Tuesday 18 August 2015

If He Were To Do Us The Honour

The first of these certainly appears on The Times. It and each of the others also appears in one or more other newspapers today, or else they never will. In any event, here they are:

We do not all hold British nationality or reside in the United Kingdom, although some of us do. We are not all members or supporters of the British Labour Party, although some of us are.

However, we are united in rejecting the charge of "economic illiteracy" against Jeremy Corbyn, and in recognising that his economic analysis and proposals are, at the very least, superior to those of the current British Government, as well as being more comprehensive and coherent than those of any other candidate for Labour Leader.

Yours faithfully,

David Lindsay, Lanchester, County Durham
Professor Victoria Chick, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University College London
Professor Alfredo Saad Filho, Professor of Political Economy, Department of Development Studies, The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Professor John Grahl, Professor of European Integration, Middlesex University Business School
Professor Stuart Holland, Visiting Professor, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Portugal; Senior Scholar of the Institute of Social and European Studies, Köszeg, Hungary; Member of Parliament for Vauxhall, 1979-1989
Professor Christopher May, Professor of Political Economy and Faculty Associate Dean for Enterprise, Lancaster University
Professor Ozlem Onaran, Professor of Workforce and Economic Development Policy, University of Greenwich
Professor Prem Sikka, Professor of Accounting, Essex Business School, University of Essex
Professor Pritam Singh, Professor of Economics, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Oxford Brookes University
Professor Robert H. Wade, Professor of Political Economy and Development, Department of International Development, London School of Economics; Leontief Prize in Economics 2008
Dr David Harvie, Senior Lecturer in Finance and Political Economy, School of Management, University of Leicester
Ismail Ertürk, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
Ewa Karwowski, Lecturer in Economics, Kingston University, London

Behind the paywall, here.

*

We do not all hold British nationality or reside in the United Kingdom, although some of us do. We are not all members or supporters of the British Labour Party, although some of us are. However, we are united in welcoming the candidacy of Jeremy Corbyn for Leader of that party.

Whatever our differences with Mr Corbyn, the fact is that he has voted against every actual or proposed neoconservative war from that in Yugoslavia onwards. He has opposed all actual or proposed erosions of civil liberties in the name of "the War on Terror".

Far from being the Trotskyist lazily alleged by his detractors, he is a coherent critic of the neoconservative ideology that is itself a species of Trotskyism. We wish him well.

Yours faithfully,

David Lindsay, Lanchester, County Durham
Dr Philip M. Giraldi, Executive Director, Council for the National Interest, Washington, D.C.; foreign policy advisor to the 2008 Presidential campaign of Ron Paul; former CIA counterterrorism specialist and military intelligence officer
J. Arthur Bloom, Opinion Editor, The Daily Caller, Washington, D.C.
Jack Ross, author, The Socialist Party of America: A Complete History
Sean Scallon, Wisconsin
Thomas Smitherman, University of Bergen

*

We, the undersigned, are not necessarily members of the Labour Party at this time, although some of us are. We are not necessarily supporters of Jeremy Corbyn for Leader of that party, although some of us are.

But we should all be more than willing to serve under his Leadership, including his Premiership, if he were to do us the honour of inviting us to do so.

Any Labour MP who will not say this, obviously does not need or want his or her seat in Parliament. Any Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate who will not say this, obviously does not need or want the seat to which he or she ostensibly aspires.

Labour currently holds as few seats as it ever realistically could. There would be no shortage of more comradely and less self-regarding applicants to fill any of them.

Yours faithfully,

David Lindsay, Lanchester, County Durham
Ross Ahlfeld, Inverclyde, Blue Labour activist
Dr Luke Blaxill, Research Fellow, Hertford College, University of Oxford
Neil Clark, journalist and broadcaster
James Doran, Darlington
Dr Simon Hewitt, Labour Representation Committee, National Committee
Hani Latif, Hertford
Others who were in agreement felt unable to sign due to local or professional pressures.

10 comments:

  1. Oliver Kamm has been savaging you over this on Twitter.

    Here's a sample.
    Oliver Kamm ‏@OliverKamm 14h
    Do economists who signed Corbyn letter wish to defend association with a fantasist who also claims to be MI6 agent & confidant of the Pope?

    Oliver Kamm ‏@OliverKamm 14h14 hours ago
    Lindsay has published no academic work, in any subject. His output consists instead in obscene homophobic abuse & death threats to journos.
    View conversation 8 retweets 0 favorites
    Reply Retweet 8 Favorite
    More
    Oliver Kamm ‏@OliverKamm 14h14 hours ago
    Lindsay has been exposed for fraudulently claiming to hold a PhD & being an academic at Durham University. He has no connection with Durham.
    View conversation 10 retweets 1 favorite
    Reply Retweet 10 Favorite 1
    More
    Oliver Kamm ‏@OliverKamm 14h14 hours ago
    Corbyn campaign is surreal: "economist" supporters incl a blogger, David Lindsay, who has no economic qualifications. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/letters/article4530012.ece …


    Sad to say this material posted on Twitter by fake "economist" David Lindsay. Does @stuart_holland wish to comment?
    Embedded image permalink

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I know. I honestly now believe that he is having a nervous breakdown. He clearly has no idea what is going on at his own newspaper. That cannot help, I suppose.

      The letter is very carefully phrased so that the word "economist" does not occur. I make no claim to be one. I am not an economist. Still, I am obviously a good enough amateur and observer for the other signatories, whom I obviously knew enough to approach.

      Kamm regularly writes on matters in which he holds no formal qualification. That's called journalism. Arguably, even when he does it.

      Delete
    2. "He has no connection with Durham"? Mr. Lindsay is the University Durham.

      Great letters, Mr. L. Sent an appreciation to your university email address to make the point, even though I know it's linked to your Hotmail. Not bounced, of course not.

      Delete
    3. You are very kind. I have replied in kind.

      Delete
  2. Since he's posted screenshots of your past tweets, why don't you screenshot his emails to you and post them on Twitter at his followers who can re-tweet them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, to have nothing better than that to do. Then again, I wouldn't want to be in that position. As you can see from this post, I am not.

      Delete
  3. The Telegraph's headline now is better than the Zinoviev Letter:

    'We share similar values': Muslim firebrand who condones killing UK soldiers reveals links to Corbyn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know. I love the idea that an MP ever did invite a Holocaust denier to Parliament, as if that would have not have been news at the time.

      Delete
  4. It's getting going again now! I presume you are too young to have experienced the 80s as an adult, but it was like this every day, really, and there's been nothing like it since, not even Iraq. If you could have heard Benn and Tebbit go mano a mano on Any Questions every week! And the local authority test the four minute warning every month!! If you want the full atmosphere, see You Tube for "Threads" and "The Day After"!!!

    One Nation (Mac not Cam)


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, there are doubts, as you probably know, about whether they ever really were testing the four minute warning.

      But I don't see the Tories fighting too hard. They have spent a good 20 years assuming that if anyone did disagree with them, then they could safely be ignored.

      They will no idea how to put up a fight. And where's the fun in a walkover?

      Delete