Know What The Master Is Doing

It has been 26 weeks since Sunday 5th November, when the Police were informed by two people in the United States and by two people in the Philippines, and I confirmed, that I had been imprisoned on what was incontrovertibly a lie.

Do the four known suicides of wronged subpostmasters prove their guilt? Here is your weekly reminder that this could not have been an executive summary of this. That would have been impossible, since they bear no resemblance to each other. It is all here, including on the ludicrous definition of "grooming" that was used to hound Canon Michael McCoy to his death, and including on the nonsense about Fr Timothy Gardner OP. Something has changed since 3rd May 2023. What is it? And where is the original report?

I have no qualms about styling Fr Gardner OP as such, since he has not been laicised, nor, unless I am very much mistaken, has he been dismissed from the Order of Preachers. I am urgently seeking to contact Fr Gardner's solicitor or barrister. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. If no one has done so by 10 o'clock this evening, then I shall email Northumbria Police, copied to the Police and Crime Commissioner there, with the information that ought to make it impossible to proceed with the prosecution of Fr Gardner.

I do not resile from this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this or this. Rather, I reiterate every word of each and all of them. There was no cathedral sex party. The move from the old Bishop's House to the new one made a profit. There was no allegation of sexual assault against Bishop Robert Byrne CO, who should sue every media outlet that had suggested one.

Although I am often asked, I know neither where nor how Bishop Byrne is. But I am often asked. I am not doing Marko Rupnik, because that would involve siding with the people who had done nothing for Bishop Byrne. They and Rupnik can all go to Hell in the same handcart. Nor am I interested in anything that you might have to say about Bishop Joseph Strickland unless you had fought for Bishop Byrne.

I may not, but I may, accept the present report when Bishop Byrne had done so, and to the extent that he had done so. His Lordship has yet to do so to any extent. At least while that remains the case, then I reject the whole thing out of hand, and so should you. The sum total of the charge sheet against Bishop Byrne is that he did not automatically do as he was told by the hired help. But Buckley does not like Bishop Stephen Wright, so Bishop Wright must be all right.

Indeed, His Lordship preached well at his Enthronement. He clearly has a deep spirituality. There was also a speech by a self-identified survivor of clerical sexual abuse, one Maggie Vickerman. Neither her case, nor those to which she referred, had anything to do with Bishop Byrne, if they really happened at all. How do we know? At most, they were long before his brief time in this Diocese. If anything, certain people with some responsibility for them were in that sanctuary. Nor did Ms Vickerman make any attempt to disguise her theological agenda. Well, nor do I make any attempt to disguise mine.

The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 298

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 298

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 1002

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 1002

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.

And since I am a candidate for Mayor of the North East Mayoral Combined Authority in 2028, or whenever we could get Kim McGuinness out before that, I invite her and every other candidate for that office 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 election came, then my literature would state that each and all of my opponents, by name, did not think that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

Feel The Force?

Since it is May the Fourth, remember that there are always two Sith Lords, the master and the apprentice.

Who are they at the moment, and why?

To Cap It All?

Socially and culturally, does your parish need twice as many schoolteachers as it already had? I probably opposed the admissions cap on here at the time, but the very last thing that the Church needs in this country is more schools. Teaching what? An hour of every day, a day of every week, all the way up to the age of 16 or beyond, is given over to colouring in pictorial illustrations of trite little moral messages, at best interspersed with showings of The Life of Brian, or with if anything even more bogus assertions such as that people remembered that Jesus had given good advice for practical living so they started calling Him "the Son of God", or that in the early centuries local congregations elected someone on the spot to preach and to say Mass. There are textbooks in use that say those things. If you wanted to know anything more, including the Truth, then you have always had to teach yourself, or you have needed to do so for so long as to amount to the same thing. Thankfully, there is now the Internet.

Children who did not get places at Catholic schools because of the cap did not therefore cease to be practising Catholics. How many Catholic pupils are there at your local Catholic school? How many of them will you see at Mass this weekend? How many teachers have you known who became Christmas and Easter attendees once they had either made it as far as they were every going to go professionally, or retired? The route to Priesthood from the Catholic cradle via 13 years of Catholic school, with altar serving at the weekends plus a brief interlude at and after university before entering the seminary, is in fact now vanishingly rare even among such ordinations are there still are in Britain. More of our priests are adult converts, very often former Protestant clergymen and quite often married, than have trod anything like that path. A growing number are from the thriving heartlands of accurate catechesis and edifying liturgy in Eastern Europe and the Global South; we shall soon have more of those, too, than of the old school Catholic Boys. An almost entirely Catholic-schooled electorate legalised abortion by popular vote in Ireland. Schools may rule the roost in the Church, although there is no ecclesiological basis for that. But what do they do for the Church?

The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 297

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 297

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 1001

Call me Scheherazade.

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 1001

Call me Scheherazade.

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.

And since I am a candidate for Mayor of the North East Mayoral Combined Authority in 2028, or whenever we could get Kim McGuinness out before that, I invite her and every other candidate for that office 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 election came, then my literature would state that each and all of my opponents, by name, did not think that I was factually or morally guilty of any criminal charge that had ever been brought against me.

This post will appear daily until further notice.

World Press Freedom Day

Julian Assange.

And more than 100 journalists killed in Gaza, most of them Palestinian.

Dismiss with contempt anyone who failed to stand with both of those.

What Might Have Been

One year today since the executive summary that exonerated Bishop Robert Byrne CO, provoking the hysterical backlash that led to the publication the following month of what must have been a totally different report. Where is the original report?

If only in my dreams, there is a world in which Benedict XVI remained Pope until he died, while Jeremy Corbyn either found those 2,227 votes in the right places in 2017, or Labour under him became, as it would have done, the largest party in the hung Parliament of 2022. Neither of those might ever have been entirely convinced, but in the midst of neoliberal capitalism and its wars, Catholic orthodoxy, and it alone, offers and compels a basis for radical action beyond the wildest imaginings of anything constrained by dialectical materialism.

And there is a world, it may even be the same one, in which Bishop Byrne, who it must be said was appointed by Pope Francis, was still in post, while Jamie Driscoll had just been elected Mayor of the North East Mayoral Combined Authority. Whether or not it would ever have been quite to either of their tastes, the North East would have become an international centre, and perhaps the global centre, of that radical orthodoxy. Hey, ho. Onwards and upwards.

Jolly Voting Weather

10,825 is Labour's lowest number of votes at Blackpool South in 40 years, including when Labour has lost the seat. That pattern was evident at numerous elections yesterday. There is no head of steam for Labour. It is just that Conservatives are staying at home. 

Yes, Labour won the new Mayoralty in the East Midlands, where it served Ben Bradley right for dressing like a teenager. When my generation was laughing at Tim Westwood, then he was about the age that Bradley is now. But Labour did so badly in Tees Valley that Ben Houchen was able to be re-elected on the premise that being a crook was precisely his charm.

A projected national share of 34 per cent is pitiful when the opinion polls claim that Labour is on 47 per cent. Ed Miliband did better than 34 per cent both in 2012 and 2013, and Jeremy Corbyn did so in 2018, when calls for his resignation were then screeched from the rooftops.

Between them, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, the Workers Party of Britain, and Independents have gained more seats than Labour. Any one of them has gained more than Reform UK, which has picked up all of two. If only from my Facebook friends list, I had already known that the Independent Left had far more than Reform's then 10 councillors, and it has made big gains on top of that, with more councillors elected specifically for the Workers Party than for the party the media indulgence of which demonstrated that centrism and right-wing populism were con tricks to sell exactly the same economic and foreign policies to different audiences by pretending to wage a culture war.

Reform is not even any good at making that sale. It wins almost nothing. It expects, and absurdly receives, a very British round of applause for being plucky when it comes third or below, in fact purely for turning up. One of its television stations has gone online-only, while the other teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. The Government had to be begged to change the law to stop its newspapers and its magazine from being bought by the only people who wanted to buy them, meaning that they, too, may not exist in a year's time. What could save them? Nationalisation? If anyone deserves a Freeview station and a state-protected spot in the national print media, then it is the Workers Party and its Independent Left allies, trading as such for local reasons as more-or-less Tory Independents have done since time immemorial.

That those are the people with anything distinctive to say has been recognised by whoever staged a hit-and-run attack on a female Workers Party activist in Ashton-under-Lyne on polling day. Sky News predicts that Labour will be only the largest party in a hung Parliament. That would have happened in 2022 if Keir Starmer had not announced a second referendum policy in order to bring on the 2019 General Election and thus bring down Corbyn.

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, although nor would I expect to stand against it. But if 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. But there does need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Chain Reaction

Kim McGuinness has won by cheating. On polling day, she put the 2019 General Election result on the frontpages of certain local newspapers, from which it was then widely shared on social media, as if it were an opinion poll result. On that false basis, she claimed that only she could “beat the Tories”. She has won on a lie by paid journalists who were in fact cogs in the right-wing Labour machine.

Add that to the lie that was the media blackout of McGuinness’s racism, coverage of which would have disqualified a candidate of any other faction. In post-War Britain, McGuinness’s victory is the Far Right’s biggest ever. It now controls an area with a population larger than that of 13 European territories that the United Kingdom recognised as sovereign states. If any of those fell under the rule of someone like McGuinness, then there would rightly be international uproar. There should be international uproar in this case, too. The Labour Right in the North East of England is also a byword for good, old-fashioned corruption. I shall be watching that space, but who else will be?

As a mixed-race person, I am now in mortal danger lest Mayor McGuinness, or one of her staff or supporters, mistake me for a “Gypsy”. The same threat applies to anyone else who was not a pureblood Northern European and who set foot in County Durham, Northumberland, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, Gateshead, North Tyneside, or South Tyneside. The campaign against McGuinness starts now. I am a candidate for Mayor of the North East Mayoral Combined Authority in 2028, or whenever we could get her out before that.

To Use The Jargon

Good old Laura Kuenssberg, on hand to tell us plebs that "North East Lincolnshire is a place", and that votes are counted "at tables, to use the jargon". Gawd bless you, I doffs me cap, so I do.

The Greens have gained councillors in Newcastle and in South Tyneside. Have their supporters also voted for the Green Mayoral candidate instead of Jamie Driscoll? The Greens ought to be out of the anti-austerity, anti-war and anti-racist movement if that has been decisive. If Kim McGuinness has won, then it has been because she put the 2019 General Election result on the frontpages of certain local newspapers as if it were an opinion poll result and claimed that only she could "beat the Tories". She would have won on a lie by paid journalists who were in fact cogs in the right-wing Labour machine. The 2028 campaign against her would start immediately.

Bound up with that, 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. But if 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. But there does 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 Peckham Spring?

Those SOAS students may be woke, but like a lot of the woke, they are obviously fiscal conservatives, and this time it is just as well. We are paying £400 million per year to rent the Bibby Stockholm, a 48-year-old engineless barge that cannot be worth more than a few million pounds. Political kickbacks? What do you think? And to only one party? What do you think? Lovely jubbly, I do not think.

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. But if 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. But there does 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 296

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 296

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 1000

One thousand days.

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 1000

One thousand days.

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.

Still Time To Shut The Stable Door

If you have half a mind to vote for Kim McGuinness, then you have half a mind more than Kim McGuinness. You can understand anyone by picturing them at 18. She does not want to be Mare McGuinness for nothing. Do you want to be ruled from the show ponies' stable that is the mean girls' table? Vote for Jamie Driscoll.

McGuinness embodies perfectly the fact that 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. Vote for Jamie Driscoll.

As an expression of its defining spite and bitterness, Labour has today abandoned workers' rights pretty much completely. No, of course Angela Rayner has not resigned. Only the unions give money to a political party to be abused. Every other penny that is invested in any of them, including Labour, buys something specific. And that is what those payments are. Entirely legitimate investments. They are not donations, because a political party is most certainly not a charity. Most unions have never been affiliated to the Labour Party. The ones that are, are led by people whose sentimentality about it is a never-ending source of frustration to some of us. "You have to forgive your family anything" is all very well, but it has nothing to do with politics. If Unite were still affiliated to the Labour Party in 2026, and if no one with a higher profile had stepped up to the plate, then I would be a candidate for General Secretary, in support of an all-of-the-above energy policy with an all-of-the-above transport policy, and to secure disaffiliation both from the Labour Party and from the ILGA. Join Unite Community here. And vote for Jamie Driscoll.

In the meantime, 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. But if 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. But there does need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

Frank and Constructive?

Kate Forbes was not an MSP when same-sex marriage was enacted, says that she would have voted against it if she had been, but adds that the matter is closed. There were close allies both of Gordon Brown and of Jeremy Corbyn who differed from that position only in that they had indeed been MPs when they had voted against that measure. Nor did several of them agree with Forbes and with Joe Biden about being personally opposed to abortion, but not so as to wish to change the law; Ronnie Campbell was once nearly deselected for his efforts to change the law. John Smith also voted consistently to do so. Even one of Tony Blair's most ferocious supporters, John Reid, whom the Hard Blairites wanted to stand for Leader in 2007, was of that persuasion.

No, the coronation of John Swinney is the canonisation of gender self-identification. That is why a 34-year-old woman has had to yield to a 60-year-old man, and it is not happening only in Scotland. The Cass Report may as well never have been published for all the difference that it is making to the popular culture in which these matters are decided. The soaps and the nine o'clock flagship dramas are of course filmed long in advance, but things that are broadcast much sooner after completion, or even live, are making it quite clear that that Report may as well be one of those Declarations which the anti-vaxxers used to issue and then assume that everyone had heard of when only they had. If today's local election results were bad for the Conservatives, then any replacement of Sunak would be with Penny Mordaunt.

George Galloway, with his entirely LGB parliamentary staff, is typical of those of us whose insistence on the reality of biological sex and on the normativity of the traditional family makes us the most uncompromising opponents of the economic, and therefore also foreign, policies that are most corrosive of the latter and of its foundation in the recognition of the former. Those who sincerely believe themselves to be on our side while supporting those policies need to examine themselves. It was Smith whose signature policy was that employment rights should begin with employment and apply regardless of the number of hours worked. While Corbyn revived that commitment, we have today witnessed its formal abandonment by Keir Starmer, who of course never had the slightest intention of giving effect to it, so that that abandonment has gone almost unnoticed.

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. But if 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. But there does need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.

A Triumph For People Power Everywhere

Remember to vote for Jamie Driscoll by pen, and not using the erasable pencil provided. If you doubt that, then consider that five of the seven local authorities are controlled, and that all seven are heavily staffed, by the Labour Right of which writes Aaron Bastani, but don’t let that put you off:

If a generative AI were to create a CV for the ideal Labour politician it would look something like Jamie Driscoll’s. He grew up in a poor part of Middlesborough, and now has two children and a wife who is an NHS GP. His brother served in the Royal Navy, while his dad drove a tank in the British Army — before later working for ICI near the River Tees.

Far from the frenetic world of Westminster, where political wannabes jump straight from studying PPE to become political advisers and, later, Parliamentary candidates, Driscoll was an engineer who didn’t enter elected politics until the age of 48. In 2018, having briefly served as a local councillor, Driscoll won the Labour nomination to stand as the party’s candidate in the race to become the Mayor for the North of Tyne. A year later he won.

Now though, ahead of today’s local election, Driscoll, acclaimed by the Economist in 2021 as “Britain’s most powerful Corbynista”, has become an extremely dangerous opponent for Keir Starmer’s Labour. After appearing on a platform with the director Ken Loach, Driscoll was last year blocked from standing to be the party’s mayoral candidate for the much expanded North East metro area. As a result, Kim McGuinness — the leadership’s favoured candidate — enjoyed a coronation for the nomination. In contrast to Driscoll’s background in business and engineering, McGuinness’s path to public office has seen her work recently in that most absurd of political non-jobs: police and crime commissioner.

Following that treatment, which was condemned by leading Labour figures such as Andy Burnham, Driscoll announced his resignation from Labour — and his desire to stand as an independent for the North East mayoralty. Within weeks he successfully crowdfunded almost six times his target sum of £25,000.

While Driscoll was expected to be competitive, few foresaw that he might actually win. And yet polling from last weekend by More in Common showed Driscoll just two points behind McGuinness — an especially impressive statistic given Labour’s gargantuan polling numbers for Westminster.

That news has proven to be a useful resource for Driscoll and his activists in the final days of campaigning. In recent months they would often meet with the refrain that while a voter might prefer their man to McGuinness, they didn’t want to let in the Tories (a favoured line in the perennial anti-politics of the Labour party). Now, however, voters know it’s a two-horse race between the London-backed Labour candidate and the man Starmer expelled.

But what would it mean if, increasingly plausibly, Driscoll won? Firstly, it would represent a rejection of Starmer’s genre of localism — namely that he will “give power away” by creating more local mayors, while permitting his cronies to stitch up selections. This is, after all, the worst of all worlds: rather than empowering local communities, it simply means the proliferation of non-jobs for a bloated rabble of talent-free apparatchiks.

More than that, a Driscoll win would demonstrate that there are significant downsides to how Starmer and the Labour Right think about politics. Treating those outside your circle as expendable, and labelling them as bigoted when politically expedient, should have costs. So far, it hasn’t.

The national media has largely overlooked the race for the North East but a lot is riding on it — not least the point of devolution in England. Is it designed to serve voters, or the permanent political class in London, who would continue to make decisions only under a phoney localist imprint?

A Driscoll win would be a triumph for people power everywhere, while perhaps curtailing the most venal, authoritarian impulses of the Labour Right — especially important as the establishment tries to put the populist genie of the last decade back in the bottle. In a serious country, Driscoll would be considered a “centrist dad”. But Britain in the 2020s, as we already know, is anything but serious.

If he wins, it will send a massive signal to the national party: that there can, and should, be downsides to treating local people so appallingly. It would also underscore that Starmer has no interest in taking power out of Westminster. He wants the same clique to rule — just under the palatable guise of “localism”.

Roiling

Sir Oliver Hart is the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University and a Nobel laureate in economic sciences. Luigi Zingales is the Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He co-hosts the Capitalisn’t podcast. They write:

Student protests are roiling college campuses across the nation. Some of the goals of these protests are beyond what universities can deliver, such as a ceasefire in Gaza. But others—like divestment from companies doing business in Israel—are not. As one Columbia University student interviewed by NPR stated: “Essentially, this is our tuition dollars that are going to the death and displacement through both fast and slow violence in Gaza through the genocide right now, and the slower displacement throughout Occupied Palestine.”

The student, who asked NPR to identify her as “Soda,” gets the direction of causality wrong. It isn’t her tuition dollars that get invested in arms manufacturers, but her tuition discount that is funded by those investments: Columbia spends more than her tuition in providing services to students like her and finances the difference with donations and the return on the endowment. Nevertheless, whether you agree with her political position or not, Soda raises the following fundamental question: Should investment decisions be made without ethical consideration?

The conventional view, often associated with Milton Friedman, is that they should. Regardless of your non-financial goals, you always want to maximize your financial return, because the proceeds from that increased return allow you to better achieve your non-financial goals. This “Separation Theorem”—financial goals can be partitioned from non-financial ones—is the stated or unstated reason why university endowments are run the way they are.

The theorem is very convenient, not least because it makes life easy for endowment managers. But as we showed in a 2017 paper, it is wrong. Consider a decision by Harvard University about whether to divest from companies that produce sneakers with child labor or that rely on animal testing for their beauty products. Doing so would reduce Harvard’s investment return, and as a consequence, Harvard would have less money to spend on cutting-edge research. In some cases, the social value of the foregone research will be less than the costs of being associated with the use of child labor or animal testing, in which case Harvard should divest. But in other cases, the calculation will go the other way, in which case the university shouldn’t divest. A careful balancing of the costs and benefits is required: One can’t simply assume the answer. 

The Separation Theorem buries moral questions beneath technocratic ones. This has allowed universities to be secretive about how they invest their money, because they don’t feel any need to be accountable to alumni, faculty, and students for the social and political consequences of their investments. Once one recognizes the limitations of the theorem, however, the case for transparency becomes strong. Just as some consumers want to know that their sneakers aren’t produced by child labor, so students have the right to know that their lab equipment and fellowship aren’t financed by selling opioids or guns.

Transparency doesn’t imply that a small minority of very vocal students has the right to decide where universities invest or how they engage with the companies they invest in. First, all the various constituencies, from the other students to the faculty and the alumni, need to be listened to. Second, the costs need to be factored in. Students need to be confronted with moral questions, such as whether Columbia being associated with defense contractors is worth the tuition discount.

Reasonable people can disagree about the answers. Yet investment decisions can’t be left in the hands of professionals who are compensated based on financial performance. That is tantamount to abandoning any moral values in the name of the god Mammon, something very unfitting for higher-education institutions that should lead by example. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the Gaza protesters, they are right about one thing: We should live by the values we believe in.

The Safeguarding Challenge: Day 295

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 295

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 999

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 999

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.

Eve of Poll Card

Kim McGuinness insists on pronouncing it “Mare”. That is almost enough reason to wish for four years in which to refer to her as “Mare McGuinness” and “McGuinness the Mare”, since who would we be to neigh-say her? Almost. But not quite. Vote for Jamie Driscoll.

The Greens provide the war-crazy Foreign Minister of Germany, and they keep both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in power to round up asylum seekers for transportation, in theory from Britain to Rwanda, but in practice to concentration camps, properly so called, while the Rwanda Plan served its true purpose of being endlessly “thwarted” in order to rile up the Conservative Party’s base. And now, the Greens’ right to participate in the anti-austerity, anti-war and anti-racist movement depends on their not taking more votes than McGuinness’s margin of victory over Jamie. Vote for Jamie Driscoll.

The explosion in knife crime on McGuinness’s watch is a matter of life and death. She is that bad. As a disabled person, I am excited beyond words at the possibility of Jamie’s Total Transport Network, but as a mixed-race person, I am terrified beyond words at the prospect of McGuinness, since she or one of her supporters might mistake me, or anyone else who was not a pureblood Northern European, for a “Gypsy”. Vote for Jamie Driscoll.

And the North East Mayoral Combined Authority has a population larger than that of 13 European territories that the United Kingdom recognises as sovereign states. If any of those fell under the rule of someone like McGuinness, then there would rightly be international uproar. Vote for Jamie Driscoll.

Normal Service Must Be Resumed

George Galloway might have phrased it slightly better, although it was neither a written article nor a scripted speech, but that the relationship of mother, father and children is the norm, that it is normative, and that it must be so if the human race were not to become extinct, is so obvious that it is impossible to see what there could be to dispute.

The Blair and Brown Governments used to state it from the despatch boxes of both Houses, to the batting of almost no eyelids there or anywhere else. John Smith held it to his dying day, as did Frank Field to his rather more recent one. Both always voted in favour of gay rights, as did George, right up to a vote for same-sex marriage that he says drew no negative reaction either among his Bradford West constituents or within Respect. That George has been married four times has nothing to do with the principle. Field was never married.

As George presumably never expects to see same-sex marriage in the Catholic Church, where it will always be impossible, so Kate Forbes does not expect to see it in the Free Church of Scotland, which once had a powerful Modernist wing but which long ago ceased to have one. She has said that she might have voted against it as civil legislation, but that she would leave it as it was. An active member of the Free Church of Scotland asked a well-received question of Rishi Sunak today. Did Ian Paisley's views preclude him from being First Minister? In relation to those issues, what became of Northern Ireland while he was?

Even on abortion, Forbes is only of the same "personally opposed, but wouldn't change the law" school as Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, in stark contrast to Field most of the time, to Smith or to Charles Kennedy all the time, or to George all the time. Neoliberal capitalism cannot exist without abortion, hence the support for it from Blair, Clinton, Biden and Pelosi, while the likes of Billy Bragg like it because it lets them off the hook. Bringing us to the fact that the campaign against Forbes is about something else. Forbes has said that a transwoman was a "biological male who identifies as a woman", that "a rapist cannot be a woman", and that Isla Bryson was a "man".

By the way, the emphasis on biological sex as existing from conception raises huge questions for many of the staunchest opponents of gender ideology. What is biologically male from the point of conception cannot be "part of a woman's body". That is as unanswerable as when we point out the incomparable misogyny of the suggestion that something could simultaneously be insentient and be part of a woman's body. Is it the whole of a woman's body that is insentient? Or is it only the parts that are directly concerned with reproduction? If cells with Y chromosomes, including those of a penis, can be part of a woman's body until birth, then why can they not be so from self-identification onwards?

In April 2019, Forbes signed a call on the Scottish Government to delay changing the Gender Recognition Act, and although she was on maternity leave when Holyrood voted on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, she stated that she would not have supported it. So the coronation of John Swinney proceeds apace, while the Cass Report may as well never have been published for all the difference that it is making to the popular culture in which these matters are decided. The soaps and the nine o'clock flagship dramas are of course filmed long in advance, but things that are broadcast much sooner after completion, or even live, are making it quite clear that that Report may as well be one of those Declarations which the anti-vaxxers used to issue and then assume that everyone had heard of when only they had. If tomorrow's local election results were bad for the Conservatives, then any replacement of Sunak would be with Penny Mordaunt.

Those of us who insist on the reality of biological sex and on the normativity of the traditional family are the most uncompromising opponents of the economic, and therefore also foreign, policies that are most corrosive of the latter and of its foundation in the recognition of the former. Those who sincerely believe themselves to be on our side while supporting those policies need to examine themselves. It was Smith whose signature policy was that employment rights should begin with employment and apply regardless of the number of hours worked. While Jeremy Corbyn revived that commitment, we are hours away from its formal abandonment by Keir Starmer, who of course never had the slightest intention of giving effect to it.

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 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. But if 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. But there does 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 294

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.