Soul Food For Thought

How they squeal and squeal and squeal that I intend to have Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Independents on my constituency staff, and that people from across the political spectrum (in practice, mostly the Left and the Old Right) will participate in the use of my Westminster office as a national and international centre for the formulation, articulation and implementation of the alternative to neoliberal economic policy and to neoconservative foreign policy.

When my Campaign Patron, Alex Watson, was the nationally renowned Executive Leader of the pioneering and award-winning Derwentside District Council, then it was effectively run, and run very effectively, by an unofficial coalition between his Labour supporters and the Independents, against the decidedly non-left-wing Labour faction in the North Durham constituency that now runs the unitary Durham County Council.

One of those allies of Alex's, yet now a Portfolio Holder at County Hall, was Lanchester's own Ossie Johnson, who has also been the dominant figure on Lanchester Parish Council since time immemorial. I have never known any party to put up a full slate of candidates for Lanchester Parish Council. When I stood down from it in 2013, then a collection of Labour, Conservative and Independent candidates was elected unopposed, being by happy coincidence the only 15 candidates for the 15 seats. After the 2017 elections, Ossie retained the Chair with the vote of the sole Conservative, whom the votes of the Labour members proceeded to make Vice-Chairman.

And during at least one of his stints as Leader of Derby City Council, Chris Williamson held that office in coalition with the Conservatives, three of whom sat in his Cabinet. It is only since reverting to Labour overall control that that unitary authority has waged war on its Teaching Assistants, after a manner that is also practised, endorsed, or at least colluded with, by my detractors. If you are one such, then ask yourself this: Is your soul redder, is its redness purer and deeper and brighter, than the red soul of Chris Williamson? You know the answer to that one perfectly well.