Graham and Barry
Dear Editor,
On Saturday 6 September I was one of 890 people arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for holding a cardboard sign. I was held for 12 hours and released at
4.30 am on Sunday morning from Ilford police station, 18 miles from my home in Brent.
Barry Gardiner MP or Brent West voted for the proscribing of the non-violent group Palestine Action under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and is therefore personally responsible for the arrests of peaceful protestors in Parliament Square including blind people,many very elderly people and many people there from religious groups like the Quakers. The police were rough with anyone who refused to give their names before seeing a solicitor - I am a 71 year old grandad and was double handcuffed and thrown on the floor of a police van for an hour.
Today I announce that I will be standing against Barry Gardiner at the next General Election as I hold him personally responsible for the arrests and police brutality, but mine is not a revenge mission.
Gardiner is now a media favourite and regular on the BBC and Nigel Farages GBNews. His role is to defend the Starmer government when they cut Winter Fuel payments, attack disabled people,privatise the NHS, allow further fossil fuel drilling and above all continue to sell arms to the Israeli Defence Force which is committing genocide in Gaza.
This latter role is no surprise for Gardiner is a big supporter of Israel, a former vice -chair of Labour Friends of Israel, who fully supports Zionism and its horrors against defenceless Palestinians.
Gardiner is a rich man who has drawn a big salary for his 28 years in Parliament - he currently receives £94k a year. He has lost touch with the working people of Brent and when I am elected I will only accept an average workers wage.
I stand for a better public NHS, green energy, nationalisation of the water companies, expansion of rail travel, a wealth tax on the richest and much else. Above all I oppose the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.
Contact me : grahamdurham@hotmail.com
27 comments:
Ditching Gardiner & voting for Durham would be like jumping out of the frying pan & into the fire. Either of them won’t be getting my vote, that’s for sure!
what happened to Graham just shows the game’s rigged. Man’s a 71-year-old grandad, standing with Palestine, and they still cuff him up like a criminal. Meanwhile the real crooks are in Parliament cashing ninety-odd grand a year while flogging off the NHS and arming Israel.
Gardiner don’t speak for Brent, he speaks for the bosses and the war machine. Always on telly chatting breeze while locals can’t heat their homes or get a GP appointment. Man’s forgotten where he came from.
Hamas's leaders have a net worth in the billions, whilst the people are left to starve. Would we be nice to see written on carboard “free palestine from hamas”. If scotland acted to England with rockets, attacks like oct 7th and repeated calls for genocide, you know the same would happen
What are you going to do to solve the problem of the lost generation of NEETS in the UK further impacted by Labour's increases to the national insurance that employers pay which has led to thousands of job losses ...
"923,000 16-24-year-olds estimated to have been not in education, employment or training - Neet - in the first three months of 2025, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
That equates to roughly one in eight people aged 16 to 24."
BBC News - Neets: One in eight young people not in work or education - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp92218jpryo?app-referrer=deep-link
Exactly
Such ignorance ..nearly all the Hamas leaders have been assassinated by Israel in attacks which breach international borders and slaughter innocents nearby. But the real sore which leads to Israeli violence and attempts at resistance are the illegal Jewish settlements , stealing Palestinian land and murdering unarmed Palestinians who protest
Great question ..a huge expansion of training and apprenticeships is needed both in state employers and private . There are so many underresourced services , for example working as mental health support , where skills training and a much bigger workforce is essential
I assume Graham's announcement is that he will be standing for the Graham Durham Party, because no other party has met to select him. Some of us still believe in democratic selection processes.
Good call, what’s going on with ‘your party’ Graham Durham, isn’t it meant to be democratic?
There is a public meeting of Your Party on 25 September at 7pm at Chalkhilk Community Centre ..do come along if interested in the many not the few .
I have announced my candidature against Genocide Gardiner as an Independent. I’m hugely honoured by the numbers of Brent people expressing support and offering help.
As an independent? Have you been expelled from ‘your party’?
He acted illegally, he got arrested, no surprise there, the fact hes old enough to know better makes no difference, also i have no doubt his arrest will bar him from standing so whats this nonsense about
Totally pointless - has not Barry Gardiner already told some of his long standing supporters that he won't stand again in the next General Election?
PS. No sensible person would shed a single tear for the Hamas murderers. By killing over 1200 innocent people on 7 October 2023 they have set back the Palestinian cause for decades.
Who's going to fund the training and where will it be held??? And which employers will take on more apprentices when they are bring hammered by Labour's taxes?
Which of the right-wing Brent Councillors are you? How can the Palestinian cause have been set back? They have been attacked for years by the settlers and the IDF. Take your blinkered views elsewhere please.
Martin - you really need to censor some of the comments on here - all this hatred is damaging and isn't acceptable here in Brent.
Thought this blog was supposed to be about Wembley and the issues we face here?
Easy solution - just drop the name "Wembley" from the title of the blog.
Being Called "Matters" allows anyone to choose any topic they want - even a bit of self promotion - get arrested and immediately announce your candidature for Parliament.
Being arrested and having a friend on the spot to take the photo while it's happening is a much better publicity than Barry Gardiner appearing in GB News could ever achieve.
Time to get to some really meaty issues - like the total disaster that Labour Councillors are making of Housing in Brent (oops Martin is already on to this).
The blog blurb says 'News and views on local politics, the environment, climate change, culture and local history' but international issues do impinge on people in Brent, particularly given our population from many backgrounds. Given current political fluidity the GD announcement is of interest but I have suggested to him that he or 'Your Party' could start their own blog. If you search the blog (right hand column) you will find an awful lot of articles on housing and I believe that it (alongside regeneration) is one of the biggest issus facing Brent. 'Wembley Matters) name is derived from the earliest dys of the blog when I was seeking to open discussion on the evelopment challnges facing Wembley. I have always covered the whoe of Brent (as a test search for 'Kilburn' and have toyed with changing the name but it is (I hate the word) a brand widely recognised.
Anon 10 Sept at 19.25 I do moderate comments on the blog (you should see the ones I have not published) but try and balance that to enable debate even when I disagree with what is said. See guidelines. I set the blog up to provide a forum for local people to express their views on issues affecting them. The local press is a shadow of its former self and much of what I write about here is not covered, including currently the deselections. The Kilburn Times only has one local letter a week (often from the same individual who writes often) with the others from national rather than local oganisations.. The lack of a good local newspaper, such as they have in Camden with the CNJ, is a real blow for local democracy and accountability. I don't get it right all the time and often hesitate over comments.
After all what's in a name? Perhaps Martin should have called it "Wemba" a good Anglo Saxon term. I am sure Philip Grant would have approved.
But seriously....
WM is Martin's baby and as Editor in Chief who set up this 'brand' he should have the freedom to publish what he wants.
There is nothing wrong with a bit of argument and expression of different opinions as long as Martin's basic rule of people being civil to each other are followed.
Caroline Lucas once said, “we all need to get better at listening to people we disagree with”
Im confused. Corbyn had a your party meeting in Portsmouth today. Is Graham for or against Your Party?
They are not being civil though. People need to think before they comment.
Further to my reply 10 September 2025 at 21:13 on WM coverge, the Kilburn Times does today carry the story about Labour de-selections. A little late but good to see.
Your Party was only launched seven weeks ago , whilst it is holding public meetings ( the Brent one is on 25 September at Chalkhilk Community Centre ) it does not have a structure yet either nationally or locally. I am one of those helping build Your Party locally . Last year my friend Jeremy Corbyn was elected as an Independent ,many Brent voters have asked me to do the same and I have agreed.
Been impressed with coverage here on selections.
Suggest links back to october 2023 though to give full facts.
Ie who did and did not sign regarding ceasefire statements.
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