, you know. A whole lot more.
ReplyDeleteNo one tried to "headhunt" me. I'm not sure what Goldsmith, in particular, DID want with me. Only that he wanted me for something. And now, I'll never know.
Anonymous 17:25:
"Goldsmith was a staggering personal corresponder"
Always a good sign.
"Concerning the SLP, weren't you known as on the Labour Left in those days?"
I've always been where I am now. It only looked Hard Left to ardent Blairites back in the weird days of ardent Blairism.
"Starry GCSE results expected tomorrow."
Needless to say.
Do come back tomorrow on that one.
I can believe this, David. I'm a bit older than you, and James Goldsmith spotted me as a fifth former at a comprehensive in Nottingham in about 1993, and gave me a personally inscribed copy too (mine says "Don't get caught!"). I know how he found me, and I suspect it was the same way he found you - like you, I consider it a trade secret. My skills and talents lie in a different direction from yours, and I'm currently in business - I like to think that my own merits have got me a long way, but I have to admit that Goldsmith has opened a fair few doors for me, even after his death. So David: you're not the only one. And we're watching you.
ReplyDeleteRemember way back in 99 when you wrote of to Cardinal winning to try and get him to speak at Durham? He wrote back saying tat it was the European Synod of Bishops that fortnight so he couldn't, but "congratulations on your reception into the Catholic Church on Sunday", which was true.
ReplyDeleteOh, FB, I never said that I was the only one. In fact, I'd still have to ask, "the only one of what, exactly?".
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I never did get to the bottom of that one. I know exactly how the SLP had ever heard of me, and more or less exactly how Goldsmith had. But Cardinal Winning, at that stage, I haven't a clue. And now he's dead, too. The letter might still be growing mould in some file somewhere, though.
And I am amazed that anyone finds any of this remarkable. Famous and/or important people do live on the same planet as the rest of us, you know. It is perfectly possible know or be known to them. If you never do, then why not? How not?
How not indeed? This read like a throwaway remark when you wrote it. But they are up in arms it seems. This can't be true! How could he possibly have known of you! Where's the story? I can't see it.
ReplyDeleteIt pretty much was a throwaway remark, of course. Says an awful lot about the disbelievers (I still can't quite believe that there are any) that they find it remotely difficult to take in. Why? How? Looks like they just need to get a life.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Goldsmith spots you - and then dies. Cardinal Winning spots you - and then dies.
ReplyDeleteSounds pretty suspicious to me. We know from past experience on this blog that important people are watching you and oppose you, David. But how far back does this watching go, and how far will they go to control you? Yikes!
Anyone would think that they had ever been members of Lanchester Labour Party, or served on Lanchester Parish Council. As I recall, Cardinal Winning was even killed off by the regulation heart attack.
ReplyDeleteHeart attack? Yeah right. I'm minded to look into this a little bit further. I have a few contacts in this type of area. I'll keep you in the loop.
ReplyDeleteAlas, I fear that you will.
ReplyDelete"Cardinal Winning Was Murdered" is certainly a new one on me.
David, don't you think someone willing to put up £5K for a seat would want to know if there's more to the BPA than this blog?
ReplyDeleteAnd people making contact in that cause are indeed presented with a great deal of additional information - davidaslindsay@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteThat wasn't the question. Is someone stumping £5k going to be told there is anything to the BPA than your blog? A website? A slate of candidates? Newspaper coverage?
ReplyDeleteIf you got in touch making a putative offer, then you could have all the information you liked, and could of course still say no once you'd read it - davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. No one would ever hear of it from us.
ReplyDeleteWe won't be publishing the candidates' list until it is complete, which as yet it still isn't quite.
So if it isn't "quite" ready, and you intend to fight every seat in the UK, that means you must have around 550-600 candidates now. Yes?
ReplyDeleteOh no, I just mean for next year's European Elecetions, to which the post itself refers.
ReplyDeleteWe still have well over a year to find Westminster candidates (although we do have some). The period after the Euros will be crucial in that regard.
How many is "some" and does that include Neil Clark at Wantage?
ReplyDeleteWe will not be publishing the list until it is complete. That is not a difficult point to get.
ReplyDelete