Pardon a rather navel-gazing morning, but I have been thinking about blogging. I am not sure how the Leverson Inquiry got into discussion of blogging, but apparently the editor of the Daily Mirror has described bloggers as “cowboys”.
If you read this blog you would, even in the last few months find definite and documented evidence that Jack Straw is lying about his complicity in torture, that Gus O’Donnell lied spectacularly about Adam Werritty’s number of meetings with the FCO, that there was a secret diplomatic deal between the US and Saudi Arabia that provided for the NATO attack on Libya and the Saudi invasion of Bahrain. You would not know any of those things from reading the Daily Mirror, or any other mainstream paper, with an honorable partial exception for the Independent.
Yet to my knowledge the only blogger to appear at Leverson has been the ultra right pin-up boy Paul Staines.
I have entered this blog for the Orwell Prize this year. I have never done so before. I had not realised, until I received an email last week, that the Prize accepts entries purely on the basis of self-nomination. That presumably rules out most decent people from the start. But I did have to select eight blog entries from 2011 for the nomination, and I found a dozen or so of which I am quite proud. This gave me impetus to move forward with an idea I have had for some time. I wish to bring out a book of collected writings.
My working title is “Zionism is Bullshit – Craig Murray and the Need for Dissent 2005-2011“. I want to bring together not just the best entries of this blog, but published articles, and transcriptions of speeches and talks, as well as highlights of evidence to parliament etc. I probably won’t be able to incorporate comments from the blog, as copyright and permission issues look a bit nightmarish.
A book called “Zionism is Bullshit” is going to have to be self published and sold via the internet. That worked fairly well for The Catholic Orangemen of Togo. There are now 74 left of the original 1200 hardbacks printed. Please buy a copy or two, using the buttons on the right. My hubris has been punished, and in the two months since I announced I will be donating 10% of my income to Scottish Independence, my income has been nil (except £64 profit on Catholic Orangemen sales). Like “The Catholic Orangemen“, “Zionism is Bullshit” will be available for free download.
Oh noes! a dilemma – I want to read your book but am opposed to independence. What to do…
Well, Craig, you’re up against Golem XIV for one – I know he’s been ‘persuaded’ to enter.
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So I’ll wish you well, and success to the book.
good idea, Craig, you have my permission to use anything I have ever written here.
The levenson inquiery is following the same whitewashing way, marked by the scent of gibson inquiery and the establishment.
Good luck but slagging off Glenda Slag will not help!
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PS It’s Leveson btw.
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I thought that Jack of Kent
http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/ had given ‘evidence’, ie a cosy chat with the barrister Jay and Leveson himself, but perhaps I am confusing the Leveson ‘Inquiry’ with a DCMS committee hearing.
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Sorry about the parlous state of your income Craig. You must be living on love and fresh air. I will have a copy of COOT. I already have MIS. You really ought to have a Donate button. We have often offered to club together.
Write it. I’ll buy it. But change the working title, please. The sub-title’s all right, but the title “Zionism is bullshit” is an attempt at sensationalist headline-grabbing that doesn’t quite work.
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Good luck with the prize!
It’s as clear as mud what you want us punters to do. Vote for you? Where, how? As Ingo says, you have my permission to publish anything that I write on your blog (perhaps you should have a disclaimer button) but since hardly anyone responds to my posts as it is, that doesn’t seem a huge deal.
Also (pardon me saying) while your income is nil you must be receiving a – not inconsequential – ex Ambassadors’ pension?
Hi Leo –
Not till I’m sixty. I don’t actually want you to do anything about the Orwell Prize, just musing.
Well, you certainly deserve it and I hope you win, Mr. Murray – and that is precisely why (at the risk of appearing too negative) you most certainly will not.
Aside : As to the latest Iranian nuclear scientist assassination :
1) As you have stated that there were meetings between Werritty, Gould, Fox and Mossad,
2) And the fact that Iran reportedly sent a letter to the British embassy stating that there was allegedly MI6 involvement,
3) And the fact that the recent revelations by Mike Perry stating that Mossad was supposedly actively recruiting Jundallah under the guise of CIA agents with US passports,
Might there be any connection between these two things, that MI6 is involved in the plot, and that they are doing the US’ dirty work along with Mossad (and whatever dissident groups they can find on the outskirts of Iran) to provoke Iran into retaliating so that Panetta can say, like he did the other day, that the US in “not implicated”? I realize that most of the statements from these people should be taken with a grain of salt, but still…
Dear Craig
I hope you are not building yourself up for another knock to your mental condition. If I had not had your blog, with its freedom, speed, erudition, perception, and above all humanity, as a shoulder to cry on in this crazy time, I would definitely not have remained sane.
I once read a pamphlet on mental health which asked the question, whether a person who flourished in Hitler’s Germany could be called sane.
These are desperate times. In previous centuries the immorality of colonial adventurism was balanced by religious conservatism. Today there is a balance against the excesses of illegal war and moral decline, in the form of Islam. But Islam has been silenced by the experience of centuries of colonialism, followed by 40 years of criminal dictatorships, and now the War on Terror.
people who have been taken, hung upside down, electrocuted and beaten up to the point you or me would be finished, and allowed to rot in prison, people who have had reprisals on their entire families for making a small stand, will think many times before standing up again when they have reached a place of relative security with their wives and children.
You have been their voice, tireless, imaginative, controversial, amusing. So whatever the Borewellians say about you, and in spite of past jibes, I say your the best ever, and long may you carry on.
They make quite a palaver of it.
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Upcoming events
Awards Ceremony 2012
Full details to follow. Read more
Wednesday 23 May, 2012
6:30pm
Church House
Dean’s Yard, Westminster
London SW1P 3NZ
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Orwell Prize Shortlist 2012: Announcement and Debate
Full details to follow. Read more
Wednesday 25 April, 2012
6:30pm
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Orwell Prize Longlist 2012: Announcement
Full details to follow. Read more
Wednesday 28 March, 2012
7:00pm
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http://theorwellprize.co.uk/events/upcoming-events/
“Zionism is bullshit” hahaha,, watch out for Israelis with Irish passports my friend.
Sen works for Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya KB CBE!
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/director/
A couple of observations.
Publishing as an e-book has negligible costs and offers far higher royalties to an author than physical media. See here http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/jan/13/kindle-self-publishing-e-readers
You might also check out Gilad Atzmons publisher Zero books. They are brave enough to publish controversial authors. Of course Atzmon has had the good luck to have Alan Dershowitz try to get his book banned which has helped sales considerably.
Don’t bother Craig. No irony.
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2011 Graeme Archer wins Blog Prize for posts at ConservativeHome
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Old Eric would be spinning in his proverbial grave.
http://theorwellprize.co.uk/2011/05/?cat=10
No offence, like, but I hope you’ll do a bit of proofreading on the selections from here – the odd typo gets through now and then.
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Not sure about your working title. People might take offence and start being rude about you. How about
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I met Gadaffi and Ron Paul and I don’t which I liked least
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I shit on your stinking flag – notes from a mad bad ambassador
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Stuffed – you can take the Ambassador out of the FCO but you can’t take the FCO out of the Ambassador
…I don’t know which I liked… sigh…
“Daily Mirror has described bloggers as “cowboys”.”
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Thats rich coming from the mouth piece for new labour. How is the criminal allegations of phone hacking coming along against the Mirror ?.
Craig,
Go for it. This way at least we can always encourage our own extra panelist Jurors to compare and contrast the winners of the prize. The fact that markers ought to be set to revert back to, and deconstruct/reconstruct itself ought to be the driving force, and not the winning.
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You know, and I know the game is rigged, and the dice is loaded, however, we need to show the extent of decay and corruption to the other starry eyed punters.
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BTW did you see one of the editors in the L.I was pleading; :…. bla bla, if you don’t……… then bloggers will have the upper hand”.
Re Public Sector pension. “Not until I am sixty”. I’m not being agist (I’m 64) but you must be nearly there, then you are in clover. I have saved and invested all of my life and have accumulated over AU$1,000,000 with much hardship. I sold some gold to a dealer who bought it for his independent pension fund. He confided in me that his personal fund hadn’t done well of late but, having worked for the government, when he turned 60 he would be guaranteed an index-linked pension of $65,000 a year for life on top – so he had no worries. At 5%, about what I might expect on income return on my million dollars, I will be lucky to earn $50,000 a year. Yet this guy who retired from a middle-ranking public service position in his 50’s will collect an index-linked, gold-plated pension some $15,000 above mine to begin with and constantly accumulating with inflation whilst mine deflates.
So, Mr Murray, while I enjoy, very much, your blog and all of the comments, I despise your hypocrisy about money and how poor you are. It’s rubbish.
If you win you’ll also be in the illustrious company of Johann Hari. I’m afraid the Orwell prize has become rather – er – Orwellian. I think your chances of winning will be on a par with David Malone’s (Golem XIV) – nil.
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Anent your income, check with your webmaster to see about attaching a ‘donate’ button to your website, especially where you are offering books for download. Maybe you should have a separate page for your books with the opportunity to donate there – you could offer signed copies at a fixed price. I often feel a little sad reading sites like yours, where so many people see what is happening to our society yet seem incapable of imagining a course of action. Offering readers the opportunity to throw a little money at you would allow us to be doing *something*.
Do you think SIServices are leading voices here. Are they really so good?
Or would there be others also here at Work, Rest and Great Game Play?
I think it’s actually quite fitting that Nick Robinson received the Orwell prize, once you see the irony of it.
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Did you hear the Today programme this morning? Some Israeli government minister was interviewed (I don’t remember who, the all read the same script anyway), about the dangers of a “Nuclear armed Iran”. James Naughty attempted a feeble challenge, pointing out that “some people” warn of a nuclear armed Israel. The Israeli war criminal responded with the usual line: “we have never confirmed that we have nuclear weapons”. And it was dropped. No challenge.
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He was then allowed to get away with saying “Israel has never threatened anyone”. No challenge. There wasn’t even a single question about the illegal assassination on Iranian scientists.
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Well done BBC, speaking truth to power as ever.
Wish you well in your efforts, but I too have reservations about calling it, “Zionism is bullshit”.
Wish it were just that, but after investigating what happened to Stephen Hilder, Dr. David Kelly, and Robin Cook, it seems to me to be much more real and pernicious.
They all look like the victims of the Mossad’s resident kidon, the covert agents without guns who still get their men.
“Of course Atzmon has had the good luck to have Alan Dershowitz try to get his book banned”
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Indeed. Craig has clearly chosen the title of his book with some care.
@ Sam
The previous thread
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Mary
16 Jan, 2012 – 9:17 am
Danny Ayalon, dep foreign minister Israhell, is in London to speak to Chatham House. By rights and if we still upheld the principle of universal jurisdiction, he would have been arrested when stepping foot on British soil.
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Instead he was on Radio 4 Today, being fed the right war mongering questions by a very friendly Jim Naughtie.
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‘Iran must be stopped’
Israel is calling on Europe and the United States to intensify action against Iran, saying that “crippling economic sanctions” and diplomatic isolation would affect the way the regime behaves.
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William Hague, the foreign secretary, has been speaking about the dangers of the intensifying tension with Iran, saying that the crisis could destabilise the whole middle east.
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Last week a fourth Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in Teheran and the government there have blamed Israel.
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The Israeli deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, outlines the view from Tel Aviv.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9678000/9678459.stm
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Naughtie did not question him on the recent killing of the Iranian scientist and he almost swallowed his words when he referred to Israel’s nuclear stockpile. You could sense that he was embarrassed to be saying the words.
“Zionism is Bullshit” – if you click on the link on the first mention of it above, you should get to a video of a completely impromptu two minute speech of which I am rather proud. That gives the title of the book.
Leo – my pension will be £16,000 a year of which 50% will go direct to my ex-wife. Now £160 a week is better than a lot of folks have, but not exactly rolling in clover.
@ Leo Give him credit. Craig was born in October 1958 so he is not even 54 yet. (Wikipedia)
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Do you know how smug you sound when talking about your Aus$1m pension pot? £673,552.
Some good news. http://unitedagents.co.uk/robin-soans That is a public web page, so I am not I think revealing anything out of turn. The Catholic Orangemen and Murder in Samarkand have been developed as the LAMDA long project.
I can self nominate, eh . . . I like it! And don’t worry about copyright . . . it’s bullshit!
Inglan is a bitch for true, there’s no escapin’ it, but you could go to Amsterdam for a World Peace concert.
ARG MetaPhoria is here:
http://heddinout.com/?p=5280
craig,
Don’t justify yourself, some of our companions may have been overdoing the use of the righteousness; elixir, pills. tablets, powder, and even suppository.
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Frankly, you have always been a hero to me. Come to think of it how many of our “righteous” companions would be prepared; to give up a cushy number, with all manner of fringe graft, just because their conscience could not live with the degrees of hypocrisy in closing their ears, eyes, and mouth pretending those poor bastards getting boiled and tortured to death, were in fact imaginary!
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It takes balls, and guts to stand proud and say no, I am not going to put up with torture, and inhumanity in my name.