Loyal And Unshakeable

I am still locked out of Twitter, but I understand that "St Helena" is trending worldwide because of the ridiculous Esther McVey. In fact, the airport was built by the British Government, and the problems with it were because it had ignored advice. But that airport is now fully operational.

I am aghast at the suggestion in certain quarters that there is "no indigenous population" of Saint Helena. Except, of course, that they also said that about the Chagos Islands, so watch your backs. In reality, that population is of several centuries' standing, and genetically it is one of the most diverse on earth; you only have to look at my mother and her seven full siblings, six of whom are still alive, to see how remarkable that genetic diversity is. 

In addition, there are known to be 520 species endemic to Saint Helena, which is to say that they occur naturally there and nowhere else. Together with the fact that Napoleon died there, together with its importance to the transatlantic slave trade (something of which Liverpudlian McVey ought to have been aware), and together with several other factors, there is a live application for Saint Helena to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Not only that, but the place is a British Overseas Territory, the second oldest after Bermuda. I have never understood why spending on those, the inhabitants of which are once again full British Citizens, was classed as Overseas Aid at all. Is spending on the Isle of Wight classed as Overseas Aid?

Of course, some people were never stripped of their British Citizenship in the first place. Saint Helenians in Britain have watched in disbelief as entire television series about the Falkland Islands have failed to show a single brown face, despite the large number of Saint Helenians living and working there. Keeping them out of sight must have been quite an undertaking. But the people who keep Margaret Thatcher Day every 10th January know what their target audience in Britain wants, and they give it to them. In Saint Helena, by contrast, she was known as Maggie Thatcher, The Passport Snatcher.

That said, we do need the specification in the Statute Law that the United Kingdom's aid to any given country be reduced by the exact cost of any space programme, or of any nuclear weapons programme, or of any nuclear submarine programme, or of any foreign aid budget of that country's own, but with the money thus saved remaining within the budget of the Department for International Development, and with the 0.7 per cent target still resolutely intact.

Another hung Parliament is coming, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. A new party will be registered before House of Commons rises for the summer recess, even if I have to pay for it myself, ongoing lawfare or no ongoing lawfare.

And I will stand for Parliament here at North West Durham even if I can raise only the deposit, which I could do by going pretty overdrawn, although that was not how I was brought up. I would still prefer to raise the £10,000 necessary to mount a serious campaign, but I am no longer making my candidacy conditional on having done so. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.