Dear Sir,

Vince Crosby challenges me to put up or shut up! That is, either I stand for election to the Council, or stop writing letters exposing the hypocrisy of our local Labour/Momentum party.

I’m sorry Vince, but I consider myself to be too old to stand, but old and experienced enough to expose the machinations of the extreme left.

We learned from Cllr. Jim Atkinson that Labour candidates are vetted; the final arbiter in the selection process being the local Labour/Momentum Party Whip. Labour/Momentum selected Cllr. Beetham as a candidate despite her post-referendum Facebook post calling more than half of referendum voters, “Morons, who should all be gassed” [paraphrased with expletive deleted]. I’m surprised at any decent, left-of-centre Councillor being willing to share a platform with a candidate or Councillor capable of such hateful bile. I also question whether the Whip ‘liked’ Cllr. Beetham’s post and whether the Whip is a current/or past member or supporter of the Momentum. When you get a Labour Candidate’s leaflet through the door be aware of who has vetted the Candidate and who the candidate is willing to be associated with.

Both our Town and County Council have been Labour (Whip) controlled for as long as I can remember. This is why we have one of the highest rates of local taxation in the entire country! Also, D.C.C. paid £3m + for shares in, failing Durham County Cricket Club (more correctly, DCC converted a loan into shares, which will now have much less value, and are much less likely to be redeemed).

Labour controlled DCC have appointed in Cllr. J.D. Clare, as Climate Champion and he supports Climate Extinction. However, neither J.D. Clare nor Greta Thunberg can explain why the world is currently cooling. Also, the rise in CO2 has resulted in plant growth and the planet being ‘greener’. This has enabled the world population to almost double since the late 1960’s.

Since I don’t believe in Climate Extinction, I don’t see the need for the political culling of humankind which is the aim of Marxist Climate Extinction: with them setting the policies and being in control of who lives and who dies!

Yours Sincerely,

Alastair P.G. Welsh