Friday 13 March 2020

The End of An Era

It was, in fact, a monetarist approach of the sort which Keith Joseph and I believed in and it outflanked from the right those members of my own Shadow Cabinet who were still clinging to the nostrums of Keynesian demand management... [This was] the turning point.

So, in her memoirs, wrote Margaret Thatcher of Jim Callaghan's and Denis Healey's Budget in 1976, which, "announced deep cuts in public spending and borrowing, and targets for the money supply." That was the start of the era that ended with Boris Johnson's and Rishi Sunak's Budget this week.

But there are still those who cleave to the old order. To the delight of most of its MPs, the Labour Party will soon be led by Keir Starmer, and here at North West Durham it will field in 2024, either the former MP who lost it the seat, or the next clone off the production line of the North East's increasingly malfunctioning right-wing Labour machine. Neither of those could beat Richard Holden. Nor would either of them deserve to do so.

I long ago named a dauphin or delfino who was 20 years my junior, who signed my nomination papers last year, who attended the count, and who even drove me home from it. He would have my full support if I were unable to contest this seat in December 2024, which is more than long enough into the future for plenty of water to have passed under Westminster Bridge by then.

But other than that, and assuming that the Government's programme had begun to deliver the goods along the old Red Wall in defiance of Labour's whinging expressions of all that was petty in the petty bourgeoisie, then I see no reason why I ought not to support Richard. Indeed, I might very well be proud to do so.

In the meantime, ours is the 2020 Vision of a new political party, a new think tank, a new weekly newspaper, a new monthly cultural review, a new quarterly academic journal, and so much else besides. I will be standing for Parliament again here at North West Durham next time if possible, so please give generously. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.

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