I just received a phone call from a very nice lady. concerned that the obstacles being placed in my way as a candidate may be getting me down. On the contrary, I haven’t had so much fun in ages.
We sit down to dinner about 10pm every evening after the day’s campaigning, usually about 16 of us, guitars come out, someone strikes up on the piano and we have enormous fun, except for my singing, for which the politest word is loud.
If we didn’t scare the political establishment, they would not react so fiercely to us. We get abuse from party hacks on the street, while the parties are tellingly polite to each other and connive to keep me out of broadcast events. Lots of flak now coming on the internet from Tories, Lib Dems (see the immensely dull Norfolk Blogger) and Greens, and lots of trolls on this website. I might start a flyposting storm to wind them up further.
A prize of twenty pounds is offered to anyone who spots Chloe Smith in public with less than six minders.
Reaction on the doorsteps can only be described as extremely warm – and we have witnessed many instances of outright hostility in public reaction to the political parties. So despite the efforts of overpaid BBC execs to bolster the political parties, something really interesting is happening with real people here in Norwich North. The challenge is to turn that in to action at the ballot box.
Get yourselves to Norwich now – you are missing a lot of fun!
Not a mention of Craig in this 4 minute report by Norman Smith on Radio 4 Today this morning.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8151000/8151064.stm
This is further proof of the BBC obeying NuLabour’s diktat that Craig’s name must be excluded.
Evan Davis speaks at the end of their being a full list of candidates on the BBC website. Does every voter in Norwich North have access to a computer? Is this the BBC’s get out to comply with electoral law?
Had a look at a couple of blogs, Iain Dale’s Dreary is as described but the Norfolk Blogger doesn’t seem to be being that nasty about you. Particularly weak excuse for not posting up your leaflet though.
What happened with your public meetings, the ones where the school withdrew the venue and the UCU refused to let you in?
“So despite the efforts of overpaid BBC execs to bolster the political parties, …”
The BBC lost a large measure of their credibility when they started stealing from children during their bouts of ‘phone rigging: see, BBC acts on phone-rigging scandal.
The lack of criminal prosecutions undermined the CPS as an instituion. If it were you or I, dear reader, who had rigged up a ‘phone system that enabled small amounts of money to be taken from a substantial number of people, the majority of whom were children; do you think we wouldn’t have been prosecuted for theft?
Lastly, the BBC propaganda when reporting on the event was quite repugnant. They continually reported on their news bulletins that the theft was not for anyone’s personal gain. For example, see the Trust’s Statement in Full where they say, “[t]he Trust is clear that these cases arose not because of an individual’s desire for personal gain but …”.
However, section 1(2) of the Theft Act 1968 provides,
“It is immaterial whether the appropriation is made with a view to gain, or is made for the thief’s own benefit.”
As has been said by someone cleverer than I, it’s only subliminal if you don’t realise it.”
Links (software seems to loose embedded links).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563705/BBC-acts-on-phone-rigging-scandal.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563703/BBC-Trust-statement-in-full.html
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&title=theft+act&Year=1968&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&TYPE=QS&PageNumber=1&NavFrom=0&parentActiveTextDocId=1204238&ActiveTextDocId=1204242&filesize=2163
The BBC will have some explaining to do when Craig polls higher than most of the ‘main’ parties they are covering. Just think of the embarrasment. They are certainly missing the story of the election. After all their interest in MPs corruption and expenses, when an independent candidate who has a real chance of winning stands exactly on an anti corruption ticket, it is so sad to see the BBC turn their backs. They make excuses that their are 12 candidates they would have to cover, but they do not really believe the excuses they peddle, I saw it in Michael Cricks own eyes when I asked him directly. The other minor candidates will not feature in the results, including the BNP thank goodness. However, Craig has been an exceptional candidate in this campaign and is really connecting with the people of Norwich North who see the need for an MP who will represent them, not some party leader in Westminster. They don’t want some young upstart dumped on them from out of town as their MP, they want a local man who is prepared to stand up and speak for them. They are a very informed and intelligent electorate and I feel this will leave the BBC will some explaining to do after the results are known….unless they start to see the real story before it is to late. There’s still time for them to open their eyes after all and catch the big scoop. Get yourselves down to Norwich and be part of something truely historic. You’ll regret it if you don’t go.
The very long last link in the above column has changed the settings of the margins on this post and comments column so much so that you have to scroll back and forward sideways to read them.
mary,
Firefox handles the link O.K. without screwing up the formatting. Its a far better browser than Internet Exploder. Unfortunately the person who submitted the post can’t edit it. However if in Advanced Options of Internet Exploder, you untick Enable Automatic Image Resizing it will restore the formatting, though it still looks much better in Firefox.
Stevie,
“Get yourselves down to Norwich and be part of something truely historic. You’ll regret it if you don’t go.”
Yes, I know. I’m still thinking about it and should get off my arse and do it.
Tony
I understand that political campaigns can be dirty, as you say – getting abused by party hacks on the street.
But shouldn’t you be more concerned about voter fraud? Expecially fraud using postal votes. Remember what happened in the last by-election in Glenrothes, postal vote fraud skewed in favour of a particular political party…
You can learn more about voter fraud at this site where they are also running a competition about the Norfolk by-election: http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/electionpurity/?p=881
@ gyges – This blog doesn’t allow embedded links in the comments, I’ve noticed. Use http://tinyurl.com/ to convert yer URL’s & just paste in the short link within the text.
I’m glad to see that Craig is having an effect in good ‘ol Norwich town. If I was nearer, I’d pop in to assist with his election campaign, but alas I am far away. I have, however told those that I know whose parents are living there (in the very constituency!) to check out Craig & tell their friends etc.
The Monster Raving Loony Party, the Miss Great Britain Party, and all other ‘novelty’ groups that cock-a-snook at the ballot box, are often condemned by civic minded folk for abasement of democracy.
Yet I put it to those who care to think, that when a political party places a candidate in an election of which the party rather than the candidate is voted for, they are being no less debasing to the spirit of representative parliamentary democracy, than any of the novelty groups mentioned above.
The main parties are creating place holders for ANY candidate of their choosing, to occupy. Do the good people of Norwich North want a candidate of their choosing or of the choice of some party strategist’s. The good people of Blaenau Gwent showed the door to the party presumption in 2005.
If the parties treat parliamentary democracy with such contempt, why don’t they be honest and call for government by ‘aristocracy’; it would be more in line with what they practice.
And if a ‘place-holder’ candidate won’t be completely honest about their background, seeing fit not to represent themselves, then they should not be seen as fit to represent anybody else.
Britain is watching you Norwich North, this is your big moment to show us how it can be.
I see that the real Dorries is still blogging (no shame and no hiding behind the parapet) an continues to name drop and engage in self publicity. She should either get a better camera or operator. Perhaps the latter was Iain Dorries?
http://blog.dorries.org/id-1461-2009_7_Lady_Lynn_Forester_De_Rothschild.aspx
@Ade – I am coming 160 miles on the weekend to assist. If you have less than that to go, and you have a car, I’d implore you to pop over for the weekend if you have that free. I am really quite excited about this opportunity to get leaflets out to, and to talk to, the biggest possible Norwich North audience.
Jon,
I’d love to come & help & I would also relish the opportunity to talk to the locals. However, I am over 250 miles & 5 hours away & I also have family plans for the weekend already booked.
My best wishes to all volunteers who manage to make it.
I keep stumbling across links and references to Common Purpose. So I had a quick look and found that they did leadership training and thought “so what?” Anyone who’s had any supervisory or management role is likely to have had at least some leadership training. Companies send their staff on leadership and management training courses. Its a sensible thing to do. So I kind of dismissed it and initially labelled it for the nutty conspiracy bucket.
But on having a second and more detailed look, I think there is much more to Common Purpose than there should be. Teaching Leadership skills is one thing, but Common Purpose appear to do a great deal more than that, much of which would appear to be of enormous concern to anyone who actually believes in the basic principles of Freedom and Democracy.
Whilst I have as yet no proof, I am becoming very suspicious that there maybe significant involvement of members of Common Purpose thwarting Craig Murray’s access to media and other methods of communication in this election. There is evidence that several senior members of the BBC who are local to this election have been trained by Common Purpose. Are they denying Craig Murray access – because Common Purpose have told them to deny Craig Murray access?
Someone on this blog actually accused Craig Murray of having links to Common Purpose. This would seem highly unlikely to me, as most of his stated objectives seem in direct opposition to those of Common Purpose.
You can find the names and evidence yourself with a simple Google search. I do not name names on the internet for several reasons. Other people do.
Perhaps someone should ask them, if they have been trained by Common Purpose, and also what their views are on allowing free and fair access to candidates who’s policies they do not approve of. I feel there is an enormous can of worms to be exposed here.
Are there any independent journalists left who have the courage to do their job properly? Or have they all been recruited to be “On Message”.
Tony
Tony,
stop writing emails that will not make any difference at all. Get your arse down to Norwich right now. There you will be a great help to the campaign. As part of the campaign team of volunteers you will have time to discuss conspiracy theories over dinner if you so wish, or even as you are out and about delivering leaflets. Stop writing and start taking action, there’s only 9 bloody days left to go!
(I can say bloody as some of the volunteers working for the team have literally walked until their feet were bleeding. And then they walked some more. When you go to bed tonight, will you be able to say you stood up to be counted when the time mattered?)
Stevie,
Your right of course, and I have the greatest respect for all you guys pounding the beat.
But I ain’t 25 any more, My wife thinks she’s got Swine Flu, and my 18 year old daughter has phoned up saying her car’s gear box has packed in, and so I will probably have to go to Dorset tomorrow to pick her up and her 3 friends she is camping with, together with all their gear.
Maybe Friday.
Tony
Ah, how I miss the fun of winding up the hacks in elections! I remember David Lammy and his vicious little lap dog whipping out a camera and taking photos of us, spitting feathers and screeching that they would get us disqualified – all because we were ‘standing too close’ to the entrance of the polling station on election day where we were backing Janet Alder in her campaign. Rattled much Mr Lammy? 😀
God forbid we would stand too close to a door – anyone would think we had just voted for the destruction of an entire nation so that the most corrupt US adminstration the world has ever seen could get their hands on its oil. Aren’t priorities grand Mr Lammy?
And yes, aren’t they all positively sweet to each other? We all know why this is, don’t we?
Keep going Craig – sounds like you are having lots of fun. But then why wouldn’t you be? Your conscience is clean and you have a heart of gold. You are in it for all the right reasons, not to line your pockets or because you’re on a power trip.
Not like the hacks who must spin the party lie all day (oops, I mean ‘line’) – defending mass murder, torture, racism, the destruction of public services and countless other policies designed to shit all over the little people all under the guise of ‘democracy’. Now THAT must be draining.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8152099.stm
Following on from BM who speaks of mass murder, torture etc. my heart sank on reading the above. The noble Baroness Kinnock (nu labour stooge and EU trougher) is flying a kite for Bliar, the well known war criminal, to be EU President. This is in spite of over 27,000 signatures against him on http://www.stopblair.eu The comments there make interesting reading and are of one opinion needless to say.
Newsnight tonight (15 July)
Our political editor has been to Norwich North. Next week’s by-election there takes place following the resignation of Labour MP Ian Gibson after he was deselected over his expenses claims. Michael Crick assesses how the parties campaigns are going, and it’s an uncomfortable watch for the Labour candidate.
@shrug
“Michael Crick assesses how the parties campaigns are going”
Surely it is the candidates he should be assessing, not the “parties”?
Let’s see if Crick still thinks he can get away with making Craig Murray (and for that matter, UKIP) “queue up behind the BNP”!
“The BNP leader Nick Griffin has described Islam as a ‘cancer’
that should be removed from Europe by ‘chemotherapy’.”
http://tinyurl.com/noy3cz
@Ade – OK you got me beat there. If I had 250 miles to go, I’d have second thoughts about it!
@Anyone – surely there must be some folks in the East somewhere who could be persuaded to come for the weekend. Own up, whoever you are 🙂
I’ve been asked to explain my interest in Craig Murray on a Conservative website where I have been posting for a few years ( I may have voted Tory once, but it has been Liberal, Green, UKIP or Monster Raving Loony for as long as I can remember clearly). I don’t recall voting Labour, but I cannot deny the possibility at some point in the distant past – long before Blair)
I replied thus:
“Well my interest in Craig Murray only started a few months ago when due to my interest in human rights, I read his book Murder in Samarkand, in of all places the Maldives (it rained a lot in the first week)
You see, Craig Murray doesn’t approve of people being tortured by being boiled alive to death.
When he complained as Ambassador to Uzbekistan to the Labour Government, that they were receiving information from such Torture, warning the Politicians that this was not only completely illegal, but totally immoral, they did everything they possibly could to discredit him.
He had loads of meetings at the highest levels in Whitehall, effectively saying you simply cannot do this, and eventually, because they had just done David Kelly, thought well – we’ll do Craig Murray, but he actually survived it, so they fired him instead.
Craig Murray’s book is far better than any James Bond Thriller cos it is TRUE
I’ve never actually met him, but nearly did when he was giving evidence to the Joint Commission on Human Rights at the House of Commons earlier this year. But he asked on his website if someone could record it and put it up on Youtube so I volunteered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF9spgagSHI
Tony
Hey, Craig Murray! I put in a word for you at Harry’s Place where they are discussing Peter Tatchell’s choice of candidate, the Green Party one. The commenters believe he is a mentalist.
The heading reminds me of an exchange in the closing of “Monte Carlo or Bust” that went something like this:
Maj. Digby Dawlish (Peter Cook): ” I want you to know, Barrington, that it’s been tremendous fun.”
Lt. Kit Barrington (Dudley Moore, in a voice more charged with emotion): “It’s been rip-rip-ripping, Sah!”
If, by some chance, you don’t do as well as we hope, I suggest that those activists who are in Norwich on election night, use this to console each other and inject some humour into the proceedings – and maybe add ‘Next year with Mother Julian’, since the seat will probably be fought again at the general election in a year’s time.
But for now, good luck!
“while the parties are tellingly polite to each other and connive to keep me out of broadcast events”…
http://tinyurl.com/n4du5u
Abe Rene,
It’s the Journey that is important rather than the destination. It is the pursuit of the girl rather than the ultimate orgasm that’s all the fun.
There is an extremely good argument that Peter Sellers saved the World from Mutually Assured Destruction because he made both The Russians and The Americans laugh at the MADness.
Personally I rate Being There as his Masterpiece. Then he dropped dead with a smile on his face. He had proved he could walk on water.
Tony
Yes Harry’s Place favours Craig over the Green candidate. There are allegations that Rupert is a troofer and an anti-Semite to boot. Great concern that Peter Tatchell is supporting the unsavoury Green.
@Abe Rene
I left a reply for you about tours on the Totalitarian thread.
The last time I delivered leaflets was around 45 years ago. I did both the poor working class council estates as well as the rich posh ones. I much prefered the poor working class areas because the people were much nicer and receptive and I could deliver at a much faster rate because the homes were much closer together.
But I can still do it, and probably will. I will phone before I turn up, and I want to be scheduled appropriately with an appropriate leaflet. I reckon I can do a few thousand over a few days and maybe make a difference.
One can but try.
Tony