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.
Off topic, but also sort of on topic:
Yesterday, ChunkyMark (aka the ‘artist taxi driver’) posted on YouTube a three and a half film which includes much of what he’s done since the Scottish referendum last September.
I know I’m guilty yet again of linking to long videos! but this one is a real social and political history of the UK over the last 9 months (even if you only watch the start of it) done with interviews with real people who are involved with it all; unlike the total BS that the mainstream media feed the public. This is history in the fast lane; our history (with much about Scotland)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oCNiiH_Xqs
I would guess that ChunkyMark reads Craig’s blog. If so Chunky, and you’re reading this, you might perhaps consider putting your film up in four parts, to make it easier for the public to digest?
The narrative is so compelling that interested people will probably click onto the next part; whereas a three and a half hour film will be a step too far for many.
And if you are tuning in, Chunky, this one’s for you…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2AtJsi3ZIQ
“Tonight Juncker will be sitting down to dinner at Chequers.
Cameron looks more and more like a spiv as he rushes round Europe.”
_________________
I do hope all readers will appreciate the organic link between and intellectual compatibility of those two sentences of Mary’s.
Mr Scorgie
“Your first comment on this thread Dreoilin is in support of Habbabkuk exactly two minutes after he posts.
Are you having it off?”
__________________
You got it. We’d invite you to join us for a trio but first you’d have to tell us whether you’re a prick or a cunt.
RobG
You’re always puffing Chunky Mark.
Are you buggering him?
Messrs John S. Warren and John Spencer-Davis sound like a couple of ageing queens arguing about whose turn it is to sleep with the hairnet.
Or Jules and Sandy of “Round the Horne”;
After you, Jules! No, after YOU, Sandy….
Habba, I don’t bugger the truth like some in these parts do.
Remember, the sheep will only fall for it for so long, and then it’s the ducking stool for you, my pretty (who I see is coming from a different ISP yet again).
Gatekeeper habba has slammed the door on the two Johns, only (a) Black Rod will get past his clenched buttocks !!
Witchfynder General, upon mature deliberation on the affair of the Habbish Inquisition, determined upon, viz., may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have been accustomed. And because the wiches have been used to slaughter many plebs in the sacrifices to devils, let the Habbish Inquisition go forth and slay wiches and their imps, familiars, phantoms, demons, succubi, incubi, and English poets. Let the Hqabbish Inquisition go forth this day and thrust the sword of political corruption into the foreign devils and their demonic scribes.
This it behooves your affection to communicate to our aforesaid brothers, that they, being there present, may consider how he is to order all things. God preserve you in safety, most beloved son.
Gregory
ps. it’s turned out nice today, hasn’t it.
No sign of the Resident Bitch for the last couple of hours. The Angels must be passing overhead!
@Villager:
Hubble bubble, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble!
WITCH!
WITCH!
On this twenty fifth day of May the Habbish Inquisition will hold an auto de fe and prepare the Ducking Stool for you, my pretty one.
Nobody expects the Habbish Inquisition!
Tonight’s topical tip for all gardeners.
There is an abundance of slugs tonight, leaving their slimy trails. A good dose of metaldehyde is recommended.
Failure of Review Conference Brings World Close to Nuclear Cataclysm, Warn Activists
‘But, according to several diplomats, there was one country that emerged victorious: Israel, the only nuclear-armed Middle Eastern nation, which has never fully supported a long outstanding proposal for an international conference for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
As the Review Conference dragged towards midnight Friday, there were three countries – the United States, UK, and Canada (whose current government has been described as “more pro-Israel than Israel itself”) – that said they cannot accept the draft agreement, contained in the Final Document, on convening of the proposed conference by March 1, 2016.
As Acheson put it: “It is perhaps ironic, then, that three of these states prevented the adoption of this outcome document on behalf of Israel, a country with nuclear weapons, that is not even party to the NPT.”’
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/05/failure-of-review-conference-brings-world-close-to-nuclear-cataclysm-warn-activists/
May 23 2015
David Peterson’s commentary on the article. He sees the danger.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1432569292.html
Metaldehyde-containing slug baits should be used with caution, as they are toxic to dogs and cats.[3] If ingested by dogs or cats, tremors, drooling, and restlessness will proceed to seizures and death within hours to days if treatment is not started quickly. Due to this toxicity, pet owners may want to investigate alternatives which are not toxic to pets.[4] The tablets resemble sweetmeats and do not taste bad, making accidental ingestion possible by children or even by adults unaware of their true nature.
Their use was popular during the inter-war period and several cases of poisoning resulted.[5] Baits may contain a bittering agent to prevent accidental consumption by pets or children.
Vile, sexist, abusive, disgusting, attack on Doug Scorgie
Vile homophobic disgusting abuse, attack on the individuals mentioned.
Vile disgusting attack on Mary in the long line of harassing and continued stalking of her, by a manifestly unstable and dangerous individual posing as villager on this blog. Is it not about time police were involved to address the long and sustained campaign of harassment and bullying of Mary in a concerted, systematic and concentrated method?
“On this twenty fifth day of May the Habbish Inquisition will hold an auto de fe and prepare the Ducking Stool for you, my pretty one.”
RobG
You keep making threats. And I keep wanting to ask you, “Who’s going to do these things? (up against a wall and shot etc) You and whose army?”
Rosemary Jackowski speaks for me.
‘I mourn mostly for those we have killed — and I mourn for those we haven’t killed yet, but will in the days ahead. I mourn for all of the mothers and fathers who put their children to bed at night and wonder if this will be the night that they are killed by a drone attack.
I mourn for the 500,000 Iraqi children – dead because of U.S. foreign policy. The official policy as described by Madeleine Albright on 60 Minutes was ‘that we think the price was worth it.’ Worth it to whom? Not to the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, grandmothers and grandfathers of those children.’
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/05/memorial-day-heroes/
May 25th 2015
As she says, ‘The results of recent elections show that more than ninety % of United States voters support the foreign policy of the Democratic/Republican Party. That includes support for war, torture and imprisonment without due process. More than ninety % of the people, as evidenced by their votes, are not peace makers.’
And here are some of them in America.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/23/us/gallery/memorial-day-2015/
Obama has been boasting that this Memorial Day is the first in 14 years when the US is not involved in a major war. No irony.
President Obama marks first Memorial Day in 14 years without major US war
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/25/president-obama-memorial-day-14-years-major-us-war
The faux intellectual has gone right over the edge into illogical hyperbole 😀
Dreoilin, the depressing thing is that people like you don’t understand humour and irony.
Welcome to our corporate masters.
Braindead dickheads one and all.
But let’s get back to Craig’s blog post here, because Craig knows how totally corrupt it all is, as do many readers here.
So what do we do?
Communication Offenses Criminal Law Act 1977 Section 127 clearly is the case in this instance, and no amount of your rare covering up will divert from that fact!
In addition a very interesting and telling comment spewed by the Irish harridan;
In retort to Rob G, remarkably verbatim and similar to the fake “prophet” and its unconscious mindless drivel.
Evidently the HRT dose needs to be upped, in the way of getting the elderly kitty to withdraw its claws and get back into braking wind and napping on the settee. Whose net “contribution” on this thread have been “the Danes withdrawing their arms contract” (more in the way of lamentation, than information) in a bid to keep up the facade of “independence” and not belonging to the “team”, although the rest have been tagging to protect the bare behind of the known agents of reaction and trolls assigned to this blog.
“Dreoilin, the depressing thing is that people like you don’t understand humour and irony.”
Just showing how little you know me, and of me, RobG.
Having said that, I don’t find you funny, if that’s what you’re going for.
Anyway, ‘night!
Fedup, I don’t mind if you attack me, and I’m sure Mary doesn’t mind if you attack her (although I have to say that the level of bile directed against Mary is totally extreme, to say the least).
It doesn’t matter because you are all going to be put on trial and held to account.
If you find it hard to believe what I’m saying than you are obviously a victim of your own propaganda.
It’s called being a ‘mug’.
Here’s to a better world…
Humans like competing, fighting with each other, and most of them can’t see that this is a fundamental problem, a problem at the root of many others. Each is blind to their own contribution to evil.
Clark, humans also like crapping in their own nest:
http://yle.fi/uutiset/radiation_safety_watchdog_detects_airborne_radioactive_particles_says_no_cause_for_alarm/8003739
Iodine 131 shows ongoing fission.
Japan is toast, and so is most of North America; but don’t worry: carry on shopping.
This is the greatest disater in human history.
Clark
Its such a shame..
I can Heal, with Reiki …
Deal Harm with Jui Jitsu
Its good you have a wide range of friends Craig.
Good stuff.
Well said Craig. I just wish the 60+ year olds in Scotland would wake up to the fact the union is over and embrace the dawn of a new Scotland, a fairer, more just society.
Carmichael has to go, putting all bias aside, he has to, in all honesty, resign. If he thinks about it in greater terms of a few days he will, this isn’t going to blow over and he allowed himself, willingly, to be used as a pawn in undermining the democratic process of General Election. However, it is worthy of note, he was also involved in Camerons Project Fear & Shock and Awe last September.
How Venezuela is being undermined by the US.
‘Prosecutors who target Venezuelan officials are giving their bosses ammunition they can use to try to discredit and isolate the Venezuelan government.
Juan Forero’s latest article Wall Street Journal (WSJ), co-authored by José de Córdoba, ran with the headline “Venezuelan Officials Suspected of Turning Country into Global Cocaine Hub”. The article was immediately cited by the BBC, UK Guardian, and Reuters among others.’
The article has these five sections.
1) The let the scoundrel speak tactic was used
2) Highly relevant history was buried
3) Key facts about U.S. prosecutors were ignored
4) Colombia and the USA are depicted as regional good guys who are above suspicion.
5) One can’t even assume the WSJ will convey publicly available information accurately.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/US-Prosecutors-are-Good-Imperial-Soldiers-20150525-0020.html
25 May 2015
Interview with Podemos Founder: Spain’s 2-Party System Is Dying
‘Podemos founder Juan Carlos Monedero talks exclusively to teleSUR about how politics in Spain has been irrevocably changed by Sunday’s election.
Spain’s two-party system is dead after Sunday’s elections, but the old forces will use their power to stop left-wing Podemos winning November’s Spanish general election, Podemos’ founder, Juan Carlos Monedero told teleSUR in an exclusive interview.
After new left-wing forces took the mayoralty in Barcelona and look set to do so in Madrid, Monedero, a well-respected Spanish political scientist, said, “The results mean the end of the two-party system in Spain. They mean the end of a political system that has worked throughout the last 35 years … that was based, thanks to the grassroots pressure, on a certain social state, but which we began to lose in recent years with the neoliberalization of the economic model in Spain and in Europe.” ‘
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Interview-with-Podemos-Founder-Spains-2-party-State-is-Dying-20150525-0030.html
25 May 2015