Two Months To Go

Can I get a witness?

If you know, you know.

Bad People

At 3:15 one morning, who has rung you up and said that bad people had locked them in a flat, so that they needed five thousand pounds as a matter of life and death? What did you do, and why?

Both main parties, at least, actively prefer candidates who are open to blackmail, since those are easier to control. There is no other way of explaining how a body of a mere 650 could contain that many sex pests, people who were still doing cocaine in their fifties, and so on.

Those who always run the Conservative Party, and those who are back running the Labour Party as usual, are unaware of any drug laws, see the marriage vow as a joke, and assume the age of consent to be the age of admission to public school. Common Entrance, if you will. Those who run them know the value of that. And here we are.

But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Making Progress, Getting Real

Born in the Blair years, the new New Labour boys even look like the old New Labour boys, to whom they are probably related. And Grandmammy David Lammy is pulling old New Labour's favourite trick of declaring absolutely anything to be "progressive" if the politician saying or doing it happened to hold a Labour Party membership card. Although in those days it was more often called "centre left", and that change is important in itself.

For example, it is "progressive realism" to support British sanctions on an Iranian drone programme in which Britain has no part. Is the pointlessness of this progressive, or realistic, or both? But remember, it would be a ban on arms sales to Israel that would be a meaningless gesture, yet at the same time an existential threat to Israel. One part of that must be the progressiveness, and the other the realism. But I cannot begin to imagine which is which.

Just as I cannot begin to imagine which part is which of the outrage at Iran's killing of no one, which progressives and realists alike would once have taken as a win while realists would have been sympathetic to Iran's response to the bombing of its consulate, and the indifference at Israel's deliberate killing of tens of thousands of women and children, as well as of three British military veterans whom realists would openly and progressives would quietly have understood were working simultaneously as aid workers and as intelligence operatives.

The bombing of aid convoys is necessary to the starvation of Gaza as a weapon of war, as advocated by Keir Starmer, so that it must, by definition, be progressive realism. And what of the killing of more than four thousand embryonic human beings by the bombing of Al Basman fertility clinic, which could not have been mistaken for anything else? The IDF can take out specific individuals when it bombs consulates, or aid convoys, or the relatives of Hamas leaders. It does not do accidents, or collateral damage. Over to at least the noisiest American Evangelical Protestants, and far more reprehensibly to some of the noisiest American Catholics, to dare to make any attempt to get out of this one.

From Gaza, to Ukraine, to anywhere else, Lammy and Starmer hold no foreign policy position that would differentiate them from Liz Truss, or Suella Braverman, or Richard Tice, just as Labour opportunistically pretended to oppose the abolition of the 45p rate of income tax, the only mini-Budget measure that had not been in Truss's prospectus to Conservative Party members, but it supported every single one of the others. Had Kwasi Kwarteng's loony list ever been put to a Commons vote, then the Labour whip would have been to abstain. While calling themselves PopCons as ostensible adults, certain people are looking for a Trusssite Restoration. They are looking in the wrong party.

Labour is a party of extremely right-wing people who lack the social connections to make it in the Conservative Party, and whose two defining experiences were being brought up to spit on everyone below them, which was everyone else where they grew up, and discovering in their first 36 hours at university that they were nowhere near the top of the class system, a discovery that embittered them for life. Centrism and right-wing populism are con tricks to sell exactly the same economic and foreign policies to different audiences by pretending to wage a culture war.

But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Time To Recharge

I had always assumed that it would be the coalition with the Greens that would do for the SNP in its heartlands of the oil-rich North East, but instead it turns out to be the trappings of office that have done for the Scottish Greens. Either way, happy days.

And I am very pleased that there is going to be a data centre at the former site of Blyth power station, but we should never have left the manufacture of electric car batteries to a private company such as Britishvolt, any more than we should be leaving our space programme to Virgin. Or an enormous data centre to an American private equity firm such as Blackstone Group, we shall probably discover.

Let us harness the power of the State, and deliver an all-of-the-above energy policy based around civil nuclear power and this country’s vast reserves of coal. Around those twin poles of nuclear power and of the clean coal technology in which Britain was the world leader until the defeat of the Miners’ Strike, let there be oil, gas, lithium, wind, solar, tidal, and everything else, bathing this country in heat and light. This is why we have a State.

Fracking? There is no problem with any energy source in principle, but none of that shale gas has turned up yet, and if it is anywhere, then it is in heavily populated areas that could do without the earthquakes, the poisoned water, and all the rest of it. Say it again, harness the power of the State to bathe this country in heat and light from oil, gas, nuclear, wind, wave, tidal, solar, and that without which there could also be no steel for rigs, pipelines, power stations or turbines, namely coal. Britain stands on one thousand years’ worth of coal, and was the world leader in clean coal technology until the defeat of the miners in 1985. Do not vote for anyone who will not say that the miners were right.

When I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair’s Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 282

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.

And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The CPS Challenge: Day 282

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from contesting the next General Election.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank to strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.

And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Nominations, Leadership and Remuneration Committee, currently Kathryn Stone, Stephen Parkinson, and Monica Burch.

And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 986

I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.

Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 986

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.

Since Lanchester is be moved into North Durham by the boundary changes,  I invite each and every other candidate for that parliamentary seat 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. At least in that event, then I challenge Oliver Kamm to contest this seat.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

Not Compassionate Or Dignified, But Evil

Kevin Yuill writes:

Jolanda Fun is scheduled to die next week on her 34th birthday. As such, she has been able to prepare the funeral invites in advance. ‘Born from love, let go in love’, reads the card. ‘After a hard-fought life, she chose the peace she so longed for.’

Fun, who lives in North Brabant in the Netherlands, explained why she wants to die in an interview with The Sunday Times last week. Though she is physically healthy, she feels constantly ‘sad, down, gloomy’. At age 22, she was diagnosed with a litany of mental-health problems and has since run the gamut of therapies. Consequently, she has never been able to hold down a job. When a counsellor told her two years ago that she could be euthanised, she decided this was the only option left for her. ‘I want to step out of life’, she explains.

Fun has no doubt had a difficult life. She suffers from an eating disorder, recurrent depression, autism and mild learning difficulties. But to suggest suicide as a cure to these problems is as good as giving up on her.

Shockingly, Fun’s case is not all that unique in the Netherlands. Earlier this month, it was reported that another young, physically healthy Dutch woman is seeking euthanasia on mental-health grounds. The 28-year-old Zoraya ter Beek is scheduled to die in May on account of her depression and autism.

Most cases of assisted suicide or euthanasia (ASE) in the Netherlands – the first country to legalise the practice in 2002 – involve people with terminal illnesses. But ASE for psychiatric reasons is on the rise. In 2010, only two people sought euthanasia on the grounds of mental health. That increased to 68 in 2019 and to 138 last year.

Psychiatric euthanasia remains divisive in the Netherlands. Many Dutch people who were initially in favour of ASE are reconsidering their positions because of it. Boudewijn Chabot is one such critic, a psychiatrist who actually received a suspended sentence for carrying out the first reported case of euthanasia for psychiatric reasons in the 1990s. Now Chabot worries that the legalisation of ASE has gone too far. ‘I am not against euthanasia in psychiatry or severe dementia’, he writes. ‘[But] I am extremely concerned that doctors are trying to solve social misery due to lack of treatment and care, by opening the gate to the end.’

There is no doubt that the Netherlands’ laws on euthanasia have harmed the most vulnerable. In 2023, a study found 39 cases of ASE in the Netherlands involved people with either learning disabilities or autism, or both. Of these, nearly half were under 50. Although many of these patients also suffered from physical comorbidities that led to them seeking out ASE, 21 per cent of them did so primarily for psychiatric reasons. They cited characteristics associated with their conditions, such as anxiety, loneliness, difficulty in making friends and connections, and not feeling they had a place in society.

A growing number of people with dementia are also seeking euthanasia in the Netherlands. In fact, 42 per cent of Dutch GPs reported requests for euthanasia from people with dementia. Of those, patients cited feeling like an emotional burden as the most frequent reason. Disturbingly, just under 43 per cent of these patients said they felt pressured by relatives.

Countries around the world that are considering legalising ASE must reckon with such cases. Indeed, it seems like this grim reality may already be shifting public opinion. In Scotland, where the government is currently considering a bill to allow assisted suicide, support for legalisation has consistently dropped since 2019. Perhaps this has something to do with the neverending stream of horrific stories emerging from countries where ASE is legal. In Canada, people seek out euthanasia to solve poverty, homelessness and lack of medical care. In the Netherlands, therapists seem to have given up on treating the mentally unwell, recommending euthanasia instead.

The brutality of encouraging those like Jolanda Fun to die destroys the argument that ASE is about compassionately relieving end-of-life suffering. Fun herself is unsure whether or not things could have been different for her, had she received the right treatment. ‘They say you are born like this’, she says, ‘but I really think the services should have listened a bit better’.

This is where treating death as a form of medicine has led to. Medical professionals should be telling suicidal people that life can get better, not encouraging them to give up. Allowing euthanasia on psychiatric grounds tells those suffering with a mental illness that their lives are not worth living. This is not compassionate or dignified. It is evil.

In Any Sane Political Culture, Jamie Driscoll

Although she is a bit mixed up about the boundaries at one point, Katy Balls writes:

Next month, Keir Starmer is expected to lead his party to victory in the local elections. The Tories are forecast to lose about half of their councillors who are up for re-election. If it’s a very bad night they could also say goodbye to Ben Houchen and Andy Street, the metro mayors of Tees Valley and the West Midlands. All this would confirm that Labour is on track for a super-majority at the general election. Yet there is one election Starmer’s Labour must fight the left to win: that for the North-East mayor, which takes place on 2 May.

The new mayoralty – which covers two million people from Northumberland to Co. Durham – is already the subject of internal party turmoil. Last year, Starmer blocked Jamie Driscoll, then Labour’s North of Tyne mayor, from standing for the bigger job. This led to protests from those who saw Driscoll – once described as the ‘last Corbynista in power’ – as the victim of a purge of left-wingers. Driscoll quit the party and pledged to run as an independent. He hopes to win enough support to send Starmer a message.

‘There is definitely a move to make the Labour party just the parliamentary party,’ Driscoll, 53, tells me. ‘Cutting off all influence from constituencies and trade unions, things like that, like the American Democrats. It suits the people that are driving it, but I don’t think it suits the people of the north-east. That’s the real irony, isn’t it? It’s about devolution, taking power out of London. But London decides who people are allowed to vote for.’ 

While the Labour party never gave an official reason for blackballing Driscoll, aides have pointed to the fact he once shared a stage with Ken Loach, the filmmaker who was expelled from the party in 2021 during the anti-Semitism inquiries. He suspects that Labour HQ was out to get him on any pretext. ‘They’d been trying to do it for ages. The back story to this is that I won in 2019 and I wasn’t supposed to.’

He has raised nearly £150,000 in donations for his independent campaign and last month he won an endorsement from Mick Lynch’s RMT union. He is also running from a position of power, as the North of Tyne mayoralty covers about 40 per cent of the new North-East authority. That power doesn’t extend to the finances exactly: we have to restart the interview when he runs out of free Zoom time. ‘That’s how tight local government is,’ he says. ‘We don’t even get the professional Zoom account.’ Driscoll has also maintained the support of the two most high-profile Labour metro mayors: Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester and Steve Rotheram of Liverpool City Region (who described Driscoll’s treatment as not ‘democratic or fair’). ‘Andy Burnham – I’ll say it now – I think he’d be a great prime minister,’ Driscoll says. Both he and Burnham are keen critics of the policies of the Labour leadership.

‘It’s really funny, I don’t see myself as particularly left-wing,’ Driscoll says. ‘I’d been on Newsnight and I was talking about the two-child benefit cap. Labour abandoned it and I was basically saying this is economically unwise. Keeping kids in poverty costs us a fortune in the long term, damages health, damages educational attainment. Aaron Bastani [a Corbynite commentator] said that, in any sane political culture Jamie Driscoll would be a centrist dad, which I took as quite a compliment.’ (Indeed in 2019 Driscoll got some flak when it was revealed that his children had briefly attended private school; they are now home-schooled.)

The question is whether Driscoll can gather enough support to disrupt the seemingly unstoppable march of the Starm-troopers. Team Starmer’s purge of anyone suspected of Corbynite sympathies has been strikingly successful. Kim McGuinness, the police and crime commissioner for Northumbria, is now Labour’s official North-East mayor candidate. But Driscoll says he has a trump card to play: he appeals to Tories. ‘No one in the North East defines me as left wing and in fact it’s amazing how many Tories have voted for me, including Tory councillors voting tactically.’ Why? ‘What they really like is that I haven’t put up the council tax and I’ve created a load of jobs’. ‘I actually get on very well with Andy Street,’ Driscoll says of the West Midlands Tory mayor (though polls suggest he will struggle to keep his seat). ‘I asked him would he be chair of the M10 [a group of metro mayors] when Dan [Jarvis] stepped down,’ he recalls. ‘It would have been better for us to have a Tory dealing with central government as chair, and he said thank you very much but I’m not going to be chair of ten Labour mayors.’

Metro mayors were created in 2017, not necessarily by popular demand. In fact, Newcastle, Sunderland and Gateshead all rejected mayors. They’re now getting what no one really asked for: a single elected figure to cover all of their areas, along with North and South Tyneside. The new North East Mayoral Combined Authority arrives 20 years after the idea of a devolved assembly for the north-east was rejected by voters by a three-to-one margin. The new authority was created in a direct deal with the councils: this time the public was not consulted.

The bigger authority is needed to deliver change, says Driscoll. ‘The north-east has had about 50 schemes trying to regenerate the economy over the past 40 years. We’ve had RDAs [regional development agencies], City Deals and all the rest of it. None has succeeded. The only one that has made any progress is metro mayors – it’s the one that can’t be controlled from London. You can’t wipe out the metro mayor easily,’ he says. Driscoll started a venture capital fund while mayor; but there are some ways in which he plays up to the left-wing stereotype. He’s been more outspoken than Starmer on Gaza (‘I think Britain is quite clearly in breach of the arms treaty’) and he thinks Diane Abbott should be taken back into Labour (‘what she said was stupid, but she apologised immediately’). These sympathies are probably what would have marked him out as suspect for Team Starmer. The calculation will have been made that there would only be a minimal electoral price to pay.

This supposition is now being tested. Polls suggest Labour is losing environmentally minded voters to the Greens and there have been a series of councillor defections over Gaza. ‘The Labour party now is a mono-culture,’ Driscoll says. ‘I know people who have left the Labour party who describe it as leaving an abusive relationship – councillors across the north-east. There’s a steady stream of them.’ Last November, 11 councillors left Labour in Burnley; another 20 followed in Pendle earlier this month.

‘Let’s assume Jeremy Corbyn is going to run [as an independent], I think he will, I think he’ll win. Will Carla Denyer [the Green party co-leader] win in Bristol? I think she probably will. There will be other places where you suddenly find independents with 5,000 votes: people will say “where did that come from?” That will be the precursor to what happens next. It is not going to make a difference to the election outcome – that’s nailed on.’ Once Starmer is in No. 10, Driscoll thinks we’ll see a ‘Labour collapse in local government over the next term’, with independent and Green coalitions.

The Tories also often say that their recovery will have to start in local authorities. Driscoll says he fears a Conservative wipe-out. ‘If you have a Labour super-majority, there will be no effective opposition,’ he says. ‘But you’ll have an extremely unpopular government quite quickly. The Labour vote is extremely shallow. People want the Tories out – certainly in this part of the world – and I agree with them. But you are then going to have 200 Labour MPs looking over their shoulders thinking: “I’m going to lose my seat here.” People who are loyal to their base – or loyal to their beliefs – are the only people you can trust to be consistent.’

The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 281

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.

And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The CPS Challenge: Day 281

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from contesting the next General Election.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank to strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.

And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Nominations, Leadership and Remuneration Committee, currently Kathryn Stone, Stephen Parkinson, and Monica Burch.

And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 985

I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.

Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 985

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.

Since Lanchester is be moved into North Durham by the boundary changes,  I invite each and every other candidate for that parliamentary seat 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. At least in that event, then I challenge Oliver Kamm to contest this seat.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

Smoke Without Fire?

Taking up smoking is very bad for teenagers' health. As would be conscripting them into wars with Russia, China, Iran, and so forth. Laugh out loud at anyone who supported the Tobacco and Vapes Bill without opposing that. Or who opposed the Tobacco and Vapes Bill without having opposed the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act, the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act, the Nationality and Borders Act, the Elections Act, the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act, the National Security Act, the Online Safety Act, and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, while still opposing the Criminal Justice Bill, and the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill.

This Bill smells like a Trojan Horse for identity cards, but what do these libertarians have to say about the Kenova report, since several of those pieces of legislation have legalised Stakeknife-type activities? What are these libertarians doing for Julian Assange? One of the MPs who voted against that Bill was Assange's strongest political supporter, but no one would call him a libertarian, and at the same time he would certainly have voted against that prior legislation. That said, among the numerous abstentions last night were twice as many Liberal Democrats as had voted in favour. There is plenty of time between now and Third Reading. Keep an eye on the Lib Dems.

Libertarianism is not historically very Tory at all. It is far cry from submission to the Lord's anointed Sovereign. Nanny was a Tory, and so is Nanny State. Liz Truss, originally a Lib Dem and indeed a republican one, is the latest in the succession of Country Whigs, Patriot Whigs, Liberal Unionists, Liberal Imperialists, National Liberals, Alderman Alfred Roberts's daughter, the founders and funders of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and so on, who have taken over the largely bovine Tory machine so completely that almost all Conservatives now assume "free" market economics and a foreign policy of military interventionism to be "traditional Tory values" that their party has always held. Nothing could be further from the case. More indirectly, the strands of Liberalism that accrued to the Labour Party and then seceded to the SDP have provided key, if mostly unseen, players around every Conservative Leader since John Major.

Why, then, measures such as those in the first paragraph? While pre-existing conservative phenomena have been known to ally with Fascism, usually to their own ruin, it is the liberal bourgeoisie that keeps Fascism in reserve for when it might ever face any serious demand to share its economic or social power with anyone who did not have it before the rise of the bourgeois liberal order, or to share its cultural or political power with anyone at all.

Thus, how Wes Streeting laughed in the House of Commons at the attempt to shut down the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels. He would do the same to us. As would those conferees, of course. Centrism and right-wing populism are con tricks to sell exactly the same economic and foreign policies to different audiences by pretending to wage a culture war. What are the economic and foreign policy differences between Streeting and Suella Braverman? Some of us have been cancelled by the Right for as long as we can remember, so they may spare us their wailing now. If you call peaceable expressions of majority opinion "hate marches", then do not surprised, much less affronted, if people who saw you the same way came for you. Alas, the centrists will never find out. But they should.

Even beyond the total agreement between the centrists and the right-wing populists over Ukraine and over Gaza, Labour opportunistically pretended to oppose the abolition of the 45p rate of income tax, the only mini-Budget measure that had not been in Truss's prospectus to Conservative Party members, but it supported every single one of the others. Had Kwasi Kwarteng's loony list ever been put to a Commons vote, then the Labour whip would have been to abstain. While calling themselves PopCons as ostensible adults, and in Mark Littlewood again directed by a former Lib Dem, certain people are looking for a Trusssite Restoration. They are looking in the wrong party.

Just as, like anarchist parties, Nationalist Internationals such as have conferred in Brussels bring the ridicule on themselves, so it is undeniably funny that Truss, of all people, wants to abolish something called the Office for Budget Responsibility. But her original party decreed it into existence. Without a manifesto commitment, Labour farmed out monetary policy. The Conservatives have created the Economic Advisory Council out of thin air. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves want an Office for Value for Money that would be the last nail in the coffin of democratic political control over economic policy. Truss does have a point about the lack of such control.

The problem is that she always used to be, not only in favour of that lack, but of the school of thought that it was a law of physics, about which nothing could be done. Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were derided for exploring the possibility that their policies might have led to a run on the pound, but Truss and Kwarteng obviously never even considered it. The City did not like many of Corbyn's and McDonnell's agenda, voted against them, and gave plenty of money to the other side, but had those agenda become Government policy, then the City would have factored them in, because that is what it does.

People who always held the absolute infallibility of the Bank of England, the City, the money markets, and the American Administration of the day, have now spent a year and a half bewailing those forces' removal of the worst British Prime Minister that they had ever seen even as a realistic possibility, never mind as an actual fact. Those same individuals had considered it an unanswerable argument against Corbyn and McDonnell that those forces would never have stood for them. If their expectations in relation to Truss were anything to go by, then they would have been wrong about that. The Bank, the City and the markets have been wargaming a Labour Left Government forever. They would have got by, as they still would. It was the mini-Budget that they could not countenance.

If Trussonomics had been accompanied by spending cuts, then the markets' reaction would have been even worse. The fantasies of the Walter Mittys on Tufton Street and on the former Fleet Street bear no resemblance to the views of the Masters of the Universe. Since October 1997, when I was a fresher at Durham, types from the City have been telling me that I "would be surprised" at the real political centre of gravity there. I believe them. Ken Livingstone worked very effectively with it for eight years, his office largely staffed by Socialist Action, which was what Tariq Ali's International Marxist Group had become.

As Shadow Shadow Chancellor for decades, and then on the frontbench, McDonnell cultivated all sorts of links that Truss, Kwarteng and the rest of the Tufties simply never did. They assumed that they had the Square Mile on side, when in fact nothing could have been further from the case. The City might not have liked any of McDonnell's fiscal events awfully much, although it is rarely all that keen on anyone's, but it could and would have lived with them all. It simply could not live with Kwarteng's only one, to the point of forcing first his removal from office and then Truss's.

At 35, Kwarteng was making so little in the City that he could afford to become an MP instead. We now know why. Truss managed all of nine years in the City before being unemployed for three, and then spent two as Deputy Director of some Westminster Village thinktank while she slept her way into a safe seat. She may be known only for a speech about pork markets and cheese, but she was and is a disciple of Professor Patrick Minford, who wants Britain to have no agriculture, as would be the "free" market in action. Truss and Minford ought to be made to defend that position on the stump in South West Norfolk.

As you should laugh out loud at anyone who opposed the Tobacco and Vapes Bill but not the many assaults on civil liberties, so you should laugh out loud at anyone who supported that Bill but did not support the vigorous enforcement, and the strengthening, of the existing drug laws. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwarteng was obviously off his face at the funeral of the late Queen. The Truss Government was so awash with cocaine that it scandalised the servants. That, too, is the "free" market in action. The Labour frontbench's continued support for that Government's policies does not speak to that frontbench's sobriety.

But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 280

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.

And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The CPS Challenge: Day 280

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from contesting the next General Election.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank to strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.

And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Nominations, Leadership and Remuneration Committee, currently Kathryn Stone, Stephen Parkinson, and Monica Burch.

And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 984

I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.

Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 984

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.

Since Lanchester is be moved into North Durham by the boundary changes,  I invite each and every other candidate for that parliamentary seat 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. At least in that event, then I challenge Oliver Kamm to contest this seat.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The New Battle Cry of the Warmongers

Simon Jenkins writes:

Britain’s use of its air force to defend Israel against Iran at the weekend was an emphatic intervention in the war in Gaza. It was more than Britain has done for Ukraine. And while the war in Ukraine does at least have implications, albeit distant, for Britain’s long-term defence, Israel’s dispute with Gaza has none. It is not Britain’s business. So why did we get involved? Better by far to stick to Britain’s sensible decision to keep open a diplomatic presence in Tehran, at least more influential than a few downed drones.

The answer shone through in the remarks of the foreign secretary, David Cameron, to the BBC on Monday morning. He could not resist reverting to Britain’s one-time role as police officers to the world, telling it how Britain expects it to behave. The eagerness of British leaders to cut a dash on the world stage, usually on the coat-tails of the US, seems irresistible. In the past decade, it has sent the Royal Navy to the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. This craving seems to be resisted by most other European powers (France being occasionally an exception), who sense no similar threat to their security. Britain has a craving to project “global power” that is unrivalled by most other European powers. It is costing British taxpayers billions of pounds.

The war in Gaza is a tragedy for all concerned. It arose from history, geography, politics and religion, from a longstanding conflict. It is a classic of what modern strategists such as Sir Rupert Smith have called “wars among the peoples”. These are not confrontations of weaponry against weaponry. The “utility of war” has shifted to one of people against people, of cities, crowds, streets, houses. There are no rules of engagement or laws of war, only an awful asymmetry of death, as between terrorism and mass destruction. Civilians are its chief casualties and humanitarians the chief heroes.

These wars rarely concern outsiders. As now in Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Myanmar, they concern authority over territory. Yet they acquire an awful appeal to vain outsiders. They drew Cameron into Libya and tried to draw him into Syria. They embedded Tony Blair for years in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even the most tenuous supposed “threat to British security” – such as Iraq’s ludicrous threat to Cyprus – will suffice. Gordon Brown said, when he was in Afghanistan, that it was to keep the streets of Britain safe. The game is merely to find an excuse to intervene. I have lost count how many times I am told we must fight to fend off a third world war. It is the new battle cry of the warmongers.

There is no question of the widespread involvement of Russia, China and Iran in local conflicts that inevitably break out across the world. It can be seen in Syria and Gaza, and from central Africa to Latin America. There is every reason for western nations to discuss how to react to this, as there is for them to seek peace in Israel. Intervening to prolong war cannot be the way to do it.

The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 279

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Board of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, currently Nazir Afzal, Amanda Ellingworth, Wesley Cuell, Bishop Paul Mason, Sarah Kilmartin, Jenny Holmes, Sir David Behan, and Sr Una Coogan IBVM.

That purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Committee, currently Gail McGregor, Paul Weatherstone, Fr Christopher Hancock MHM, Canon William Agley, Catherine Dyer, Canon Martin Stempczyk, Canon Peter Leighton VG, Maureen Dale, and Tony Lawless.

And that purely factual statement is acknowledged as such, unless and until it had been expressly repudiated to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, by each and all of the members of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Safeguarding Team, currently Meriel Anderson, Ian Colling, Andrew Grant, Kirsty McIntyre, Lisa Short, Yvonne Brown, and Petra Scarr.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and the allegation at the base of any outstanding charge has been made in order to incite my suicide. I should emphasise that there is absolutely no risk that I might ever give anyone the satisfaction of my suicide.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The CPS Challenge: Day 279

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service as part of its organised persecution of the opponents and critics of Keir Starmer, which is its principal national priority.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from contesting the next General Election.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from seeking the position of General Secretary of Unite the Union.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a thinktank to strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from establishing a weekly magazine of news and comment, a monthly cultural review, a quarterly academic journal, and perhaps eventually also a fortnightly satirical magazine.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to prevent me from taking journalistic, political or other paid work for fear of losing my entitlement to Legal Aid.

I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service out of the same racism that has caused it to refuse to prosecute the Police Officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence.

And I am morally and factually innocent of every criminal offence with which I have ever been charged, and any outstanding charge is being pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service in order to incite my politically motivated murder, a murder that the CPS has already decided would never lead to any prosecution.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Board, currently Monica Burch, Stephen Parkinson, Simon Jeffreys, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan, and Kathryn Stone.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the CPS senior leadership, currently Tristan Bradshaw, Dawn Brodrick, Mike Browne, Steve Buckingham, Matthew Cain, Gregor McGill, Grace Ononiwu, and Baljhit Ubey.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, currently Simon Jeffreys, Stephen Parkinson, Michael Dunn, Deborah Harris, Dr Subo Shanmuganathan.

Each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the members of the CPS Nominations, Leadership and Remuneration Committee, currently Kathryn Stone, Stephen Parkinson, and Monica Burch.

And each of those eight statements stands as a matter of record unless and until it had been expressly denied to davidaslindsay@hotmail.com by each and all of the 279 members of staff of the CPS North East Area, by definition including, but not restricted to, Chief Crown Prosecutor Gail Gilchrist, and the Area Business Manager, Ian Brown.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Clergy Challenge: Day 983

I invite each and every bishop, priest and deacon of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com if he thought that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.

Not legally guilty; Bill Cosby is legally innocent. Factually and morally guilty. No name would be published except at the request of its bearer, but if anyone ever did get in touch, then the readers of this site would be the first to know. The current total is zero.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

The Representatives Challenge: Day 983

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.

Since Lanchester is be moved into North Durham by the boundary changes,  I invite each and every other candidate for that parliamentary seat 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. At least in that event, then I challenge Oliver Kamm to contest this seat.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

Take The Win

There are military personnel in practically every embassy in the world. They are still protected by the Vienna Convention. But Israel's ability to kill exactly the right Iranian military personnel in Damascus is matched by Iran's ability to hit the Ramon airbase from which that attack had been launched, yet kill or injure no one, and thus be able to say that no one had died or even been hurt. They are both that good, so a war between them could go on for a horribly long time.

The nearest thing to a glimmer of hope would be, as we saw on Saturday night and Sunday morning, Israel's dependence on the Western allies that it has been rather disrespecting of late and not for the first time, and on those allies' Arab allies, which risk being overthrown for this. Only the withdrawal of such support might end this war. Such withdrawal must therefore stop it from starting.

Iran has killed or injured no one in retaliation for the targeted killing of eight of it citizens on its diplomatic premises in a third country. Israel ought to seize with both hands Iran's astonishing willingness to leave the matter there. Few, if any, European countries would be quite so magnanimous towards anywhere apart from Israel. The United States certainly would not be, again except towards Israel.

Only Kay Burley has asked David Cameron "What would Britain do if a hostile nation flattened one of our consulates?", because only she may. It is not as if he is answerable to the House of Commons. There, Rishi Sunak never mentioned that flattening, Keir Starmer never invited him to, and when George Galloway did, then Sunak bizarrely denied any connection between that and the Iranian action that he falsely accused George of having failed to condemn.

But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

43 Weeks On

Nominations have been closed for 43 weeks, so when is the election?

If you know, you know.

The King Over The Water

The King's Greenery, while wholly typical of his class-generational intersection, may be a cause for concern, but it may also be used to our advantage. The monarchy is supposed to be good for tourism. Sewage on the beaches or in Lake Windermere is not. The King might use his unrivalled platform to do something about that.

Instead of wasting his time, for all that he has no choice, granting Royal Assent to the Rwanda Bill. Having always said that it would take only 100 people per year, Rwanda has now sold even most of that housing estate to local buyers. The whole point of the Rwanda Plan has always been that no plane should ever take off. This scheme is designed to invite endless "thwarting" in order to stir up the base. Meanwhile, someone is still being paid an absolute fortune to do nothing. We know both a scam and a gimmick when we see them, so we are not the target audience. As for that, Lee Anderson did not vote tonight.

But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Turn Up

Sienna Rodgers writes:

Jamie Driscoll is the North of Tyne mayor who eyes a bigger prize: the new North East mayoralty, which will cover a much larger area and replace his current combined authority in a settlement that he spearheaded. Driscoll is confident of a win on 2 May. “This is going to be really interesting. I think there’s going to be a big upset,” he tells The House.

It would be an upset because Driscoll is running as an independent, having quit the Labour Party last summer. Elected as a Labour mayor in 2019, he was blocked from its North East selection race under Keir Starmer’s leadership last year. Northumbria police and crime commissioner Kim McGuinness became the approved candidate instead.

Local councillors quit in protest and 11 of 22 local parties refused to endorse anyone, but without a route to appeal Driscoll left Labour the following month after almost 40 years of membership. His independent bid was confirmed when he crowdfunded £25,000 in under two hours, and he has now raised the £150,000 necessary to run a campaign.

Labour did not give a specific official reason for barring Driscoll from the longlist but sources close to the leadership say it was because he shared a platform with film director Ken Loach, who was expelled over his support for a group proscribed by the party.

The mayor had interviewed Loach at the Live Theatre in Newcastle, a move criticised by the Jewish Labour Movement, which called it “hugely upsetting”. Yet, asked whether he regrets the event, Driscoll replies: “No. You should always stand up and do the right thing. People who subjugate their conscience for political convenience are not people you can trust.”

“In the North East, Ken Loach has made three feature films: I, Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You and The Old Oak,” he says. Referring to the latter film, released in 2023, he continues: “Why wouldn’t I talk to him about it? The film’s set here in the North East; the Live Theatre as part of their anniversary celebrations. Surely a regional mayor should be doing that.”

One senior Labour source suggested to The House that Driscoll had done it as a “dog whistle” to please the Labour left – “but unfortunately for him, we all heard it”, they added. When this is put to him, Driscoll remarks: “That is so Westminster bubble, isn’t it?”

Driscoll claims he wasn’t surprised by his blocking because Labour had already repeatedly denied him access to membership lists, which elected officials are entitled to, then said the contacts would be handed over only if he could confirm he would not seek selection.

The mayor never has to worry about the party line any more. Does he feel liberated? “It’s great because I go to far fewer meetings,” Driscoll chuckles. “I never changed what I was going to say on the basis that it might upset somebody in London, not least because they change what they say so often!”

His new message can be summed up as “a plague on both their houses” – and the hope will be that enough voters feel the same way next month. “You’ve got this situation now where you have two parties in Westminster, pretending they hate each other. And on every economic decision, they agree. So, where’s the democratic choice?” he asks.

“How on earth can you have spent the last 14 years shouting at the Tories and saying ‘austerity doesn’t work’, and then say, ‘right, we’re going to go into power and we’re going to prove that austerity does work’? After that budget a couple of weeks ago, there’s a £20bn hole and that’s going to come from non-protected departments. That’s local government, and that’s where all the Labour councillors are. They’re not going to be happy and they’re just going to walk.”

The Labour leadership would point to its planned pursuit of economic growth in government. Driscoll calls this “the magic growth bunny”, echoing complaints from the party’s left when he says: “You can’t have a successful modern economy without decent public services. To say, ‘no, our answer is growth’ – that’s not an answer, that’s a wish.” Like many of Starmer’s internal critics, he is scathing about Labour’s decision to ditch its £28bn green investment pledge.

“I was talking to the global CEO of Mitsubishi at dinner one time,” the mayor recalls. “I was asking about investing in green hydrogen. ‘Are you going to do it?’ He says: ‘I’m not going to spend half a billion pounds on product development unless someone guarantees that this stuff’s going to be on sale for the next 30 years.’ And neither would I in his position. So where are the signals to the market? You can’t say, ‘we’re going to have £28bn green investment – actually, no, we’re not’. It’s not a tap that you turn on.”

He shares a prediction espoused by many on the Labour left that there will be a very short honeymoon if the party wins the general election. “What you’ll see is this moment of glory in national government, and everything else disappearing,” he says. “My real worry is that you’re going to see some very nasty policies brought in by either a future Conservative government or some sort of Conservative coalition.”

With no polling or doorstep data, it is difficult to get a sense of the likely result in the North East mayoral election. Supporters say Driscoll has the three ingredients needed for a successful independent candidate – name recognition, popularity, and an energised base – but, even if that’s true, victory is far from guaranteed. He agrees it is hard to measure his support, though stresses the political breadth of his backing.

“Half the people in the Labour Party are campaigning for me; most people in the Labour Party are going to vote for me. After Gaza, the entire Muslim community is pretty much disgusted by the Labour Party. We have Tories across the region saying, ‘we like this lad, he’s not put up our council tax, he’s delivered value for money, and he doesn’t play daft political games’.”

Are Labour members really campaigning for him? That would be a clear breach of party rules. “Yes. I’m not going to give you any names,” Driscoll replies, adding: “Look at how many anonymous donations I get.”

Driscoll is even going after votes from Richard Tice’s party. “There’s a lot of Reform people voting for me. Because they feel left behind. They want somebody who stands up and fights and just does the job, doesn’t mess about playing political games.”

Far from “the last Corbynista standing”, as he has been labelled many times, the mayor says he is difficult to pin down politically. He is a socialist who does not shy away from business or profit, and who works remarkably well with Conservative MPs from Greg Clark to Simon Clarke.

“It’s my background; I’m an engineer. There’s an old joke that the optimist says the glass is half-full, the pessimist says the glass is half-empty, and the engineer says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. That’s the way you’ve got to look at this,” Driscoll says. “I don’t know where I fit in politics, but it works.” As proof, he cites the venture capital fund he has set up.

“We’ve already had cashouts. There was a company called Grid Finder, we gave them £10,000 start-up, and then when they wanted to grow, we invested a £100,000 equity share. A couple years on, they sold it in January for a multi-million-pound settlement. The exact figures are commercially confidential, but we got a load of money back as a result of that. And that’s the model.”

Driscoll is also delighted with his communities fund, whereby people set up a crowdfunder for their project and, if enough support is shown for the idea, the combined authority kicks in with the rest of the money.

“If you put out a call and say, ‘send me your idea’, and you read through them as mayor and say yes or no, then you become the bad guy immediately. Every time someone says ‘I’ve got this idea, right, now hear me out: if we had a monorail…’” he laughs.

“So, you test it by saying to the community: if you can raise 10 per cent of it through crowdfunding, we’ll back you. Now, that is real democracy. It’s not ‘we will have better consultations and we will ask more people’.”

Driscoll’s first investment pledge as mayor was £2m to the Newcastle United Foundation, a charity separate from but supported by the football club. Its Nucastle project – transforming an existing community centre – was based on the community wealth building model of which Driscoll is a fan. The foundation’s chief executive Steve Beharall says: “We raised £8.5m and 95 per cent of that was spent within 25 miles of the centre.”

Taking the mayor and The House on a tour of the building, Beharall tells us: “We talk about being a mile deep and an inch wide in some communities, and this is one of those communities.” Nucastle is now a community hub that equally serves as a sports centre and college, while offering local families everything from showers to food to sanitary products.

The facility, which boasts classrooms, a gaming zone and a rooftop pitch, is valued by locals, the CEO explains, because in the NE4 postcode “every second door is a free school meal”, “suicide is prevalent” and there are “a lot of displaced families”. “Just work with people, empower them to have a successful life. That’s about the most socialist thing you can do,” Driscoll says.

The mayor, who before entering politics was a stay-at-home dad home-educating sons Leon and Nelson (“probably the best job I’ve ever had”), expresses particular interest in helping young people. He is incensed by Labour’s U-turn on scrapping the two-child benefit cap and a key pledge in his campaign is offering free public travel to under-18s.

Unlike the North of Tyne mayor, the North East Combined Authority will have control over transport, and Driscoll could not be more enthusiastic about his plans in this area. He promises to create new metro lines, with the help of pension funds match-funding central government (“£2bn, I was talking with one of them about”) and land value capture (a kind of windfall tax on owners of property that has increased in value thanks to a new station being built nearby).

“One of the things I intend to pursue – and I think I can land it, but it’ll test my negotiation skills – is salary sacrifice. At the moment you get salary sacrifice to buy a car, to buy a bike, for childcare, but not for public transport,” he explains. “The Treasury see that as deadweight. They think, well, people are buying this stuff anyway. But that’s not true, especially in a region like ours. It’s because they’re all based in London they think that.

“Instead of thinking of it as ‘that’s just deadweight, we pay for something’, they should think of it as a triple multiplier. What they give people in their salary sacrifice, when someone buys that public transport – in effect – season ticket, they’re putting in three times more than the subsidy.”

Fizzing with ideas and keen to dive into detail, Driscoll often sounds more like an economist than a politician. “The role of mayor, you’ve got to think of it as you’re the CEO of the region,” he says. “You’re not really a politician. You’ve got to work with everybody. You’ve got to get stuff done. You’re not a legislator, you’re an administrator.”

Asked whether he would use transport to help foster a unique regional identity, like the Bee Network in Greater Manchester, Driscoll proposes a new idea: “canny” travel cards. Locals would then say “gan canny” (‘go carefully’ in Geordie).

Driscoll is clearly a fan of Labour Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who – along with Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram – backed him in the selection row. “I think he would make an excellent prime minister.”

Could Driscoll see himself joining a party in the future? “If I’m elected as an independent, I’ll stay as an independent. That’s a promise you make with the electorate.”

But is he high-profile enough to pull off an independent win against a well-organised party machine? “There will never be a headline that says ‘mayor quietly gets on and does a good job’,” Driscoll smiles.

He sums up his approach: “A lot of people spend their time shouting at London ‘give us more money!’ and they’ve got a lot less money out of London than I have. Because I don’t shout at them – I turn up.”