I gather the Scottish newspapers are going big on the story tomorrow. The Independence Live interview recording is available here and gives the opportunity for a much more reasoned and expansive view of developments.
[it has since been put up on Youtube and I have been able to embed here]
http://new.livestream.com/IndependenceLive/CraigMurray
But it is worth reiterating the point that I only went public on this issue after I was phoned at 8am Saturday morning by The Scotsman (or their sister paper Scotland on Sunday). The Scotsman had already been alerted to the story and been briefed in some detail from within the SNP, in a manner plainly hostile to me. Exactly the same had happened, with the same Scotsman journalist, when I first started to pursue my candidacy a few weeks ago. I therefore decided to get out what had happened from my perspective, using social media.
I had written on 26 December an email to the SNP suggesting we develop an agreed media line to get out the fact I had been rejected as a candidate in a way that did as little mutual harm as possible. I had contacted Derek Bateman with a view to breaking this through his programme. I never received a reply to that email to the SNP. Instead someone in the SNP briefed The Scotsman against me.
That the corporate media would use this episode to damage both me and the SNP was entirely predictable. But it was not me who called the media in, and it is not in my nature to kow-tow humbly when I am being attacked.
UPDATE
I am adding into the text a comment I made below in response to people who refuse to take on board simple facts which they do not like.
1) I did not talk to the Scotsman/Scotland on Sunday. They phoned me at 8am and they had already been briefed and recounted to me a great many facts down the phone that could only have come from within the SNP. They did not say “Oh, Hi Craig, any news?”.
2) I said nothing to the Scotsman other than to confirm it was true I had been refused at assessment, and that I was very disappointed. I said nothing else.
3) It was not the first time someone had briefed the Scotsman on this and they had contacted me. It happened a few weeks ago too. The motive was very plain – to get the Scotsman to print disobliging things about me being a vicious cybernat (which worked- eejits keep happily quoting the same out of context phrase the Scotsman used in these comment threads, and throughout the blogosphere).
My personal conspiracy theory for the downing of those three flights is that Muslim terrorism is responsible.
It is well known that there are Muslim terrorists in Indonesia (cf. the Bali bombing); ditto in Malaysia; and as far as Ukraine is concerned, the are terrorists from Chechniya fighting with the separatists against the legitimate govt of Ukraine.
Simples!
I know this is true because, like Mr Goss (above, 00h24), “I have got a report”.
Let’s put it another way – imagining an SNP-Lab informal coalition at Westmidden, however unlikely that might be, given Labour’s tribal hatred of the SNP and their effective and continuing overt alliance with the Tories and LibDems, cemented during the Better Together campaign, disspelling any illusions that these parties are in any way distinct from one another, on a confidence and supply basis – is there any issue on which the, it is assumed smaller SNP group, would be permitted to vote with their consciences.
Has anyone asked the corpse of the Labour Party (through the agency of a medium) if they would, in the same confidence and supply arrangement, be whipped to support SNP-led measures such as true devo-max, another, this time fairly conducted referendum, an electoral commission with teeth, root and branch reform of the BBC, press watchdogs not run by the media barons themselves, declarations of national independence for all the nations of Britain, a timetable for co-operative dissolution of the union itself, expulsion of and arrest and trial of suspected war criminal members of their own party.
In such a Lab-SNP coalition, the compromises and accomodations which would be necessary with these outright villains, the muckslingers and liars of the referendum campaign, the heirs to and protégés of Brown and Darling and the rest of Project Fear’s rats who sunk so low as to set out to frighten vulnerable OAPs over their pensions are simply unpalatable. It would seem better to allow a completely hamstrung minority Tory government to thrash around flaccidly, powerlessly, to taunt them with recurring no-confidence votes, then rescinded within the allotted time, ready to topple them at will if they so much as look a bit shifty, for opposition introduced legislation they or their backers oppose to pass the commons over their heads, than to regard these New Lab wretches as colleagues or partners, it would be a compromise too far.
Wouldn’t it be better to let them become better despots together, a Labour-Tory coalition (not the first), to really expose the effective one-party rule which has always existed, the sham nature of the Westminster pseudo-democracy, made plain, finally acknowledged out in the open for all to finally see.
I thought we were aiming to return a full complement of SNP MPs to Westinster to be a thorn in the ugly Britnat establishment’s side, only for as long as they it takes to wrest our country back from them, not to make careers of it and join in their power-mad games. Every single issue should be decided on the merits of the specific case, with ‘the party’ view being no more than a well-considered recommendation, albeit carrying more than ordinary weight, but not something inviolable for which whipping into line to enforce or demand compliance would even be considered. That’s the Westminster way and it’s a huge part of the very broken nature of our dysfunctional pretend democracy. MPs are elected to serve their constituents, political parties are extraneous to that duty.
Habbaduk, I don’t usually read your comments, just scroll past them, regarding them as annoying noise, like advertising, “a sinister word from our sponsors”, soft soap mini-operas. I would point out to you however that you are off-topic, completely without justification as there is already a “Disappearing Aircraft” thread on this very site, to which you ought to take your half-baked theories, and where they will I hope be given a thorough roasting.
The Bali bombing was thought by many to be a nuclear explosion, a mini-nuke buried shallowly in a sewage pipe, remotely detonated, co-ordinated with a separate conventional explosion nearby, this seems borne out by the fact that many more died in the weeks and months following the event than did in the original blast, though the original death toll announced via the media never changed, but may have been possibly ten or more times higher than the original figure, with many radiation related deaths occurring amongst victims with what seemed like only minor injuries and superficial burns, dying subsequently in Australia where many were taken for treatment. There was no suggestion, much less any evidence of “muslim” involvement, it seems far more likely a technologically advanced nation state carried out that outrage.
Tiny M:
“Republicofscotland, you’re only encouraging ‘it’ by engaging, again and again.”
_______________
Why don’t you take your own advice, Tiny?
Your “Habbaduk, I don’t usually read your comments, just scroll past them,….etc, etc…many tedious lines and a separate post…” refers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shorter sentences and paras, please, Tiny – you’ve been told before.
Re the Bali bombing:
“There was no suggestion, much less any evidence of “muslim” involvement, it seems far more likely a technologically advanced nation state carried out that outrage.”
________________
Doubt if it was a tiny nuclear explosion, Tony M.
My money is on Muslim terrorists.
You know, the sort of people you say don’t exist outside our imagination… 🙂
‘Glenn Greenwald in Munich: Edward Snowden, NSA, Activism, Democracy & Freedom’
On the 1st of December 2014, US journalist,Glenn Greenwald was awarded one of Germany’s most prestigious award known as the Geschwister-Scholl Prize.
Sophie and Hans Scholl were both members of the White Rose student group which staged a non-violent resistance against Nazi Germany. They were imprisoned without a trial by the Nazis and executed in 1943 at the age of 21 and 24, respectively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNGGYYF1jdY
“My money is on Muslim terrorists.”
No, Really? from you? I’d never guess.
Clearly they are the only people in some peoples heads who do anything wrong.
For me the SNP strategy for their next term at Westminster is very clear. There is a majority according to the polls in favour of substantial more powers for Scotland, and there is also a majority that don’t think Smith goes far enough. The SNP group staged strategy is very clear, and will be what they will be elected for, and what the majority in Scotland will want them to do. And that is use their numbers to make sure Smith is delivered, and to push for those more powers wanted by the majority of people in Scotland. That is not just democracy in action, by showing that they are determined to do exactly that, they may even achieve a record vote in Scotland, perhaps even over 50% of the vote.
With Smith going through the stages as is, they can then push to get the more powers denied by Smith, and I’m not talking about the paltry offerings suggested by Smith in the Annex, I’m talking working upwards, for the rest of benefits denied in the last week of the Commission, then onto corporation tax being given to NI, then the rest of the VAT (revenue not rate), then National Insurance. In short, all revenues and powers amounting to FFA / Devo-Max. This requires very tight discipline to even have a chance of achieving the objective, but also to be seen to have tried 100%, genuinely, on behalf of that existing majority in Scotland. What it does not need is people shooting off on tangents, their own crusades, or thinking they are more important than the SNP, the objective, or even Scotland itself and the electorate that will have given them so many MPs to do their Will.
I think the timetable for this might be very tight, and if they are denied this by Westminster, and seen openly and obviously to have been denied, then in November the second referendum will be put into the 2016 manifesto, perhaps with the proviso that if FFA is delivered then a referendum may not be necessary (apart from the EU issue).
And that is probably why Craig Murray was – correctly – rejected as a candidate. Of all the times, this is the time for tight discipline, focus on the objective, and tight team work.
“What it does not need is people shooting off on tangents, their own crusades, or thinking they are more important than the SNP”
Maybe some feel democracy is more important than the snp.
I’v had enough listening to this stuff.
“discipline, focus on the objective, and tight team work”
What an utter load of fantacy. You need to empower people, not yourselves, people who have just gained you massive support. Yet you can’t even stand for the smallest measure of justice if that’s not on the cards.
“That’s three this year. Two in the vicinity of US military base at Diego Garcia, rented to the Yanks by the UK, and the other shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet.”
Distance from Diego Garcia to the Java Sea = c4,400km
I’d say Birmingham was in rather closer to the vicinity of Bedlam.
I’d want to be out there fanning those flames. None of this isolated efficient teamwork nonsense. What does that really mean?
All these terms are just a way of saying something that sounds good, but says NOTHING. Yes, you have all the slogans you need to run a nice efficient business. Should set you up for life.
“2. Minor point – you’ve insulted Hitler.”
Actually quite an important point to those such as Scouse Billy who seek to promote the works of David Irving.
“Habbaduk, I don’t usually read your comments, just scroll past them, regarding them as annoying noise, like advertising,”
We have little choice but to scroll past Tony M’s comments – but be assured they are making the same point at the end as at the beginning and in all previous comments – hence there is little need for paragraphs.
Ishmael
““My money is on Muslim terrorists.”
No, Really? from you? I’d never guess.
Clearly they are the only people in some peoples heads who do anything wrong.”
__________________
Are you one of those “some people”, Ishmael?
I’m not.
Wake up and smell the coffee!
Brain fatigue? Tired of thinking about politics? Finding real engagement a strain?
Join a political party. Public funded jingoist training. Elevate you beyond such moral conundrums. Just sign you agree below.
“Maybe some feel democracy is more important than the snp.”
When you say “democracy” are you talking about the dictionary definition of the word or the Nationalist definition? I believe in the sort of democracy where 55 is a bigger number than 45 not the spoilt brat we’ll stamp our feet and scream and scream till we get what we want anyway variety.
“Wake up and smell the coffee!”
I don’t know who the hell you think you are tbh. I can’t stand people who always seem to imply some great knowalge over others. Why I, like othes, never really read your stuff closley.
And I think, despite what you also said, you stink of racism. Not to mention the careless thoughtless attitude you insist upon.
Fred when you refer to the “Nationalist definition” of democracy do you mean the British nationalist definition? That would be a version where Scottish British nationalist politicians deliberately mislead the people they are supposed to represent to get their noses into the Westminster feeding trough.
If a supporter of Scotland being a normal Independent Scotland is described as a “nationalist” then surely it’s equally appropriate to describe a supporter of London Rule for Scotland as a British nationalist. Please note use of small n to differentiate normal British nationalists from their more extreme manifestations.
Fred, give over, there was/is a whole movement. That you imply such childish attitudes, while taking such a simplistic childish outlook. It says more about you.
Come up with somthing original at least, what are they paying you for ffs.
Well, who’d have thunk it? The SNP turns out not to be a crusading force for all that’s right and fair in the world but a political machine like any other. Even if they get independence, they’ll sign up with exactly the same vested interests and little will change. Alex Salmond is as slippery as they come, as his very cosy relationship with Rupert Murdoch showed at Leveson.
Chin up, you are better than any of those maggots, Craig.
Chee Bai Charlie 29 Dec, 2014 – 4:52 am
Thanks for that additional info.
“Fred when you refer to the “Nationalist definition” of democracy do you mean”…
It’s quite obvious from the context of what I wrote who I mean.
“Fred, give over, there was/is a whole movement.”
55 is bigger than 45.
Do you believe in democracy or not?
“Do you believe in democracy or not?”
Let’s just take one aspect. Outside interference, 98% bias reporting, parroting lies. No that’s not democracy. I think the’d have got more democracy if they ignored that particular vote. But we can all be a bit stupid, or mislead.
As Glenn pointed out, the MINIMUM is a citizenry informed about the real substantive issues. Better is to play a role, not just on choices given but on the choices available. We are a long long way before people have anything like the input elites have.
And…The attack on ordinary peoples wealth by the elite, Westminster, bedroom tax etc, Is an attack on there ability to have a voice. To take part in protest or community action. So for me the no outcome is a further erosion of democracy.
I hope that’s quite clear. Please refer back to it before repeating one of your mantras to me.
“Let’s just take one aspect.”
Yes, lets just take the important aspect, 55 is bigger than 45.
For me democracy is the meaningful input into the organisation of society being spread equally among the people.
And Yes, I believe in it a dam sight more than the pathetic excuse we have for it atm.
Good to hear that Vronsky. Thank you for posting.
[craigmurray.org.uk – this comment was posted Dec 28, 2014 at 11:39 and has just been retrieved from the spam filter]
“Yes, lets just take the important aspect, 55 is bigger than 45.”
You a complete dick, obviousley. What a waste of space.
Sry, YouR* a complete dick, obviously
And personally, i’m not shouting about the vote being ‘off’ somehow, stomping or crying. Though I think it stank of unfairness and undemocratic influence.
There is no reason there should not still be a push for independence, But obviously (perhaps not to you) that’s not for you or me to decide.