My name is David Lindsay, and I want to be a Labour MP.
I joined the Labour Party when I was 17, have served on CLP GC and EC (and on DLP) since I was 18, chaired my Branch for several years from the age of 19, became a Parish Councillor (in an unusually large and busy Parish) at the legal minimum age of 21, became a primary school governor just short of my twenty-second birthday, and became a comprehensive school governor just short of my twenty-third birthday. I have since been re-elected as a Parish Councillor and re-appointed to both of my school governorships, having served as Vice-Chair of the primary Governing Body. At 19, I was a Ward Sub-Agent in the 1997 General Election, securing an overall majority of the total vote on a four-way split in a traditionally Tory ward. And at 25, I became DLP Secretary, having been a District Group Observer for three years before that. I have only just relinquished that office, aged 28.
Therefore, I should now appreciate the opportunity to make a further contribution, drawing and building upon those experiences, which include a great deal of committee work, of working to deadlines, and of hugely successful co-operation with a very wide range of individuals and bodies. Furthermore, I have always done all of the above while engaged in either or both of full-time paid work and various forms of academic work, as well as numerous other voluntary activities, thus demonstrating, I feel, both my commitment, and my ability to organise my time to optimal effect.
I am a Socialist: I believe in the universal Welfare State and in the strong statutory (including trade union) protection of workers, consumers, communities and the environment, the former paid for by progressive taxation, the whole underwritten by full employment, and all these good things delivered by the partnership between a strong Parliament and strong local government. I am a One Nation politician, with an equal emphasis on the One and on the Nation.
I offer the possibility of many years of service in the future. My mixed ethnic background would also add an unusual, but increasingly important, dimension. I reject all talk of left and right within the Party, or of Old Labour and New Labour: I am simply Labour and proud of it.
I wish to be a workers’ MP on a worker’s wage, accepting only the national average salary for full-time work, and donating the rest to political and community causes, and thus rising with the British People rather than above the British People. I should campaign for election on what I firmly believe to be this hugely popular basis.
Saturday, 8 April 2006
In circulation on the Left
In circulation on the Left, the crossover with the material in circulation on the Old Right being in itself an important point:
1. The conservation or restoration (as the overwhelming majority of Britons wishes) of such good things as national self-government (the only basis for international co-operation, and including the United Kingdom as greater than the sum of its parts), local variation, historical consciousness, family life, agriculture, manufacturing, small business, close-knit communities, law and order, civil liberties, academic standards, all forms of art, and mass political participation within a constitutional framework, all of which free market capitalism corrodes to nought;
2. The restoration of the supremacy of British over EU law, the use of this to restore Britain's historic fishing rights, the British adoption of a show-stopping Empty Chair Policy until the Council of Ministers meets in public and publishes an Official Report akin to Hansard, and the election of Britain's European Commissioner by the whole electorate from a shortlist of two submitted following a ballot of all MPs;
3. A much higher threshold for income tax (national median earnings) and corporation tax (the amount needed to pay every employee a minimum wage of half median male earnings per hour), with a flat rate thereafter, so that the working poor are taken out of tax, while genuinely middle-earners and small or medium-sized businesses pay far less than at present, because the richest individuals and the biggest corporations pay their fair share for the first time ever;
4. A unified benefits, pensions, student funding, and minimum wage system, so that no one's income falls below half national median earnings;
5. A one hundred per cent tax at source on all income from rent, with a Social Security payment to those thus taxed equal to national average earnings (or sufficient to maintain the legitimate activities of religious or educational institutions), as a step towards giving every household a base of real property from which to resist both over-mighty commercial interests and an over-mighty State;
6. A permanently higher rate of corporation tax on the banks and the privatised utilities, with the money spent on reimbursing the employers' National Insurance contributions for workers aged 25 or under and 55 or over, and with strict regulation to ensure that no cost is passed on to workers, consumers, communities or the environment;
7. A ban on any company paying any employee more than ten times what it pays any other employee, with the whole public sector (including MPs and Ministers) functioning as one for this purpose, its median wage pegged permanently at the median wage in the private sector;
8. Every public limited company to have one non-executive director appointed by the Secretary of State for a fixed term equivalent to that of other directors, and responsible for protecting the interests of workers, small shareholders, consumers, communities and the environment;
9. Restoration of democratic political control over monetary policy;
10. The renationalisation of the railways, uniquely without compensation in view of the manner of thier privatisation, as the basis for a national network of public transport free at the point of use, including the reversal of bus route and (where possible) rail line closures going back to the 1950s;
11. Building on the statutory right of every worker to join a trade union and to have that trade union recognised for collective bargaining purposes by giving every trade unionist so recognised the statutory right to take industrial action in pursuit of a legitimate grievance, including strike action, and including solidarity action of a clearly secondary character (such as a work to rule in support of a strike) within a single industry or corporation;
12. Abolition of all remaining vestiges of Compulsory Competitive Tendering, of the capping of councils, and of the power of central government to rule local services ultra vires;
13. Continual exposure of the ruling class's pathological hatred of local government as in fact an undisguised hatred of people other than themselves, and as expressing itself in the ridiculous view that councils ought to be "commissioners rather than providers" of services, as if efficiency or accountability had somehow been increased by a village primary school's no longer even employing its own caretaker, or by giving private companies unconditional licenses to print public money in return for risk-free "investments" in, say, emptying the bins, or preparing school food, so that the sooner that this whole process of the last 25 years is halted and reversed, the better;
14. Local authorities to be able to set precepts on top of the flat-rate income tax and corporation tax outlined above, so that Council Tax and National Non-Domestic Rates could both be abolished;
15. No return to the 11-plus, working instead to overcome this country's crippling cultural division between arts and sciences, and between academic and technical education;
16. Defence and restoration of Special Needs Education, and total opposition to the idea of abolishing, or greatly reducing the responsibilities of, Local Education Authorities, not least since the real reason for wanting this is a desire to abolish counties, as would follow very rapidly on the abolition of LEAs, there being no comparable country in which anyone would ever even suggest abolishing whole tiers of local government, never mind in which such a thing might actually happen;
17. Freezing of prescription charges, and restoration of free eye and dental check-ups;
18. Repeal of the Civil Contingencies Act, no identity cards, and no control orders;
19. Repeal of existing erosions of trial by jury and of the right to silence, of existing reversals of the burden of proof, and of the Official Secrets Acts;
20. Police forces at least no larger than at present, and be subject to local democratic accountability, most obviously though Police Authorities;
21. Removal of all nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons from British soil and waters, and a total ban on the sale of arms abroad;
22. Removal of foreign forces from British soil and waters, and restoration of British overall control of our defence capability, with no more participation in "neoconservative" wars;
23. Strong defence (including the restoration where necessary) of Labour's trade union links as constituting the Party's grounding in the lives and practical concerns of millions of working people and their families throughout this country and beyond;
24. A powerful role for co-operatives, credit unions, mutual guarantee societies and mutual building societies, including legislation to protect the remaining mutual building societies, and the implementation of the Co-operative Party's recent Manifesto other than in relation to foundation hospitals and European integration;
25. An undertaking to go to prison rather than carry an identity card, and likewise to go to prison rather than pay taxes for the sake of state funding of political parties, which would necessitate state involvement, no doubt through some ghastly commission of the ruling class, both in policy formulation and in candidate selection, which is why those who advocate such funding do so, since they expect that they or their mates will be appointed to such a commission, and will thus be able to dictate, even more than at present, both what may be discussed, and by whom, with no role for trade unions, i.e., no role for large numbers of working, tax-paying people and their families, the length and breadth of this country;
26. The introduction, by agreement among the parties, of a system whereby each constituency party submitted a shortlist of two potential parliamentary candidates to a binding ballot of all registered electors in that constituency, and each party at national level submitted a shortlist of two potential Leaders (i.e., putative Prime Ministers) to a binding ballot of all registered electors throughout the United Kingdom, not least because this would help to protect the First Past The Post electoral system at both national and (therefore) local level;
27. Everywhere to be covered by a Parish or Town Council, or an urban or suburban equivalent, with greatly increased powers and resources;
28. Total opposition to the further deregulation of drinking or gambling;
29. Election of the BBC Governors for a fixed term of five years from among those licence-payers in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each of the nine English regions who are politically independent (sufficient to be eligible in principle for membership of the remuneration panels of local councils), with each licence-payer (including members of political parties) voting for one candidate, the top two per area being elected at the end, and the Chairman being appointed by the Secretary of State with the approval of the relevant Select Committee;
30. Britain at least ordinarily to use her UN Security Council seat to veto any proposal not approved by the majority of the world's elective democracies (other than those with permanent seats of their own), making her the true leader of the democratic world, in contrast to any country that might arrogate to itself such a title while acting out of selfishness rather than self-interest;
31. No one to be permitted to own or control more than one national daily newspaper, more than one national weekly newspaper, more than one television station (including any of the ITV regional stations), or interests in both sectors, a move which, if made at the start of a Parliament, would just be a fact of life by the time that another General Election came round;
32. The obscenely misnamed "Social Democrats, USA" (the main Shachtmanite faction, with close links to the Bush Administration, just as it had to the Reagan Administration) to be expelled from the Socialist International; and
33. The Henry Jackson Society to be proscribed within the Labour Party in the same way, and essentially on the same grounds, as was the Militant Tendency.
1. The conservation or restoration (as the overwhelming majority of Britons wishes) of such good things as national self-government (the only basis for international co-operation, and including the United Kingdom as greater than the sum of its parts), local variation, historical consciousness, family life, agriculture, manufacturing, small business, close-knit communities, law and order, civil liberties, academic standards, all forms of art, and mass political participation within a constitutional framework, all of which free market capitalism corrodes to nought;
2. The restoration of the supremacy of British over EU law, the use of this to restore Britain's historic fishing rights, the British adoption of a show-stopping Empty Chair Policy until the Council of Ministers meets in public and publishes an Official Report akin to Hansard, and the election of Britain's European Commissioner by the whole electorate from a shortlist of two submitted following a ballot of all MPs;
3. A much higher threshold for income tax (national median earnings) and corporation tax (the amount needed to pay every employee a minimum wage of half median male earnings per hour), with a flat rate thereafter, so that the working poor are taken out of tax, while genuinely middle-earners and small or medium-sized businesses pay far less than at present, because the richest individuals and the biggest corporations pay their fair share for the first time ever;
4. A unified benefits, pensions, student funding, and minimum wage system, so that no one's income falls below half national median earnings;
5. A one hundred per cent tax at source on all income from rent, with a Social Security payment to those thus taxed equal to national average earnings (or sufficient to maintain the legitimate activities of religious or educational institutions), as a step towards giving every household a base of real property from which to resist both over-mighty commercial interests and an over-mighty State;
6. A permanently higher rate of corporation tax on the banks and the privatised utilities, with the money spent on reimbursing the employers' National Insurance contributions for workers aged 25 or under and 55 or over, and with strict regulation to ensure that no cost is passed on to workers, consumers, communities or the environment;
7. A ban on any company paying any employee more than ten times what it pays any other employee, with the whole public sector (including MPs and Ministers) functioning as one for this purpose, its median wage pegged permanently at the median wage in the private sector;
8. Every public limited company to have one non-executive director appointed by the Secretary of State for a fixed term equivalent to that of other directors, and responsible for protecting the interests of workers, small shareholders, consumers, communities and the environment;
9. Restoration of democratic political control over monetary policy;
10. The renationalisation of the railways, uniquely without compensation in view of the manner of thier privatisation, as the basis for a national network of public transport free at the point of use, including the reversal of bus route and (where possible) rail line closures going back to the 1950s;
11. Building on the statutory right of every worker to join a trade union and to have that trade union recognised for collective bargaining purposes by giving every trade unionist so recognised the statutory right to take industrial action in pursuit of a legitimate grievance, including strike action, and including solidarity action of a clearly secondary character (such as a work to rule in support of a strike) within a single industry or corporation;
12. Abolition of all remaining vestiges of Compulsory Competitive Tendering, of the capping of councils, and of the power of central government to rule local services ultra vires;
13. Continual exposure of the ruling class's pathological hatred of local government as in fact an undisguised hatred of people other than themselves, and as expressing itself in the ridiculous view that councils ought to be "commissioners rather than providers" of services, as if efficiency or accountability had somehow been increased by a village primary school's no longer even employing its own caretaker, or by giving private companies unconditional licenses to print public money in return for risk-free "investments" in, say, emptying the bins, or preparing school food, so that the sooner that this whole process of the last 25 years is halted and reversed, the better;
14. Local authorities to be able to set precepts on top of the flat-rate income tax and corporation tax outlined above, so that Council Tax and National Non-Domestic Rates could both be abolished;
15. No return to the 11-plus, working instead to overcome this country's crippling cultural division between arts and sciences, and between academic and technical education;
16. Defence and restoration of Special Needs Education, and total opposition to the idea of abolishing, or greatly reducing the responsibilities of, Local Education Authorities, not least since the real reason for wanting this is a desire to abolish counties, as would follow very rapidly on the abolition of LEAs, there being no comparable country in which anyone would ever even suggest abolishing whole tiers of local government, never mind in which such a thing might actually happen;
17. Freezing of prescription charges, and restoration of free eye and dental check-ups;
18. Repeal of the Civil Contingencies Act, no identity cards, and no control orders;
19. Repeal of existing erosions of trial by jury and of the right to silence, of existing reversals of the burden of proof, and of the Official Secrets Acts;
20. Police forces at least no larger than at present, and be subject to local democratic accountability, most obviously though Police Authorities;
21. Removal of all nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons from British soil and waters, and a total ban on the sale of arms abroad;
22. Removal of foreign forces from British soil and waters, and restoration of British overall control of our defence capability, with no more participation in "neoconservative" wars;
23. Strong defence (including the restoration where necessary) of Labour's trade union links as constituting the Party's grounding in the lives and practical concerns of millions of working people and their families throughout this country and beyond;
24. A powerful role for co-operatives, credit unions, mutual guarantee societies and mutual building societies, including legislation to protect the remaining mutual building societies, and the implementation of the Co-operative Party's recent Manifesto other than in relation to foundation hospitals and European integration;
25. An undertaking to go to prison rather than carry an identity card, and likewise to go to prison rather than pay taxes for the sake of state funding of political parties, which would necessitate state involvement, no doubt through some ghastly commission of the ruling class, both in policy formulation and in candidate selection, which is why those who advocate such funding do so, since they expect that they or their mates will be appointed to such a commission, and will thus be able to dictate, even more than at present, both what may be discussed, and by whom, with no role for trade unions, i.e., no role for large numbers of working, tax-paying people and their families, the length and breadth of this country;
26. The introduction, by agreement among the parties, of a system whereby each constituency party submitted a shortlist of two potential parliamentary candidates to a binding ballot of all registered electors in that constituency, and each party at national level submitted a shortlist of two potential Leaders (i.e., putative Prime Ministers) to a binding ballot of all registered electors throughout the United Kingdom, not least because this would help to protect the First Past The Post electoral system at both national and (therefore) local level;
27. Everywhere to be covered by a Parish or Town Council, or an urban or suburban equivalent, with greatly increased powers and resources;
28. Total opposition to the further deregulation of drinking or gambling;
29. Election of the BBC Governors for a fixed term of five years from among those licence-payers in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each of the nine English regions who are politically independent (sufficient to be eligible in principle for membership of the remuneration panels of local councils), with each licence-payer (including members of political parties) voting for one candidate, the top two per area being elected at the end, and the Chairman being appointed by the Secretary of State with the approval of the relevant Select Committee;
30. Britain at least ordinarily to use her UN Security Council seat to veto any proposal not approved by the majority of the world's elective democracies (other than those with permanent seats of their own), making her the true leader of the democratic world, in contrast to any country that might arrogate to itself such a title while acting out of selfishness rather than self-interest;
31. No one to be permitted to own or control more than one national daily newspaper, more than one national weekly newspaper, more than one television station (including any of the ITV regional stations), or interests in both sectors, a move which, if made at the start of a Parliament, would just be a fact of life by the time that another General Election came round;
32. The obscenely misnamed "Social Democrats, USA" (the main Shachtmanite faction, with close links to the Bush Administration, just as it had to the Reagan Administration) to be expelled from the Socialist International; and
33. The Henry Jackson Society to be proscribed within the Labour Party in the same way, and essentially on the same grounds, as was the Militant Tendency.
In circulation on the Old Right
In circulation on the Old Right, the crossover with the material in circulation on the Left being in itself an important point:
1. The restoration of the supremacy of British over EU law, the use of this to restore Britain's historic fishing rights, the adoption of the showstopping Empty Chair Policy until the Council of Ministers meets in public and publishes an Official Report akin to Hansard, and the election of Britain's European Commissioner by the whole electorate from a shortlist of two submitted by a secret ballot of MPs;
2. The government of Northern Ireland precisely as if it were any other part of the United Kingdom (not least including the restoration of proper local government there, and organisation there by the British political parties), and the adoption of the Irish Republic's attitude of contempt towards terrorist political parties (views that I hold not least because I am a practising Catholic);
3. The monarchy as embodying our fundamental values, and the duty to hold the Royal Family to account as that embodiment which enables then to enjoy enormous privileges, always having in mind that the succession to the throne is determined by Parliament in our 'res publica' (the reason why there must be no change to the Oath of Allegiance, which, when understood historically and grammatically, expresses this fact);
4. British Standard English to be the only official language of every public body in the United Kingdom, except where another language indigenous to these islands has a high concentration of native speakers, in which case that language should have parity (though no more than that) with British Standard English;
5. Saint George's Day, Saint Andrew's Day, Saint David's Day and Saint Patrick's Day all to be public holidays throughout the United Kingdom, with the flag of the relevant part of the United Kingdom should be displayed alongside the Union Flag in or on all public buildings at all times, to be joined by the appropriate flag, on the other side of the Union Flag, on each of the aforesaid Saints' Days;
6. Total opposition to any lowering of the voting age to 16, as this would threaten our democracy since no one seriously suggests that the political opinion of a 16-year-old is equal to that of, say, his Head Teacher, so, sooner or later, someone would suggest, unanswerably, that people like the latter ought to have more votes than the former;
7. A much higher threshold for income tax and corporation tax, with a flat rate thereafter, so that the working poor are taken out of tax, while genuine middle-earners and small or medium-sized businesses pay far less than at present, because the richest individuals and the biggest corporations pay their fair share for the first time ever;
8. Serious consideration of the restoration of grammar schools on the German Gymnasium model, thus avoiding the 11-plus while working to overcome this country's crippling cultural division between arts and sciences, and between academic and technical education;
9. Continuation of my ongoing work in trying to set up on a co-operative basis an Examination Board drawn from independent schools while making its services available to all schools, in trying to persuade public schools and Oxbridge colleges (run as these are by professional educationalists) to sponsor City Academies (if we must have them at all), and in trying to create a new educational charity which would elect to Associateship those pupils in all schools who, on leaving the Sixth Form at 18, had attained since beginning Year 10 examination results at or above the average in the remaining state grammar schools, both in terms of the marks themselves, and in terms of the range of subjects studied (as well as electing to Fellowship those teachers whose pupils attained such results over 10 consecutive years), including with a view to contacting the most prestigious universities in order to make the Associateship (which would be automatic) an admission requirement, and in the hope that this charity will be called after a Labour politician who fought to defend the grammar schools as the ladder of working-class advancement;
10. The defence and restoration of schooling at the highest academic level for those to whom it is appropriate as intimately related to an emphatic dedication to the defence and restoration of Special Needs Education;
11. Total opposition to the idea of abolishing, or greatly reducing the responsibilities of, Local Education Authorities, since the real reasons for wanting this are a desire to abolish counties (as would follow very rapidly on the abolition of LEAs) and a determination to ensure that bipartite or tripartite secondary schooling can never be restored (as this would be logistically impossible without very powerful and well-resourced LEAs), which former would entail the abolition of Lords Lieutenants, this anti-monarchist cause being a key part of the anti-LEA, inescapably anti-county agenda, and there being no comparable country in which anyone would ever even suggest abolishing whole tiers of local government, never mind in which such a thing might actually happen;
12. Continual exposure of the metropolitan liberal elite's pathological hatred of local government as in fact an undisguised hatred of people other than themselves, and as expressing itself in the ridiculous view that councils ought to be "commissioners rather than providers" of services, as if efficiency or accountability had somehow been increased by a village primary school's no longer even employing its own caretaker, or by giving private companies unconditional licenses to print public money in return for risk-free "investments" in, say, emptying the bins, or preparing school food, so that the sooner that this whole process of the last 25 years is halted and reversed, the better;
13. Local authorities to be able to set precepts on top of the flat-rate income tax and corporation tax outlined above, so that Council Tax and National Non-Domestic Rates could both be abolished;
14. The abolition, as soon as practicable, of Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax;
15. The imperial and metric systems (both of which, it must be said, are of foreign origin but have long histories of use in this country) to be taught and used side by side (my generation is in the ridiculous position of having been taught no system except the one used only for certain specialist purposes), except where metrication has not already taken place, as in the case of road signs;
16. University funding per student, regardless of parental income, on a sliding scale of the A-level or equivalent grades required by the course (up to three As) and those obtained by the student (up to three As), with full fees paid for, and generous maintenance grants awarded to, those at the higher end;
17. Defence of rural services, leading in particular to the systematic reversal of bus route and (where possible) rail line closures, as well as of the erosion of local schools, medical facilities, Post Offices, and so on;
18. The development of a national network of public transport free at the point of use, including the reversal of bus route and (where possible) rail line closures going back to the 1950s;
19. Defence of real agriculture as the mainstay of strong communities, environmental responsibility and animal welfare (leading to safe, healthy and inexpensive food), as against American-style 'factory farming';
20. The supermarkets to be made to fund investment in agriculture and small business (investment to be determined in close consultation with the National Farmers' Union and the Federation of Small Businesses) by means of a windfall tax, to be followed if necessary by a permanently higher flat rate of corporation tax, in either case with strict regulation to ensure that the costs of this are not passed on to suppliers, workers, consumers, communities or the environment;
21. Repeal of the ban on hunting with dogs, and defence of the remaining field sports;
22. Everywhere to be covered by a Parish or Town Council, or an urban or suburban equivalent, with greatly increased powers and resources;
23. The removal of foreign forces from British soil and waters, the restoration of British overall control over our defence capability, no more participation in "neoconservative" (i.e., anti-conservative) wars, and the retention of the historic regiments as the framework for the Army's future efficiency;
24. Britain's permanent seat on the UN Security Council to be used in consultation with the other 15 Commonwealth Realms (i.e., Commonwealth countries retaining the monarchy), vetoing any resolution not approved by the majority of them, and seeking a similar arrangement with regard to the British and Canadian seats at the G8, all the while with a view to binding the Commonwealth Realms to each other through the monarchy, and on the basis of the shared values and history embodied by that institution, with their citizens having at least the same rights of access to this country as are enjoyed by EU citizens, and with every step made to ensure at least the same level of cultural contact (twinning, exchanges, and so on) with the other Commonwealth Realms as with the other EU member-states (which must never include Turkey);
25. Britain's permanent seat on the UN Security Council to be used at least ordinarily to veto any proposal not approved by the majority of those countries (other than those with permanent seats of their own) which, like seventy-two per cent Christian Britain, have Christian majority populations, which, among other good things, would gain Britain enormous influence in the increasing important regions of Africa and Latin America (it would be constitutionally impossible for the United States to adopt a similar policy);
26. Britain's permanent seat on the UN Security Council to be used at least ordinarily to veto any proposal not approved by the majority of the world's elective democracies (other than those with permanent seats of their own), making her the true leader of the democratic world, in contrast to any country that might otherwise arrogate to itself such a title;
27. The closest possible ties (not least by this medium, and especially in schools) with those British Overseas Territories with permanent populations (I myself am half Saint Helenian, and I was in fact born in Saint Helena), and the National Days of all the Commonwealth Realms and Overseas Territories to be marked in our public institutions, including by the display of their flags alongside the permanent display of the Union Flag;
28. This country to have at least equal cultural ties with those Western European countries (primarily Norway, Iceland and Switzerland) outside the EU as with those inside it;
29. Scholars working at least part-time right inside the Palace of Westminster publicly interpreting contemporary events in the light of Classics and the Bible, including their respective traditions of reception and interpretation (not least by reference of each other);
30. Programmes of internships, conferences, publications, and so forth, on social questions which those employed at public expense to research these things refuse to research as a matter of principle. Examples might include: beyond multiculturalism to integration; the economic, social, cultural and political consequences of substance liberalisation, of gambling liberalisation, and of prostitution and pornography; the economic, social, cultural and political importance of fatherhood, and of marriage as traditionally understood; domestic and non-domestic violence by women; domestic violence against men; female sexual abuse of children; female sexual abuse and exploitation of men; and the effects on the poor of each of penal policy, education policy, health policy, policing policy and housing policy;
31. A legal presumption of equal parenting, and the restoration of the tax allowance for fathers for so long as Child Benefit is still being paid to mothers;
32. Raising of the age of consent to 18, and total opposition to the further deregulation of drinking or gambling, with strong support for calls to criminalise the buying of sex at least above the age of consent (raised to 18) provided that this is accompanied by the equal criminalisation (including in sentencing terms) of the selling of sex above that age;
33. Reclassification of cannabis as a Class A drug, with a clampdown on possession as well as on supply;
34. Repeal of the Civil Contingencies Act, no identity cards, no control orders, repeal of existing erosions of trial by jury and of the right to silence, repeal of existing reversals of the burden of proof, repeal of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and a return to preventative policing based on foot patrols;
35. Police forces at least be no larger than at present, and subject to local democratic accountability, most obviously though Police Authorities, although my mind is by no means closed to the idea of elected sheriffs;
36. Every offence to carry a minimum sentence of one third of its maximum sentence, or fifteen years in prison where the maximum sentence is life imprisonment;
37. Gypsies and Travellers to be made to obey the same planning laws as the rest of us;
38. Practical recognition that just as one cannot logically oppose the decadent social libertinism deriving from the 1960s without also opposing the decadent economic libertinism deriving from the 1980s (or vice versa), and just as one cannot logically oppose the European Union's erosion of our self-government without also opposing that by global capital and by American hegemony (or vice versa), so likewise one cannot logically oppose the unrestricted movement of people (i.e., migrants) without also opposing that of goods, services and capital (or vice versa);
39. The development of nuclear power as at least the core around which other things (wind, wave, solar, &c) may operate, since it offers both the re-creation of strong working-class communities based on high-wage and high-skilled employment (as previously provided by pits, steelworks, shipyards, and so on), and independence from the affairs of the Middle East, as well as from Russian gas;
40. Election of the BBC Governors for a fixed term of five years from among those licence-payers in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each of the nine English regions who are politically independent (sufficient to be eligible in principle for membership of the remuneration panels of local councils), with each licence-payer (including members of political parties) voting for one candidate, the top two per area being elected at the end, and the Chairman being appointed by the Secretary of State with the approval of the relevant Select Committee, as well as the election in the same manner, though by the whole electorate, of Ofcom, of the Press Complaints Commission, and of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, just for a start;
41. An undertaking to go to prison rather than carry an identity card, and likewise to go to prison rather than pay taxes for the sake of state funding of political parties, which would necessitate state involvement, no doubt through some ghastly commission of the metropolitan liberal elite, both in policy formulation and in candidate selection, this being why those who advocate such funding do so, since they expect that they or their mates will be appointed to such a commission, and will thus be able to dictate, even more than at present, both what may be discussed, and by whom; and
42. The introduction, by agreement among the parties, of a system whereby each constituency party submitted a shortlist of two potential parliamentary candidates to a binding ballot of all registered electors in that constituency, and each party at national level submitted a shortlist of two potential Leaders (i.e., putative Prime Ministers) to a binding ballot of all registered electors throughout the United Kingdom, not least because this would help to protect the First Past The Post electoral system at both national and (therefore) local level.
1. The restoration of the supremacy of British over EU law, the use of this to restore Britain's historic fishing rights, the adoption of the showstopping Empty Chair Policy until the Council of Ministers meets in public and publishes an Official Report akin to Hansard, and the election of Britain's European Commissioner by the whole electorate from a shortlist of two submitted by a secret ballot of MPs;
2. The government of Northern Ireland precisely as if it were any other part of the United Kingdom (not least including the restoration of proper local government there, and organisation there by the British political parties), and the adoption of the Irish Republic's attitude of contempt towards terrorist political parties (views that I hold not least because I am a practising Catholic);
3. The monarchy as embodying our fundamental values, and the duty to hold the Royal Family to account as that embodiment which enables then to enjoy enormous privileges, always having in mind that the succession to the throne is determined by Parliament in our 'res publica' (the reason why there must be no change to the Oath of Allegiance, which, when understood historically and grammatically, expresses this fact);
4. British Standard English to be the only official language of every public body in the United Kingdom, except where another language indigenous to these islands has a high concentration of native speakers, in which case that language should have parity (though no more than that) with British Standard English;
5. Saint George's Day, Saint Andrew's Day, Saint David's Day and Saint Patrick's Day all to be public holidays throughout the United Kingdom, with the flag of the relevant part of the United Kingdom should be displayed alongside the Union Flag in or on all public buildings at all times, to be joined by the appropriate flag, on the other side of the Union Flag, on each of the aforesaid Saints' Days;
6. Total opposition to any lowering of the voting age to 16, as this would threaten our democracy since no one seriously suggests that the political opinion of a 16-year-old is equal to that of, say, his Head Teacher, so, sooner or later, someone would suggest, unanswerably, that people like the latter ought to have more votes than the former;
7. A much higher threshold for income tax and corporation tax, with a flat rate thereafter, so that the working poor are taken out of tax, while genuine middle-earners and small or medium-sized businesses pay far less than at present, because the richest individuals and the biggest corporations pay their fair share for the first time ever;
8. Serious consideration of the restoration of grammar schools on the German Gymnasium model, thus avoiding the 11-plus while working to overcome this country's crippling cultural division between arts and sciences, and between academic and technical education;
9. Continuation of my ongoing work in trying to set up on a co-operative basis an Examination Board drawn from independent schools while making its services available to all schools, in trying to persuade public schools and Oxbridge colleges (run as these are by professional educationalists) to sponsor City Academies (if we must have them at all), and in trying to create a new educational charity which would elect to Associateship those pupils in all schools who, on leaving the Sixth Form at 18, had attained since beginning Year 10 examination results at or above the average in the remaining state grammar schools, both in terms of the marks themselves, and in terms of the range of subjects studied (as well as electing to Fellowship those teachers whose pupils attained such results over 10 consecutive years), including with a view to contacting the most prestigious universities in order to make the Associateship (which would be automatic) an admission requirement, and in the hope that this charity will be called after a Labour politician who fought to defend the grammar schools as the ladder of working-class advancement;
10. The defence and restoration of schooling at the highest academic level for those to whom it is appropriate as intimately related to an emphatic dedication to the defence and restoration of Special Needs Education;
11. Total opposition to the idea of abolishing, or greatly reducing the responsibilities of, Local Education Authorities, since the real reasons for wanting this are a desire to abolish counties (as would follow very rapidly on the abolition of LEAs) and a determination to ensure that bipartite or tripartite secondary schooling can never be restored (as this would be logistically impossible without very powerful and well-resourced LEAs), which former would entail the abolition of Lords Lieutenants, this anti-monarchist cause being a key part of the anti-LEA, inescapably anti-county agenda, and there being no comparable country in which anyone would ever even suggest abolishing whole tiers of local government, never mind in which such a thing might actually happen;
12. Continual exposure of the metropolitan liberal elite's pathological hatred of local government as in fact an undisguised hatred of people other than themselves, and as expressing itself in the ridiculous view that councils ought to be "commissioners rather than providers" of services, as if efficiency or accountability had somehow been increased by a village primary school's no longer even employing its own caretaker, or by giving private companies unconditional licenses to print public money in return for risk-free "investments" in, say, emptying the bins, or preparing school food, so that the sooner that this whole process of the last 25 years is halted and reversed, the better;
13. Local authorities to be able to set precepts on top of the flat-rate income tax and corporation tax outlined above, so that Council Tax and National Non-Domestic Rates could both be abolished;
14. The abolition, as soon as practicable, of Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax;
15. The imperial and metric systems (both of which, it must be said, are of foreign origin but have long histories of use in this country) to be taught and used side by side (my generation is in the ridiculous position of having been taught no system except the one used only for certain specialist purposes), except where metrication has not already taken place, as in the case of road signs;
16. University funding per student, regardless of parental income, on a sliding scale of the A-level or equivalent grades required by the course (up to three As) and those obtained by the student (up to three As), with full fees paid for, and generous maintenance grants awarded to, those at the higher end;
17. Defence of rural services, leading in particular to the systematic reversal of bus route and (where possible) rail line closures, as well as of the erosion of local schools, medical facilities, Post Offices, and so on;
18. The development of a national network of public transport free at the point of use, including the reversal of bus route and (where possible) rail line closures going back to the 1950s;
19. Defence of real agriculture as the mainstay of strong communities, environmental responsibility and animal welfare (leading to safe, healthy and inexpensive food), as against American-style 'factory farming';
20. The supermarkets to be made to fund investment in agriculture and small business (investment to be determined in close consultation with the National Farmers' Union and the Federation of Small Businesses) by means of a windfall tax, to be followed if necessary by a permanently higher flat rate of corporation tax, in either case with strict regulation to ensure that the costs of this are not passed on to suppliers, workers, consumers, communities or the environment;
21. Repeal of the ban on hunting with dogs, and defence of the remaining field sports;
22. Everywhere to be covered by a Parish or Town Council, or an urban or suburban equivalent, with greatly increased powers and resources;
23. The removal of foreign forces from British soil and waters, the restoration of British overall control over our defence capability, no more participation in "neoconservative" (i.e., anti-conservative) wars, and the retention of the historic regiments as the framework for the Army's future efficiency;
24. Britain's permanent seat on the UN Security Council to be used in consultation with the other 15 Commonwealth Realms (i.e., Commonwealth countries retaining the monarchy), vetoing any resolution not approved by the majority of them, and seeking a similar arrangement with regard to the British and Canadian seats at the G8, all the while with a view to binding the Commonwealth Realms to each other through the monarchy, and on the basis of the shared values and history embodied by that institution, with their citizens having at least the same rights of access to this country as are enjoyed by EU citizens, and with every step made to ensure at least the same level of cultural contact (twinning, exchanges, and so on) with the other Commonwealth Realms as with the other EU member-states (which must never include Turkey);
25. Britain's permanent seat on the UN Security Council to be used at least ordinarily to veto any proposal not approved by the majority of those countries (other than those with permanent seats of their own) which, like seventy-two per cent Christian Britain, have Christian majority populations, which, among other good things, would gain Britain enormous influence in the increasing important regions of Africa and Latin America (it would be constitutionally impossible for the United States to adopt a similar policy);
26. Britain's permanent seat on the UN Security Council to be used at least ordinarily to veto any proposal not approved by the majority of the world's elective democracies (other than those with permanent seats of their own), making her the true leader of the democratic world, in contrast to any country that might otherwise arrogate to itself such a title;
27. The closest possible ties (not least by this medium, and especially in schools) with those British Overseas Territories with permanent populations (I myself am half Saint Helenian, and I was in fact born in Saint Helena), and the National Days of all the Commonwealth Realms and Overseas Territories to be marked in our public institutions, including by the display of their flags alongside the permanent display of the Union Flag;
28. This country to have at least equal cultural ties with those Western European countries (primarily Norway, Iceland and Switzerland) outside the EU as with those inside it;
29. Scholars working at least part-time right inside the Palace of Westminster publicly interpreting contemporary events in the light of Classics and the Bible, including their respective traditions of reception and interpretation (not least by reference of each other);
30. Programmes of internships, conferences, publications, and so forth, on social questions which those employed at public expense to research these things refuse to research as a matter of principle. Examples might include: beyond multiculturalism to integration; the economic, social, cultural and political consequences of substance liberalisation, of gambling liberalisation, and of prostitution and pornography; the economic, social, cultural and political importance of fatherhood, and of marriage as traditionally understood; domestic and non-domestic violence by women; domestic violence against men; female sexual abuse of children; female sexual abuse and exploitation of men; and the effects on the poor of each of penal policy, education policy, health policy, policing policy and housing policy;
31. A legal presumption of equal parenting, and the restoration of the tax allowance for fathers for so long as Child Benefit is still being paid to mothers;
32. Raising of the age of consent to 18, and total opposition to the further deregulation of drinking or gambling, with strong support for calls to criminalise the buying of sex at least above the age of consent (raised to 18) provided that this is accompanied by the equal criminalisation (including in sentencing terms) of the selling of sex above that age;
33. Reclassification of cannabis as a Class A drug, with a clampdown on possession as well as on supply;
34. Repeal of the Civil Contingencies Act, no identity cards, no control orders, repeal of existing erosions of trial by jury and of the right to silence, repeal of existing reversals of the burden of proof, repeal of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and a return to preventative policing based on foot patrols;
35. Police forces at least be no larger than at present, and subject to local democratic accountability, most obviously though Police Authorities, although my mind is by no means closed to the idea of elected sheriffs;
36. Every offence to carry a minimum sentence of one third of its maximum sentence, or fifteen years in prison where the maximum sentence is life imprisonment;
37. Gypsies and Travellers to be made to obey the same planning laws as the rest of us;
38. Practical recognition that just as one cannot logically oppose the decadent social libertinism deriving from the 1960s without also opposing the decadent economic libertinism deriving from the 1980s (or vice versa), and just as one cannot logically oppose the European Union's erosion of our self-government without also opposing that by global capital and by American hegemony (or vice versa), so likewise one cannot logically oppose the unrestricted movement of people (i.e., migrants) without also opposing that of goods, services and capital (or vice versa);
39. The development of nuclear power as at least the core around which other things (wind, wave, solar, &c) may operate, since it offers both the re-creation of strong working-class communities based on high-wage and high-skilled employment (as previously provided by pits, steelworks, shipyards, and so on), and independence from the affairs of the Middle East, as well as from Russian gas;
40. Election of the BBC Governors for a fixed term of five years from among those licence-payers in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each of the nine English regions who are politically independent (sufficient to be eligible in principle for membership of the remuneration panels of local councils), with each licence-payer (including members of political parties) voting for one candidate, the top two per area being elected at the end, and the Chairman being appointed by the Secretary of State with the approval of the relevant Select Committee, as well as the election in the same manner, though by the whole electorate, of Ofcom, of the Press Complaints Commission, and of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, just for a start;
41. An undertaking to go to prison rather than carry an identity card, and likewise to go to prison rather than pay taxes for the sake of state funding of political parties, which would necessitate state involvement, no doubt through some ghastly commission of the metropolitan liberal elite, both in policy formulation and in candidate selection, this being why those who advocate such funding do so, since they expect that they or their mates will be appointed to such a commission, and will thus be able to dictate, even more than at present, both what may be discussed, and by whom; and
42. The introduction, by agreement among the parties, of a system whereby each constituency party submitted a shortlist of two potential parliamentary candidates to a binding ballot of all registered electors in that constituency, and each party at national level submitted a shortlist of two potential Leaders (i.e., putative Prime Ministers) to a binding ballot of all registered electors throughout the United Kingdom, not least because this would help to protect the First Past The Post electoral system at both national and (therefore) local level.
Further to ongoing scandal
[In circulation throughout the trade union movement]
In view of recent and ongoing scandal, I am writing to ask each of the TUC's affiliates to nominate an individual for a peerage. Ideally, due to some other work that I am also doing in this area, I should like to have the forty names by 30th April, so that I can release the complete list to the media on 1st May, thus challenging the Government to ennoble everyone nominated, or else explain in each case why he or she was less acceptable than Jeffrey Archer or Mike Watson.
Furthermore, since the monstrosity that is state funding of political parties is now back on the agenda, I am writing to suggest a scheme whereby each MP (and each elected member of a future elected second chamber) was given a voucher (for want of a better term) worth £100,000 and transferable to the registered political party of his or her choice, provided that he or she also managed to raise at least £50,000 from one or more membership organisations by means of a ballot of members.
At least on the Labour side, if not at all, only the unions would be able meet this condition; and no Labour MP would be able to spend his or her hundred thousand on the Party unless one or more unions pledged a further fifty thousand, a failure which he or she would have to explain to his or her CLP, with all the implications for selection and reselection (or not).
[My only regret here is not also mentioning that the loans business between the Blair Slush Fund and the Capita boss would make an excellent basis for a really uncompromising campaign to reverse the inefficient, corrupting and anti-democratic farming out of public services.]
In view of recent and ongoing scandal, I am writing to ask each of the TUC's affiliates to nominate an individual for a peerage. Ideally, due to some other work that I am also doing in this area, I should like to have the forty names by 30th April, so that I can release the complete list to the media on 1st May, thus challenging the Government to ennoble everyone nominated, or else explain in each case why he or she was less acceptable than Jeffrey Archer or Mike Watson.
Furthermore, since the monstrosity that is state funding of political parties is now back on the agenda, I am writing to suggest a scheme whereby each MP (and each elected member of a future elected second chamber) was given a voucher (for want of a better term) worth £100,000 and transferable to the registered political party of his or her choice, provided that he or she also managed to raise at least £50,000 from one or more membership organisations by means of a ballot of members.
At least on the Labour side, if not at all, only the unions would be able meet this condition; and no Labour MP would be able to spend his or her hundred thousand on the Party unless one or more unions pledged a further fifty thousand, a failure which he or she would have to explain to his or her CLP, with all the implications for selection and reselection (or not).
[My only regret here is not also mentioning that the loans business between the Blair Slush Fund and the Capita boss would make an excellent basis for a really uncompromising campaign to reverse the inefficient, corrupting and anti-democratic farming out of public services.]
Hereditary Peers
[In circulation on Left and Right]
I had always opposed an elected second chamber, since I believed that, with both (and it must be both) an American-style committee system and an Australian-style caucus system, the House of Commons would be compelled to do its very well-paid job properly, and there would thus be no need of a second chamber (although the chamber itself could continue to be used for ceremonial purposes). I still believe that both committees and caucuses of this kind should be introduced.
However, I have come to see the wisdom of the Old Labour view that the House of Lords should either be left as it is (doing "no harm, and occasionally some good"), or else replaced with a proper Senate, an elected second chamber, not previously high on any list of priorities, but now rendered necessary, both by those scandals, and by the ill-thought-out dismemberment of the House of Lords in order to give the illusion (as with the hunting ban, for example) of a Labour Government doing Labour things, when in fact such a measure had no impact whatever on the fight against poverty, ignorance, ill-health, squalor and homelessness, unemployment, crime, and war, since anything having such an impact would cost money.
Not least because the scandals have come from the BBC-defined "centre" (which in fact has little or no popular following), it is to be hoped that a common scheme will be produced by those seeking a prelude to further co-operation on, for a start, the restoration of the supremacy of British over EU law, and opposition to further "neoconservative" wars.
To that end, I suggest that registered voters in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each of the nine English regions elect from among their own number 15 Senators per area (180 in all), for a six-year term: three from each of List A, List B, List C, List D and List E. List A would be the top five candidates in a ballot of all members of the Labour Party (or its designated sister-party in Northern Ireland) in the area, List B the same for the Conservatives (likewise), and List C for the Liberal Democrats (likewise). List D would be the five members of other political parties who secured the most nominations by registered voters in the area, and List E would be the five members of no political party who so secured.
The five lists would be put to the whole electorate in the area, and each voter would vote (by mean of an X) for up to one candidate from each list, with the top three from each list declared elected at the end. I predict 11 members or supporters of the Campaign Group from List A, 11 members or supporters of the Cornerstone Group from List B, 11 or more people from List D who thought of themselves as Marxists but would really work very well with the Labour Left and sections of the Liberal Democrats, 11 or more paleoconservatives from List D, and no members of the BNP from anywhere.
List C would yield 11 Liberal Democrats who (like Faith, Flag and Family Tories) were profoundly uneasy about the effects of capitalism on agriculture, small business, family life, and so on; and another 11 who (like the Labour Left) opposed the "free" market precisely because it corroded to nought everything that true conservatives sought to conserve, and in so doing drove despairing millions into the arms of equally corrosive Jacobinism, Marxism, anarchism or Fascism. Both List B (probably) and List C (certainly) would produce at least one Catholic Unionist from Northern Ireland.
The rules for disqualification would be the same as for MPs, and the rate of pay would probably have to be, although I should personally prefer to fix it at the national average wage for full-time work, in order to keep Senators in touch with life as most people in Britain live it (I should like to do the same for MPs). Senators could vote in elections to the House of Commons, so the post-1911 taxation of peers without their representation would be ended. No Bill to apply only in England would be submitted for Royal Assent unless approved by a joint session of all MPs and Senators with English seats. The Senate would also have both the committee system and the caucus system.
What, then, of the hereditary peers? Quite frankly (as Tony Blair would say), recent events have created potentially a very popular case (at least if it were presented as part of something like the above scheme) for a renewed and restored role for Their Lordships. They seem decidedly preferable, even to one as solidly Labour as I, to those who have effected a sort of coup by heavily indebting my party (if not all three)without reference to the Party Treasurer, thus securing for themselves lifetime seats in the Mother of Parliaments (plus, in at least one case, Ministerial office).
So I suggest, as part of the above, that the hereditary peerage be closed by statute, and that the remaining elements of sex discrimination be abolished (as also for the Crown, before Prince William produces an eldest daughter – it is inconceivable that any of the other Commonwealth Realms would object to this), so that those hereditary peers who would not be disqualified from membership of the House of Commons and the Senate, and who were not members of or donors to (including creditors of) any political party, might sit, unpaid in any way, as a Grand Committee of Hereditary Peers, with the power to require a referendum on any Constitutional Bill as identified by the Speaker of the House of Commons for the purposes of that House's procedures, and exercising the current powers of the House of Lords in relation to Ecclesiastical Measures.
Hereditary peers would continue to participate, as at present, in ceremonial occasions such as the State Opening of Parliament; and they would have the right to vote and stand in elections to the House of Commons and the Senate (though not to participate in the Grand Committee while sitting in either of those bodies), so the present provision for disclaiming could be repealed.
I had always opposed an elected second chamber, since I believed that, with both (and it must be both) an American-style committee system and an Australian-style caucus system, the House of Commons would be compelled to do its very well-paid job properly, and there would thus be no need of a second chamber (although the chamber itself could continue to be used for ceremonial purposes). I still believe that both committees and caucuses of this kind should be introduced.
However, I have come to see the wisdom of the Old Labour view that the House of Lords should either be left as it is (doing "no harm, and occasionally some good"), or else replaced with a proper Senate, an elected second chamber, not previously high on any list of priorities, but now rendered necessary, both by those scandals, and by the ill-thought-out dismemberment of the House of Lords in order to give the illusion (as with the hunting ban, for example) of a Labour Government doing Labour things, when in fact such a measure had no impact whatever on the fight against poverty, ignorance, ill-health, squalor and homelessness, unemployment, crime, and war, since anything having such an impact would cost money.
Not least because the scandals have come from the BBC-defined "centre" (which in fact has little or no popular following), it is to be hoped that a common scheme will be produced by those seeking a prelude to further co-operation on, for a start, the restoration of the supremacy of British over EU law, and opposition to further "neoconservative" wars.
To that end, I suggest that registered voters in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each of the nine English regions elect from among their own number 15 Senators per area (180 in all), for a six-year term: three from each of List A, List B, List C, List D and List E. List A would be the top five candidates in a ballot of all members of the Labour Party (or its designated sister-party in Northern Ireland) in the area, List B the same for the Conservatives (likewise), and List C for the Liberal Democrats (likewise). List D would be the five members of other political parties who secured the most nominations by registered voters in the area, and List E would be the five members of no political party who so secured.
The five lists would be put to the whole electorate in the area, and each voter would vote (by mean of an X) for up to one candidate from each list, with the top three from each list declared elected at the end. I predict 11 members or supporters of the Campaign Group from List A, 11 members or supporters of the Cornerstone Group from List B, 11 or more people from List D who thought of themselves as Marxists but would really work very well with the Labour Left and sections of the Liberal Democrats, 11 or more paleoconservatives from List D, and no members of the BNP from anywhere.
List C would yield 11 Liberal Democrats who (like Faith, Flag and Family Tories) were profoundly uneasy about the effects of capitalism on agriculture, small business, family life, and so on; and another 11 who (like the Labour Left) opposed the "free" market precisely because it corroded to nought everything that true conservatives sought to conserve, and in so doing drove despairing millions into the arms of equally corrosive Jacobinism, Marxism, anarchism or Fascism. Both List B (probably) and List C (certainly) would produce at least one Catholic Unionist from Northern Ireland.
The rules for disqualification would be the same as for MPs, and the rate of pay would probably have to be, although I should personally prefer to fix it at the national average wage for full-time work, in order to keep Senators in touch with life as most people in Britain live it (I should like to do the same for MPs). Senators could vote in elections to the House of Commons, so the post-1911 taxation of peers without their representation would be ended. No Bill to apply only in England would be submitted for Royal Assent unless approved by a joint session of all MPs and Senators with English seats. The Senate would also have both the committee system and the caucus system.
What, then, of the hereditary peers? Quite frankly (as Tony Blair would say), recent events have created potentially a very popular case (at least if it were presented as part of something like the above scheme) for a renewed and restored role for Their Lordships. They seem decidedly preferable, even to one as solidly Labour as I, to those who have effected a sort of coup by heavily indebting my party (if not all three)without reference to the Party Treasurer, thus securing for themselves lifetime seats in the Mother of Parliaments (plus, in at least one case, Ministerial office).
So I suggest, as part of the above, that the hereditary peerage be closed by statute, and that the remaining elements of sex discrimination be abolished (as also for the Crown, before Prince William produces an eldest daughter – it is inconceivable that any of the other Commonwealth Realms would object to this), so that those hereditary peers who would not be disqualified from membership of the House of Commons and the Senate, and who were not members of or donors to (including creditors of) any political party, might sit, unpaid in any way, as a Grand Committee of Hereditary Peers, with the power to require a referendum on any Constitutional Bill as identified by the Speaker of the House of Commons for the purposes of that House's procedures, and exercising the current powers of the House of Lords in relation to Ecclesiastical Measures.
Hereditary peers would continue to participate, as at present, in ceremonial occasions such as the State Opening of Parliament; and they would have the right to vote and stand in elections to the House of Commons and the Senate (though not to participate in the Grand Committee while sitting in either of those bodies), so the present provision for disclaiming could be repealed.
Nuclear Weapons
The Labour Movement was founded to conserve such good things as national self-government (the only basis for international co-operation, and including the United Kingdom as greater than the sum of its parts), local variation, historical consciousness, family life, agriculture, manufacturing, small business, close-knit communities, law and order, civil liberties, academic standards, all forms of art, and mass political participation within a constitutional framework. All of these were and are corroded to nought by free market capitalism, both in itself, and because it drives despairing millions into equally corrosive Jacobinism, Marxism, anarchism or Fascism.
Marx himself saw Britain, with Germany, as one of the two countries most likely to have a revolution such as he predicted and advocated; it was thanks to Labour that no such disaster ever befell this country, as the sectarian Left's hatred of Labour demonstrates. We are proud to be the objects of such hatred: they hate us because they hate the Welfare State, and the strong statutory and other protection of workers, consumers, communities and the environment, the former paid for by progressive taxation, the whole underwritten by full employment, and all these things delivered by the partnership between a strong Parliament and strong local government. In a word, they hate Socialism.
However, in recent years, much of Labour's central apparatus has been hijacked by people with sectarian Left backgrounds, who have only changed their Marxism's ending so that the bourgeoisie (and thus the most bourgeois of countries, which is not Britain) wins. These people remain Marxist in their dialectical materialism; Leninist in their vanguard elitism, in their "democratic centralism", and in their use of various religious and other interests as "Useful Idiots"; Trotskyist in their entryism, and in their belief in the permanent revolution; and yet also Stalinist in their desire to create the dictatorship of the victorious class in a superstate, from which to export it (including by force of arms) while vanguard elites around the world owe allegiance to that superstate rather than to their own countries. Contrary to their origins, and to the wishes of almost all of their members and supporters, all three parties have largely been turned, by means of such neo-Trotskyist entryism, into vanguard elites of this Marxist-Leninist (specifically bourgeois-triumphalist) kind. Thus has been largely overturned Labour's spectacular achievement in preventing a Marxist takeover of Britain.
That overturning, and thus the new Marxist hegemony itself, would become complete if another nuclear weapons programme were to be commissioned in succession to Trident. Trident was at least useless only in its own ostensibly defensive terms, whereas any new programme would be useless in any terms whatever, in addition to the fact that nuclear weapons (like radiological, chemical and biological weapons) are morally repugnant simply in themselves. They offer not the slightest defence against a range of loosely-knit, if at all connected, terrorist organisations pursuing a range of loosely-knit, if at all connected, aims in relation to a range of countries while actually governing no state. Where would any such organisation keep nuclear weapons in the first place?
Furthermore, the possession of nuclear weapons, in addition to offending against Islamic (and much other) theological opinion, serves to convey to terrorists and their supporters that Britain wishes to "play with the big boys", thereby contributing to making Britain a target for the terrorist activity against which such weapons are defensively useless. It is high time for Britain to grow up.
Britain's permanent seat on the UN Security Council could not be taken away without British consent, and so does not depend in any way on her possession of nuclear weapons; on the contrary, the world needs and deserves a non-nuclear permanent member of that Council.
Most European countries do not have nuclear weapons, and nor does Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Are these therefore in greater danger? On the contrary, the London bombings of 7th July 2005 were attacks on a country with nuclear weapons, while the attacks of 11th September 2001 were against a country with by far the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. The only "nuclear power" in the Middle East is Israel; is Israel the most secure state in the Middle East?
A new nuclear weapons programme could only be commissioned on grounds purely ideological in the most irrational and doctrinaire sense of the word, and the ideology in question would be an utterly uncritical Marxism. For a Labour Government to do such a thing would be the Labour Movement's greatest ever failure, and the greatest threat to everything for which it has ever fought with a phenomenal success of benefit to the entire world.
Nor would any such programme represent or effect national pride or independence, but rather the wholesale subjugation of Britain's defence capability to a foreign power (however friendly) precisely in the service of that Marxist ideology. That power maintains at least no less friendly relations with numerous other countries, of which almost none have nuclear weapons. Diverting enormous sums of money towards public services, and towards the relief of poverty at home and abroad, precisely by reasserting control over our own defence capability, would represent a most significant step towards One Nation politics, with an equal emphasis on the One and on the Nation.
Therefore, by not later than the 2006 Labour Party Conference (and preferably well before then), the office of Prime Minister must be held by a person who has specifically, publicly and unambiguously ruled out any such programme, or at least specifically, publicly and unambiguously guaranteed that no such programme will be commissioned without the support of a division of the House of Commons, including a free vote of all Labour MPs, with the majority both of the whole House and of Labour MPs voting in favour. Otherwise, the Labour Party will have ceased to exist, and in its place there will be nothing but a Marxist sect, compelling all of us Labour people to act accordingly.
Marx himself saw Britain, with Germany, as one of the two countries most likely to have a revolution such as he predicted and advocated; it was thanks to Labour that no such disaster ever befell this country, as the sectarian Left's hatred of Labour demonstrates. We are proud to be the objects of such hatred: they hate us because they hate the Welfare State, and the strong statutory and other protection of workers, consumers, communities and the environment, the former paid for by progressive taxation, the whole underwritten by full employment, and all these things delivered by the partnership between a strong Parliament and strong local government. In a word, they hate Socialism.
However, in recent years, much of Labour's central apparatus has been hijacked by people with sectarian Left backgrounds, who have only changed their Marxism's ending so that the bourgeoisie (and thus the most bourgeois of countries, which is not Britain) wins. These people remain Marxist in their dialectical materialism; Leninist in their vanguard elitism, in their "democratic centralism", and in their use of various religious and other interests as "Useful Idiots"; Trotskyist in their entryism, and in their belief in the permanent revolution; and yet also Stalinist in their desire to create the dictatorship of the victorious class in a superstate, from which to export it (including by force of arms) while vanguard elites around the world owe allegiance to that superstate rather than to their own countries. Contrary to their origins, and to the wishes of almost all of their members and supporters, all three parties have largely been turned, by means of such neo-Trotskyist entryism, into vanguard elites of this Marxist-Leninist (specifically bourgeois-triumphalist) kind. Thus has been largely overturned Labour's spectacular achievement in preventing a Marxist takeover of Britain.
That overturning, and thus the new Marxist hegemony itself, would become complete if another nuclear weapons programme were to be commissioned in succession to Trident. Trident was at least useless only in its own ostensibly defensive terms, whereas any new programme would be useless in any terms whatever, in addition to the fact that nuclear weapons (like radiological, chemical and biological weapons) are morally repugnant simply in themselves. They offer not the slightest defence against a range of loosely-knit, if at all connected, terrorist organisations pursuing a range of loosely-knit, if at all connected, aims in relation to a range of countries while actually governing no state. Where would any such organisation keep nuclear weapons in the first place?
Furthermore, the possession of nuclear weapons, in addition to offending against Islamic (and much other) theological opinion, serves to convey to terrorists and their supporters that Britain wishes to "play with the big boys", thereby contributing to making Britain a target for the terrorist activity against which such weapons are defensively useless. It is high time for Britain to grow up.
Britain's permanent seat on the UN Security Council could not be taken away without British consent, and so does not depend in any way on her possession of nuclear weapons; on the contrary, the world needs and deserves a non-nuclear permanent member of that Council.
Most European countries do not have nuclear weapons, and nor does Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Are these therefore in greater danger? On the contrary, the London bombings of 7th July 2005 were attacks on a country with nuclear weapons, while the attacks of 11th September 2001 were against a country with by far the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. The only "nuclear power" in the Middle East is Israel; is Israel the most secure state in the Middle East?
A new nuclear weapons programme could only be commissioned on grounds purely ideological in the most irrational and doctrinaire sense of the word, and the ideology in question would be an utterly uncritical Marxism. For a Labour Government to do such a thing would be the Labour Movement's greatest ever failure, and the greatest threat to everything for which it has ever fought with a phenomenal success of benefit to the entire world.
Nor would any such programme represent or effect national pride or independence, but rather the wholesale subjugation of Britain's defence capability to a foreign power (however friendly) precisely in the service of that Marxist ideology. That power maintains at least no less friendly relations with numerous other countries, of which almost none have nuclear weapons. Diverting enormous sums of money towards public services, and towards the relief of poverty at home and abroad, precisely by reasserting control over our own defence capability, would represent a most significant step towards One Nation politics, with an equal emphasis on the One and on the Nation.
Therefore, by not later than the 2006 Labour Party Conference (and preferably well before then), the office of Prime Minister must be held by a person who has specifically, publicly and unambiguously ruled out any such programme, or at least specifically, publicly and unambiguously guaranteed that no such programme will be commissioned without the support of a division of the House of Commons, including a free vote of all Labour MPs, with the majority both of the whole House and of Labour MPs voting in favour. Otherwise, the Labour Party will have ceased to exist, and in its place there will be nothing but a Marxist sect, compelling all of us Labour people to act accordingly.
Cuba, Cricket and the Caribbean
[Published last month in the Daily Mail, with the parts in sqaure brackets cut.]
It is easy to mock Fidel Castro's desire for Cubans to play cricket in order to emphasise that they are West Indians and distinct from the United States. However, he has a point[, and good luck to him]. Furthermore, something else unites the nine West Indian countries among the 16 independent Commonwealth Realms (Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), and the six among the 10 permanently inhabited British Overseas Territories (Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands), namely their shared monarchy[, which also distinguishes them from the United States].
The monarchy unites them to each other and to all the other Commonwealth Realms (including Britain) and British Overseas Territories (including Saint Helena, where I was born). [All of these 26 countries around the world fought in both World Wars from Day One of each, while the Commonwealth Realms retain the Crown entirely by choice, and the British Overseas Territories remain British entirely by choice. It is high time that citizens of all of them enjoyed at least the same rights of access to this country as are enjoyed by EU citizens, who might have been SS officers or, as late as 1989, high-ranking Soviet officials in Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia. Furthermore, their respective National Days ought to be observed in some way in our public institutions, especially schools.
It is notable that none of the Commonwealth Realms except Britain is mentioned anywhere on the website of the Henry Jackson Society, and that none at all is mentioned anywhere on the website of the Project for the New American Century: this is the true face of "neoconservatism", actually a direct threat to the territorial, political, economic and cultural integrity, certainly of all the above West Indies and of Canada, and at least arguably of all the Commonwealth Realms (including Britain) and all the British Overseas Territories.]
If Cuba wants to emphasise that she is West Indian and not American, then, in addition to playing cricket, she ought to provide for Castro to be succeeded upon his death by the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy, capped and safeguarded by the Crown.
It is easy to mock Fidel Castro's desire for Cubans to play cricket in order to emphasise that they are West Indians and distinct from the United States. However, he has a point[, and good luck to him]. Furthermore, something else unites the nine West Indian countries among the 16 independent Commonwealth Realms (Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), and the six among the 10 permanently inhabited British Overseas Territories (Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands), namely their shared monarchy[, which also distinguishes them from the United States].
The monarchy unites them to each other and to all the other Commonwealth Realms (including Britain) and British Overseas Territories (including Saint Helena, where I was born). [All of these 26 countries around the world fought in both World Wars from Day One of each, while the Commonwealth Realms retain the Crown entirely by choice, and the British Overseas Territories remain British entirely by choice. It is high time that citizens of all of them enjoyed at least the same rights of access to this country as are enjoyed by EU citizens, who might have been SS officers or, as late as 1989, high-ranking Soviet officials in Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia. Furthermore, their respective National Days ought to be observed in some way in our public institutions, especially schools.
It is notable that none of the Commonwealth Realms except Britain is mentioned anywhere on the website of the Henry Jackson Society, and that none at all is mentioned anywhere on the website of the Project for the New American Century: this is the true face of "neoconservatism", actually a direct threat to the territorial, political, economic and cultural integrity, certainly of all the above West Indies and of Canada, and at least arguably of all the Commonwealth Realms (including Britain) and all the British Overseas Territories.]
If Cuba wants to emphasise that she is West Indian and not American, then, in addition to playing cricket, she ought to provide for Castro to be succeeded upon his death by the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy, capped and safeguarded by the Crown.
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