See you when I see you.
Wednesday, 25 December 2024
Pro Bono Publico?
Of Mice and Men is about racism, so it has ... oh, what is the point? We have also heard your arguments against the teaching of Latin in state schools other than your children's. Now give us your arguments in favour of "graffiti workshops" instead. In fact, tell us what a graffiti workshop is. And convince us that you would send your children to schools that had them at all, never mind instead of Latin.
If your school teaches coding, then it probably teaches Latin. And teach Mandarin, the better to read Dream of the Red Chamber. Why learn any language, if not for its culture? But Latin is fundamental to our own culture in the West. Learn them both, but learn our own first.
While original material is still being produced and consumed in a language, then it is undeniably a living language, and that is certainly true of Latin. Indeed, a language is not dead until no one can understand it. Latin is nowhere near that. But the purpose of teaching Classics is not Modern Foreign Languages; that is the purpose of teaching Modern Foreign Languages. The purpose of teaching Classics is Classics. On the absolute centrality of that to working-class culture and self-organisation, which have declined markedly since what was in practice mostly Latin has been excluded from state schools, see Professor Edith Hall's and Dr Henry Stead's magnificent A People's History of Classics, on which Professor Hall writes here, and which has this beautiful frontispiece.
Case Management: Day 17
The second rescheduling of my Case Management Hearing was to have seen it held at Durham Crown Court on Monday 16 December, five weeks after the original date. But it has now been delayed until further notice. They are on the run.
Whenever my Hearing came, then if the Prosecution still did anything other than drop the whole business, then it would do nothing other than prove the legal advice that I had been given, namely that I was indefensible before a jury in the North East because it was bound to be full of people who would take one look at anyone as well-dressed, well-spoken and well-read as I was, hate me on the spot, and convict me out of spite, entirely regardless of any evidence or lack of it.
That happened to me last time, and it would happen again, so, I have been advised, my only hope was to plead guilty for the reduced sentence, despite there being literally no evidence against me, and pray that that might finally placate the person whose only remaining life's work was to drive me to suicide, a person who was obviously well enough connected to have me arrested and charged at will.
Of course I had already lost quite enough elections here to have known these things for decades, but it was still quite something to be given them as counsel in that sense, to be told that bookishness and articulacy were "sinister" and "deviant" to my peers by whom I was to be judged. This next bit is strictly mine, but I have no expectation that a judge might intervene in the face of the total lack of evidence, since that has never happened to me yet. After all, a judge is a salaried employee of the same State that brings the prosecution, and a judgeship in a criminal court is a salaried and pensionable reward for 30 years of success as a contracted freelance prosecutor. Anyone who has ever dealt with the Crown Court has seen how weighted towards the Crown it was. A judge would have to authorise an assisted suicide, indeed.
Over, then, to the Crown Prosecution Service. Is it going to state that all of the above was its active policy, and the rest of us just had to suck it up? Will it formally endorse the campaign to drive me to suicide? If it did anything other than drop all charges against me at or before my Case Management Hearing, then the answer to both of those questions would be yes. Until then, this post will appear daily.
Strictly Off The Record: Day 65
If you are Douglas McKean, then Oliver Kamm is convinced that you and I are one and the same. I hate to have to tell you that I have never heard of you. He first contacted me about this at lunchtime on 4 July, so General Election day was obviously slow on The Times, and he has promised to involve the Police, from whom I have heard nothing. Anyone with news of any developments, do please contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Strictly off the record, of course.
Also please contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com with any news on the case of Fr Timothy Gardner OP, which was supposed to have been heard at Newcastle Crown Court in July, but of which I can find no trace. While this is not the only arrow in my quiver, unless Fr Gardner was convicted, then the latest accusations against me have absolutely no credibility, and nor does the propensity evidence that alone secured my conviction in 2020, to breach of the suspended sentence for which I wrongly pleaded guilty in 2021, leading to my imprisonment. Fr Gardner's non-conviction is not the only thing that could vindicate me. But it would do so. Any information would therefore be most gratefully received. Again, strictly off the record, of course.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
Justice Delayed: Day 171
Even assuming, and it was far from clear, that the Crown had presented any evidence whatever on the morning of Wednesday 19 June, then no later than the afternoon of Thursday 20 June, I would have been found not guilty unanimously in the time that it took to walk to the jury room and send a note to the judge. On Monday 6 November, the only Prosecution witness did not turn up, having been suspended from the Police. Since then, he has been "asked to resign" because of his conduct of my case. On Friday 14 June, my barrister formally complained.
Lo and behold, on the morning of Sunday 16 June, enough Police Officers turned up at my door to take down an al-Qaeda cell, and behaved roughly as if that were what they were doing. Everyone is laughing, and not at me. Late that night, a nonsense additional charge, quite different from the stated grounds of the arrest, was added, with no expectation that it could possibly stick, but in order to postpone what would have been that week's open-and-shut acquittal. Be at Durham Crown Court on Wednesday 26 February 2025, almost exactly two years, although we dispute the timeline, after the original complaint was allegedly made. When I shall be found not guilty. But the process is the punishment.
Rather than embarrass itself any further, the Crown did not even ask for me to be remanded. Nor did it dispute that the Police had found nothing on my laptop or on my phone, even though the latest allegation therefore cannot be true. And nor did it dispute that its only witness had been sacked from the Police because of my case, or that this latest action against me was a revenge attack for my barrister's complaint, both of which are now on Monday 17 June's record of Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court, as is the cleanliness of my devices, of which the Police are nevertheless keeping possession, requiring me to replace them at considerable expense.
I wish that my solicitor had used such terms as "Mafia hit" and "punishment beating". I am using them now. This is a punishment beating for the sacked policeman. And it is a Mafia hit by some Fredo Corleone, because the latest complaint was supposedly made before I had withdrawn from the General Election, a withdrawal that has rendered it pointless in its own terms. Other than the unpaid position to which I was elected unopposed well over a year ago, and which has therefore been kept vacant ever since, I have no intention of contesting another election to public office.
Welcome to the Starmer State, which institutional Britain has treated as the status quo since Keir Starmer became Labour Leader. I am not the only dissident that it persecutes, and things are already getting an awful lot worse now that Starmer is Prime Minister.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 530
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.
That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.
That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.
And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The CPS Challenge: Day 530
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union on a programme including disaffiliation from the Labour Party, a proposal that would be hugely popular two years into a Starmer Government.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank 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.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.
And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, and Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.
And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Clergy Challenge: Day 1233
I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.
Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Representatives Challenge: Day 1233
As already stated on the day after my release: "The instant that Labour lost control of Durham County Council, then I was granted an unsolicited tag for more than 10 weeks of future good behaviour. I invite each and every Member of Parliament for the area covered by Durham County Council, each and every member of Durham County Council, and each and every member of Lanchester Parish Council, to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know." The current total is zero.
And I invite each and every Member of Parliament whose constituency fell wholly or partly in County Durham to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
Tuesday, 24 December 2024
Where The Angels Have Fallen
Name a school, local authority, supermarket chain, or anything else, that has "banned Christmas". No one who has ever been into an Asian-owned shop in December will have noticed any "War on Christmas". But such a war is being waged in Syria.
Backed by NATO Turkey, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham has burned the Christmas tree in predominantly Christian Suqaylabiyah, which was founded by refugees from Ottoman persecution, while the IDF has destroyed the cross at the summit of Mount Hermon specifically in order to declare that what had been the highest point in Syria was now in Israel, which has cancelled Christmas in Bethlehem for another year.
With One Voice
An indicative ballot of GMB members in Unite’s head office saw over 90% of participants vote in favour of strike action.
GMB members in Unite’s head office have voted in an indicative ballot to take strike action, after being outraged by the bullying and victimisation of their colleagues in the Bargaining and Disputes Support Unit (BDSU).
Over 90% of those balloted voted for strike action. They will now be formally balloted to strike in the New Year.
Unite has suspended all GMB members in the BDSU who submitted a collective grievance and entered an industrial dispute to challenge the bullying and victimisation they experienced in their workplace.
Meanwhile, Unite has failed to suspend any of the managers accused of bullying.
A strike called by the BDSU members involved took place earlier this month. A vote by their colleagues to take strike action would represent a furtherance of this dispute.
Danny Adilypour, GMB London Regional Organiser, said:
“Our members at Unite have sent a clear message of solidarity with their suspended colleagues.
“Unite has tried to dismiss claims of bullying and victimisation in the BDSU as ‘vexatious’ and has refused to engage in mediation talks.
“Their handling of this industrial dispute and treatment of their staff has understandably caused wider concerns amongst our members in Unite’s head office.
“This is why they have voted in an indicative ballot to take strike action - saying with one voice that bullying and union-busting will not be tolerated.”
Case Management: Day 16
The second rescheduling of my Case Management Hearing was to have seen it held at Durham Crown Court on Monday 16 December, five weeks after the original date. But it has now been delayed until further notice. They are on the run.
Whenever my Hearing came, then if the Prosecution still did anything other than drop the whole business, then it would do nothing other than prove the legal advice that I had been given, namely that I was indefensible before a jury in the North East because it was bound to be full of people who would take one look at anyone as well-dressed, well-spoken and well-read as I was, hate me on the spot, and convict me out of spite, entirely regardless of any evidence or lack of it.
That happened to me last time, and it would happen again, so, I have been advised, my only hope was to plead guilty for the reduced sentence, despite there being literally no evidence against me, and pray that that might finally placate the person whose only remaining life's work was to drive me to suicide, a person who was obviously well enough connected to have me arrested and charged at will.
Of course I had already lost quite enough elections here to have known these things for decades, but it was still quite something to be given them as counsel in that sense, to be told that bookishness and articulacy were "sinister" and "deviant" to my peers by whom I was to be judged. This next bit is strictly mine, but I have no expectation that a judge might intervene in the face of the total lack of evidence, since that has never happened to me yet. After all, a judge is a salaried employee of the same State that brings the prosecution, and a judgeship in a criminal court is a salaried and pensionable reward for 30 years of success as a contracted freelance prosecutor. Anyone who has ever dealt with the Crown Court has seen how weighted towards the Crown it was. A judge would have to authorise an assisted suicide, indeed.
Over, then, to the Crown Prosecution Service. Is it going to state that all of the above was its active policy, and the rest of us just had to suck it up? Will it formally endorse the campaign to drive me to suicide? If it did anything other than drop all charges against me at or before my Case Management Hearing, then the answer to both of those questions would be yes. Until then, this post will appear daily.
Strictly Off The Record: Day 64
If you are Douglas McKean, then Oliver Kamm is convinced that you and I are one and the same. I hate to have to tell you that I have never heard of you. He first contacted me about this at lunchtime on 4 July, so General Election day was obviously slow on The Times, and he has promised to involve the Police, from whom I have heard nothing. Anyone with news of any developments, do please contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Strictly off the record, of course.
Also please contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com with any news on the case of Fr Timothy Gardner OP, which was supposed to have been heard at Newcastle Crown Court in July, but of which I can find no trace. While this is not the only arrow in my quiver, unless Fr Gardner was convicted, then the latest accusations against me have absolutely no credibility, and nor does the propensity evidence that alone secured my conviction in 2020, to breach of the suspended sentence for which I wrongly pleaded guilty in 2021, leading to my imprisonment. Fr Gardner's non-conviction is not the only thing that could vindicate me. But it would do so. Any information would therefore be most gratefully received. Again, strictly off the record, of course.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
Justice Delayed: Day 170
Even assuming, and it was far from clear, that the Crown had presented any evidence whatever on the morning of Wednesday 19 June, then no later than the afternoon of Thursday 20 June, I would have been found not guilty unanimously in the time that it took to walk to the jury room and send a note to the judge. On Monday 6 November, the only Prosecution witness did not turn up, having been suspended from the Police. Since then, he has been "asked to resign" because of his conduct of my case. On Friday 14 June, my barrister formally complained.
Lo and behold, on the morning of Sunday 16 June, enough Police Officers turned up at my door to take down an al-Qaeda cell, and behaved roughly as if that were what they were doing. Everyone is laughing, and not at me. Late that night, a nonsense additional charge, quite different from the stated grounds of the arrest, was added, with no expectation that it could possibly stick, but in order to postpone what would have been that week's open-and-shut acquittal. Be at Durham Crown Court on Wednesday 26 February 2025, almost exactly two years, although we dispute the timeline, after the original complaint was allegedly made. When I shall be found not guilty. But the process is the punishment.
Rather than embarrass itself any further, the Crown did not even ask for me to be remanded. Nor did it dispute that the Police had found nothing on my laptop or on my phone, even though the latest allegation therefore cannot be true. And nor did it dispute that its only witness had been sacked from the Police because of my case, or that this latest action against me was a revenge attack for my barrister's complaint, both of which are now on Monday 17 June's record of Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court, as is the cleanliness of my devices, of which the Police are nevertheless keeping possession, requiring me to replace them at considerable expense.
I wish that my solicitor had used such terms as "Mafia hit" and "punishment beating". I am using them now. This is a punishment beating for the sacked policeman. And it is a Mafia hit by some Fredo Corleone, because the latest complaint was supposedly made before I had withdrawn from the General Election, a withdrawal that has rendered it pointless in its own terms. Other than the unpaid position to which I was elected unopposed well over a year ago, and which has therefore been kept vacant ever since, I have no intention of contesting another election to public office.
Welcome to the Starmer State, which institutional Britain has treated as the status quo since Keir Starmer became Labour Leader. I am not the only dissident that it persecutes, and things are already getting an awful lot worse now that Starmer is Prime Minister.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 529
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.
That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.
That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.
And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The CPS Challenge: Day 529
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union on a programme including disaffiliation from the Labour Party, a proposal that would be hugely popular two years into a Starmer Government.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank 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.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.
And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, and Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.
And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Clergy Challenge: Day 1232
I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.
Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Representatives Challenge: Day 1232
As already stated on the day after my release: "The instant that Labour lost control of Durham County Council, then I was granted an unsolicited tag for more than 10 weeks of future good behaviour. I invite each and every Member of Parliament for the area covered by Durham County Council, each and every member of Durham County Council, and each and every member of Lanchester Parish Council, to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know." The current total is zero.
And I invite each and every Member of Parliament whose constituency fell wholly or partly in County Durham to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
Monday, 23 December 2024
Growing Together
Zero economic growth. We told you so. Even last week's list of peerages had the feel of the end of a Government, rewarding the old troupers.
But those calling for a General Election, an Election between whom and about what? Do not say the R word. Nigel Farage has offered himself as a mediator between Donald Trump and Peter Mandelson. How cosy.
What They Are Owed
Frances Ryan writes:
“Will Santa find me?” a subject line in my inbox asked last week. I wondered briefly if my niece had moved to email with her questions about the logistics of gift delivery. In fact, it was from Refuge: a Christmas appeal for children spending the holidays with their mums in a women’s shelter.
Over the past fortnight, I’ve seen more marketing for charities than supermarkets: from Instagram ads by Crisis hosting Christmas dinner and support for homeless people to X posts by Action for Children hoping to get gifts for kids whose parents can’t afford one.
Cash-strapped charities are smart to try to squeeze every last drop from the season of goodwill: the British public are expected to give an estimated £2.8bn to good causes during November and December this year, according to research by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). The festive period is typically the peak for generosity, when half of the public say they always or usually donate to charity compared with the third of people who regularly give money throughout the rest of the year.
It’s heartwarming in some respects. At a time when most of us splurge on Baileys and novelty jumpers, all while the weather turns colder, it’s not trite to say we should think of those struggling to even buy regular warm meals. I’m ambassador for the Hygiene Bank and I know its Shower People With Kindness campaign – which aims to get shampoo and deodorant to people in poverty this Christmas – will be a lifeline for many.
And yet there is something inescapably bleak about a Britain that relies on philanthropy to tackle its social and economic problems. After years of cuts to public services and growing destitution, charities increasingly provide anything from food packages and debt advice to housing support. The safety net once provided by the social security system and council services has been outsourced to a patchwork of grassroots groups, to the point where meeting basic human needs – being fed, clothed and housed – relies on fundraising in December as well as taxation in April.
This is Victorian Christmas 2024, in which the strains of poverty and disability are eased – not by the welfare state – but the kindness of strangers. Forget fair benefits or decent wages, there are volunteers with Santa hats outside John Lewis shaking buckets for change.
This is clearly inadequate for the level of need out there. As of last month, more than 16 million people are living in poverty, or a staggering 24% of the UK population – the highest since records began. Over 9 million of these are in deep poverty, meaning they’re struggling to afford enough food or pay energy bills. More than a million children don’t even have their own bed. It’s no surprise that a survey of voluntary organisations by the CAF found that 86% say demand for their services has increased over the past year, with poverty-relief charities reporting the biggest rise. Goodwill alone cannot fix the holes in the safety net.
Philanthropy as a means to address hardship isn’t just impractical – it’s wrong. It ignores the structural inequalities that lead to poverty and illness and lets the state off its responsibility to fix them. It suggests the problem is a lack of individual generosity rather than how we collectively organise the economy and society. It robs people of the dignity and autonomy that tax-funded support can bring, forcing the poorest to hold a figurative begging bowl up in place of their rights. Or to put it another way: no one should have to use a donation bin to have clean hair for Christmas.
Moreover, the normalisation of charity shifts the conversation away from taxation as the means to redistribute the country’s increasingly unequal wealth. Just last week, the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, floated the idea of a flat tax rate that would see the richest taxed at the same level as the poorest. Such a policy would simply be the next step in how the ruling class already protects its interests, where the wealthy write a cheque to the local hospital while hiring an accountant to wriggle out of a big tax bill. If you want to see this attitude in practice, look to the rightwing newspapers that launch charity appeals for people in hardship at Christmas after spending the previous 11 months championing the very policies that impoverished them.
In a year that finally saw the end of the latest era of Tory rule, the potential – and limits – of government has felt particularly palpable. With more than one in three children below the breadline after a decade of austerity, children’s charities are in the unenviable position of trying to clear up the mess politicians have left. When I see the Barnardo’s Christmas appeal for warm blankets and pyjamas for children, I cannot help but think of Labour’s refusal to scrap the two-child benefit limit this year.
Clement Attlee said: “Charity is a cold grey loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim.” As we hurtle into 2025, perhaps it is time our society edged towards such progress. Modern Britain should not be run like the final pages of A Christmas Carol, in which Tiny Tim must rely on Scrooge waking up in a good mood to be permitted to live. Donate to a good cause this Christmas, please. But don’t forget the unseasonal truth: every time a charity helps a person find food or clothes, it is a sign of government failure.
And Polly Toynbee writes:
At the stroke of midnight on Saturday night, the shutters came down. Anyone who didn’t claim pension credit by then will have lost their winter fuel payment. Pension credit is designed to help low-income pensioners with living costs, and only those on this means-tested benefit qualify for winter fuel payments. Yet up to 880,000 older people entitled to pension credit don’t claim it. They’re only some of millions of people who aren’t getting their benefits. Last year, a total of £23bn in benefits and social support went unclaimed.
There are far fewer pensioners living in poverty today than there were when the winter fuel allowance was introduced back in 1997, so means testing it by linking it to pension credit makes sense [Polly, you would rightly have gone bananas if the Tories had done this]. Thanks to the pension triple lock, most pensioners will be better off by up to £472 a year from April 2025. Why give a winter fuel payment to Bernie Ecclestone, Rod Stewart, or to me? Until now, kind-hearted better-off pensioners donated their allowance to charity. Less kind people mocked the welfare state’s apparent extravagance. Fraser Nelson, former editor of the Spectator, described: “A millionaire I know [who] has a tradition every year: he buys a bottle of vintage wine with his winter fuel payment and invites friends to drink it. His point is that it’s ludicrous that people like him are given handouts by the government.” [What does he get for a couple of hundred quid? This is rubbish.]
There will be no jeroboams this year. Despite the outburst of posed pictures of freezing pensioners in the rightwing press, public opinion is evenly divided on this means testing. A universal benefit inflames the myth of a spendthrift welfare state, but it also ensures everyone gets what’s owed to them. This change saves the government about £1.3bn, so that brings a strong obligation to raise the pension credit threshold to include old people who are living only just above it. Qualifying for even a little pension credit opens a gateway to a free TV licence, housing benefit, reduced council tax or help with NHS costs. The government has been urging people to claim, and the Department for Work and Pensions has hired an extra 500 people to clear the backlog.
All this shines a light on the pensioners who aren’t getting what they’re due. Even when people do claim the benefits they are entitled to, Britain’s miserly system means there are still 14.4 million people living below the official poverty line. A scandalous one in three children are poor, twice as many as the one in six pensioners, but that still leaves still 2.1m poor old people. Still, consider the destitution of those who don’t even get what they are owed.
Plainly a portion of the £23bn saved in unclaimed benefits should be spent on finding these missing people. Why don’t they claim? It’s easy to forget that huge numbers of people don’t watch the news, don’t vote and are unconnected to local services that could help. Many of them are desperate: Citizens Advice finds that 5 million people are living on “negative budgets”, which means that even once they get help with claiming everything due to them, their incomes are lower than the basic costs of housing, energy, water and food. Healthy start money for young children’s milk and food can add £1,000 to a family budget, but only about 60% of those eligible claim it. Schools try their best to reach families not claiming free school meals, but they need more support to find the 800,000 students who are missing out, in households so poor that their parents earn less than £7,400.
“Pride” is sometimes given as the glib explanation for why people don’t claim their benefits. Yet ignorance, mental illness, semi-literacy, fear of rejection, fear of officialdom or difficulty applying online are among multitudes of barriers that people face. About 20% of people entitled to universal credit don’t claim it. Social tariffs for water and energy also go unclaimed, and only 5% of low-income households signed up to the deeply discounted broadband tariffs they are entitled to.
Finding these missing people should be easy. Policy in Practice, a social policy and analytics company, shows how to do it. Its software uses DWP and local council tax records to identify who is owed and to help them claim. About 60 local authorities pay for this service, but the government should roll it out nationally. Despite pinched finances, scores of councils find it pays to get elderly people their benefits, to prevent them from needing social care or ending up in A&E. Some councils use the government’s £500m household support fund to give the winter fuel payment to those who sit just above the threshold for means testing.
But the founder of Policy in Practice, Deven Ghelani, told me that they could find many more claimants if one obstacle was removed: HMRC refuses to hand over data on incomes and taxes on the grounds of privacy, even while the DWP and councils hand over benefits information willingly. Breaking this obsession with privacy requires an urgent change in the law (I would make all incomes and taxes public, as in Finland, but that’s another issue). For now, HMRC should make information available to those authorised to find missing claimants.
In a country so unequal, where poor people are 22% worse off than their French equivalents, and benefit cuts fall heaviest on children, government has a powerful obligation to ensure everyone at least gets what they are owed. Rightwing relish for benefit-cheat stories means we hear a lot more about the £6.4bn lost to fraud than we do about the £23bn missing from the pockets of those who need it most. Labour promises that it will be returning to its pledge to end child poverty. That couldn’t be more urgent, and finding the non-claimants is something it should be doing right now.
79 Weeks On
Nominations have been closed for 79 weeks, so when is the election?
If I sought election to any other public position now, then I would rapidly find myself just another death in custody, especially under a Starmer or post-Starmer Government, and most especially if Labour had also taken back control of Durham County Council next year.
But I was a public governor of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust from 2017 to 2020, having been elected unopposed, an extremely unusual occurrence. Unopposed among the 90,000 or more people in the part of County Durham that I was elected to represent. I failed to be re-elected by three votes, on a recount. Yet I was again elected unopposed well over a year ago, a double feat that I am not aware that anyone else has ever managed, and which has caused the position to be kept vacant ever since. I am determined to have it for at least as long as I was elected to it. Do your worst. As, now under both parties, you are already doing to far better than I.
Case Management: Day 15
The second rescheduling of my Case Management Hearing was to have seen it held at Durham Crown Court on Monday 16 December, five weeks after the original date. But it has now been delayed until further notice. They are on the run.
Whenever my Hearing came, then if the Prosecution still did anything other than drop the whole business, then it would do nothing other than prove the legal advice that I had been given, namely that I was indefensible before a jury in the North East because it was bound to be full of people who would take one look at anyone as well-dressed, well-spoken and well-read as I was, hate me on the spot, and convict me out of spite, entirely regardless of any evidence or lack of it.
That happened to me last time, and it would happen again, so, I have been advised, my only hope was to plead guilty for the reduced sentence, despite there being literally no evidence against me, and pray that that might finally placate the person whose only remaining life's work was to drive me to suicide, a person who was obviously well enough connected to have me arrested and charged at will.
Of course I had already lost quite enough elections here to have known these things for decades, but it was still quite something to be given them as counsel in that sense, to be told that bookishness and articulacy were "sinister" and "deviant" to my peers by whom I was to be judged. This next bit is strictly mine, but I have no expectation that a judge might intervene in the face of the total lack of evidence, since that has never happened to me yet. After all, a judge is a salaried employee of the same State that brings the prosecution, and a judgeship in a criminal court is a salaried and pensionable reward for 30 years of success as a contracted freelance prosecutor. Anyone who has ever dealt with the Crown Court has seen how weighted towards the Crown it was. A judge would have to authorise an assisted suicide, indeed.
Over, then, to the Crown Prosecution Service. Is it going to state that all of the above was its active policy, and the rest of us just had to suck it up? Will it formally endorse the campaign to drive me to suicide? If it did anything other than drop all charges against me at or before my Case Management Hearing, then the answer to both of those questions would be yes. Until then, this post will appear daily.
Strictly Off The Record: Day 63
If you are Douglas McKean, then Oliver Kamm is convinced that you and I are one and the same. I hate to have to tell you that I have never heard of you. He first contacted me about this at lunchtime on 4 July, so General Election day was obviously slow on The Times, and he has promised to involve the Police, from whom I have heard nothing. Anyone with news of any developments, do please contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Strictly off the record, of course.
Also please contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com with any news on the case of Fr Timothy Gardner OP, which was supposed to have been heard at Newcastle Crown Court in July, but of which I can find no trace. While this is not the only arrow in my quiver, unless Fr Gardner was convicted, then the latest accusations against me have absolutely no credibility, and nor does the propensity evidence that alone secured my conviction in 2020, to breach of the suspended sentence for which I wrongly pleaded guilty in 2021, leading to my imprisonment. Fr Gardner's non-conviction is not the only thing that could vindicate me. But it would do so. Any information would therefore be most gratefully received. Again, strictly off the record, of course.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
Justice Delayed: Day 169
Even assuming, and it was far from clear, that the Crown had presented any evidence whatever on the morning of Wednesday 19 June, then no later than the afternoon of Thursday 20 June, I would have been found not guilty unanimously in the time that it took to walk to the jury room and send a note to the judge. On Monday 6 November, the only Prosecution witness did not turn up, having been suspended from the Police. Since then, he has been "asked to resign" because of his conduct of my case. On Friday 14 June, my barrister formally complained.
Lo and behold, on the morning of Sunday 16 June, enough Police Officers turned up at my door to take down an al-Qaeda cell, and behaved roughly as if that were what they were doing. Everyone is laughing, and not at me. Late that night, a nonsense additional charge, quite different from the stated grounds of the arrest, was added, with no expectation that it could possibly stick, but in order to postpone what would have been that week's open-and-shut acquittal. Be at Durham Crown Court on Wednesday 26 February 2025, almost exactly two years, although we dispute the timeline, after the original complaint was allegedly made. When I shall be found not guilty. But the process is the punishment.
Rather than embarrass itself any further, the Crown did not even ask for me to be remanded. Nor did it dispute that the Police had found nothing on my laptop or on my phone, even though the latest allegation therefore cannot be true. And nor did it dispute that its only witness had been sacked from the Police because of my case, or that this latest action against me was a revenge attack for my barrister's complaint, both of which are now on Monday 17 June's record of Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court, as is the cleanliness of my devices, of which the Police are nevertheless keeping possession, requiring me to replace them at considerable expense.
I wish that my solicitor had used such terms as "Mafia hit" and "punishment beating". I am using them now. This is a punishment beating for the sacked policeman. And it is a Mafia hit by some Fredo Corleone, because the latest complaint was supposedly made before I had withdrawn from the General Election, a withdrawal that has rendered it pointless in its own terms. Other than the unpaid position to which I was elected unopposed well over a year ago, and which has therefore been kept vacant ever since, I have no intention of contesting another election to public office.
Welcome to the Starmer State, which institutional Britain has treated as the status quo since Keir Starmer became Labour Leader. I am not the only dissident that it persecutes, and things are already getting an awful lot worse now that Starmer is Prime Minister.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 528
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.
That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.
That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.
And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The CPS Challenge: Day 528
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union on a programme including disaffiliation from the Labour Party, a proposal that would be hugely popular two years into a Starmer Government.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank 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.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.
And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, and Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.
And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Clergy Challenge: Day 1231
I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.
Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Representatives Challenge: Day 1231
As already stated on the day after my release: "The instant that Labour lost control of Durham County Council, then I was granted an unsolicited tag for more than 10 weeks of future good behaviour. I invite each and every Member of Parliament for the area covered by Durham County Council, each and every member of Durham County Council, and each and every member of Lanchester Parish Council, to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know." The current total is zero.
And I invite each and every Member of Parliament whose constituency fell wholly or partly in County Durham to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if they thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me. Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
Sunday, 22 December 2024
Rampant?
What should be the armorial bearings of the newly ennobled Luciana Berger? I have been an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate against the Labour Party as long as she has, and I unsuccessfully set up a political party a very great deal longer ago than she did, so where is my peerage? Indeed, I have been a failed parliamentary candidate since quite a while before several of our new legislators for life were likewise rejected by the electorate. What should be my coat of arms, and why?
Does Emily Thornberry think that Berger is a "bastard"? Those whom Thornberry has branded as such, five years after an alleged event that she had never previously mentioned, were not candidates against Labour at that General Election, which it is Rachel Reeves who has told interviewers that she was "pleased" that Labour had lost, with everything that had followed from that during the last Parliament.
Likewise, Stephen Kinnock was caught on camera despondent that his party had not been wiped out in 2017. Kinnock's boss these days, Wes Streeting, is angling to become Prime Minister next year in order to complete his generation of Labour politicians' lifetime mission to privatise England's National Health Service, a measure that would be unthinkable in any other part of the United Kingdom, yet which could not be voted against by voting Conservative, Liberal Democrat, or Reform UK, even if the damage had not already been done by then. But Streeting has blotted his copybook by banning puberty blockers and by opposing assisted suicide. While he is still the most likely bet, he is no longer the dead certainty that he would have been until very recently.
With Haste Into The Hill Country
Even according to the latest witness statement against me, by the person with the coveted distinction of hating me more than anyone else in the world did, "[I] was never placed under any restrictions" by or in relation to the Church, and, "[I] was eventually sent a cease and desist letter from the Diocese in respect of [my] conduct towards [the author] but this did not restrict what [I] was doing within [my] parish or church." Honestly, how do these things get around? And in that case, then nothing that had ever been alleged against me could possibly be true. As, of course, it is not. The horse's mouth.
Now, to business. Do the four known suicides of wronged subpostmasters prove their guilt? Here is your weekly reminder that this could not have been an executive summary of this. That would have been impossible, since they bear no resemblance to each other. It is all here, including on the ludicrous definition of "grooming" that was used to hound Canon Michael McCoy to his death, and including on the nonsense about Fr Timothy Gardner OP. Something has changed since 3 May 2023. What is it? And where is the original report?
I have no qualms about styling Fr Gardner OP as such, since he has not been laicised, nor, unless I am very much mistaken, has he been dismissed from the Order of Preachers. It has been 33 weeks, eight months, since I emailed the Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Susan Dungworth, in the following terms: "I appreciate that this is not strictly your responsibility, but I have been completely unable to find an email address for Northumbria Police, so please forward this to them. Fr Timothy Gardner OP is due back before Newcastle Crown Court in July. As set out below, ... the case against Fr Gardner needs to be halted immediately. At the very least, his solicitor and barrister need to be made aware of these facts. Very many thanks."
I do not resile from this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this or this. Rather, I reiterate every word of each and all of them. There was no cathedral sex party. The move from the old Bishop's House to the new one made a profit. There was no allegation of sexual assault against Bishop Robert Byrne CO, who should sue every media outlet that had suggested one.
Although I am often asked, I know neither where nor how Bishop Byrne is. But I am often asked. I am not doing Marko Rupnik, because that would involve siding with the people who had done nothing for Bishop Byrne. They and Rupnik can all go to Hell in the same handcart. Nor am I interested in anything that you might have to say about Bishop Joseph Strickland unless you had fought for Bishop Byrne.
I may not, but I may, accept the present report when Bishop Byrne had done so, and to the extent that he had done so. His Lordship has yet to do so to any extent. At least while that remains the case, then I reject the whole thing out of hand, and so should you. The sum total of the charge sheet against Bishop Byrne is that he did not automatically do as he was told by the hired help. But Pat Buckley, who died in May, did not like Bishop Stephen Wright, so Bishop Wright must be all right.
Indeed, His Lordship preached well at his Enthronement. He clearly has a deep spirituality. There was also a speech by a self-identified survivor of clerical sexual abuse, one Maggie Vickerman. Neither her case, nor those to which she referred, had anything to do with Bishop Byrne, if they really happened at all. How do we know? At most, they were long before his brief time in this Diocese. If anything, certain people with some responsibility for them were in that sanctuary. Nor did Ms Vickerman make any attempt to disguise her theological agenda. Well, nor do I make any attempt to disguise mine.
Case Management: Day 14
The second rescheduling of my Case Management Hearing was to have seen it held at Durham Crown Court on Monday 16 December, five weeks after the original date. But it has now been delayed until further notice. They are on the run.
Whenever my Hearing came, then if the Prosecution still did anything other than drop the whole business, then it would do nothing other than prove the legal advice that I had been given, namely that I was indefensible before a jury in the North East because it was bound to be full of people who would take one look at anyone as well-dressed, well-spoken and well-read as I was, hate me on the spot, and convict me out of spite, entirely regardless of any evidence or lack of it.
That happened to me last time, and it would happen again, so, I have been advised, my only hope was to plead guilty for the reduced sentence, despite there being literally no evidence against me, and pray that that might finally placate the person whose only remaining life's work was to drive me to suicide, a person who was obviously well enough connected to have me arrested and charged at will.
Of course I had already lost quite enough elections here to have known these things for decades, but it was still quite something to be given them as counsel in that sense, to be told that bookishness and articulacy were "sinister" and "deviant" to my peers by whom I was to be judged. This next bit is strictly mine, but I have no expectation that a judge might intervene in the face of the total lack of evidence, since that has never happened to me yet. After all, a judge is a salaried employee of the same State that brings the prosecution, and a judgeship in a criminal court is a salaried and pensionable reward for 30 years of success as a contracted freelance prosecutor. Anyone who has ever dealt with the Crown Court has seen how weighted towards the Crown it was. A judge would have to authorise an assisted suicide, indeed.
Over, then, to the Crown Prosecution Service. Is it going to state that all of the above was its active policy, and the rest of us just had to suck it up? Will it formally endorse the campaign to drive me to suicide? If it did anything other than drop all charges against me at or before my Case Management Hearing, then the answer to both of those questions would be yes. Until then, this post will appear daily.
Strictly Off The Record: Day 62
If you are Douglas McKean, then Oliver Kamm is convinced that you and I are one and the same. I hate to have to tell you that I have never heard of you. He first contacted me about this at lunchtime on 4 July, so General Election day was obviously slow on The Times, and he has promised to involve the Police, from whom I have heard nothing. Anyone with news of any developments, do please contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Strictly off the record, of course.
Also please contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com with any news on the case of Fr Timothy Gardner OP, which was supposed to have been heard at Newcastle Crown Court in July, but of which I can find no trace. While this is not the only arrow in my quiver, unless Fr Gardner was convicted, then the latest accusations against me have absolutely no credibility, and nor does the propensity evidence that alone secured my conviction in 2020, to breach of the suspended sentence for which I wrongly pleaded guilty in 2021, leading to my imprisonment. Fr Gardner's non-conviction is not the only thing that could vindicate me. But it would do so. Any information would therefore be most gratefully received. Again, strictly off the record, of course.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
Justice Delayed: Day 168
Even assuming, and it was far from clear, that the Crown had presented any evidence whatever on the morning of Wednesday 19 June, then no later than the afternoon of Thursday 20 June, I would have been found not guilty unanimously in the time that it took to walk to the jury room and send a note to the judge. On Monday 6 November, the only Prosecution witness did not turn up, having been suspended from the Police. Since then, he has been "asked to resign" because of his conduct of my case. On Friday 14 June, my barrister formally complained.
Lo and behold, on the morning of Sunday 16 June, enough Police Officers turned up at my door to take down an al-Qaeda cell, and behaved roughly as if that were what they were doing. Everyone is laughing, and not at me. Late that night, a nonsense additional charge, quite different from the stated grounds of the arrest, was added, with no expectation that it could possibly stick, but in order to postpone what would have been that week's open-and-shut acquittal. Be at Durham Crown Court on Wednesday 26 February 2025, almost exactly two years, although we dispute the timeline, after the original complaint was allegedly made. When I shall be found not guilty. But the process is the punishment.
Rather than embarrass itself any further, the Crown did not even ask for me to be remanded. Nor did it dispute that the Police had found nothing on my laptop or on my phone, even though the latest allegation therefore cannot be true. And nor did it dispute that its only witness had been sacked from the Police because of my case, or that this latest action against me was a revenge attack for my barrister's complaint, both of which are now on Monday 17 June's record of Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court, as is the cleanliness of my devices, of which the Police are nevertheless keeping possession, requiring me to replace them at considerable expense.
I wish that my solicitor had used such terms as "Mafia hit" and "punishment beating". I am using them now. This is a punishment beating for the sacked policeman. And it is a Mafia hit by some Fredo Corleone, because the latest complaint was supposedly made before I had withdrawn from the General Election, a withdrawal that has rendered it pointless in its own terms. Other than the unpaid position to which I was elected unopposed well over a year ago, and which has therefore been kept vacant ever since, I have no intention of contesting another election to public office.
Welcome to the Starmer State, which institutional Britain has treated as the status quo since Keir Starmer became Labour Leader. I am not the only dissident that it persecutes, and things are already getting an awful lot worse now that Starmer is Prime Minister.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 527
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.
That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.
That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.
And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The CPS Challenge: Day 527
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union on a programme including disaffiliation from the Labour Party, a proposal that would be hugely popular two years into a Starmer Government.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank 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.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.
I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.
And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.
Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, and Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.
And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.
This post will appear daily until further notice.
The Clergy Challenge: Day 1230
I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.
Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.
This post will appear daily until further notice.