Reasonably Necessary Work?

This time last week, it was common knowledge in and around political circles in Durham that Keir Starmer had been issued with a fixed penalty notice. This week, it has been considered old news, with other stories coming down the tracks.

There was more evidence against Starmer than there has ever been against me for anything, yet he has faced them down with, "I'm not paying, and if you tried to make me, then you would be engaging in political interference while I tangled you up in court over this trifling sum of money for years on end." And he has won.

Well, he has to win something. With Boris Johnson going, then he needs to come up with any positive reason to vote Labour. He has none. "In any case," he has clearly told what are supposed to be the powers that be, "you cannot have both parties thrown into Leadership contests at the same time. There would be mayhem." They have bought that, and are now pretending never to have fined him.

Starmer refuses to go to picket lines, but he was in the Royal Box at Wimbledon yesterday. Hey ho, tomorrow's Durham Miners' Gala, the first since the pandemic, is set to be the biggest since the Strike, with a quarter of a million expected to hear speakers including Sharon Graham and Mick Lynch.

The fightback starts here, including the demand, both to reduce everyone's lockdown fines to the level of Johnson's, and to cancel everyone's whose breach had been less than Starmer's. All of that will appear on my campaign literature at the next General Election, which will be issued even if I had been kept off the ballot. My campaign is not conditional on my candidacy, although it is worth pointing out that there is no Labour candidate here at North West Durham, nor any indication or expectation that there ever will be.