A few points:
1) Contrary to Margaret Curran, it was entirely plain to me that the Westminster deal “loyalty test” in the SNP vetting process related entirely to a possible deal with Labour. There was no discussion of any possible deal with the Tories.
Personally I am just as opposed to the Red Tories as the Blue Tories and their extremely similar austerity agendas.
2) It has been widely circulated that the reason for my disqualification from the approved candidates’ list was articles written on this blog or speeches made during the Yes campaign. At no stage during either the vetting or appeal process was there any mention of this blog or of anything else I had ever said or written. So if that was indeed the reason, they failed to address it with me.
3) The same is true with regard to those claiming the circumstance of my divorce ten years ago was the reason. There was no mention at all of my personal life at any stage.
4) I have been given no other explanation in writing or orally other than an email with the single sentence:
“While you showed excellent qualities, you could not give a full commitment on group discipline issues, and for that reason the Panel could not recommend approval.”
So to those saying they wish to hear both sides of the story; so do I. I have told you all I know. I am I think entitled to the assumption that the reason was the one stated, rather than the myriad alternative reasons people are putting so much effort into promoting.
‘Mary and Nevermind, as something of a friend (I hope) to each of you, please reconsider your replies to Habbabkuk on the basis of the specific comment(s) you’re replying to – I see no hostility toward Craig from Habbabkuk’s comments on this thread. Rather, Habbabkuk seems to have highlighted fickleness and lack of consistency in various people’s attitudes towards the SNP. Habbabkuk may be drawing attention to this as a more general phenomena within politics; a type of distortion within voting patterns over time, perhaps.
Habbabkuk, your treatment of Mary, here and at squonk.tk, most certainly could be seen as ‘cyberstalking’, and I feel that you should apologise for that.
I propose a cease-fire, followed by negotiation.’
Since you have said what you said Clark, our frail ol’ codger has once again showed his cyber stalking affection by labelling Mary.
I’m be prepared for a cease fire and shall apologise when I see habbakuk next, with a few fast and not so elaborate handshakes. He will be joyfully breathless afterwards, but much better educated to contemplate what Mary must be going through.
Robert Crawford: “…Organisations that operate this way are limited to the ability of the person/s at the top, and suffer from “inertia” very quickly. They become dull and uninteresting to those whom they are trying to attract.
Precisely. To take advantage of the Indy momentum generated by Salmond, SNP and the the “Yes” movement, SNP must avoid that trap
My hope was that the SNP was bigger and more intelligent than Robert’s description of typical UK political parties. It remains my fervent hope that SNP will find some way of correcting what IMO has been an obvious error. Ensuring that Craig, one the stars of “Yes”, is helped in his quest to make himself available as an SNP candidate for Westminster…assuming that he would be still willing to do so…can surely still be done if someone in the party leadership team exerts themselves extraordinarily.
Fred.
Furthermore, it is not Scoland’s oil that is $60.00 a barrel, it is oil as a commodity world wide that has dropped in price. This may or may not be “political” manipulation, and will nt last for very long. Having said that, I was told that the Rothchilds had sold all their interests in oil. That should be a good barometer as to how profitable, or not, oil is likely to be.
The NO voters would not have had a clue as to what the price (world wide) of oil would be now, or even in the future. Therefore, it would not have influenced their decision to vote NO.
Have you read the banned for 30 years McCrone Report on Scotland’s oil? That might give you an idea as to it’s real value, to England.
I suggest you take a look at the U-tube cartoons by “Duggy Dug”.
You will be well entertained, and educated to the Facts.
I also suggest you look at Ian Hamilton Q.C.’s U-tube videos, if you are brave enough to have your beliefs challenged/shattered.
Enlightenment awaits, it could hurt, mentally. It aways does when one believes one thing and it turns out to be wrong.
Happy New Year to you Fred, when it comes.
You may well be right press report in the National claim that its a distinct possibility that the SNP, would back Labour in the event of a hung parliament, thus ushering in Labour,under the right circumstances, even though Ed Miliband’s popularity is low at the moment.
The latest Panelbase poll puts the SNP firmly in the driving seat north of the border,with regards to voting intentions although I have no love for Labour as they shed their values years ago, I’d rather them than the Tories, who never had any values to to begin with.
Oh my Goodness Craig!!!
Margaret Curran has used poor little honest old you, to attack the SNP!!!
How could she do such a thing?
how could she twist your words like that just to suit her own political narrative?
What a shock it must be eh?
What a joke you are becoming! and anyone who still trusts you is thick and evil, so please don’t bother responding to this post because you are beneath contempt and I wont even bother responding to your worthless ass.
…and I’ve got a cold!
Villager; keep that armchair analysis in the can if your intent is truly meant to be a help.
The Norman Atlantic ferry had a brave captain, unlike the one on the Costa Concordia.
‘More than 400 people have been rescued, in a long and complex operation amid gale-force winds and thick smoke.
The captain of the ferry was the last to be rescued, more than 36 hours after sending out a distress signal.’
Seven people died.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30624086
Mary, I didn’t call Habbabkuk a great friend; I said his recent comments which you criticised weren’t hostile towards Craig – there is much middle ground between those two positions. Please help me to diffuse polarisation.
Nevermind, it matters whether things are good or bad, but it also matters whether things are getting better or worse – statics and dynamics are both important. Habbabkuk’s recent personal descriptions are a big improvement over many of his earlier ones, so please stop saying you’d like to thump him!
Wherever there’s conflict, resentment based on the past hinders improvement. Someone has to make the first move towards peaceful coexistence; eventually everyone has to offer olive branches to their opponents, rewarding every step in the right direction, no matter how small – a similar argument applies for unilateral nuclear disarmament.
That, or the fight can continue forever. Value peace more than triumph <3
“Mary I see that you’re still the constant sourpuss that you are. Please go have a wank and let us get on with the conversation. You’re way, way out of your depth here. Sycophants are the last thing that Craig needs at this time.”
———————————–
villageidiot.
What vile mouthed little rat, you can actually converse now there’s a surprise.
I think the last thing Craig needs right now is his blog degraded with such lurid and disgusting remarks, from you.
Villager.
You are cruel.
“Scot Goes Pop” carries quite a thoughtful piece on Craig:-
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/craig-murray.html
“Your English government must be borrowing money like there is no to-morrow, now that Scotland’s oil is so cheap to buy.
Do you see that cold weather out there? Well, the English are heating their houses and offices with Scottish gas, and the French, German and Spanish energy companies are making a fortune out of them/you. And Scotland, don’t you see that?”
No, I don’t.
Maybe you could explain why being nearer to something makes it yours.
Once there was no oil and gas, then some oil companies from Texas decided to do some exploring, they spent a lot of money finding oil and gas, money put up by investors and the UK government.
I live next to an oil well, yes Halliburton were my next door neighbour, I’m a lot closer to the oil than people in Edinburgh, that makes it my oil not theirs if proximity is the criteria.
Villager, I’ve removed your 16:08 comment. If I see the slightest hint of you blaming Mary for getting cancer again I’ll ban you. It’s as disgusting as fundamentalist Christian politicians framing natural disasters as divine retribution.
Villager. Your ignorance is astounding. You normally contract thyroid cancer by inhaling a radioactive particle, or by ingesting one in food or drink (such as milk) that is contaminated by radioactivity so watch out.
Your hatred of me is plain to see. I just think you are rather pathetic. Strange you are back after such a long absence. Why now?
Sorry Clark but I am not taking these personal remarks/insults from othera lying down.
“Furthermore, it is not Scoland’s oil that is $60.00 a barrel, it is oil as a commodity world wide that has dropped in price.”
I know, it makes not a blind bit of difference.
Nationalists were warned before the referendum that oil prices could well fall, it was good sound advice but it was ignored. “Scare mongering” is, I think, the term they used.
“Compassionate conservative”; clearly an oxymoron.
He’s hoping to be banned.
Villager, your on pre-moderation.
The Herald Scotland recently quoted you as saying “I’m really sad, because like many people from the Yes movement I believed we were building a new kind of politics in Scotland.” The way you were treated by the local SNP hierarchy highlights the difference between the popularly-held expectations of a new beginning among the YES Movement and the hard, cold reality of party politics.
The condemnatory tone of a lot of the criticism you are receiving on for example Facebook is being made by people who seem to believe that the SNP can do no wrong. Any criticism against the SNP is being taken as a personal attack against the YES Movement. While, during pre-Referendum days, the SNP went to a great deal of trouble to separate voting for Independence from necessarily voting for the SNP or Alex Salmond this difference seems to be lost on a lot of Facebook supporters who seem to have elevated Nicola Sturgeon, Alex Salmond and the SNP to some kind of collective sainthood!
When the occasional individual dares to voice any criticism of the SNP or its actual parliamentary record they soon get shot down in flames. It’s the same tribal hysteria that’s being levelled against you at present.
Mary.
That’s the stuff, get stuck in.
Visualise your colleagues in the S.A.S. dressed in white killing the cancer and close your eyes and smile for one minute, every time you visualise.
Never never call it “MY” cancer don’t take possession of it. It is not yours, it is an invader to be killed.
Try and find something that makes you laugh. Laughter is the best medicine to fight these and other troubles, with the help of “modern medicine”.
A very Happy New Year to you when it comes. You have taught me a lot on here, and I am truly grateful. Give it LALDY!
Ok so the minions were under instructions (as Ruth has pointed out), which begs the question who made the no decision at the higher level? Is the SNP a controlled opposition? Surely if the NSA knows Angela Merkel wears red panties every Sunday, they have all the communications of the SNP brass. An unprecedented 20% postal vote mixed uncounted with the rest of the ballots, a crucial poll without an exit poll, a PM displaying an arrogance (purring) that can only come out of being privy to high level shenanigans – no, there is an untoward stench in this whole business.
Craig must have known that as possible, even likely kingmakers, the SNP would be ready to horse trade principles with the bloodstained professional criminals that make up New Labour, surely much worse then being asked not to oppose the Bedroom Tax;
https://news.yahoo.com/scottish-nationalist-kingmakers-eye-post-2015-election-deal-121941794.html
How come the usual suspects can dish out abuse, but I try to reply to them in a similar but light-hearted vein and point out examples of them doing exactly the things they accuse others of and I get “Blah blah … awaiting moderation” then my comment, made around 1:30pm simply doesn’t ever appear. I really wish I knew what the rules are here, because it seems one rule for some and others for others …drone drone.
[craigmurray.org.uk – Off-topic replies to off-topic comments are as off-topic as the original off-topic comment itself. Hope that helps.]
I realise I’m never going to see my country’s independence or a better society, at ease with itself, in my lifetime, and the SNP’s bungling ineptitude, its once charming but now distressing amateurism, along with the far more vile Britant unionist parties I hold jointly responsible for this, without going so far as apportioning percentages. I wonder if they’ll be in quite a rush to trumpet resignations from the SNP, as they were to report the surge in membership, in the aftermath of this despicable affair. I’m sure there’ll be a full postbag at SNP HQ tomorrow.
When is this Alexander Burnes book coming out, so I can scan it and post it on usenet.
This is the retail equivalent of going for a job interview at ALDI, being unsuccessful and then deciding to set fire to the store on the wayout. Nice work. Bitter much?
The last line was enclosed in (joking) (/joking) tags which the s/w removed. Grrr.
Fred.
Do you remember the two Irishmen sitting on Rockall for a week trying to claim the whole oil producing area for Ireland?
Same as you it did not work. I will tell you why.
The Labour government after the second World War nationalised all the mineral assets of these islands. Furthermore, they knew about the oil in the North Sea for years before, waiting for technology to catch up, to get out of the sea bed. Just as now the government and or it’s preferred cronies can come onto everyone’s property and Frack or anything else that suits their purpose. The reason for this is “A PENNY” in old money was left on your Fue-duty, never to be collected, but to give them control when required of any mineral assets on your property.
So, no oil well for you, sorry.
Take a look at Craig,s “stolen seas” on U-tube. This will tell you another “fact” as to the worth of Scotland’s oil to the English Government.
The price of oil will go up again. I wonder what your response will be to “BIG PROFITS” coming out of the North Sea. Do you think you will say, “YES voters were right all along” or are you dyed in the wool?
Of course, it stands to reason that if you answered NO to the bedroom tax question and were barred then if Alex Neil or Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh are selected that they answered YES.
Actually, all this talk of possible SNP deals with Labour in a hung parliament is more to put to bed the talk of “vote SNP get Tories”, which the Red Tories are desperately using.
Labour would form a coalition with the Conservatives before the SNP. They would never cut a deal with SNP, ever. They hate the SNP, because they believe the Scots are serfs who belong to THEM, not to any other party.
In my ideal scenario, we send a bucketload of SNP MPs to Westmonster in 2015, who will cause death by a thousand cuts to the unionist parties trying to pass bills, so that they will want to see the back of “those troublesome Scots”. If the SNP manages to present enough bills scrapping Trident, the bedroom tax, the House of Lords…. they might well gain 100,000 new members SOUTH of the border!
Then, in 2016, we get a good majority of YES parties in Holyrood…. and declare UDI!
“Take a look at Craig,s “stolen seas” on U-tube. This will tell you another “fact” as to the worth of Scotland’s oil to the English Government.”
Craig’s “stolen seas” is a load of bullshit. Blatantly and demonstrably not true.
Read this to see why: http://www.ejil.org/pdfs/12/1/505.pdf
The fishing limits (note fishing limits not maritime boundary) were not sneaked in and imposed on Scotland overnight they were passed openly and democratically by the Scottish parliament at Holyrood.
http://archive.scottish.parliament.uk/business/chamber/journalMinutes/journal-99/jour-990603.htm
Tough luck Craig, but I think you will find that all the main political parties in the UK (including UKIP) , are controlled by the same people you used to work for…and you were a very naughty boy. They aren’t going to let you back in that easily.
You can go back to being English now, maybe retire, write another book and maybe even do pantomimes next Christmas…
Gilbert & Sullivan??
That’s if we are all still here and not in the midst of a nuclear war with Russia. It’ll be all over in a flash. They really are that mad.
Happy New Year
Tony