When I stood against Jack Straw in 2005, I wanted to confront him with open debate about my eye witness to torture and extraordinary rendition, after he lied to parliament continually and repeatedly about it. I was however, despite being a candidate, not allowed to participate in any of the candidate’s debates, including that broadcast by BBC Radio 4, and the debate hosted by the joint churches in Blackburn cathedral.
I went to see the Dean of the Cathedral about my exclusion. He said something quite extraordinary – “Look, Craig, you are leaving after the election. We have to live in this town.” He was scared of retribution. That sounds wildly improbable, but it was supported by much other experience. I agreed to short term lets of two shops for my campaign headquarters (there is no shortage of shops to let in Blackburn). Both cancelled when they discovered I wished to campaign against Jack Straw – one specifically told me that they would like to help, but feared trouble from the council. When I eventually succeeded, the landlords made the point that they lived and had their businesses outside Blackburn and this was their only asset there, so they couldn’t come to much harm.
Under electoral law a candidate is entitled to the use of schools and community centres free of charge for electoral meetings, but despite dozens of efforts I was never once allowed this. It is a serious and specific electoral offence for a candidate to provide free food and drink at public meetings – “treating” – but the Straw campaign did this on a very large scale, and both the police and returning officer took no action when I complained with sworn affidavits of evidence from eye-witnesses. Postal ballot fraud was extraordinarily blatant, with the same authorities determinedly looking the other way. I could not even get them to look at why thirteen postal ballots were cast from one single unoccupied flat.
The point of which is – I know how Cyril Smith did it. It was a different category of crime he was committing, but I have seen how in these Lancashire towns like Blackburn and Rochdale the authorities collude together so comfortably to cover up the crimes of the local big man, be it Cyril Smith or Jack Straw. It may seem quite incredible that everybody knew in Rochdale and nothing was done, but having tried to challenge Straw in Blackburn, I know precisely how it worked. The entire political culture of industrial Lancashire is deeply rotten, and ought to be a source of deep shame.
Cyril Smith was merely a symptom, not the cause.
@Guano-you omitted conscience. An essential qualification for being a politician which otherwise demands none, is lack of conscience.
@Roderick Russell-the problem is universal. Read Aangirfan, where I learned for my self that what I experienced of crime, sleaze and corruption in my little backwater in a common-wealth country and at the time believed ‘it’ was because ‘it’ was a backwater, is in fact, appallingly and chillingly universal.
Resident Dissident, thanks for your comments at 10:41pm and 10:58 pm.
Clark @28 Apr, 2014 – 8:38 pm: I’m glad at least someone else understood the question!
Glenn; that’s kind of a cheap shot. Craig’s query was less than clear to me so I’m what, an idiot?
Totally unnecessary shit, is what your comment was.
@ Donald S @ 28 April -5:08. I looked at the video. Cyril Smith was indeed a revolting character in many different ways.
But what really bothered me was the fact that so many children were sexually abused by him because he was able to get away with his pedophilia since, according to mainstream media reports, he was being protected from justice by MI5 and Special Branch.
Now I am no stranger to Stasi style abuse from MI5/6 as anybody who clicks on my signature can see. I just didn’t realize quite how low the bar was for these organizations to be prepared to start committing serious criminal offenses against innocent citizens. After all a backbencher like Cyril Smith is hardly high in the establishment, and one can’t get crimes that are much worse than serial pedophilia.
And Babushka @ 12.09 – The problem may, as you say, be universal. All the more reason for citizens to fight back. We should hold our MP’s and Media to account. Why do they tolerate cover-ups. Too often these people have their heads deep in the sand and we need to challenge these incidents of willful blindness.
Ba’al Zevul (soy Marxista de tendencia Groucho)
@28 Apr, 2014 – 1:01 pm
“You link back to an earlier post in which you also link back, to this:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2007/06/jack_straw_shou_1.html
Error 404. Page not found. Do we engage paranoia, or is there an innocent explanation?”
the latter ba’al. just take a slash & replace: .html
viz: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2007/06/jack_straw_shou_1/
voila!
Craig,
I’m curious to know if you would consider standing again, for general election?
Mary (21h31 and 21h38)
Ah, the perils of not making myself absolutely clear……
Although I was asking specifically about postal voting fraud (and therefore Mary’s mention of criminal activity by Mac Shane, Archer and Huhne, while correct, is irrelevant), I should have made it clear that I was asking about parliamentary elections.
The two examples of electoral offences committed by a LD and a Conservative concern local elections. So I’ll repeat my question, amended accordingly:
“Mr Scorgie
Well, if you could refer me to some Conservative or Liberal Democrat parliamentary constituencies where postal voting fraud has been identified (or even suspected), I’d be very interested to hear from you.”
____________
Re postal voting in general, the UK system is amazingly lax (and, as it was introduced in its current form by NuLabour, probably deliberately so); postal voting exists in most continental European countries but the eligibility criteria are much stricter. It should not be beyond the wit of the UK authorities to do likewise
Straw is still raking in the shekels.
Consultant to ED & F MAN Holdings Ltd; commodity traders, advising the group and its senior executives on the international and national environment in which it operates and on other specific matters. Address: Cottons Centre, Hays Lane, London SE1 2QE (£55,001-£60,000) Payment received on a quarterly basis.
8 April 2013, received £15,000 consultancy fee for quarter 1 January to 31 March 2013. Hours: approx 45 hrs. (Registered 15 April 2013)
plus £3,000 – £5,5000 for speeches.
Money from Murdoch, Rothermere, Barclay Bros., Lebedev, Guardian for articles.
Advances for book and video publishing.
Trips to Turkey, Iran, Israel, Nigeria. Sweden….
and all this on the opening page of his register.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10574/jack_straw/blackburn#register
Yards more of it on the historical entry
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10574
Thanks, Ozwry. That’s a lot better. *washes hands*
And he is also fully engaged in the ‘Hice’. What a busy chap. He will be such a great loss to the nation when he retires in 2015. 🙂
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?pid=10574&pop=1#n4
what I experienced of crime, sleaze and corruption in my little backwater in a common-wealth country and at the time believed ‘it’ was because ‘it’ was a backwater, is in fact, appallingly and chillingly universal.
Isn’t it just. Just been reading ‘Hard Times’ and impressed by the resonances with today. Though we seem to be less afflicted by Gradgrind’s facts, now, and more by marketing fantasies, admittedly.
The Resident Interrogator seems desperate to prove a point, whatever that may be. Has he/she not heard of Google?
PDF]
Electoral offences since 2010 – Parliament
http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06255.pdf
17 Mar 2014 – chronology includes details of the allegations of electoral fraud in Tower …… 1 March 2011 John Spellar MP said that in light of the Electoral …
Postal voting and electoral fraud 2001-09 – Commons …
http://www.parliament.uk › … › Research publications › Research briefings
MPs, Lords & offices. In this section. MPs · Members of … Postal voting and electoral fraud 2001-09 – Commons Library Standard Note. Published 14 March 2012
Craig could have used the title ‘Trick or Treat’.
‘On 24 April 2005, in an election rally in Jack Straw’s Blackburn Constituency, over one hundred Blackburn electors were given a full free meal by the Labour party, with Jack Straw present, having just made an election speech to the lucky partakers of this generosity.
Every reader involved in electoral politics will know that this is a criminal offence under the Representation of the People Act, formally known as “Treating” – the provision of free food and drink to electors in an attempt to influence their vote. Conviction leads to forfeiture of the election, banning from public office and a prison sentence of up to two years.
It is also an offence of strict liability – a candidate is liable even if it was organised by someone else on his behalf. A candidate is viewed in law as responsible for his campaign. But in this instance, Jack Straw was actually present.’
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2007/06/jack_straw_shou_1/
As any honest local councillor (there are some!) will tell you, they’re in it for power and influence rather than the official pay, which isn’t generally excessive – though these are part-time positions:
http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/home/2012/08/taxpayers-alliance-reveals-highest-lowest-paid-councillors-uk.html
They may also be in it because they can’t do anything else. It’s a sublimely boring job, and the coffee is generally terrible. But it’s good for making connections. Particularly with the police and the construction industry. I don’t see any way of reforming local councils without destroying their democratic content, but I do think it might be an idea to insist that all elected councillors undergo a three-month course in local government. This might reduce their tendency to leave stuff they don’t understand to the (immensely well paid, often very fly and well-connected) executive officer. And it would perhaps weed out the candidates whose time is fully occupied with tendering for council-sponsored building projects.
Jack Straw successfully put Richard Armitage up for an Honorary Knighthood. 2 rather nasty pieces of work !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Armitage_(politician)#Honors_and_awards
Cf. bankers who would be ruined if their bonuses were a little smaller….
Coketown in the distance was suggestive of itself, though not a brick of it could be seen.
The wonder was, it was there at all. It had been ruined so often, that it was amazing how it had borne so many shocks. Surely there never was such fragile china-ware as that of which the millers of Coketown were made. Handle them never so lightly, and they fell to pieces with such ease that you might suspect them of having been flawed before. They were ruined, when they were required to send labouring children to school; they were ruined when inspectors were appointed to look into their works; they were ruined, when such inspectors considered it doubtful whether they were quite justified in chopping people up with their machinery; they were utterly undone, when it was hinted that perhaps they need not always make quite so much smoke. Besides Mr. Bounderby’s gold spoon which was generally received in Coketown, another prevalent fiction was very popular there. It took the form of a threat. Whenever a Coketowner felt he was ill-used—that is to say, whenever he was not left entirely alone, and it was proposed to hold him accountable for the consequences of any of his acts—he was sure to come out with the awful menace, that he would ‘sooner pitch his property into the Atlantic.’ This had terrified the Home Secretary within an inch of his life, on several occasions.
However, the Coketowners were so patriotic after all, that they never had pitched their property into the Atlantic yet, but, on the contrary, had been kind enough to take mighty good care of it.
Charles Dickens: Hard Times
Ba’al Zevul (soy Marxista de tendencia Groucho)
29 Apr, 2014 – 8:18 am
“Thanks, Ozwry. That’s a lot better. *washes hands*”
excellent, b.z.
personal hygiene is both necessary & sufficient…
as a reward, a couple of words from [the lesser] marx:
‘time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.’
Resident Dissident 28 Apr, 2014 – 10:41 pm
It is pleasing to be able to agree with you again over this revelation from RAP (Rochdale Alternative Paper). Alternative newspapers are usually the best source of real information until, or more usually if, they become big enough for the powermongers to take an interest in them. Then money takes over and the editorial integrity is compromised by the bulging wallet.
As one who has written for alternative newspapers I believe they also give writers a voice which might otherwise go unheard. They are also ground-breaking on occasion. Some of the older contributors might remember OZ which made legal history. Oz tried to make nudity acceptable but was unsuccessfully prosecuted for obscenity. During the US invasion and devastation of Vietnam it published a photograph of a Yankee GI soldier holding a gun to the head of a baby while the baby’s Vietcong mother was forced to give the GI a blow job. The establishment, instead of being concerned with the torture and degradation of the mother seemed as much concerned with the fact that the GI had his flies undone.
So I urge all to get their real news from the real newspapers. There are some good sources. News Junkie Post is one. There are others like Global Research and NSNBC which published the article below.
http://nsnbc.me/2014/04/28/obama-administration-announced-additional-sanctions-against-russia/
“Today, the mayor of the city of Kharkov, Gennady Kernes, was shot in the back and has been brought to hospital where surgeons are working to save his life. According to some reports, the mayor was shot in the back while bicycling. Other reports state he was jogging. What is certain is that he was shot and is in critical condition.”
So thanks RD for promoting the alternative press.
Another crooked politician to watch from the NW of England – in her case, closely linked to demolition and construction interests – is Esther McVey.
She’s the one who declared she wanted to model herself on William Lever, also from the NW, who rose to the ‘heights’ of owning a slave empire in Congo, in which millions of people were killed. No shit! Nice lady, eh!
I thought I’d mention her, because people have mentioned Jack Straw (Labour) and Cyril Smith (Liberal). McVey is a Tory.
As in local government, so also in central government: this dirt, this criminality, this corruption dominate all political parties.
Parties are networks of their own, of course, but as often as not party affiliation is irrelevant, just as it usually is with, ahem, matters concerning ‘planning’ and ‘development’ at the town hall.
If anyone can help, I’d be bloody interested to know which bunch of crooks are ruining municipal libraries in this country. Since so many changed to ‘discovery centres’ at the same time, I suspect a single source. You’re lucky to find any good books in there nowadays with the DVDs and multiple copies of whatever the big publishers are hyping most. Talk about dumbing down!
What irks me is that Britain and Scandinavia are about the only regions in the world where there isn’t widespread recognition of the fact that government is first and foremost about contracts between public offices and private interests; of the fact that the key to the whole game is that private interests own those public offices, that the idea of the state serving public interests is a dirty smelly lie.
Possibly off topic. Depends on whether there is any corruption.
I’m guessing the Russians will be blamed for the forthcoming election in the future People’s Republic of Donetsk which declared itself independent and for which 3.2 million ballot papers have been printed to match the number of the voting electorate. The referendum in accordance with Ukranian law will take place on May 11. Don’t expect any upsets.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/another-referendum-on-the-cards/article5954798.ece
@John – I hadn’t heard that about Oz before. Was the GI photo in the ‘schoolkids’ issue (28)?
Felix Dennis…recuperation…
What we have here is separate issues. There is the issue of irregularities in a Blackburn election which affected Craig directly and no doubt he still feels aggrieved about. Politics is a dirty business.
Then there is the issue of paedophilia among the powerful, that is a monster, something which can ruins the lives of the most innocent in society just to satisfy the power lust of the psychopath few. It is also a subject which instils strong emotions in people, feelings of outrage, hatred and fear among all who have children.
They are separate issues, to attempt to marry the two and say the first is responsible for the second just diminishes the second. There have been outrages in all walks of life, among TV stars, among the clergy, among teachers, among the social services as well as politicians all over the country.
N_ I think so. I got it second-hand myself, I think from a Guardian piece. But a long time ago so not certain.
Ozwry.
Don’t beleive everything the man said.
Fine words in 1843.
“We develop new principles for the world out of the world’s own principles. We do not say to the world: Cease your struggles, they are foolish; we will give you the true slogan of struggle. We merely show the world what it is really fighting for, and consciousness is something that it has to acquire, even if it does not want to.”
But by 1933 I reckon he had lost his way.
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
it’s reported in the EU-Observer that a former Prime Minister is about to be jailed,
nope – not him ,
but Janez Janša of nice Slovenia – for a failed corruption attempt involving planned purchase of tanky things from Finnish/EADS-Patria
Ba’al Z please forgive my spelling (of your name) limitations.
Some years ago when I discovered the horrid truth re the so-called ‘west’s’ financial structures, a blogger A M Deist on a US web site wrote precisely of what we are now discussing.
AM Deist predicted precisely the scenarios some of us have read about in A Tale of Two Cities. His comments resonated with me then, and I shudder when I mention these things to people around me and they look at me as tho I’ve dropped in from another planet. From there they mock me etc etc etc. Hence, Craig’g experiences also resonate with me. I KNOW just how much the ‘afraid’ defend the disgusting status quo.
Worse, I know that people get ‘disappeared’ for fear of losing something they hold dear, no matter how much they are told what they defend is to the detriment of the ‘greater good’, if you know what I mean.
John I remember the furore and controversy over that publication, but I NEVER heard ONE word about the article you described above.
Typical of the sicko psycho ‘authorities’.
Sofia Kibo Noh
29 Apr, 2014 – 10:31 am
“Ozwry.
Don’t beleive everything the man said.
Fine words in 1843.
…
But by 1933 I reckon he had lost his way.
…”
sofia: [dialectically] methinks someone has lost their way…
@Craig “I went to see the Dean of the Cathedral about my exclusion..He was scared of retribution.”
Just a question that occurred to me: did you ask the Dean exactly what retribution he had in mind? What could the local council do to his or other churches in Blackburn, exactly?