Not Gammon, Just Ham

Laughable headlines in dying newspapers that old men still buy for the football proclaim this blustering ham to have been "blistering". He was asked dozens of questions, but he failed to answer a single one. He did not know the answers. 

It is all an act, and it will wear thin very, very, very quickly. As Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn may yet his see his fourth Prime Minister before the next General Election. He may yet see that fourth Prime Minister before the end of this year. 

Not that it makes any difference. Neither party could win an overall majority under any Leader or on any programme, and that is still going to be the case when I shuffle off this mortal coil in somewhere between 40 and 60 years' time.

Meanwhile, though, look at the beneficiaries of this coup. Imagine, if you will, that John McDonnell had succeeded in getting onto the ballot for Leader of the Labour Party in 2007. Imagine that he had beaten Gordon Brown. 

And imagine that, on the basis of an electoral mandate that had been given to Tony Blair, he had proceeded to fill the Cabinet with the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott, while the likes of Andrew Fisher and Seumas Milne had been given key backroom positions. That is broadly where we now are. 

Yet Boris Johnson's domestic investment programme, while it may be watered down McDonnell, is precisely that: watered down McDonnell. On immigration, Johnson is far more liberal than Theresa May was, or than Ed Miliband was in 2015, or than much of the trade union movement is, or than many an article in the Morning Star is, or than George Galloway is. And so on. 

But he is in hock to the people who have given him the job purely for the sake of a Brexit in which, unlike Fisher, Milne, Galloway, or the Morning Star, he does not believe. He will never do it. That is why he will not promise to resign if Brexit had not happened by 31st October. He is really not even trying to bring that about. Notice how he has gone out of his way to humiliate Steve Baker.

Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. A new party is now in the process of registration. 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.