Greeting citizens of York Central!
My name is Alasdair Lord and I am standing as an Independent candidate in the constituency of York Central, and on July 4th 2024 I would like you to vote me in as your Member of Parliament. I am standing in my capacity as a private citizen and I am not backed by any party, unions or big business.
I was born and grew up in York, where I attended Tang Hall Nursery, Tang Hall Primary and Tang Hall Junior schools. From 1982-87 I attended Nunthorpe Grammar School for Boys and then Millthorpe Comprehensive after educational policy changes in North Yorkshire in 1985. Then I spent two years at York Sixth Form College followed by one year part time at York College of Arts and Technology (they have both now been replaced by York College). Additionally my grandfather, father and daughter have all been educated at York schools. It is fair to say I am York born and bred.
In 1992 I first worked abroad as a labourer in Holland at the age of twenty, and since that time I have lived and worked abroad for half of my adult life, including; a year in Mexico, nine years in Thailand, over two years in Saudi Arabia, four years in Oman and a year in Spain. I speak fluent Spanish and Thai. Since November 2012 I have lived approximately eight of the last eleven and a half years in York, three and a half of those years as a single-parent in the Groves. I have spent most of my working life as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher and have worked at the following York language schools; English in York, York Associates and English Language Centre (now called BSC Education). In addition I’ve worked as an Academic English tutor at York University and as a EFL teacher at York St. John University. Last year I also taught job related English to refugees in York on behalf of the DWP. Currently I work as a supply cover supervisor and supply SEN teaching assistant at a variety of York primary and secondary schools.
York Central Independent candidate statement – Alasdair Lord
As a candidate for York Central UK GE 2024 I present five main policies that I would seek to implement if elected as Member of Parliament to represent the people of York Central.
- Pro-peace / Anti-war
- Economic Justice
- Referendum on the future of the royal family
- Evidence-based approach to UK drug laws
- Sovereignty of the Individual as a given
Pro-peace / Anti-war
Both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party are acting in a belligerent manner on the global stage and supporting policies that strengthen the global arms trade (of which the UK is a major player). As a teacher, father and human being, I stand as a pro-peace candidate. The UK should not be supporting oppressive regimes around the world with (covert or overt) military assistance and our role in the global arms trade must stop.
No to National Service. The Conservative Party are proposing National Service and there has been talk of conscription being used if the UK’s role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict intensifies. The children of the political elite and the super wealthy will not be conscripted, this will see the children of ordinary working people sent off to fight and die. I stand against this.
Economic Justice
During the global financial crisis of 2007-8 there was a massive transfer of wealth from poor and middle class to the super wealthy. And again during the Covid pandemic there was a transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the super wealthy of around £3.5 trillion. The billionaire class get wealthier by the day while ordinary working people struggle to pay their bills, avoid homelessness and pay for basic necessities. This is because the global economic system is designed this way; it is a rigged game. In my book, Postcapitalism: An Alternative to the ‘Great Reset’, I give a detailed analysis of how we can replace this system in the long term.
In the short term I support the abolition of VAT (a move which would benefit the vast majority of people in the UK) to be replaced by a non-Value Added tax (as detailed in the book Taxtopia). For example this would penalize private water companies that pump raw sewage into our rivers and charge them high prices that would incentivise them to properly treat sewage. Furthermore, I support a windfall tax on the super-wealthy (the top 0.1% of the wealthiest) as detailed on his YouTube channel by economist Gary Stevenson. I also support bringing into public ownership utilities such as energy companies, the railways and water companies.
Referendum on the future of the royal family
When Queen Elizabeth II died and Charles III became King, there was no meaningful debate about the future of the royal family in the UK, the succession was simply carried out. Given that 3 million children in the UK live in poverty many people are strongly opposed to, or deeply ambiguous about the royal family, their position in society and the cost for the taxpayer. I propose three options in this referendum 1) Continue with the royal family in their current form. 2) Continue with a slimmed down royal family. 3) Abolish the monarchy and bring their wealth into public ownership. I think that a referendum on the future of the royal family is a reasonable ask from the UK taxpayer.
Implement an evidence-based approach to UK drug policy
UK drug law is not evidence-based but has been formed as a response to pressure from the USA and dishonest journalists and activists with an agenda. In 2009 the then Drug Tsar Prof David Nutt was sacked by the then Labour government for his evidence-based research on drug harms in the UK and for his recommendations. At the time Prof Nutt said this, “Our findings lend support to previous work in the UK and the Netherlands, confirming that the present drug classification systems have little relation to the evidence of harm.”
According to former undercover police officer Neil Woods (who spent fourteen years infiltrating UK drug gangs), the rise in drug-related violent crime can be directly attributed to the illegal status of narcotics and an unregulated drugs market, as was the case during alcohol prohibition in the 1920s in the USA. If we wish to reduce harms to society and reduce the cost of drugs policing, our approach to drug legislation must be evidence-based. Moreover, I consider that a well-informed human adult is sovereign over his or her choices of what substances they choose to consume (or what they choose not to put in their body), and it is not the business of government to be dictating these issues to the people. The government is servant of the people, not the other way around.
Withdraw from America’s catastrophic so-called ‘war on drugs’. I was born in June 1971, the same year that US President Richard Nixon declared the so-called ‘war on drugs’ (in actual fact a war on the poor and working class), and so this war has literally been raging my entire life. It’s stated aims were to decrease the supply of drugs in the world and reduce the number of addicts; it has failed on both counts as the drug supply in 2024 is higher than it has ever been and there are more drug addicts alive today than at any other time in history. It has, however, bolstered the power of organised crime, the DEA and the military-industrial-complex, furthermore it has turned the countries of Mexico, Colombia and Albania into “Narco-States”. It’s also fair to say that the nations of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and Afghanistan, although no longer Narco-states, have been Narco-States in recent history directly as a result of the so-called war on drugs. Millions of innocent people have been slaughtered because of Nixon’s madness and Britain’s taxpayers are being fleeced to help facilitate this, as a sovereign nation we should not be bullied into this unwinnable war by the USA.
Sovereignty of the Individual as a given
In a free and fair society, the basic human right to bodily autonomy should be assumed as an absolute baseline starting point. This means no to vaccine mandates, no to mask mandates and a no to lockdowns. I stand against any treaties with the WHO, the UN or NATO which compromise the rights of the individual. Furthermore, we should not assume the UK’s continued membership of transnational organisation such as the UN, NATO or the WHO are a given and we should seriously consider withdrawal from these organisations. I also stand against globalist technocrats of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and their plans for so-called “fifteen minute cities”.
A hard no to CBDCs and mandatory digital ID. In 2021 then Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak stated that the UK would be adopting Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) at some unspecified point in the future. No consultation, no problem that they are solving, simply a statement that it would happen. Sir Keir Starmer, if elected, will attempt to carry out this policy and it will be game over for privacy and freedom in the UK if this happened. I stand against the abolition of cash money and the introduction of programmable CBDCs. Moreover, I stand against mandatory digital ID of any sort.
A hard no to facial recognition roll-out. The police and private companies are piloting and rolling out facial recognition cameras across the UK. This is an invasion of our privacy that must be opposed. Furthermore I would seek to have supermarkets remove all video equipment from their tills and self-service machines. Privacy of the individual in a free society should be a given and does not require any justification.