It is no secret that Alistair Carmichael is a friend of mine. Not least because he told parliament so in 2005:
“The Government’s signals to the Uzbek regime have not always been helpful. I am thinking especially of their treatment of my old friend, the former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, who has done us all a great service in graphically highlighting the appalling human rights record of the Uzbekistan Government.”
Alistair was one of very few MPs who raised the dreadful human rights abuses in Uzbekistan even before I got there. He has a genuine interest in human rights worldwide, and had a much better motivation in going into politics than the large majority of politicians. He was never anything like a diehard unionist in personal conviction. I felt quite proud for him when he was asked during the campaign what would his role be in negotiating for the UK the conditions of separation after a Yes vote. He replied that he was Scottish, and he would be on the Scottish, not the UK side.
I have never chosen my friends by my politics, and I am not one of those people who is only happy in the company of those who agree with me. I am happiest with a few drinks and a good argument in intellectually challenging company. I also do know that all human beings are flawed, and I don’t expect perfection. So I have no intention of ending friendship with Alistair.
All of which makes it hard, but I have to say that I really do think he needs to resign as an MP, and to do so immediately.
It was not just a mistake to leak that memo, it was wrong. It was even more wrong because he himself believed it was written in error and did not give Nicola Sturgeon’s true opinion. But in an election in which the Scottish Lib Dems faced wipeout, he saw the advantage of playing this trick. That was wrong on many levels. I would add that I feel very confident that Alistair would never have done it without consulting Clegg first. Clegg should resign too. And instead of the usual Cabinet Office stitch-up, there needs to be a real inquiry into the whole history and production of that extraordinary minute, and whether Alistair was set up to do it. The Scottish Government needs to be an equal partner in constituting that inquiry.
Alistair has no alternative but to resign because he then repeatedly lied about what he had done. It is much better that he goes now with a full and frank apology to everyone, especially his constituents. When you have blatantly and repeatedly lied about something, you cannot expect people to give you their trust again. That it even seems a possibility is an example of the erosion of ethical standards, of which Tony Blair is of course the greatest example as liar, mass murderer and multi-millionaire.
But we should not lose sight of the real lesson. The corrupt and rotten structures of the UK state are so insidious that they can take a fundamentally decent man like Alistair and lead him to behave so badly. There is something within the rotting organisms of UK institutions in their decline from Imperial power and dependence on corrupt banking and corporate systems, that infects almost all who enter them. While I worked for the FCO I saw really nice colleagues, decent men and women I worked with, go along with organising what they knew to be illegal war in Iraq, and with facilitating the torture and extraordinary rendition programmes. Because that was what paid their mortgage, looked after their children, and above all gave them social status as high British diplomats.
Westminster gives untramelled executive power to a party with just 23% of the support of the registered electorate. The majority of parliamentarians are unelected Lords a great many of whom are themselves mired in corruption – and some much worse. The organs of state power are used to facilitate the flow of money from the poor to the very wealthy, which is the actual cause of the deficit in public finances. The rewards of being on the inside are sweet; those outside are measurably dispossessed of wealth, and measurably alienated in politics. The media is controlled by this corporate state.
Alistair Carmichael’s story is not the story of a bad man. It is the story of what happens to a good man who buys in to UK power structures. The real lesson of the sad story of this period in Alistair’s life is that the UK is evil, corrupt and corrupting, and that the UK state needs swiftly to be broken up.
There was a memorial service for Leon Brittan this afternoon (the former Home Secretary under Margaret Thatcher and Jimmy Savile who was buried in an unmarked grave). Amongst those attending the service were Lord Heseltine, Michael Howard, Kenneth Clarke, William Hague, Nick Clegg (Clegg’s first political appointment was as a secretary to Brittan), Lord Lawson, Jeffrey Archer, John Gummer and David Mellor.
I don’t have a link at present, because no news organisation has reported it as yet. Exaro will probably run it tomorrow morning.
If you want to know just how perverted and corrupt the British Establishment is you can’t beat all things Leon Brittan.
That Cuba and/or Russia was behind the JFK assassination was precisely the story the CIA (or at least highly influential people within the CIA like James Angleton) was laying the groundwork for by having false Oswalds pop up all over the place, saying and doing provocative things, and establishing the connection with Cuba and Russia by joining the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and (allegedly) visiting the Soviet embassy in Mexico City and asking to speak with the KGB officer in charge of assassinations in the Western Hemisphere.
Only the whole story fell apart when J. Edgar Hoover had to tell Lyndon Johnson that the voice of the person who called the Soviet embassy was not the voice of Oswald. (Photographs also turned up of the American visiting the Soviet embassy which were clearly not of Oswald.)
If the CIA was willing to lie about this in 1963, why should we believe any such stories planted by somebody today?
RobG
26/05/2015 9:21pm
Your Exaro source says Janner has been reappointed to that committee every year since 1978 but has not attended one of its meetings since 2002!
Wtf is going on in that place? Does he get remunerated for the appointment, I wonder? Apparently additional remuneration is paid to MPs for additional appointments or duties. Nice work if you can get it.
Kind regards,
John
RobG
26/05/2015 9:40pm
What a crew. J
RobG, what you say about the media missing the story is no longer true. Trust the Daily Mail to be on top of it: Kenneth Clarke, William Hague and Nick Clegg among politicians who attend memorial service for Leon Brittan.
Lots and lots of pictures of all the big shots in attendance at the West London Synagogue today. I wonder where in North Yorkshire the next service will be:
Presumably within his constituencies of Cleveland and Whitby and Richmond.
John Goss, good to hear about Vanunu; another complete scandal where the media and the trolls try to brainwash us that black is white and down is up.
John Spencer-Davis, on average, over history, 20 new Lords are appointed every year. During the last five years of the coalition government an average of 100 Lords have been appointed every year (the Lords now way out-number the Commons). There’s never been anything quite like it in all political history, and it’s another indicator of how totally corrupt Westminster has become.
This won’t be changed from the inside; it’s gone too far. I fear that we’re in for massive civil unrest, and I also predict that this government won’t survive its five year term.
We live in interesting times, to put it mildly!
500 extra Lords in 5 years – you are joking. You must be.
Kind regards, John
Here in the U.S. big donors to political parties get ambassadorships. But we have nothing close to 500 of them.
London Times also has the story of the memorial for Brittan, but it’s behind a pay wall. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/courtsocial/article4452179.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2015_05_26
I recently rewatched the original (British) House of Cards. When I first watched it, over 20 years ago, I thought it was effective drama, but over the top as far as being realistic was concerned. But with all these recent pedophilia revelations, it’s becoming clear that, if anything, it toned things down as far as the moral atmosphere under Thatcher was concerned.
@Lysias
26 May, 2015 – 9:48 pm
Thanks for the link. One reason I read the comments on this blog is because you all give such good links.
But with regard to the Daily Mail, at the time of writing this is the headline of their online edition:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3097559/The-march-migrants-Hundreds-Syrians-Afghans-walk-Kos-1-200-migrants-arrive-Greek-islands-just-two-days.html
There is no mention at all of Leon Brittan on their online front page. It’ll be interesting to see if it makes tomorrow’s print edition. Do you wanna take a bet?
They have to run the story online because they know it will be picked-up tomorrow by the likes of Huff Post, and of course Exaro News.
But not by the Guardian, who are headlining a piece about anti-Tory protests around the Queen’s Speech…
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/26/anti-tory-protests-parliament-queens-speech
Eric Blair couldn’t make it up!
John, I don’t usually link to Wiki for stuff like this, but it’s late and I’m about to crash out; so…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords#Overcrowding
If interested I’ll try to dig up a more authoritive article tomorrow.
Speaking of the House of Lords, I mentioned last week, but let me mention again, that Anthony Barnett and Peter Carty suggested some years ago in their book The Athenian Option: Radical Reform for the House of Lords, that the House of Lords should be replaced by a house made up of average citizens randomly chosen from the whole citizen body, the way ancient Athens chose several branches of its government, including the upper house of their legislature, the Boule or Council. In this way, a body of citizens would be given at least a partial or suspensory veto. (It’s been a few years since I read their book, and so I do not remember whether they call for restoring a full veto to the new house.)
I said last week that the book dates from 2008, and that is indeed the date of the revised edition which I read. But the Amazon entry for the book reminds me that there was an earlier edition.
RobG
26/05/2015 10:40pm
Thank you. No, please don’t worry, I will dig around myself now I am aware of it.
Eric Blair: no relation to Tony Blair, is he? 😉
Goodnight.
J
John, a recent Guardian Editorial, for what it’s worth…
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/10/guardian-view-appointments-lords-bin-corrupt-system
Ok, I am now going to bed… zzzzzzzzzz
Lysias, it should be remembered that although ancient Greece is cited as the start of ‘democracy’, back then women and slaves did not have a vote.
It should also be remembered that prior to 1948 non-property owners and most women did not have a vote in the UK.
Was it Roosevelt who called democracy the ‘great experiment’?
It’s all now been pissed down the drain.
Perhaps there will be a tribute to Leon Brittan in Her Maj’s speech.
The state broadcaster gives a heads up.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32892905
Except that when you open the link, all you get is:
‘What will be in the Queen’s Speech?
23 minutes ago
Final preparations are being made in Westminster for The State Opening of Parliament.
Her Majesty The Queen will outline the legislation that the newly-elected Conservative government aims to bring in over the next year.
James Landale speculates on what will be included in the speech.’
End.
I don’t think the fact that Athens had slaves and discriminated against women is a reason why we cannot choose our representatives by lot. I don’t see that there’s any necessary connection between that system (called “sortitition”) and the flaws of Athenian society. On the contrary, I think the fact that at Athens the system could work even though it gave so much power to average (granted, male and nonslave) citizens shows that such a system could work in modern so-called democracies.
“Sortition”.
The Krishnamurti disciple refers to Giyane having had an angiography. That is an diagnostic imaging technique used to examine the condition of the major blood vessels.
As I understand, an angioplasty was performed.
‘A coronary angioplasty is a procedure used to widen blocked or narrowed coronary arteries.
The term angioplasty means using a balloon to stretch open a narrowed or blocked artery. However, most modern angioplasty procedures also involve inserting a short wire-mesh tube, called a stent, into the artery during the procedure. The stent is left in place permanently to allow blood to flow more freely.
Coronary angioplasty is sometimes known as percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). The combination of coronary angioplasty with stenting is usually referred to as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).’
Some difference.
Anyway I hope he is progressing back to full health. Robert Crawford is in our thoughts too.
~~~
What wonderful news about Mordechai John. He is yet one more victim of Israeli cruelty. What evil.
‘Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli Christian peace campaigner who spent 18 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, for revealing the fact that Israel had a nuclear weapons program, married Norwegian theologian Kristin Joachimsen last Tuesday. The wedding took place in the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. Kristen Joachimsen is professor at the School of Theology in Oslo.
But tough restrictions imposed by Israel on Vanunu, even though he completed his prison sentence 11 years ago, mean that he is not allowed to leave Israel to visit his wife.
“The restrictions have just been renewed for another year,” she told Norway’s ABCNyheter after the service.’
/..
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=27530
What evil.
Villager, I have just read your approbation of my previous post. In return, may I say that I find your attacks on another poster here both repulsive and unwarranted.
“In Navy parlance these precarious boats were ‘full to the gunwales’, including many people with dehydration, those with injuries, very young children and several pregnant women.
“The weather at the moment is extremely hot so my ship’s company and I are very pleased that we were able to bring them to safety. It’s unclear what would have happened to them but the risk of further injury or worse is of course considerable.”
Well done Nick! Sadly you were commanded to ‘pick up the pieces’ of PM Cameron’s onslaught on Libya – Oh well, better the humanitarian mission than throwing shells and missiles into Libya during the British Naval gun-fire support mission eh? old boy.
http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/New-captain-Plymouth-based-Royal-Navy-flagship/story-25990271-detail/story.html
By the bye old chap, while agent Cameron renegotiates EU migrant quotas, be rather careful who you pick out the sea…
It might be AQ or ISIS ‘EU cell’ commandants.
http://rt.com/op-edge/259685-eu-migrants-africa-military-action/
test
“In Navy parlance these precarious boats were ‘full to the gunwales’, including many people with dehydration, those with injuries, very young children and several pregnant women.
“The weather at the moment is extremely hot so my ship’s company and I are very pleased that we were able to bring them to safety. It’s unclear what would have happened to them but the risk of further injury or worse is of course considerable.”
Well done Nick! Sadly you were commanded to ‘pick up the pieces’ of PM Cameron’s onslaught on Libya – Oh well, better the humanitarian mission than throwing shells and missiles into Libya during the British Naval gun-fire support mission eh? old boy.
By the bye old chap, while agent Cameron renegotiates EU migrant quotas, be rather careful who you pick out the sea…
It might be AQ or ISIS ‘EU cell’ commandants.
Did you see my earlier post Mark?
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/05/my-friend-alistair-carmichael/comment-page-1/#comment-528030
Goodnight.
From Mary’s Wikileaks link; “The documents lay out a military operation against cross-Mediterranean refugee transport networks and infrastructure. It details plans to conduct military operations to destroy boats used for transporting migrants and refugees in Libyan territory, thereby preventing them from reaching Europe.”
So presumably they won’t sink boats laded with refugees, but I’m sure a few such type “accidents” may occur, instead are they going target & destroy boats along certain shorelines, just in case they might be used to transport refugees ? So the same EU countries took part in destroying people’s countries & putting them in their present dire danger, are now seeking to prevent them fleeing the murdering chaos that their bombs have caused !
I wonder if they are going to target little dingy boats like these;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3097559/The-march-migrants-Hundreds-Syrians-Afghans-walk-Kos-1-200-migrants-arrive-Greek-islands-just-two-days.html
(Note to the Habby Clown Troll, notice no mention of any southern Sahara refugees, but instead lots of Syrians & Afghans, all desperate to leave their countries for some reason)
He leaked a false memo during an election campaign to damage opponents then very brazently lied about it.
Had it not been during an election campaign it might be another matter.
Had the leak been accurate information that would be another
Still waiting on the BBC!
‘What will be in the Queen’s Speech?
6 hours ago
Final preparations are being made in Westminster for The State Opening of Parliament.
Her Majesty The Queen will outline the legislation that the newly-elected Conservative government aims to bring in over the next year.
James Landale speculates on what will be included in the speech.
END’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32892905
RobG
“I’m sure we can all make an educated guess as to who the likes of Habba works for; which makes a bit of a mockery of the notion that we live in any kind of ‘democracy’.”
___________________
Can you explain the connection (not of course that I accept that we are not living in a democracy)?
I note (cf.post at 21h40 yesterday) that some people appear rather upset at the news that a vast number of documents wrt the Kennedy assassination are likely to enter the public domain soon.
I can see why, of course: it is that the release will knock away one of the main props of the legion of conspiracy theorists, ie “evidence is being hidden!” Wails, gnashing of teeth….