A Friend of Ours?

Labour lost North West Durham by only 1,144 votes, but it still has no parliamentary candidate here, nearly two years later. Covid-19 is no excuse for that. Nothing is.

Although it would still not be forgivable, Labour's lack of organisation may be understandable in light of the fact that it now had only six councillors above Parish or Town level in North West Durham, returned by only four wards.

A mere three wards still return only Labour councillors, and one of those has only one seat to fill. The Labour candidate there beat no other candidate except a Conservative who appeared as No Description because his party had disowned him. He had been a Brexit Party activist when I had met him at the General Election's only hustings. He told me that he had been Labour most of his life.

But while there may be no Labour candidate for North West Durham, there are already two others, both declared and both active, Richard Holden and me. Oh, how the exiled Labour Right in these parts hates me. But while they used to be the Mafia, I am the made man. I am the man that they made.

I was first introduced at a funeral as "the man who should have been our MP" long before at least one of today's Labour councillors in this constituency had left school, but not everyone ever did agree with that, whereas no one disputed that I could have been a downright boring Labour councillor for 60 years, from the age of 25 until the day I died. I did not break that deal, and those who did cannot blame me for the consequences. Even now, those consequences have barely begun.