Richard Holden Promotion Watch: Day Two

People have been in touch to ask why I never criticised Richard Holden. But I am highly critical of this Government, of which Richard is the strong supporter that he was elected to be. I like him, not that that has anything to do with politics. I like a lot of what he is doing, or trying to do. He is, however, a political opponent.

The reshuffle has put everything in place for a General Election in May 2023. Yet there is no sign of the name of a loyal, and obviously ambitious, former special adviser to several Cabinet Ministers.

Perhaps he has turned down offers? The alternative is that the composition of the Government is being determined by the Prime Minister's wife. Therefore, Richard needs to be asked the question. He may consider it asked here and now. And every day until further notice.

In Its Own Terms

On Thursday, I turned 44, making me older than two Prime Ministers of my adult lifetime.

Mine is the Blair generation, first eligible to vote at a General Election in 1997, 2001 or 2005. We were born between 10th April 1974 and 5th May 1987, so that even the youngest of us is now 34, while the eldest is 47. Blairism may be judged on how well we have fared politically.

On the verge of leading their respective parties, Rishi Sunak and Angela Rayner were both born, less than two months apart, in 1980. Both were first time voters in 2001, the high water mark of Tony Blair.

Sunak had been Head Boy of Winchester, and had still yet to do a day's work in his life. Rayner had left school with literally nothing fully five years earlier, and was to make her way through her trade union. Make what you like of either of those backstories, but the fact that those are the Generation Blair figures on the brink of Leadership makes Blairism a failure in its own terms.

Yet in the zeal to restore it, there are breathtaking stories coming out of Brighton tonight. They are jaw-dropping, even to those of us whose jaws very rarely drop. And this is still only the first night.

A Forde In The Road To Nowhere

Imagine that any previous Labour Leader had announced a change as big as a reversion to the Electoral College, but had then had to pull it because he had stood no chance of being able to get it through Conference. You can't. Of course you can't. Keir Starmer is the worst Leader in the history of the Labour Party.

The Government, which is going to be comfortably reelected in any case, is cruelly failing to arrange a judgeship to put Starmer out of his misery. Doesn't Boris Johnson want to see David Miliband lose the Holborn and St Pancras by-election? Everyone else does.

Starmer is left with a few proposed constitutional changes that, like the big one, are completely irrelevant on the cusp of what, regardless of the weather (and we had a hot summer), is going to be the hardest winter in many decades.

It is already practically impossible for a Constituency Labour Party to deselect a Labour MP as a parliamentary candidate, and it is extremely rare for it to want to. When did that last happen? When was it last attempted? Raising the threshold for it would be even more elitist and anti-democratic than the present arrangement, but it would not change anything in practice.

The registered supporters scheme was already unlikely to have been run again, and requiring people to have been members for six months before they could vote in a Leadership Election would be contrary to the Right's own entryist aspirations. But what of the proposal that Leadership candidates be nominated by 20 per cent of MPs?

In 2020, Starmer would have been elected unopposed. In 2015, Liz Kendall as well as Jeremy Corbyn would have been disqualified. In 2010, only the Miliband brothers would have made it onto the ballot paper; under the 25 per cent rule that the ultra-Right wants, only David Miliband would have done so, meaning another unopposed election. As it turned out, the Milibands' mother got to vote for Diane Abbott against both of her own children. It is called the Hard Left for a reason.

Michael Howard, Gordon Brown and Theresa May were elected Leaders of their respective parties unopposed, and how well did they do with the voters? About as well as Starmer is going to do, if he is very lucky indeed. Someone leak the Forde Report, and by the end of this coming week we could all have moved on to the imminent hilarity of David Miliband's crushing defeat at Holborn and St Pancras.

Labour Candidate Watch: Day 10

10 days after the Cabinet reshuffle that called a General Election for May 2023, there is still no Labour candidate at North West Durham, which in 2019 Labour lost for the first time and by only 1,144 votes.

By contrast, I have been a candidate for North West Durham at the next General Election since even before the last one, fighting 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. Contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com.  

Or contact nwdclp.campaigns@gmail.com if you wanted permanent austerity at home, if you wanted forever war abroad, and if you did not want a mixed-race MP for this seat. This post will appear daily until someone had proven to be so pro-austerity, so pro-war, and so racist, that even the Labour Party was sufficiently impressed.

The Adrian Hilton Challenge: Day 49

Adrian Hilton, I had to Google you, and I still have little or no idea who you are, so when, exactly, have I ever "stalked" you at all, much less "for longer than [you] care to remember"? 

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Oliver Kamm Challenge: Day 49

Oliver Kamm, whose signature to this do you claim that I forged? Name the name.

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever been found to have accused anyone of child abuse?

Oliver Kamm, when, exactly, have I ever called for anyone to be murdered?

And Oliver Kamm, since I am a declared and active candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West Durham, are you? If not, why not?

I could go on at very great length, but these questions will do for now.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 49

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.

Furthermore, I invite each and every other candidate for the parliamentary seat of North West 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. In this case, names most certainly will be published, including as part of my election literature. The current total is zero. If that remained the case when the next General Election was called, then my literature would state that each and all of my opponents, by name, did not think that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.

This post will appear daily until further notice.