Kevan Jones is attracting considerable praise for his role in the Post Office scandal. It is of course perfectly true that Parliament could and should legislate to exonerate and compensate all of the subpostmasters and subpostmistresses. Would Kevan also support legislation to annul all convictions and other adverse court judgments arising out the three Miners’ Strikes since 1970, and to pay compensation accordingly? If not, why not? Even if he did, though, no one could walk up Stanley Front Street and say that his 23 years as the MP for North Durham had earned him four or five more. I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, but nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would.
When I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair’s Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.
To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.
The first serious challenge there's ever been in that seat.
ReplyDeletecontingent says that if it had known that it would be within five thousand votes, then it would have put more skin the game.
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