Here I am making an illegal speech to an illegal gathering.
I was witness to an extraordinary example of the use of “anti-terrorist” laws to deny democracy. The whole of Parliament Square, College Green and Canning Green were closed off with high Harris fencing, as were other spaces nearby. These were protected by a huge police presence. I counted 37 police vans. All this to counter eighty “Occupy Democracy” protestors wishing to highlight the alienation of the political class from the rest of us. That MPs feel the need to make Westminster look like the Somme 1917, to defend themselves against a few ordinary people, is proof that the concept of “democracy” is now alien to the Westminster system.
Some of this was surreal. There were signs up stating that voice amplification was illegal as was “sleeping equipment”. Just what is sleeping equipment? I have managed to sleep my entire life without such equipment. I just close my eyes and it happens. I didn’t even know you needed equipment to sleep. It is a curious thing that officialdom, when it becomes unreasonable, inevitably resorts to poor use of language. Nobody in normal life speaks of “sleeping equipment”. There is a simple English word, “bedding”. If they mean bedding, why don’t they say so?
The happy band of demonstrators had gathered just outside the entrance to the Supreme Court, in a small unfenced area. I used to sing regularly and seriously. Fortunately this has left me with the ability to speak very loudly at length and still with some modulation. If you consider that video is in an area of very heavy traffic noise and with no (banned) amplification, I hope you are impressed! I started speaking in order to fend off what seemed an imminent move by police to start arresting protestors for breach of the peace. This followed an argument over whether an old sofa and rug constituted “sleeping equipment”. A policeman stated that there were legal rulings that “sleeping equipment” included anything that could be adapted for the purpose of sleeping. I suggested to him that he confiscate my trousers, as these were capable of being rolled up and used as a pillow.
The Police Superintendent had just stated that refusal to give up the sofa constituted behaviour likely to lead to a breach of the peace, when I decided to change the dynamic by giving a talk, which peculiarly led almost all the police to withdraw immediately to about a hundred yards away. If you are interested, you can see something of this, and get a tour of the fencing, from this video by one of the protestors.
I say “if you are interested”, but really you ought to be interested. The fact that in Westminster, people who are obviously very peaceful are not allowed simply to express their political view, ought to worry everybody in the UK very, very deeply. We have slipped away from the fundamental precepts of democracy – freedom of speech and assembly, habeas corpus, freedom from torture. None of those exist any more. Lulled by the mainstream media, most people have not even noticed.
I shall be speaking outside the Scottish Parliament on 29th November, and in Dundee, Perth (and possibly Ayr too if I can work it out) on the 30th. I shall be speaking again in Dundee at the March against Austerity on 6th December.
Thanks for the link ben.
It still makes my head spin, what they did, and do. Crazed mass murderers.
Stay well folks. Good night.
“what they did, and do”
It was for a good cause. They got rid of a dictator (Saddam) . Now Putin…. Hooray, EUSA!!!!
KingofWelshNoir, 6.24pm- spot on.
Craig’s speech in Westminster at the weekend was a welcome antidote to the tosh coming from Theresa May today.
I don’t dispute the existence of terrorist threats here in the UK in 2014, but to claim the threat today is unparalleled is nonsense; today’s ‘Islamists’ are bungling, if bloodthirsty amateurs when compared to the IRA of 25 years ago.
As for the speech, I particularly liked Craig’s closing anecdote about the arrogant Brit banker getting his comeuppance at the hands of the Polish Boys in Blue.
It’s interesting that the paving stones on which Craig was standing are illegal.
@Phil: “_We_ were no such thing. Well I certainly wasn’t and I doubt very much that you were.”
Being in school at the time, I very much doubt that I was. But as a country, we are collectively culpable all the same. Pay taxes? Murderer!! Et cetera.
Sorry that’s all you had to make out of my reply to you. Guess it’s not worth the effort, fair enough.
@RD: “Perhaps we could have a week off once every few years – even a day would be nice.
Heck, take the rest of the duration off, with my sincere blessing!
Adios!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvKDgyiKLNA
Tariq Ali on Tony Blair – Democracy Now!
I think what we are seeing is the state lashing out. +I don’t think the lack of action to the financial crisis is unlinked. How many innocent people must they punish for there crimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtxFZfhqoU0&list=UUT12yf0lhjEeVrBIqiJcXPg
Phil
I don’t think it makes much sense to condemn Craig for his former self, he has written before now about the lump in his throat he once felt sitting behind that union flag on the bonnet. Now it repels him. Most of us here on this blog have made a similar journey at one point or another. None of us came into the world believing what we believe now. Instead we were born into a world where meticulous care was taken to instil in us the belief that we were a great peace-loving nation, the men in the white hats, who just happened to be endlessly at war despite our best intentions. It’s the software they load on your brain at birth. We all believed it just as we believed in Father Christmas. The ones truly worthy of contempt are not those who finally spoke out against it but those public servants and MPs who knew, for example, the Iraq War was wrong but said nothing out of fear of rocking the boat or putting their pensions into jeopardy. We all know how many lives their silence cost. Whatever happened in the past, Craig sacrificed his career because he couldn’t remain silent and complicit in torture. It’s a tragedy that more people, who might have made a difference, didn’t stand up to be counted when the moment came.
Ferguson is burning. Where is the justice?
Evidently they didn’t dig your stand-up, perhaps they’ve bugged you so much that they want new material.
Blair’s been Quartet representative for seven years. Yet no-one seems to know what his remit actually is. On Sunday he was agreeing vigorously with his good friend, Egypt’s unelected dictator Sisi, on how they would like to shaft the Palestinians.
But last week The
Palace of the Great LeaderOffice of the Quartet Representative sent a, er, representative to UOG, an Israeli oil ‘n gas conference.It would probably be as well to forget that Blair is being paid (a lot) to smooth the way for a new pipeline from Azerbaijan (with whose effectively unelected dictator he is on cordial terms) to rural Italy, and that BP is closely associated with this. Or that there is a massive gas field just off Gaza, just waiting to be stolen. And we may happily dismiss the thought that the QR’s representative attended in order to speak on security. What possible security threat could there be to an Israeli gasfield like Gaza?
http://www.universaloilgas.com/agendaday3/
Ariel Ezrahi…Ariel is the Energy Adviser at the Office of the Quartet Representative Tony Blair. Previously, Ariel worked on energy and corporate transactions in London for major international law firms where he advised on a wide range of transactions in the corporate, oil & gas, renewable energy and power generation realm with an emphasis on transactions in the Arab world. Most recently, Ariel has worked on energy and corporate transactions for one of the leading law firms in Israel (focusing on advice in relation to the Israeli offshore gas fields).
His expertise on ‘the Arab world’ was needed. Not one Arab addressed the conference. The only possibly Muslim name to speak was Mehmet Ogutcu’s, and he’s the CEO of Global Resources Partnership (UK).
Sponsors of the event included Aberdeen City Council (!) and UK Trade and Investment, a UK government body.
Blair has been at pains to point out that his Quartet sinecure is unpaid, although he does get expenses – amount unknown, obviously. Nice to see that a heavyweight oil lawyer like Ezrani can apparently be retained by the OQR for nowt. Pro bono indeed. Though probably not pro bono Palestinia.
PS, ‘Global Resource Partnership UK’ is a shell company with a net worth of minus £36.00. It owns one subsidiary; Turkish Gas Corporation Limited, founding director Mehmet Ogutcu, whose accounts are overdue and which, according to Duedil, is about to be struck off. A very small and struggling vulture at the feast, then.
What the Quartet’s advisor, Ezrahi, said:
http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/136050/Gaza_Marine_Development_Could_Help_Deliver_Israeli_Security?rss=true
… the Palestinian angle could be very useful.
British Gas holds 90% of the lease on the Gaza Marine field. (Palestinian options could reduce this to 60%, or maybe have done – haven’t checked). BG’s finances are shaky, and it’s proposing to pay a ludicrous £12M bonus to what it hopes will be its new CEO – the shareholders are getting restive.
The UOG brochure (see above)neglects to mention that Ogutcu is a senior advisor to BG.
And see here why it is definitely in BG’s interest to have a military dictatorship rather than an Islamic democracy in Egypt:
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/9641-british-company-negotiates-exporting-gas-from-israel-to-egypt
Isn’t it funny how Blair loves money?
Phil and Ben, perhaps you it would be better for all concerned if you guy’s used your energy in a positive way.
I can’t see anything but negative in your statements, I don’t care how long you have been ‘dealing with this shit’, some of us are older than you may be and have been dealing with it for far longer, as if that meant anything.
Get busy, associate, get the facts and tell people, instead of coming on here and being so negative.
@KOWN, Nice attempt KOWN, but there are several holes in your reasoning; firstly nobody is born without a conscience, no amount of “software loading” can erase your sense of right or wrong; even as a very small child, watching Westerns, I always identified & rooted for the Indians, because it was obvious that they were fighting against an injustice, namely the theft of their land. This is why when I come across supporters of the British Empire, I know that rather than being victims of propaganda, they are really victims of a cultural superiority complex, basically racist chauvinism.
Ironically you state that “The ones truly worthy of contempt “ are those that knew the attack on Iraq was wrong, but didn’t say anything, which exactly applies to Craig, and given his active hands-on role during the first attack on Iraq, you would of thought he owed something to his conscience, moral integrity, and intellectual honesty, to have not spoken out.
We only have Craig’s account of the circumstances leading to him eventually turning whistle-blower, which may or may not be so rose-painted as presented; just like we cannot be sure exactly how much of what he does/says now is not mostly motivated more as personal bitter kick-backs at his former employers rather than something more noble.
Given his PRESENT identikit Neocon take on Ukraine, and demonizing of Putin/Russia, it’s a reminder that it takes a very certain type to get to be an Ambassador, perhaps a type that doesn’t really change too much at core level, and for sure a type that can for ideological reasons resort to indirect support for fascists in Kiev, and can attempt to whitewash/playdown/mitigate a horrendous massacre, like the one in Odessa, by trying to put the blame on the victims rather than the perpetrators.
@Maxblunt, where did Craig state that he wanted this Blog to become a personal fan-club, rather than a discussion point, where contrary opinions are not welcomed ?
KOWN
Sure, I understand all you say but really, there are mistakes and there are mistakes. I started on this thread simply mocking his ridiculous hyperbole about his illegal talk (which wasn’t illegal) making him a criminal (which it didn’t). It has escalated into more as a result of interactions here. But it seems I have still not explained my problem clearly. Let me try again.
I applaud Craig as a whistleblower. I do not have a problem with Craig as a blogger. I can even smile wryly when he describes himself as a “human rights activist” (hands up who isn’t). But Craig is now a campaigning for political office. As such, for me, he becomes part of the problem.
Craig’s previous experience does not qualify him to lead you. Quite the opposite, which I shall return to. His politics are ever sghifting liberal rationalisations seeking to reform the system with him and his pals at the helm. This is nothing new. It is how politics have worked for a long time. Obviously, I believe nothing will change as a result of his trajectory. Just another corruptible and compromising liberal do gooder. This is my beef. The sense of entitlement of people who beleiev they should lead.
His idea that the pro NATO, pro monarchy SNP is different from the other corrupt parties displays a complete lack of understanding of how political corruption works. Not long ago he was saying the same thing about the Liberal party. His notion that his nationalism, celebrating battles from centuries ago, is any different from any other nationalism is laughable. Every nationalist believes that. His notion that the EU is a benign super state is laughable. Every precedent shows us that there is a direct correlation between the size of a state and it’s dreadfullness. His lecturing people that they are racist. His revelation that the police are political (but the met are ok) and we “should be interested” is beyond parody. I have no idea how this nonsense can be taken so seriously.
Politicians are corrupted by power. Craig has a proven track record of being susceptible to such lures. He is already compromising his “revolutionary” message by discussing trident rather than NATO membership. Such dolly steps of pragmatism and compromises are what make beareaucrats of empire.
Had he remained a blogger slowly pontificating himself to an understanding of power then fair enough. But he now, for whatever reason, feels he is the stuff to lead people. He wants a wage and a bigger platform for his bollocks. The guilt of his past crimes does not cause him to pause, to consider some humility, to step back and listen. He is still so fucking arrogant to be certain he has the answers. Well, fuck him, he doesn’t. He should stick to his ex whistle blower blogging and leave the “leading” to those who haven’t been complicit in the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
Macky, you’re right. The world would be a much better place if only people like Craig, KOWN and myself had been born with morals as good as yours. If only we could have been born with these understandings, as you were. That we were not proves that you are of better stock then us.
Since our moral inferiority is presumably genetic, you good humans have no choice but to wipe us all out for the moral improvement of the human species. I look forward to humane termination.
Macky, to minimise suffering and parental loss, the bad humans should be dealt with as young as possible. You were ready for testing as soon as you could tell cowboys from Indians, but I wonder if is possible to tell even earlier. Are babies that throw their toys from the pram the good or the bad ones? What about the ones that prefer porridge to rusks?
@Phil: “He should stick to his ex whistle blower blogging and leave the “leading” to those who haven’t been complicit in the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.”
Is this your pitch – are you thinking of running yourself then, Phil?
Macky
‘nobody is born without a conscience’
I’m pretty sure I was, and that I slowly acquired one as part of my upbringing. If I’d been brought up by Fagin it’s likely I wouldn’t have acquired one. To tell the truth, I’m not even sure what it means to claim a new-born baby has a conscience. How do you find out? Can you explain how you arrive at this claim?
Gelnn_UK
“Is this your pitch – are you thinking of running yourself then, Phil?”
Well first off I am genuinely glad you have abandoned your threat to “not bother” with me cause I had not significantly answered your last comment.
Shame your question avoids the issue. I am nobody and have no platform. I do not seek a platform. I do not believe we will be saved by leaders. Our only hope is to stop fawning over egocentric maniacs who think they have the answers and to accept responsibility for our own lives.
Phil – 1:44 pm:
This looks likely. I suggest two points for consideration:
* States’ internal and external dreadfulness (ie. domestic versus foreign policy) should be assessed separately.
* The larger and thus more powerful a state, the less it is subject to any restraining influence.
I think Phil has a valid point. Possibly overstated, but valid. I myself have occasionally wondered if what Craig hoped to achieve was not ever-so-slightly irrelevant to most of the population. But he remains on record as opposing globalised capitalism, and I hope he will remain so. It’s is a fundamentally flawed doctrine, and the more critics, the merrier. I can readily forgive him for not being a red revolutionary. Red revolutionaries’ success rate in this country has never been impressive, largely because the Establishment can see them coming from beyond the horizon.
In fact, I’d rather see our host using his FCO subterfuge skills to ace the system rather than standing in the rain haranguing passers-by. Not saying he isn’t a good speaker, but he’s far too in-yer-face to worry the system in the slightest. There are techniques for charismatic orators to mobilise the masses, but the very best involve torchlit rallies and uniformed heavies, and that’s hardly our style, is it?
As regards who leads who, Craig is no more my leader than Phil or the Flying Spaghetti Monster are. Count me out of that category, please, Phil.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster gets my vote (if I were the voting type).
Very big in Poland, is His noodly appendage…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-_ZBEScuzc
Very funny. Bloody Poles staying over there with their funny satire.
I wish the flying spaghetti monster would come and overfly Norfolk leave a big s..t on top of County Hall and then take over this lot.
Since when are taxpayers required to prop up the pension funds of charities such as age UK, especially when some of their employees still lumber around on final salary [pension agreements….? Anyone knows?
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/behind_closed_doors_decision_to_award_norfolk_charity_700_000_branded_scandalous_1_3860535
@KOWN, thanks for the reply, even it was only to address just one of the several points I had made;
Philosophers & religious thinkers have grappled for centuries with the question of innate morality or goodness; they tend to point out that not only do we know when we doing something bad or unjust, we also feel bad for doing so, thus accounting for the phenomena of Guilt & and the associated remorse & regret feelings. The consensus seems to be that a sense of what is right is s intrinsic to human nature and is ultimately based on the natural love, bonding, affection, empathy, that people grow to feel for other people, for example as manifested in the common expression that” people are fundamentally good”; unselfish acts like helping those less fortunate for no reward, even risking one own’s life to do good, etc, are very difficult to explain in purely Darwinian terms.
So yes nurture is important, but Nature is there first, and by self-definition, going against it feels unnatural, ie wrong.
Interesting contrast of “styles” between yourself & Clark in addressing me on this point !
@Clark, are you trying to tell us that the boy Clark was routing for the Red-Necks rather than the Red Skins ? !
Phil; ““Every precedent shows us that there is a direct correlation between the size of a state and its dreadfulness”
Not so sure about that; it seems that relatively small states, like Great Britain Japan, even Belgium inflicted quite a lot of dreadfulness, whereas India, China, Iran, etc rather less; what about the massive but relatively benign Byzantine Empire that lasted over one thousand years, it seems it expanded via mostly peaceful cultural influence more than anything else.
Interesting speech, it took courage, drive, and covered lots that is agreeable.
Potentially, or actually standing as an SNP, or Scottish Independence candidate for a Westminster parliamentary seat is intrinsically finite, self-limiting of personal ambition. With a significant majority of Westminister MPs from Scotland supporting Independence, a rout of the unionist parties, a consulative referendum and Declaration of Independence following, their role would be minimal. Lop-sided Federalism seems a non-starter and unpalatable and having an upper house of ‘senators’ lounging around pee-ing the seats sounds appalling. Outside of a negotiation period, and with a more radical break than the gradualism Alex Salmond almost carried, which the British state’s viciousness was frighteningly apparent, going all out to extremes to thwart, a cleaner, clearer break seems likely. It won’t be quite Hello and Cheerio, especially if they can make hay as thorns in establishment party trio’s exposed side, simply lighting the blue-touch paper of the eruptions that will follow. rUK citizens will have to do what they can to get a workable alternative democratic system of government up and running in place of the hellish mess and crual plight they’d have if left under the thumb of the rump, trying to continue as normal. Another general election for rUK new and new form of government, in quick succession from that epochal one coming in May 2015 seems not just desirable but surely would be necessary in the near term.
The role of current Scottish members, unionist lackeys and quislings all, of the House of “Lords”, would be quite anomalous, even if they opted for rUK citizenship. It would be better for them to be kicked out without ceremony than to wait for natural wastage to effect an ethical cull. How will they cope, counselling for ex-Lords and ex-Ladies, to help with re-adjustment to mere mortal status, would not be of the highest priority.