Murdoch Circus - Craig Murray

I find it hard to believe that anybody can watch today’s clutch of Select Committee hearings without coming away with one overwhelming impression; the extraordinarily low quality of the UK’s Members of Parliament. With the noble exception of Tom Watson, I don’t think anyone has enhanced their reputation today. I have often blogged about the fact that for centuries Parliament contained many of the intellectually brilliant, of a whole variety of political persuasions, but beyond doubt amongst the most outstanding minds and extraordinary people of their generation. This was still true in my earlier lifetime.

Parliament nowadays is full of dull party hacks of a middle management mentality. The number of parliamentarians I would enjoy sitting next to at dinner, is tiny. How many parliamentarians would you enjoy a dinner with? Most of them are in it, not to serve their country, but as a career. What really agitates them is anything affecting their expenses and their pensions.

The Murdochs could bat away these pompous blunderers all day. Even the dull transatlantic management speak of James Murdoch baffles them. It is humiliating for this country that these dullards are our representatives.

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32 thoughts on “Murdoch Circus”

dreoilin July 19, 2011 at 16:26

Calls on Twitter, “Bring Tom Watson back!”

mary July 19, 2011 at 16:28

Our greatest regret is that you were not elected Craig. You would have made mincemeat pies of the smug smartalec James and the lurking monster who created him.
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News International, PR giant Edelman and former BBC news director
Posted by The Editors on July 19, 2011, 11:52 am
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From The Times on Feb 16, 2010:
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‘He was 30 years at the BBC, but in May Richard Sambrook will start a new life spinning for Edelman, the world’s biggest independent public relations company. […] At Edelman he will lead the company’s global crisis department …’
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http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/movers_and_shakers/article7028335.ece
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From the Guardian on July 14, 2011:
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‘Phone hacking: Rupert Murdoch calls in PR firm Edelman. PR company will report directly to general manager of News International […] Edelman last year hired the BBC’s former director of news, Richard Sambrook, to head up its “crisis and issues practice”. It is unclear whether he will be part of the firm’s News Corp team.’
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{http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/14/phone-hacking-rupert-murdoch}

angrysoba July 19, 2011 at 16:55

It just got interesting there. Rupert Murdoch’s wife SPRANG into action. Maybe she’s Mr Rupert’s body guard. 😀

mary July 19, 2011 at 16:56

That was handy wasn’t it.

angrysoba July 19, 2011 at 17:01

“That was handy wasn’t it.”
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Mrs Murdoch was certainly handy!

Nextus July 19, 2011 at 17:01

Chloe Smith could be the poster girl for that careerist middle management political elite. (If she trimmed her eyebrows, anyway.) From what I can see, she holds no political convictions other than those she’s been told to express.

mary July 19, 2011 at 17:03

Wendy Deng Fu.

dreoilin July 19, 2011 at 17:06

Guy identified immediately on Twitter as @JonnieMarbles of UK uncut.

dreoilin July 19, 2011 at 17:07

His latest tweet on Twitter says, “It is a far better thing that I do now than I have ever done before #splat”

Nextus July 19, 2011 at 17:07

Mixed feelings about the Sweeney Todd attacker (the phantom shave-foam bomber). On the one hand, “Hurrah, my sentiments exactly!”. On the other, “you wanker, I was listening to that!”.

mary July 19, 2011 at 17:08

The beetle browed Miss Smith is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel. No surprise there.
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Just back. Had a lovely time seeing the wall, the checkpoints and the settlements.
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6. Overseas visits (TheyWorkForYou)

Name of donor: Conservative Friends of Israel; Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Address of donor: 45b Westbourne Terrace, London W2 3UR

Amount of donation: £974 from CFI; £574 from Israeli Ministry

Destination of visit: Israel and West Bank

Date of visit: 29 May–3 June 2011

Purpose of visit: Fact finding political delegation to Israel and West Bank

(Registered 17 June 2011)

ingo July 19, 2011 at 17:09

What a woman, straight in there, best show of the day.

I find it quiet nauseating that nobody raised questions as to previous administrations under Labour and that the death of Sean Hoare.
Never have we heard the terms more than today, ‘if I knew then what I know now’, ‘as far as I can remember’, ‘I just told him to do it, we didn’t discuss it in detail’.
feoricio sounded cagey, so did Stephenson.

Will we get back to it? How convenient, just as he was about to be finishing, just a few more questions from Ms Mensch?

A little bit of direct Murdoch news, something for the papers tommorrow with a Rupert exclusive, ‘How my beautifull wife stopped the attacker/assasin’ sic,
Ms mensch has started, here we go.

dreoilin July 19, 2011 at 17:14

Very good picture of “that moment” here:
http://twitpic.com/5sk38w

Scouse Billy July 19, 2011 at 17:16

Ms Mencsh reminds me of a roadside caff and a stolen BSA… 😉

angrysoba July 19, 2011 at 17:23

“Ms Mencsh reminds me of a roadside caff and a stolen BSA”
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I like her and think she’s not a bad questioner. Compared to some of the others on the panel anyway.

Scouse Billy July 19, 2011 at 17:40

You missed the cultural reference, Mr Angry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mIEShgpJ3k

Parky July 19, 2011 at 17:43

Poor quality is par for the course in Britain today, apart from a few diehards such as Dennis Skinner who by now could hardly do anything else, the rest are lobby fodder who do pretty much do as they’re told. For most an MP’s salary is far better than they could get anywhere else with their limited skills.

Heroine of the hour, reports sky news Don’t mess with Wendy. They seem to be concentrating on the comedy shaving foam act by johnny marbles than anything else.

From Dr. Evil’s performance this afternoon, you could hardly imagine being the head of an international media company.

anyhow the red-head is on the stand…

Jaded. July 19, 2011 at 18:21

Craig, the problem is institutional parties. They are power structures that can be too easily manipulated and controlled. Even as we speak, the U.K. is under attack from those with an agenda to turn us into a two party Presidential style ‘democracy’ (lol) like the U.S.A.. There are certainly solutions to this problem though. The question is getting in a position to be able to implement the solutions. Any serious threat to the status quo is, unfortunately, simply eliminated by the security services.

mark_golding July 19, 2011 at 19:14

Good research Mary thank-you – keep it up! And to think Richard Sambrook expressed so much sympathy in his email response. Blah!

Azra July 19, 2011 at 19:39

I cannot believe all of you here wasted your time watching the circus… I knew right from the start what is going to be like and did not even bother to switch the TV on..

michael krug July 19, 2011 at 20:06

Why, I wonder, has Scouse Billy a picture of Adolf Hilter as a schoolboy next to his comments?

dreoilin July 19, 2011 at 20:18

I think he’s having a larff

Suhayl Saadi July 19, 2011 at 22:02

I remember that photo from the excellent Tarkovsky film, ‘The Mirror’. It’s an incredibly powerful film. Then I forgot about the image, and for a while thought it was a photo of Scouse Billy when he was young(er)!

wendy July 19, 2011 at 22:42

“It is humiliating for this country that these dullards are our representatives.”
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its deliberately so. cheating on expenses is their bag: the big boys rape nations.

Philip July 20, 2011 at 00:56

Most of them are in it, not to serve their country, but as a career

Worse, the most powerful of them are in it, not to serve their country, not as a career, but as the prelude to a career. Patricia Hewitt regarded the Department of Health as little more than a means of making useful contacts for her career in private medicine; David Blunkett utilised his time as Home Secretary as a way of getting into the enforced employability market; Geoff Hoon used the Ministry of Defence to show prospective masters in the private sector that he could just about follow orders provided that not too many syllables were involved. Even the prime minister’s office is no longer the apex of one’s career: the Reverend Tony himself probably has plans to run for Pope once the American lecture circuit has made him rich enough. Many in the present Cabinet are comparatively young; even if they last five or ten years before being thrown out of office, they will still have households to maintain, mistresses to amuse and greed to satisfy.