The Chancers Have Taken Their Chance

Most Labour MPs and Councillors are broadly apolitical people who are motivated by anything from a desire to serve their communities to, frankly, the money. Both factors routinely play a part. They are therefore easy prey to the large enough minority that is economically and internationally very right-wing indeed, not only in Labour but in absolute terms.

Such figures can appear intelligent, well-read and articulate to people who are not really any of those things very much, if at all. At local level, they have access to the sweeteners of rogue landlords, of corner-cutting property developers, of plain old-fashioned gangsters, and so on. At national level, they can dip into the enormous pockets of Tony Blair, the Sainsburys, the Clintons, George Soros, the House of Saud, Jeffrey Epstein in his day, and many more besides, including numerous fake charities.

Leaders of the Labour Party are now elected by the entire membership, but both the selection of municipal candidates, and the whole trigger ballot rigmarole with regard to parliamentary candidacies, are still conducted at Branch Meetings. In my time, I have attended many of those, and I have chaired quite a few of them. If you have ever turned up to your second one, then you are simply not a normal person.

Thus we see that the Right and its indifferent nodding dogs are still in firm control, as if Jeremy Corbyn has never existed, of the whole of Labour local government, with its enormous fiscal base enforceable on pain of imprisonment, among other sources of revenue and favours. And thus we see that 140 Labour MPs are refusing to vote for a General Election, because they do not want to risk the possibility of Corbyn as Prime Minister.

The failure to introduce mandatory reselection in 2017 means that there will still be nearly 200 Blairite or Blairite-compliant Labour MPs in the next Parliament. The people who brought you the Private Finance Initiative, the people who brought you the Iraq War, the people who brought you the attempt to bulldoze Tottenham in order to build an all-white luxury gated community on the ruins, and the people who brought you the cutting of the pay of 472 County Durham Teaching Assistants by 23 per cent: those people had one chance to survive to 2030. They have taken it.

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. After nearly 30 years of suggestion, speculation, and even a sort of preparation, I will stand for Parliament here at North West Durham. The crowdfunding page is here, and buy the book here. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.