Democratic Engagement Derek Thomas Limpet Negotiations

Email from:  Derek Thomas, MP for St.Ives.   9.11.2015

Dear Jeremy

Thank you for your emails. I have read your online contribution to political debate and judged that anything I write will only be used in a negative and provocative manner.

I have been intending to visit you in person as I am more than willing to discuss the issues you are concerned about.

However, I am not prepared to do an interview for the Limpet.

How do you suggest we progress from here?

Kind regards

Derek Thomas

Member of Parliament for St Ives

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Open letter to Derek Thomas, MP  9.11.15  

Dear Derek,

Thank you for replying to me.  It’s a shame you only do so after I publicly accuse you of dereliction of duty, but still, it’s a start.

 What you have seen on my website is not political debate, it is propaganda.  Debate is when two or more minds meet in free discussion.  I engage in  propaganda because I believe the Conservative Party represents forces that are counterproductive to human happiness, justice and progress.  When I first met you five years ago I told you I was a Human Rights activist and that hasn’t changed.  I also told you then that I did not like your party, and that has not changed either.   At that meeting you agreed to an interview with me and you agreed again, in public, earlier this year, so changing your mind about the interview, it’s not very honest, is it?  When I do an interview, I print verbatim every word said by both parties.  That’s the way I did it with UKIP - I don’t like their policies one bit, but I’m not going to misrepresent them.  When I interview, both parties are at liberty to record the conversation, therefore both parties can prove what was said.  All very simple.  Therefore, if I did interview you, it would be on those same, mutually fair terms.  

 I am glad that you are willing to meet me and discuss the various issues I have written to you about since you took office six months ago.  This might be quite time-consuming, as the issues keep accumulating over the months.  Fox-hunting, the Human Rights Act, extra-judicial killings of British citizens, etc.  these are all matters of life and death that require deep investigation and cannot simply be glossed over with a few vague or superficial phrases.  

 Since the topics I would wish to discuss with you are legal topics, I would want to record the entire conversation, as obviously I would need hard evidence of your position in law.  An unrecorded verbal exchange has no legal value to me.  

 As a long-time Free Speech activist, who happens to be a citizen-journalist, I always publish my exchanges with officialdom, whether it be politicians, police, civil-servants, the UN, whomsoever it may be.  Therefore, if we have a meeting and a verbal discussion on domestic and international law, I will record and publish our discussion.  My outlet for such activities is ‘The Limpet’, so that is where it will be published.  

 It seems to me that you are backing away from communicating with me because you know that I am anti-Tory, articulate and politically engaged.  As a politician, you should be able to better me in debate - if your arguments have any substance.  But it seems to me that whereas the left wing originated as a popular movement to secure a better life for the mass of people, the only purpose and ideology of the right wing is to concentrate power and wealth in a very few hands, at the expense of wholesale misery and exploitation for everyone else.  

Power to the people.

Best wishes, Jeremy Schanche