Rory Stewart is getting the hang of being a Conservative politician; he has plainly learned that the first requirement is to lie through your teeth. Form today’s Independent on Sunday:
Once tutor to Princes William and Harry, Rory Stewart, in his latest incarnation as Conservative prospective candidate for Penrith, has found himself the unlikely subject of intrigue. Craig Murray, renegade former ambassador to Uzbekistan, claims in his blog that Stewart worked as an MI6 officer in Afghanistan. While it’s true Stewart was educated at Eton, received training from the British armed forces, and has yet to marry, the comparisons with James Bond appear to end there. “I’ve never met Craig Murray and I have no idea why he is saying this,” he tells me when I call, “It’s not just false but extremely dangerous. I’ve been doing charity work in countries where people are already at risk and his claims will only endanger them further.” Stewart’s father is even more succinct: “It’s bollocks.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-bell-the-iiosi-diary-1816838.html
Let me be plain. Rory Stewart was an officer for Torturers’R’Us (formerly trading as MI6).
Now I know many MI6 officers personally and I know the identities of hundreds of them. But I have no intention of “Outing” them and, once retired, I am more than happy for them to tend their roses in Tonbridge Wells in all anonymity. But Stewart has entered politics and, in putting himself forward as a parliamentary candidate, he forfeits his right to conceal his history from the voters.
I think it was quite right of Stewart to issue this denial, even though I suspect it is untrue. You have made your point & should let the matter drop. This guy is no Paddy Ashdown.
Ah yes Alan, the advantages of being an Old Etonian!
Actually I have done all of those things except winning an election – but then thank God I am not a Tory.
I see that the trolls are out in force again. Coincidence?
@Craig 11.47 – hmm….I don’t think you can tar Tories as one homogenous group.
This thread sort of comes to the point if inverted – if he wasn’t MI6 – why the hell not?
Craig. I understand what you are saying but surely you understand ex-spooks are never allowed to ‘either confirm nor deny’ such allegations. Don’t you consider his hands might be tied on this front?
Much more importantly is the death of Timothy Hampton at the UN in Vienna. Your thoughts on that story would be of interest.
Rory Stewart has been providing some of the most cogent arguments on the need for pulling troops out of Afghanistan and allowing Afghans to become the masters of their own destiny, that can be found in the plethora of commentary on this subject. Read, for instance, his London Review of Books piece, “The Irresistible Illusion” http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n13/rory-stewart/the-irresistible-illusion .
It baffles me why Craig Murray is conducting what has all the markings of a petty personal vendetta against a man who has already accomplished a great deal and may well make a significant contribution to British politics (forget about which party he’s chosen – let’s face it: Tony Blair flushed Labour down the toilet).
Rather than tarnish Stewart’s reputation, this exercise has done a lot more to make Murray sound like a foolish curmudgeon.
@ Control 1.34pm
You say:
“but surely you understand ex-spooks are never allowed to ‘either confirm nor deny’ such allegations. Don’t you consider his hands might be tied on this front?”
But Mr Stewart has DENIED it!!
The clue is in his use of the word “false”.
Craig – please remove the comment from the person calling themselves Matthew Bell. That was not written by me. Thanks, Matthew
@ Paul J. Lewis 9:41 AM
This is one of Guido Fawkes aka Paul Staines operations.
Staines has almost as colourful a history as Mr Stewart, albeit in a much less official capacity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Staines
I suspect he read Hemingway at some stage.
Staines runs what claims to be a Libertarian blog, but many view as it as a pro-Tory party blog. Plausible deniability, dontchaknow. His blog is registered in one of those dubious Caribbean islands.
The real question is who is backing Mr Staines.
Some have suggested Lord Ashcroft, though this has been denied.
Matthew,
I don’t think anyone thought it was you.
Craig – please remove all comments from the person calling themselves anon. These was not written by me.
If all other bloggers could please copy, I’d be most grateful
Thanks, anon
“Torturer’s R Us…”
Indeed.
Common knowledge.
It’s the Old Etonian bit you’re really cross about, isn’t it, Craig? You don’t really care about the MI6 bit: it’s the fact that he’s a toff that riles you.
Nasty Rory. Imagine him, at the age of twelve bullying his parents into gving up their taxed income to send him to a public school, thereby alleviating the state sector from having to provide a place to him. I suspect they probably bought that Harvard professorship too, don’t you? What a stinker. Really, it’s too, too horrid to think of. Thank you for exposing him. Now – why don;t you have a pop at another one. That rotter Simon Mann, for example. Oh.. I see you already have…
@ Lord Snooty
Yours is a curiously confused and irrational piece of work. Not sure Rory would be happy with such a baleful defence.
Craig has a go at all manner of people, both privately educated and publicly educated, working class and not.
The only common theme seems to be their control of our lives and interest in public office.
If you’ve some evidence to the contrary, then please produce it. Otherwise you might consider taking your musings to Mr Dale or Fawkes who seem happy to entertain the tiresome drivellings of playground types such as yourself.
Lord Snat,
Thanks for the defence, but in fact I do dislike those who inherited misused power more than I dislike those who achieved misused power. Not entirely rational, I know.
anon, are you including yourself in this editorial censorship of all anons? Is it my comments or my name that you object to so strongly? Both? Is that artistically licensed rudeness or just peak? Sorry to cause offence anyway.
Peak as in peak oil, or peak testosterone. Why not just politely say to me – please don’t use my name? Vanity maybe that someone hasn’t heard of your publication.
What should I use instead please Craig?
How come Stewart has chosen to become a Conservative MP when his view on Afghanistan, a country to which he seems to have devoted many years, are at odds with the view of the Conservative party (according to spokesman Liam Fox). Does it make any sense? Is he an opportunist? I wish I’d gone to his selection primary and had the chance to ask him this question in person.
Craig – Thanks for that clarification.
I’m afraid the subtleties of your class system much too nuanced for me.
I expect I’ve been annoying all the right people for years now, totally oblivious to my place in the world.
anon, you have to look beyond the first layer of Rory’s views on Afghanistan to see why he might fit well into the Tories.
A few quotes from Rory in a rather interesting 2007 exchange with UK ambassador to Afghanistan – Sherard Cowper-Coles:
“[current policy] is an extravagance we will regret when we need to engage in other countries”
“We will have to reduce numbers to deal with new crises and do more globally with fewer troops.”
“We need a strategy, one which is smarter, more honest and more efficient with our resources; one which can be applied to Somalia, Sudan or anywhere else where trouble emerges.”
This is however leavened with a lot of common sense like:
“For 40 years, Afghans have witnessed international support roar from feast to famine, from high moral rhetoric to lowest cynicism; from billions of dollars to nothing and back. In the absence of a sustainable policy, we will flee again.”
http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/3028909
Also re MI6: Rory himself was happy to name-drop this into his The Observer profile of 17 May 2009: “He is still surreally well-connected, mentioning an email he has just received from a former head of MI6 asking who will win the Afghan elections”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/17/rory-stewart-afghanistan-traditional-skills
“Rory Stewart is getting the hang of being a Conservative politician; he has plainly learned that the first requirement is to lie through your teeth”.
Nearly right.
“Rory Stewart is getting the hang of being a politician; he has plainly learned that the first requirement is to lie through your teeth”.
There, fixed that for you.
Craig, it’s “Tunbridge Wells”, not “Tonbridge Wells”.
I’m told that it used to be “Tonbridge Wells”, but that was before even your time, I believe.
😉
Such a shame that terms like “loony bin”, are used in such a casual manner. There are no loony bins; there are hospital wards across the globe were people suffer the most dreadful mental pain with minimal relief and usually for life. Most of them would give anything to participate in a debate like this so please lets get away from this stigma attached to mental illness by not using these terms
@Paul Woodward – you seem to be saying that it doesn’t matter which political party you stand for, and that you can do an equal amount of “good” in any of them. But this, surely, is not so. All of them will happily support the role of the charitable sector, or talk about making things better for the poor. But when it comes to the asset-stripping of public services, or refusing to help redistribute wealth in a meaningful way, the politics of fairness versus greed become plain.
I am sure no mainstream British political party has any policies subscribing to genuine and radical change for the poor. But I would have thought the Tory party, with its emphasis on protecting established wealth and reacting against social change, would not be a good place to start.
Meanwhile though Blair was a disaster for the Labour party, if they reinstate some internal party democracy, decent MPs who care genuinely for the poor, such as Short and McDonnell, might be permitted to influence (and reverse) policy.
What is this obsession with democracy?
Blair took democracy to mean post-election dictatorship and Miliband uses the same devious idea. I’m the minister. Democracy has been the one thing which has distinguished dictator Blair from dictator Saddam. By democracy Blair has evaded individual responsibility for the Iraq war, while in the name of democracy Saddam was hung, by a government that is not representative of the majority in the country of Iraq if you take it as a whole.
Internal democracy would involve listening to other views. Democracy was cancelled by Mrs Thatcher. We are paying the price for her balls-ups then and we will pay the price for her successors’ soon.
There is a group of interconnected blogs alleging torture of their own agents by M15 and MI6. http://www.mi5andmi6exposed.blogspot.com/
and http://www.mi5andmi6exposed3.blogspot.com/
provide entries to the maze. Much of the story is in the comments. These tales are extremely bizarre and disturbing. They name public figures. The authors appear to be ex-agents seeking to help each other recover from the mind control which was imposed on them by these tortures and strange rituals.
Perhaps Mr. Murray, or others who know more about intelligence agencies and their masters, would like to comment on how much credence should be given to these stories.
Tonbridge Wells, or Troon? South Ayrshire is where the Scottish ones retire. It has a favourable microclimate, they say. You can spot them by the fact that you can’t spot them. Because of the roses.
This is doing my head in! Who are all these people pretending to be other people? Which of them is the real one? Why is anon allegedly pretending to be anon? Or are there two anons? Are they twins? Is there one Bell, or two? What is what? Who is who? Who am I? Am Im who I say I am. I think, therefore I am… am I?
I even managed – like Gordon Brown, perhaps, tired and in a rush – to type my name wrong, twice! It is me, all three are me. I am three.
I just laughed so hard I nearly choked on my tea.
Did nobody believe me about Brad Pitt buying the rights to the biopic of Rory Stewart’s life? It’s here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Stewart
Extreme bottom before the Notes.
So is he going to be MI6 in the biopic or not?
Or is he going to be ‘anon’? Or ‘Bell’?