I am delighted to say that Murder in Samarkand is once again available in print. The cover design was submitted by a reader in response to my appeal – I have not yet heard if they wish their identity revealed.
The publisher’s blurb is extremely flattering. This is perhaps unsurprising as I wrote it about myself!
Craig Murray’s classic bestselling memoir lifts the lid on extraordinary rendition and the war on terror and reveals the darkness at the heart of the Blair administration. Craig Murray’s tale of his Ambassadorship to Tashkent became an instant bestseller and is now a classic in several genres. Murray gives an unparalleled view of the British Foreign Office and gives a detailed and fascinating account of the life and work of an Ambassador. But he also thoroughly exposes the lies behind the Blair administration’s “War on Terror” and the ruthlessness of its operations. This is vital primary source material for the “extraordinary rendition” policy. But it is still more than that. This is a most detailed travel story and insight into Central Asian society. It is a narration of quite horrifying individual events. And it is the warts and all story of one man’s crisis as everything he has believed in crumbles about him. Murray makes no attempt to hide his own imperfections, which adds to the emotional impact of this quite extraordinary book.
My wife bought me Dirty Diplomacy. You’ve just arrived in Taskent with your wife and kids and I’ve discovered that there is a significant ethnic Korean population in Uzbekistan. It’s gripping and wonderfully written. Is there much of a difference between DD and MinS?
Great book. It did get me into an awful lot of bother at the Uzbek border. I was detained for 12 hours while they tried to translate the book to decided whether it was a “bad” book or a “good” book. I was treated very well. I ended up having to burn the book in a gas oven before they would let me go. I guess they decided it was a “bad” book. It was the most surreal experience. I’m glad I can now get another copy.
Sounds Scary Emily..Knowing what they are like, after having read the book..a great read, one of the best.
Well it doesn’t exactly portray the ruling Karimov family in a very flattering light.
Is there any mention of GMP’s Chief Constable Mike Todd being set up for murder because he was responsible for investigating special rendition to places like Uzbekistan for torture via Diego Garcia, and threatened to do something about it, opening the whole can of worms about its CID not doing its job, especially with the Quality Street Gang, which comes right down to today?
doh.. was gonna go buy it, amazon says out of stock currently.
scratch that.. i tried the link in your ‘books’ page and theres some in stock there.. weird.
Hi Craig, any thoughts on the Buzz Feed article about Russian assassination and cover up?
https://www.buzzfeed.com/heidiblake/poison-in-the-system
Even if entirely true, that article reads like caramelised Russia baiting as written by a Dan Brown fan on crystal meth. Despite breathlessly relating that “the Office of the Director of National Intelligence last year asserts…” Heidi (former Telegraph) doesn’t manage to indicate why Putin would personally order this man’s execution, beyond the idea that this poor fellow pissed off some Russian mobsters.
On the other hand, we can actually watch the death toll of American Presidential ‘executive’ assassinations daily. Here’s one from last week:
http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/five-civilians-killed-yemen-raid/
Guess where I’m putting my quotient of outrage?
Try this, more reasoned, more probable, and with some sense of reality:
https://anniemachon.ch/annie_machon/2017/06/french-intelligence-exonerates-russia-of-election-hacking.html
Be the antidote to Cold War 2.0.
Best wishes. As this fine book is reprinted, then it means that my past review of it is also relevant. See – http://threescoreyearsandten.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/undiplomatic-diplomat.html
Thanks Harry
Some interesting insights, and from Uzbek Too.
No matter what happened to that Russian financier, it would appear much more relevant to the thread to talk about what happened to GMP Chief Constable Mike Todd – i.e., British spooks, it seems, did to womanizing Todd what they first wanted to do to Craig for his talking about CIA rendition in the UK, and specially how it applied to Karimov’s Uzbekistan, as Jane Mayer said in the New Yorker article back in 2005. It helped expose what was especially bad about Blairite alleged counter terrorism back in the 1990s.
Here is the bottom line: the Tories called this election to get a bigger majority so they could deliver a hard Brexit. A majority of MPs now oppose a hard Brexit. There is no way they can get a majority in favour of it.
Hand over to Jeremy Corbyn, or call another general election (#LabourLandslide).
No sign of Arlene, Treeza has just been swept off to see Macron in Paris. I must say she has stamina. Seems to be cooking on gas despite the Type 1 diabetes. I think she should go away for a l o n g holiday.
Thatcher too ran to Paris in 1990 when if she’d stayed she might have stopped Heseltine bringing about her resignation by winning sufficient votes in the Tory leadership election to force a second round.
After displaying a mountain of hubris by calling the election to become stronger and then getting a powerful slap in the face from the British people, she runs off to France leaving talks with the DUP in the lurch. Is there a pattern here? Macron will think she’s an idiot – rightly.
The sacking of Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe in 1989, and the refusal of the former SoD George Younger to support her re-election over the Simon Hayward Affair was more relevant as they either led the fight to get rid of her or refused to support her while Hestime had been sidelined in 1986 so her covert plans ro kill Palme, and get rid of the USSR could go ahead
It’s interesting that she has gone off to see Macron in Paris, and not Merkel in Berlin. There’s obviously a sudden feeling that Macron is more important. I understand the point, even if I don’t agree. Macron has run a brilliant campaign, repeated in the législatives, he’s likely to get a majority , from a standing start of nothing.
Obviously the conspiracy theorists of bankers’ control are going to say it’s one banker going to see another. It may be true to a certain extent, in that May may think she can influence, indeed dictate to, another banker. I have my doubts though. Macron was only in the banking world for a very short time, and he is not a puppet. Who organised the brilliant campaign especially the bit where the Maghrebi arranged the response to prospective hacking attacks, as reported in the Graun today?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/13/mounir-mahjoubi-macron-cyber-attack-en-marche
Would the bankers have thought of that? we’ll have to see.
hard brexit, soft brexit – what the fck? we voted for brexit – all these imaginations are entirely in the minds of ruthless politicians – pity we can’t get rid of all of them and save our money!!
David Tennant as CM in David Hare’s play. 2010.
Murder in Samarkand: Radio Play
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/books/murder-in-samarkand/radio-play/
By the way, I forgot to say how much I enjoyed Murder in Samarkand.
The events recounted, to my mind, are quite typical of what happens in Central Asia. Not only Uzbekistan, but also Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, where I have worked. The mentality is much the same.
oh dear
https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/brexitinc/adam-ramsay-peter-geoghegan/dark-money-driving-scottish-tory-surge
From Ben Griffin – Veterans for Peace
Brian Haw War on Terror
Sunday 18 June 2 to 3pm Parliament Square, London
http://vfpuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Brian.jpg Brian Haw’s photograph
On the sixth anniversary of Brian Haw’s death we will assemble in Parliament Square to honour his courageous 10 year long political protest against war and call for an end to the War on Terror.
All welcome, bring anti-war placards.
http://vfpuk.org/2017/remember-brian-haw-end-the-war-on-terror/
Remember how he was harassed and persecuted?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Haw
Sadly, a plan for a statue never materialized.
https://statueforbrianhaw.wordpress.com/
” And who is more unjust than he who is reminded of
his Lord’s signs but then turns away from them. Then he forgets what he has sent forward ”
(for the Day of Judgment) [Surah Kahf (18), Ayah 57]
Craig Murray was one of those righteous souls who reminded the Christian West of the obvious transgressions against their religion by torturing their enemies, drugging them and brain-washing them to further violence.
Indeed who is worse than someone who when they are reminded of God’s instructions, turn away from them.
In fact, when I remind the Muslims of God’s instructions in the Qur’an not to spy on people’s private lives, or support groups that bomb innocent people, indeed they laugh at me and turn away from God’s instructions!
Wow! You guys thought God’s instructions were sweet-talk and you didn’t need to act on them?
” And who is more unjust than he who is reminded of
his Lord’s signs but then turns away from them. Then he forgets what he has sent forward ”
(for the Day of Judgment) [Soorah Kahf (18), Ayah 57]
The PM’s new chief advisor, Gavin Barwell, subject of an avalanche of plaudits from politicians and political commentators last weekend:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/theresa-mays-chief-staff-sat-10620357.amp
The person ultimately responsible for the Grenfell Tower tragedy is Theresa May’s much-vaunted new right-hand man. Kahn, Corbyn, Sturgeon, Farron, Lucas et al should not be shy of pointing this out, because few in the media are likely to.
Murder in Grenfell Tower seemingly.
Six souls have died. 74 are in hospital and 24 in a critical condition.
There will be an ‘inquiry’. The British are good at holding them.
The cost of austerity is becoming ever clearer.
This is horrifying. If the recently installed cladding is to blame their will be national outrage.
In an interview II heard a resident saying that there had been persistent problems with the gas supply and a new main was being installed.
The residents warned about this many times.
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire/ (November 2016)
“It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders. We believe that the KCTMO are an evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia who have no business to be charged with the responsibility of looking after the every day management of large scale social housing estates and that their sordid collusion with the RBKC Council is a recipe for a future major disaster.”
Can you believe it, neither fire alarms nor sprinklers in the tower block!
Some saving. like the worst third world country.
No alarms or sprinklers… how do you reckon ISIS managed to pull that off, Trowbridge?
.ISIS apparently just took note of the fact, and possibly sparked a fire which took advantage of it.
Just another example of your rants.
And it’s to be a “Proper inquiry” this time SE. Not a pretendy Leveson type one then !
Less than 24 hrs after the horror, it seems pretty obvious where a lot of the blame can be laid.
But, as we now seem to be living in a dual reality, where responsibility comes without consequences, for those on the Right team…
Hopefully not, but I get the ‘we’re being prepped’ feeling, for the true scale of the carnage to emerge over the next couple of days.
http://www.frmjournal.com/news/news_detail.government-endangering-tower-blocks-by-delaying-fire-safety-regulations-review.html?_tkn=32B221B2-A21E-4DF1-AC893F0F440D9ED6#.WUCr7Qm-NKk.twitter
I’ll repost my link from previous thread. Fire management experts were already warning of the fire dangers to towerblocks due to Government cutbacks back at the beginning of 2017.
The loony assholes running our countries think that we can run a global war on Islam while on the cheap at home, and can enjoy traditiontal festivities with guards without worrying about being cut down by some other loon.
And Boris, the buffoon at the FCO, told the fire safety panel to ‘get stuffed’ when he was London’s Mayor.
https://redmanc.wordpress.com/2017/06/14/video-boris-johnson-telling-fire-safety-panel-get-stuffed-grenfell/
Some links referring to the refurbishment, Rydon the contractors, Harley who installed the cladding, Arm’s Length Management Organisations. the K&C BC, the ‘stay put in the event of fire’ order and others are on here.
http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1497414318.html
It seems to be accepted that the fire swept up the outside of the building, consuming the insulation behind the cladding. The ground around the area is covered in charred black lumps of the stuff. Previous flat fires were extinguished without further increase.
The new MP is Labour. Previously it was Lady Victoria Borwick and before her, Rifkind!
The extensive interests of Borwick’s other half.
Category 1: Directorships
Partner, Federated Investments LLP (holding partnership engaged in real estate) with directorships in its subsidiaries: Bicester Lane Ltd and its 50% subsidiary Countryside Properties (Bicester) Ltd (housing development in Bicester, Oxfordshire); Federated Management Ltd (property management); Love Lane Investments Ltd (property investment); Mayfield Market Towns Ltd (housing development in Sussex);
Chairman, Poore Ltd (holding company)
Chairman, Second Poore Ltd (holding company) and Director of its subsidiary: Federated Trust Corporation Ltd
Category 4: Shareholdings (a)
Poore Ltd (holding company limited by guarantee)
Second Poore Ltd (holding company limited by guarantee)
Category 4: Shareholdings (b)
Hansa Trust plc (investment trust)
Category 5: Land and property
Farmland in Bellshill, Scotland, for future housing development
Income is received from a London swimming school
Category 9: Miscellaneous financial interests
The Member’s wife is Member of Parliament for Kensington
Category 10: Non-financial interests (a)
City & West End Properties Ltd (interest ceased 31 March 2017)
City Monument Management Ltd (interest ceased 31 March 2017)
City Monument Properties Ltd (interest ceased 31 March 2017)
Music Software Ltd (interest ceased 1 March 2017)
Chairman, GATEway Project Advisory Group (Greenwich automated transport environment)
Director, Advanced Sintering Limited
Director, MBC Advanced Sintering Limited
Category 10: Non-financial interests (e)
Trustee, British Lung Foundation (registered charity) (interest ceased 8 December 2016)
Trustee, Ewing Foundation for deaf children (registered charity)
Trustee, The Federated Foundation (registered charity)
Trustee, Royal Brompton and Harefield Charity (registered charity)
Trustee, Board of Science Museum Foundation (registered charity)
http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-borwick/4281
I always like the fact that charidees are included in these entries.
That tower block should never have burned like that. It’s the kind of thing you might see in a country like Brazil or India but not in Britain in this day and age. I suspect that plastic fascia would not have been allowed under tighter regulations. A national tragedy.
From what I’ve gathered through media reports the high rise block had been refubished in recent times. Including re-cladding, (maybe Rockwool) for insulation purposes, that could’ve contributed to the ferocity of the blaze
Then there’s this.
http://www.lbc.co.uk/news/london/west/kensington-chelsea/government-sat-on-tower-fire-report-four-years/
And not forgetting this as well.
https://amp.ibtimes.co.uk/full-list-landlord-tory-mps-who-voted-against-making-properties-fit-human-habitation-1537725
I wonder as well if modern shatterproof perspex windows fueled the fire because so many windows appear to be missing. It’s as though it burned from the outside-in. And the time of the blaze, in the early hours when so many would have been asleep in bed.
It may be time to consider phasing out those death traps as part of a house-building programme. I doubt they can really be considered safe above the level of escape, ie. the reach of a fireman’s platform. Maybe that should be the new floors limit. Few above where the fire started had a chance once the fire was established.
Probably a combination of materials and factors contributed to the blaze.
We’ll need to wait for the investigation to be concluded.
Under current legislation the cladding should’ve been fireproof. If it wasn’t it suggests fraud or corruption at some stage which needs investigating. We also need to know why the fire alarm didn’t work and who issued the stupid instruction for residents to stay in their flats.
Kempe
“Under current legislation the cladding should’ve been fireproof…why the fire alarm didn’t work”
A bod from an insurers umbrella body has been saying today that the regs for cladding are widely known to be inadequate and in need of updating to bring into line with interior regs. He said the cladding might well have been within regs and still gone up like it did.
Multiple residents have said today there is no communal fire alarm.
A single stairwell and no communal alarms were true for the Camberwell fire a few years ago. I thought cladding had played a part too but a quick search suggests not so I guess I must be remembering incorrectly.
No, it seems I was not wrong – exterior panels did contribute to the Camberwell fire.
http://www.huckmagazine.com/perspectives/opinion-perspectives/greenfell-tower-fire-political-aron-bastani/
Composite replacement window frames were blamed for the spread of the fire at Lakanal House.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/mar/28/lakanal-house-fire-deaths-prevented
The real common factor was the instruction to residents to remain in the building. Insane.
Kempe
“The real common factor was the instruction to residents to remain in the building. Insane.”
Too true. I’m on sixth floor and I am getting out. Thankfully we have fire escape to next building and communal alarms. Not thankfully at all. We are a housing co-op and we run ourselves properly and safely. No profit motive to burn us alive.
Those poor fuckers in the windows. Horrific.
All the reports I’ve read speak of the alarms not sounding.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/14/london-fire-latest-grenfell-tower-fatalities-confirmed-residents/
One or two have said that when the alarm did sound it was very quiet and unlikely to be heard if you had the TV on.
The point should be how and why the fire started, not how it should have been prevented.
Was ir sabotage or an accident?
It doesn’t really matter how it got started – it appears to have been an accident waiting to happen.
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire/
—start quote
“It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders. We believe that the KCTMO are an evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia who have no business to be charged with the responsibility of looking after the every day management of large scale social housing estates and that their sordid collusion with the RBKC Council is a recipe for a future major disaster.
—end quote
It’s pretty amazing that some conspiracy nuts are already insisting this is a deliberate act or ISIS, I’m just surprised nobody has screeched “False Flag!” yet. But in fairness to these nuts, I haven’t read all the posts today, so it’s quite possible they have. Or they’ve already been uninvited from this site.
Clearly, no great conspiracy is needed when the residents were claiming there was a serious fire hazzard not being addressed.
Pretty pathetic, Gleen.
Discounting an evil spark starting it when people in the know were publicising that it was like a bomb ready to explode.
Terrrororists don’t spend all their time reading The Koran, and praying.
l can just see now the bottom line from the official report.
What really is pathetic is people like you using a horrible event like this to peddle your usual line of conspiratorial crap.
Just sounds like another rant from the incompetent counter terrorists!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-minister-warned-beefing-up-10622601
As more information is coming out about this terrible tragedy, Tory politicians will have a lot of explaining to do. [ see above ]
Looks like Britain’s 9/11 without the planes.
Of course, no credible explanation of what sparked it, just feeble excuses for it spreading.
if I were a terrorist, I would think and do a fire like this. Much better than some armed attack.
And, of course, we are winning, keeping the terrorists at bay.
“Looks like Britain’s 9/11 without the planes”
Not quite. Almost 24 hours on and the building is still standing. WTC2 collapsed in less than an hour.
Building 7? Straight down, in a few seconds. Now that’s what I call a fire.
*Breaking news*
Tim Farron is standing down as the leader of the Libdems.
I wonder why, they got 4 more seats than in 2015.
It’s not like they got 13 fewer seats like the Conservatives, that would be a reason to resign. SNP got 21 fewer seats than in 2015.
According to this, a coup ousted Farron, who claims to be a dedicated Christian. Farron allegedly held controversial views on gay marriage, which probably didn’t go down to well with the electorate, leaving the Libdems in a stagnant position.
Allegedly Farron also held a controversial postion on abortion.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/14/breaking-tim-farron-resigns-liberal-democrat-leader/
As for the SNP losing seats in the GE, I’ve read a couple of articles that several of the lost seats, were generally in the past, Tory strongholds.
fred
“I wonder why”
To join the DUP.
A humiliation for the SNP.
It must be terrible to be a Scottish nationalist and to feel that independence has slipped away from your grasp.
Erm…the SNP won, with a resounding majority in Scotland. Independence is still alive and kicking. Holyrood voted for a new referendum on it.
The thing is we only need to win once (50+) the Westminster ran branch offices of the Libdems, Tories and Labour in Scotland need to win everytime to save their “precious” union.
The Corbyn bounce drew voters back to Labour in Scotland, however Corbyn is temporary, independence is forever.
Id say that the Tories took back some of their traditional strongholds, and a few others fearing Labour would do a deal with the SNP. We saw it before during indyref1.
The dream isn’t dead.
It’s just pining for the fjords.
It will come around again, sooner than you think, if a hard Brexit or no deal becomes a reality.
Indeed there could be another GE before the years out. One not so unrealistic scenario could be that Corbyn wins that GE. He’s less hostile to a second indyref than the Tories.
Throw in that Corbyn if he won, might need the SNP’s MP votes at Westminster (if the SNP retains its current MP’s) to push through any legislation a supply and confidence deal if you like.
Could the SNP afford another election so soon? In 2015 they spent a million and a half and I’m wondering where the money came from for the 2017 one.
Where did 2015 £ come from? Circa £10/member Fred.
That would take your party, the liar Carmichaels isn’t it, around 20 years in Scotland.
But hey, who needs members, when you have the Rowntree foundation propping you up.
They were even kind enough to pay some of the liar Carmichaels legals, when he got caught making up stories about what the French ambassador said.
And to top off their largesse, a wee something for the last election.
Which, in my book, makes the former Secretary of State just another establishment whore.
RoS, perhaps it finally dawned on him that his party was merely cannon fodder for the Tories…in Scotland anyway. Incredible statistics in the following article.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-cannon-fodder/
I do like statistics, there are some fascinating statistics on this site:
http://chokkablog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/general-election-2017-scottish.html
Did you know the unionist parties had over 50% vote share in every one of the Scottish constituencies?
Kevin Hague, the wannabe economist that sells doggy biscuits for a living, and was taken apart on a live radio broadcast by a real economist.
Not forgetting he’s a die-hard unionist, with a tendency to “fake” things to suit his Pedigree Chum agenda.
https://indyref2.scot/pro-union-data-expert-forced-into-embarrassing-apology
He really is a remarkable Chappie get it?Chappie the dog food. ?
He’s certainly no Pal of ours, a complete Bonio.
It makes one Wonder, he lives in Gifford. V nice. Pricey. And with his pet food being a persistently loss making enterprise too…
JOML.
I suppose people still recall Nick Clegg jumping into bed with the Tories, during David Cameron’s first tenure as PM.
Then there’s the self confessed liar Alistair Carmichael, who got off on a technicality in my opinion. He amazingly however got re-elected, though the Libdems haven’t faired too well in Scotland.
It sounds to me that Farron’s private views on several matters, have caused him to be pushed out.
So who’s in the running to be the next leader of the Orange Tories? Could it be Vince Cable? Or Jo Swinson? or Ed Davey for that matter? or maybe Willie Rennie fancies his chances?
Or they could dust the cobwebs off Ming Campbell, and wheel him out.
Who cares? the Libdems are going nowhere fast.
RoS, Willie Rennie has no chance, given the ‘tactical ‘ voting deal he struck with Ruth Davidson! What a muppet, not to mention those LibDem voters whose party came second in 2015, but voted for the third or fourth placed Tories – that’s not tactical voting, but goodness knows what the LibDems got in return. Rennie laughed awkwardly in the last leaders debate when questioned about tactical voting.
No worries though – this just makes every future GE a referendum. With the right manifesto, 35 seats will be independence. ?
JOML.
Yes watching Rennie fail to throw awkward posers at Ruth-less Davidson, was embarrassing to say the least.
But in reality as you know fine well, Davidson, Rennie and Dugdale take their orders from London. As Rabbie Burns said, the rocks will melt with the sun, before I’d vote for any of those parties, under the union.
Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask you about the money you you were soliciting from me towards a referendum fund.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/03/options-for-independence/comment-page-1/#comment-661849
They changed the name of the campaign from “Referendum Campaign” to “Election Campaign” after more than £477,000 had been donated.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCSO-RVXUAEQW7z.jpg
Some might say that wasn’t entirely ethical.
The indy money is ring fenced, unless of course you believe James Kelly, come to think of does anybody believe James Kelly on anything anymore?
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/1142051/snp-halts-1m-independence-referendum-fundraising-appeal-after-general-election/
He’s no very good at the fake news RoS, but if persistence won support…
Every time the Lib Dems fail to make the gains at a GE that returns them to the relative big time of the Kennedy and Clegg years the leader will be obliged to resign. Since there are so few of them all of their MPs will probably get a go at the leadership. A bit like how every singer in Malta eventually gets to represent the island at Eurovision.
I said on the day of the dementia tax announcement that this misjudgement would turn the tide against May’s election campaign.
Well I believe that today is the day that the British people have had enough of austerity and privatisation. There are a large number of people lying dead in a burned out building in our capital city because a council didn’t want to take responsibility for housing people in their community, because Tory MPs are have no interest in the public good only interested in what big money lobbyists have to say, because a company set up to profit from social housing stuck cheap cladding to the side of a tower block so richer residents would have a better view.
The Prime Minister is in hiding. Change will come.
Some round here think it was a terrorist attack, they maybe right, but I think the residents told the truth and that it was completely unlike 9/11…it was just an accident waiting to happen. 9/11 is easy to analyse compared with this. I just find it so sad that so few people have the courage to tell the truth.
RIP those who died today in West London.
Tony
One thing’s for sure.
Something strange and bizarrely surreal has been going on in this country these last few weeks.
Couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I clicked on the idiot box this morning.
For Everything A Reason.
Sincere condolences to all those affected by today’s terrible events.
Most of the residents were conveniently asleep when it started, so how could they know how it started
The terrorists have learned this from when the US man-made erathquakes occurred in Iran, Turkey, and North Korea.
Just convenient straw-grabbing.
Who’s clutching ?
ps Top tip.
If you double up the bacofoil, it works twice as good.
How can Bevin be banned while this nutter pedals his nonsense?
How do you know that Bevin was banned, and why take Defo seriously if he just peddles nonsense?
Stu wasn’t talking about Defo talking nonsense, he was talking about you.
Bevin was banned for promoting the candidate Le Pen at the French elections. CM doesn’t like people promoting fascists on his blog for some strange reason – quite unaccountable really – but the rule was put down clearly enough. Shame, because despite Bevin’s soft spot for Trump, I rather liked his writing. I guess he had a soft spot for fascists all along. Still, I won’t go on because he’s not around to defend himself.
So Defo just made it up about there not being a fire at the tower block, and Stu took it seriously, responding to his post?
Stu was responding to _your_ post, not defo’s. You just don’t get it, do you?
Stu was responding to Defo’s ambiguous 21:02 post.
You cannot see or think straight.
For God’s sake, Trowbridge, get a grip. The post one is replying to is slightly to the left of the reply, unless they are nested 4 or more deep. At which point they just appear beneath one another (like ours are now). In Stu’s case, he was replying to you – so his reply is indented by one. You’ll notice defo’s reply at 21:02 and Stu’s at 21:06 are indented by the same amount – because both are replies to you.
Just because a post is below another one, it doesn’t mean that person is responding to the post immediately above.
Stu most definitely was replying to YOUR post. Everyone can see that, the evidence is immediately above. If you’re too silly to work that out, and deny the totally obvious right in front of everyone, it’s kind of hard to take your more esoteric assertions at face value.
Continue back a few steps and you will see that the subject of terrorism was introduced by Tony, although he did not agree with the people who were advancing it. Trowbridge responded to this comment, as he was entitled to, unless we don’t believe in freedom of expression.
I saw Stu’s comment as an attack on an individual.
We got there, in the end.
Where can one lay ones hands on an earthquake producing machine btw?
I’ve got a few peeps in mind, who need a good shake 😉
ps Good advice on the not taking me seriously thing.
I know it’s the cold, hard, ugly realities most on here take issue with, but come on. Crack a smile, now & then.
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2017/6/14/goldman-sucks
” Andrew Goldman Director of Company responsible for Grenfell Tower Refurbishment admits he is clueless over what cladding was made from.”
https://politicalscrapbook.net/2017/06/new-fire-minister-was-among-72-tory-landlords-who-voted-against-homes-fit-for-human-habitation/
there is virtually no internet here..except a few bits occasionaly..not that anyone needs internet here..I did bring Craig Murray’s other book..not read it yet. The weather is much better in Norfolk than it was in The Indian Ocean. The internet worked better in The Indian Ocean in 2009 than it does here in Norfolk in 2017. I read Murder in Samarkand when it was raining..storming book..not read the other one yet.
Tony
Tim Farron claims that his Christianist values conflict with being leader of the LDs:
—start quote
“To be a political leader – especially of a progressive, liberal party in 2017 – and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully to the Bible’s teaching, has felt impossible for me.”
—end quote
Surprisingly honest for him (as someone suffering from religious delusions) to admit that sky-spook fantasies are utterly in conflict with being a decent, liberal citizen. There we have it – indulge in these fairy stories about invisible friends, and you become an intolerant bigot.
Has Political Correctness killed God ?!
Seems having real religious beliefs is incompatible with modern politics; progress or regression ?
That is a very interesting question. You’ll note that US Republicans have no trouble tying their hard-right, corporate neo-liberal agenda to supposed religious convictions, even though the utter hypocrisy is staggering.
But in the real world, you might well be right – religion is largely defined by who you’re supposed to hate, who you are in opposition to, and so on, and it singles out minorities in a way we can only rightly describe as bigoted today.
So unless your religious delusion is of a most indulgent form, you are right – it has no place in modern politics. Thank the Lord for that! 🙂
Amen.
” religion is largely defined by who you’re supposed to hate, who you are in opposition to, ” Really ?
That is the problem when the irreligious try to define religion; they can’t really define something they don’t understand.
If Tim Farron had any oversight of the Lib Dems campaign in Scotland and if he is a genuine Christian then one can understand why he got out.
One of their leaflets came through my door about a week before the election. I picked it up and was shocked to see a photo-shopped picture of Alex Salmond with a red tint running through his colour that made him look like a bloated drunkard. It was so shocking that I did not read whatever was written, I binned it before it upset any of my family, but it seemed to be an anti SNP message with a smaller picture of Willie Rennie, a man who will never be a Statesman like Salmond suppose he lives for another hundred years, on the facing page.
I live over one hundred miles from Gordon where Alex Salmond was standing so the whole thing was just an evil attack against a person that they wanted destroyed at any cost.
Rob – I think it was Farron’s hatred of gays that persuaded him that he could not be a leader of a party that was accepting of a perfectly normal human condition. Just as green eyes, dark skin or a preference for the opposite sex are also human conditions.
It’s rather sad, actually. Christians are supposed to follow the teachings of their mythical Christ, rather than exceptionally blood-thirsty diatribes against all manner of “the other” vaguely defined in various parts of the Old Testament. This would include people who work on the Sabbath, wear clothes of mixed cloth or eat shell-fish, children who are sassy towards their parents, anyone who masturbates, “witches” and so on – all should be put to death.
Christ said nothing about any of this, yet bigots leap on these ravings from Leviticus with rather undue glee. I suspect anyone who publicly denounces gays, and clearly gives a lot of thought to gays, gay sex and so forth, is… err… rather more interested in the subject than they actually want to admit. Even to themselves.
But I doubt Farron simply got upset about the “Thou shalt not bear false witness” commandment that was clearly violated in that election pamphlet you received.
Even a nutter jihadist finally hit upon recreating a 9/11 kind of disaster without all the expense, preparation, risks, costs, and better results, and hit upon starting a fire at the bottom of a tower block late at night, and it worked to perfection while MO5 was concentrating upon beating terrorist to the punch on moving targets.
Still think Tower block fire was an act of terror, and much more effective than the 9/11 attacks from the terrorists’ perspective.
.9//11 was America’s new Pearl Harbor, acts of overkill that the government could easily respond to while this one left even the building to remind everyone what happened, and most of the residents alive, so the exhausted government must find ways to keep them going while the other survivors fight among themselves over the results and future threats.
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I see that the mods are even taking back their deletion of my earlier uncorrected post.
Now May is going ahead with the Queen;s Speech with or without an agreement with the DUP. Guess it is getting too expensive for the PM, and the Queen is not interested in a Protestant Republic.
PM has ordered a full inquiry into the causes of the disaster, and Sir HJohn Chilcot is obviously ready to lead one. Expect report after the world’s end.
Government must stamp out other waiting disasters before they happen, and see to stopping publication of where they still are.