Papers, Please

The Covid passports may be unavoidable, but they will still need to be kept an eye on. For 30 years to my knowledge, and no doubt for a lot longer than that, the Home Office's answer to every question has been identity cards. And even before it was led by a former Director of Public Prosecutions, the only faction that has been consistently in favour of that sort of thing has been the Labour Right.

The rest of us, all of us, are who they would wish to harass morning, noon and night. We, all of us, are who they would wish to subject to control orders. We, all of us, are who they would wish to Prevent. We, all of us, are who they would wish to detain for 90 days without charge. We, all of us, are who they would wish to render extraordinarily. We, all of us, are who they would wish to waterboard.

And we, all of us, are who they would wish to hang. Oh, yes. When pro-hunting demonstrators invaded the floor of the House of Commons, then a member of the then Government Chief Whip's staff repeatedly told me that they ought to be hanged. He has not lost his taste, either for blood, or for the pursuit of it by means of lawfare.

The Labour Right's control of all but a few of the most populous municipal authorities in England and Wales gives it access to vast sums of Council Tax, business rates, pension funds looking to invest, sweeteners and backhanders from property developers and others, and so on, while also endowing it with vast powers of patronage in the allocation of council housing, better council housing, jobs with the council, better jobs with the council, and so forth.

But 6th May will be Super Thursday, when both this year's and what would have been last year's local elections are to be held on the same day. This is the opportunity to wipe the Labour Right off the map. Vote for whoever was best placed to defeat it in your ward. Do not worry about defeating Left councillors. There are never more than a handful of those, and there is usually none.

In the meantime, the very close by-election at Helensburgh and Lomond South on 18th March will be the first test of the Workers Party of Britain. If you happened to be reading this there, then do please vote for Paul Burrows. I do wish that we had been able to persuade George Galloway to contest Chester-le-Street West Central, but what I really mean by that is that I wish that I had thought of it four years ago. Look out, though, for another announcement here in the North East.