All You Need to Know 48

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The Guardian reports that today Blair “did not pretend to be Miliband’s biggest fan, and he was notably more enthusiastic about Jim Murphy, the Blairite whom he described as the “great new leader of the Scottish Labour party”.”

How the right wing shill Murphy – a man well to the right of Thatcher on both economic and foreign policy – came to be chosen as Scottish labour leader will be a fascinating chapter in historians’ discussions on the strange death of that party.

I gatecrashed Murphy’s acceptance speech on becoming leader, at Surgeons Hall in Edinburgh, a few months ago. I discovered that his entire audience were paid apparatchiks of the Labour Party. I interviewed several as a journalist (I am an NUJ member – and none recognised me). Of the eleven I spoke to, not a single one had ever heard of the Henry Jackson Society. Which says something about the level of political education of Labour functionaries.

It also explains how we came to the remarkable situation that the result from Eastwood on May 7 will be awaited with much more anxiety in CIA HQ in Virginia and Mossad HQ in Tel Aviv, than it will anywhere in Scotland. That says something very remarkable about what has happened to the Labour Party.

I see that in “journalists” questioning Blair, nobody asked the obvious question, which is who was paying for this particular speech. Hitachi, my guess. He was asked why he is not sharing a platform with Miliband in this election. The answer is of course that not even Miliband is quite that stupid.

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48 thoughts on “All You Need to Know”

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  • Daniel

    What a creep Murphy is. It amazes me the extent to which these kinds of people within the Labour Party will bend over backwards for their paymasters even if it means their impending extinction in Scotland. How one can go through life on a day to day basis totally devoid of a conscience, is totally beyond me. If Murphy had a heart, he would have long ago put it out to tender.

  • bevin

    As an influence pedlar it is incumbent upon Blair, who has made millions by making himself available to tyrants for ‘selfies’, to act as if his endorsement was anything other than a kiss of death.
    Talking of which, Miliband’s best bet would be to repudiate both Blair and Murphy. He has, after all, repudiated his own father’s meticulously crafted life work, so distancing himself from the man who makes Ramsay Mac look like a revolutionary and Vidkund Quisling wise, ought to be easy.

  • Ishmael

    I really don’t know how anyone can even print a word Blair says frankly. I guess It should not shock me the way they paint the Ukraine situation.

    I really though that people (in the Guardian especially) still must have some notion of what’s good, but it’s really something to see how blind people can be. How a moral centre is obviously missing.

    Since quitting habitual drug use (that was actually comparatively modest compared to locals) my eyes have really opened a bit. There are still a few people I know are ok, but so may people I just can’t associate with any more. I’ll be leaving them to drinking themselves into illness, or whatever coke does (having realised many in my local do that also).

    There really it something increasingly missing from them, though perhaps i’m just noticing it more.

    It’s make me wonder if someone like Cameron does cocaine. As I don’t know where else he gets any air of confidence. Power does a similar thing right ? See this is why i’m always suspicious (and always will be) of people who get lots of attention and are exalted by the media, or anyone. Even arguably progressive SNP members.

    Your correct in this Craig, people should not be politicians for long.

  • LordSnooty

    One does not have a political education; nor does one wish for one. However, a long life of contemplation and observation has led me to the ineluctable conclusion that the odious Blair is the bumboy of senior Tories; how else to explain the kiss of death that the serpent administers regularly to his erstwhile colleagues?

  • Mary

    Although the Liebour apparatchiks had not heard of the HJS, presumably they know all about Labour Friends of Israel of which Murphy was Chair or Vice Chair I know not which nor care .

    http://www.lfi.org.uk/lfi-supporters-in-parliament/

    Their brand new website is ‘graced’ by BLiar’s words –

    ‘Quartet Representative and former Prime Minister Rt Hon Tony Blair:

    “Labour Friends of Israel is an incredibly important organisation and deserves our wholehearted support.

    “Their tireless efforts to promote a constructive debate on the Middle East, a two state solution and a strong bilateral relationship between the UK and the only democracy in the Middle East makes them essential to the Labour Party.

    “I believe LFI’s role will only increase in importance in the years to come and I look forward to working with them in the future.”’

    and Leader of the Labour Party Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP:

    “Labour Friends of Israel plays an incredibly important role in the debate about a peaceful settlement in the Middle East.

    “They do fantastic work strengthening bilateral relations between Britain and Israel, building links with our sister party in Israel and supporting Israelis and Palestinians working towards a negotiated two state solution.”

    Liars.

  • Winkletoe

    Apologies for straying OT but my eye was caught by this ad “The Institute for War & Peace Reporting seeks English Language editors to commission and generate outputs for our Central Asia and Caucasus programmes”. Not knowing much of the IWPR, but something sounding a bit dubious, I turn the About and find glowing praise from Samantha Power and partnership with the NED. Well, that answers my own question, then. Thanks.

  • Mary

    Meant to say check on Murphy’s expenses claims to see the type he is.

    ‘In 2010, a commission chaired by Sir Thomas Legg demanded Murphy repay £577.46 in expenses which he had overclaimed. He did not appeal the decision and repaid the money in full. Expenses documents made available showed he also claimed over one million pounds between 2001 and 2012. In 2007/8 he claimed £3,900 for food, £2,284 for petty cash and £4,884 for a new bathroom. He claimed £249 for a TV set and a further £99 for a TV stand; £1762.50 of taxpayers money paid for Murphy’s website whilst further claims included Labour party adverts in the local press. In addition, he claimed almost £2000 of public cash in order to pay private accountants to handle his tax returns. [26] In 2012 Murphy was among a group of 27 MPs named as benefiting from up to £20,000 per year expenses to rent accommodation in London, at the same time as letting out property they owned in the city. Although the practice did not break rules, it has been characterised as a “loophole” that allows politicians to profit from Commons allowances. He also designated his constituency home in Glasgow as his second home for which he claimed £780 a month in mortgage interest payments in 2007/8.[27] Murphy had previously apologised “on behalf of all politicians” for the expenses scandal in 2009.[28]

    On 3 July 2013, Murphy criticised the Unite trade union for “bullying” and “overstepping the mark” for allegedly interfering with the selection of a candidate in Falkirk.[29] A Labour Party investigation later cleared Unite of any wrongdoing.[30] Later that year, Murphy was demoted to the post of Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.[31]

    Murphy co-chaired the review of the Labour Party in Scotland with Sarah Boyack, commissioned by Ed Miliband in May 2011 in response to the landslide victory by the Scottish National Party in the Scottish general election of 2011, which reported in late 2011.[32]’

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Murphy

    Efficient donation raiser. Note Price Waterhouse Cooper’s (presently engaged in the destruction of the NHS) provision of a shared HoC research assistant valued at £30k, and donations from Lord George Robertson (that fits!) and one Alan Massie (who he?)
    http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10453/jim_murphy/east_renfrewshire#register

    Details of the paid for multiple visits to Israhell are included in the historical entry.
    http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10453

    Horrible horrid man.

  • nevermind

    Forgive for being O/T, but the Germans have a close relationship with Karimov, thats why I can’t stand the CDU/CSU coalition, they are recklessly ignorant of the massive suffering there.

    A scandal is brewing over Karimovs succession, who will it be?

    “Gulnara’s father has remained silent about the accusations against his daughter, but her younger sister has publicly spoken out against her. “I no longer consider her to be a part of the family,” says Lola Karimova, who is her country’s ambassador to UNESCO and also resides in a $40 million mansion in Geneva. She accuses her sister of corruption and of having a weak character.

    ‘None of Us Are Clean’

    Gulnara struck back. “None of us are clean,” she tweeted, going on to say her sister used cocaine and was trying to plot against her. She accused Lola of falling victim to black magic, or being in cahoots with her mother and of hoarding large amounts of dollars in a secret hiding place beneath a bathtub in the president’s palace. Gulnara Karimova has been under house arrest since February 2014.”

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/scandal-envelops-family-of-uzbekistan-dictator-karimov-a-1026885.html

  • writeon

    When a serial killer like Blair, to quote the hapless Miliband, warns you about something related to UK national interests, given his appalling record of subserviance to US foreign policy, the wise thing to do is push him away, raise a crucifix and shout “Get behind me Satan!” That Miliband chooses to embrace Blair’s ‘endorsement’ is embarrassing.

    How the ironies pile up, like heaps of horseshit. Miliband’s father must be turning in his grave! Okay, he’d probably be proud of his kids achievements as a father; but surely they learned something around the kitchen table, or perhaps they learned too much? They learned what Power was and how much easier it was to serve it than oppose it.

    Blair, a charismatic Christian, is forever linked to mass-murder and mass-destruction in Iraq and considered the embodiment of the Anti-Christ by millions of people, which is ironic and a form of poetic justice.

  • John Goss

    Off topic or not Nevermind I am sure Craig will thank you for the Karimov information. It does not seem that long ago since Craig was knocking on her door in Switzerland while for more than the last 12 months she has been ensconced in her father’s luxury prison. In a move as bold as Jacob buying Esau’s birthright younger sister Lola seems next in line for the Karimov dictatorship. Keep it in the family.

  • Mary

    John Goss Did you know of Monsanto’s push to get GM into Europe via Ukraine? It fits.

    GMO tighten the noose around Ukraine & EU agriculture http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1428411456.html

    We are now wide open to Monsanto and the GM cohort. The EU, instead of banning them, have left us wide open to pliant governments to allow their introduction.

    Where do the UK political parties stand on GMO?
    04 April 2015.
    Also: “TAKE ACTION” to keep GMO out of UK fields
    http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2015-articles/16056-where-do-the-uk-political-parties-stand-on-gmo

  • glenn

    The BBC was pretty enthusiastic about Murphy, too. The particular Sunday he was anointed leader, the World at One spent more than half its time not on the world, or even UK news, but rather on one puff-piece after another on Murphy. They gave flattering profiles, interviewed a lot of his cronies, and various pundits to say what a sound choice this good fellow was.

    One might almost consider Murphy to be an Establishment approved choice.

  • Gary

    So is it the nice American gentleman who pays to donate money to Jim Murphy’s “research”? Maybe it’s one of those ‘thinktanks’. All legal, proper and above board. No immoral behaviour implied. Jim’s his own man, he’s got his own crate and takes the bottles back too!

  • ------------·´`·.¸¸.¸¸.··.¸¸Node

    Ishmael 7 Apr, 2015 – 2:48 pm : “Seems chunkymark is calming down over time, I can almost listen to him now. interesting talk imo.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dYe909pttM“

    Thanks, Ishmael, I’d given up listening to ChunkyMark, not because I disagree with him but because I hate people shouting at me. On your recommendation, I’ve listened to the first two of four parts of his chat with David Graeber and he’s now a much calmer and more thoughtful chappie. He’s letting his interviewee make the running, only intervening with short relevant comments or to move the conversation onto a new subject. In my absence, he’s become a good interviewer.

    At the end of the 2nd clip, Graeber is recounting his enthusiasm for Syrian Kurds who are trying to establish a system of direct democracy. I’m sure he and they don’t need me to remind them of the fate of the last direct democracy in the Middle East. It rapidly produced a stable educated egalitarian healthy nation, prosperous and independent of the Central Banking system. The West systematically and deliberately reduced it to violence and rubble. And of course installed a Central Bank.

    R.I.P Ghaddafi’s Libya.

  • Republicofscotland

    So the war criminal Tony Blair spoke at a closed acolyte meeting today,comparing the Scottish Independence Referendum as “A near death experience.”

    The mass murderer B-Liar,would know all about death, and near death experiences, he help end close, to a million lives in the illegal Iraq war.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Blair’s facile ‘opinions’ – dictated no doubt by Bill Clinton and the Abu Dhabi royal family – on the possibility of an EU referendum, are given absurd prominence by the BBC today – heading every R4 bulletin. Why? Are the BBC trying to destroy Miliband by association with the greedy windbag? Or to align the UK electorate solidly behingd UKIP?

    If Blair’s for staying in then it’s all too tempting to say FFS, let’s get out. Remember, he’s currently promoting flogging off state assets and pushing a cheap workforce in:
    Burma
    Rwanda
    Kazakhstan
    Vietnam
    Egypt
    Serbia
    (among other countries favouring convenient access by global speculators over the interests of their citizens.)

    And it would seem that Blair, having failed (or not even attempted to succeed) in his Middle East sinecure, and noticing that fewer and fewer audiences are willing to pay for the opinions of a middle manager in a hedge fund, even if they are clad in the gravitas of a self-styled statesman, is now repositioning himself vis-a-vis Europe and something lucrative therein.

  • Republicofscotland

    It’s a sign of desperation by Labour that they’ve wheeled Tony Blair out,to promote the benefits of the party (still to be noted).

    Blair is a divisive figure at best within Labour,and his appearance may well,send Labours voters, scrambling for the exits.

  • Ishmael

    Node, Exactly my feeling. I worried about the guys blood pressure lol, and mine watching it.

    There is a lot covered in that short meeting.

  • Republicofscotland

    The saying, “Flogging a dead horse” spring to mind,when I think of David Cameron’s visit to Scotland today,to try and drum up support for the Tories.

    With his namesake David Mundell,the only Tory MP in Scotland,a prime suspect,in the release of the Frenchiegate Memo,fthe Tories,in Scotland may well be on the verge of having no representation in Scotland.

    Would that be such a bad thing?

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