“Philip Cross” has just 200 Twitter followers, but has more MSM journalists following him than are to be found among my 42,300 twitter followers. Despite the fact a large majority of “Philip Cross’s” tweets are mere retweets, with Oliver Kamm and Nick Cohen most frequently retweeted. “Philip Cross” has never broken a news story and the few tweets which are not retweets contain no gems of expression or shrewd observation. In short, his twitter feed is extremely banal; there is literally nothing in it that might interest a journalist in particular. Do not take my word for it, judge for yourself.
Why then does James LeMesurier, founder of the “White Helmets”, follow Philip Cross on twitter? Why does ex-minister Tristram Hunt follow Philip Cross on Twitter? Why does Sarah Brown, wife of Gordon, follow Philip Cross on twitter?
Why then do so the following corporate and state journalists follow “Philip Cross” on twitter?
Oliver Kamm, Leader Writer The Times
Nick Cohen, Columnist The Guardian/Observer
Joan Smith, Columnist The Independent
Leslie Felperin, Film Columnist The Guardian
Kate Connolly, Foreign Correspondent The Guardian/Observer
Lisa O’Carroll, Brexit Correspondent The Guardian
James Bloodorth, Columnist The Independent
Cristina Criddle, BBC Radio 4 Today Programme
Sarah Baxter, Deputy Editor, The Sunday Times
Iain Watson, Political Correspondent, The BBC
Caroline Wheeler, Deputy Political Editor, the Sunday Times
Jennifer Chevalier, CBC ex-BBC
Dani Garavelli, Scotland on Sunday
Prominent Freelancers
Bonnie Greer (frequently in The Guardian)
Mason Boycott-Owen (The Guardian, New Statesman)
Marko Attilla Hoare (The Guardian)
Kirsty Hughes
Guy Walters (BBC)
Paul Canning
Let me recap, The official story is that “Philip Cross” is an obscure and dedicated Wikipedia editor who edits every single day for five years. His twitter feed has never contained any “news”. Yet among the 160 followers he had last week before the media spotlight was turned upon him, were all these MSM journalists, many more than follow anyone but the most prominent individuals, more than follow an activist like me. Plus big figures like Sarah Brown, Tristram Hunt and James Le Mesurier. What does this tell us about who Philip Cross is.
The largest single category of Philip Cross’s historic 160 followers is anti-left and anti-Corbyn twitter accounts, especially those that specialise in making accusations of anti-semitism against left wing or anti-war figures. These include:
UK Media Watch “promoting accurate coverage of Israel”; ALT Putin’s Capitalist Wealth “@medialenswipe”; Antinat; Jeremy Corbin Prime Minister; Jewish News; Anti-Nazis Utd [which thinks I am a Nazi]; Labour Against Anti-Semitism; Jews Aganst Jeremy Corbyn. A very much larger number of individual followers of “Philip Cross” have twitter streams which predominantly consist of attacks on Jeremy Corbyn or the anti-war left in general, and of vociferous support for Israel. Of personal interest to me, there are at least seventeen of Philip Cross’s supporters who have made utterly unprovoked attacks on me on social media over the last twelve months.
So let us recap what we know. “Philip Cross” spends a quite astonishing amount of time on Wikipedia making malicious edits to the entries of anti-war or anti-corporate media figures, while at the same time polishing and protecting the Wikipedia profiles of corporate and state media figures. “Philip Cross” had done this obsessively for 13 years and not had a single day off, even at Christmas, for five years.
“Philip Cross” is not very active on twitter, mostly just retweeting, and as you would expect has therefore not had many followers. But an extraordinary percentage of that very limited number of followers are MSM journalists or senior Establishment figures. There is absolutely no reason on the face of his Twtter stream why Philip Cross would attract this particular type of following. His retweets are mostly of Nick Cohen and Oliver Kamm, and his followership is concentrated in the Guardian and Times, which nowadays have very similar neo-con agendas.
“Philip Cross”‘s own twitter stream makes no effort at all to hide the fact that he has the strongest of neo-conservative biases, hates the Left and anti-war movement, and strongly supports Israel. “He” is part of an active social media network trolling these views. The purpose of “his” continual Wikipedia editing could not be clearer. I suspect strongly that this particular Philip Cross twitter follower gives us a clue:
That is a twitter account founded by a collective of Guardian writers to attack MediaLens, whose Wikipedia entry “Philip Cross” has edited over 800 times. I suspect “Philip Cross” is a similar collective effort, which may hide behind the persona of a real life individual called Philip Cross. The intention of this effort to denigrate and demean alternative media and anti-war figures through their Wikipedia entries, and at the same time to burnish the Wikipedia entries of mainstream media figures, is proven without doubt, as is the continued complicity of Wikipedia in enabling and defending the long-term operation.
Analysis of “Philip Cross” tweets.
FOOTNOTE Since Philip Cross’s activity was brought into prominence throughout social media a few days ago, his Twitter followers have increased, mostly by people who dislike his activity wishing to keep an eye on him. I have disregarded these new followers, and it in no way diminishes my argument for trolls to point out that he now has left wing followers as well.
I guess, now that Phil has been well & truly outed, we may finally be treated to some riveting or, at least, barely informative journalism as he tries to cover his tracks and bolster the legitimacy of his account.
Philip Cross is on Twitter as himself (well, now as “Julian”), but he is also on Twitter as Sebastian Hawkins, a sock puppet account that he has used to spy on people he himself has blocked and has written Wikipedia articles about. He accidentally replied to something sent to him as Cross in his Sebastian Hawkins identity, after which he came clean about it.
He also tweeted and then removed an extremely vile suggestion about George Galloway and Jimmy Savile, after which he went and edited Galloway’s article again. But hey: never mind, I have a screen shot of it. J
Aside from GCHQ, don’t we have an actual unit of the Army now dedicated to online shenanigans? Although I’m sure they’d never stoop to anything with a political bias, being above that sort of thing and only viewing through the prism of security of the realm…
I’m fairly certain this isn’t state run. Just a hunch. Too amateurish, maybe.
More something akin to an old-boys network, or neo-old-boys network, if you will. 😉 Something conceived over cocktails.
I am following your series of posts about Philip Cross with interest. I did some very detailed research on another puzzling Wikipedia editor a few years ago. One thing I noticed, and it may be worth looking at in relation to Philip Cross, is the listed times of edits and comparing the size of edits. For example, I found that the editor I was investigating often added large numbers of words to a number of pages within a very short space of time: sometimes within seconds, and sometimes at the same time. So, as well as the phenomenal amounts of editing some of these editors do, they also appear to edit huge amounts of varied text in a manner which is probably physically impossible for one person. This would suggest a programme at work and/or a group. If you want to discuss any of this further, I’m a freelance journalist and NUJ member and you can contact me at [email protected]
Is it possible they typed things out first in a word processing program and then copied and pasted?
You babblers better wake up to what the USA is involved in or there won’t any Christmas for you.
Trump. Bolton, Pompeo, Haspel and Mattis are much more dangerous than Hitler as they have the power to blow up the whole globe, and it looks like they are on a path to do it.
Trowbridge,
Maybe this is the way they are going to set about with the global blowup:-
“Sermon – East Jerusalem: A capital provocation,” at
http://blog.effectivelearning.net/1078-2/.
Take a look if interested.
Trowbridge – well, it seems only Russia and China can stop them. We’ll just have to wait for armageddon I guess!
Yes, you can work on things in a andbox but adding it to lots of articles almost simultaneously? Not so easy.
Of course it is. You can do that in notepad, even — probably better than in a word processor.
Harvey, thank you for posting this and for taking the time to do so. It is good to know people who are internet savvy and committed enough do this work.
O/T Esther McVey, the current SoS for Work and Pensions (G-d help us), denies that in areas where universal credit has been rolled out, food bank demand and use has grown.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-05-21/debates/C9F3BE31-D224-4098-B796-C1E05765341E/OralAnswersToQuestions
____
Ken Livingstone has resigned from the Labour Party. He was awaiting a new ‘hearing’ on anti-semitism charges. He has been hounded by Chakrabarti et al.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44196298
.
So Ken Livingston has been forced to resign. And Jeremy Corbyn(“JC”) has stated it is “the right thing to do”
What a pusillanimous, disloyal response from JC. His appeasement of the Zionist, pro-Israel lobby will lead to further more vociferous attacks on him.
Is he really so stupid?
“Is he really so stupid?”
nope.
So he’s just gutless then? Does JC think his critics, who allege anti-semitism against him, are going to desist? If so, he is stupid.
“nope” isn’t much of an answer.
Nope, nope and nope. Sorry it’s not much of an answer. At least it’s three times my first.
It’s just I’m not here to change your views on Corbyn, but if you want mine, I think it stinks. In short, I think he is in a filthy corrupt game filled with cheats that he is damned to play or else we are all damned if he doesn’t.
Corbyn goes from strength to strength the more he resists ‘playing the game.’ It’s his strongest and most attractive political strategy. We love an under dog and what’s more we love to see the arrogant and the supercilious stripped down by nothing more than truth and honesty to the snivelling wretch beneath. Corbyn has been doing that expertly by simply being himself and we love him for it despite three years of bullshit media disinformation. The truth of the so called political spectrum has laid bare.
He’s surrounded by party MP’s from the Blair school, which intend him and our country no good and indeed considerable harm. He needs to stop taking their advice, directly or by proxy.
J
It’d not the first time Labour leaders have been in conflict with a substantial party, is it. Refer back to Gaitskell, Wilson, Foot and even, to some extent, Blair. The reason is that the Labour Party, just as every large political party in a system characterised by large parties, is a broad church.
“…in conflict with a substantial part of his party…” that should have read.
The funny thing about the Livingstone case is that what he said was true, to a degree. Hitler was indeed interested in Zionism, but not very greatly. It was a way of getting rid of the Jews, by dumping them on the British in the Middle East. Germany never had a great interest in the Middle East, being focused on Mitteleuropa, nothing like the colonial interest of the Brits or the French. I believe some negotiations did take place, but I don’t remember the details.
Livingstone was never a very careful speaker. He could have done better than he did.
Laguerre, but he was the best Mayor of London. He also had the courage of his convictions. This anti-semitic thing is nothing more than a witch-hunt and quite frankly, is getting really boring. However, i do commend Jeremy Corbyn for the solid condemnation he made of the Isareli massacre of Palestinians in the face of all these ridiculous anti-semitism claims. Ken Livingstone is now free and unshackled to give broader depth to his views – I hope he does
Here is a link to another detailed analysis of Wikipedia’s method handling disputed or controversial topics. This three-part collection is a meal, not a snack, but for those keenly interested in the topic it will provide a lot of additional information.
https://kennedysandking.com/content/will-the-real-wikipedia-please-stand-up
Kennedy? Oh no, no that old chestnut.
I find Monbiot’s cosiness with this crowd interesting.
I’d always figured he was just a posh buffoon; but he seems a lot more sinister of late.
He’s definitely a posh baffoon, I’ve been round his house
What was his ecological footprint?
Fucking huge including an elaborate lighting system for his gallery of priceless masterpieces. He’s a complete fraud
Why am I not surprised?
I can’t say I was very surprised by the Philip Cross affair. Once someone figured out that you can modify opinion by flooding comment sections, as Israelis were one of the earliest to do, then editing Wiki, as permitted, is an inevitable further development. I never thought the articles to do with Israel or Palestine were written by other than Israelis. Once one lot do it, others will follow. I can’t see what you can do about it, other than to convince Wiki to ‘lock’ the article. Not easy.
Me, I take Wiki as useful for basic facts, but I’d never believe their historical interpretation. Even an old-fashioned paper encyclopedia article is not “the truth”, but used to remain close to the standard interpretation (I’ve written many of them, though not for Wiki). Evidently today, Wiki articles are more liberated, with the free editing.
It’s a venerable political technique; political parties have created claques ever since papers printed letters. My dad used to do it for the Tory (Official) Partei in the 80s.
Plus you knew who wrote the articles and the professional and intellectual prestige that these authors had to hold high.
There’s an interesting section in this “Being Julian Assange” piece about how WikiLeaks’ Wikipedia page is manipulated. The whole article is a mine of information usually overlooked in mainstream media and effectively debunks some of the worst MSM smears against the organisation and its founder. But it’s a very long read so I’ve done an archive.is selection of the relevant part:
http://archive.is/hNB6c#selection-5591.0-5591.33
Thanks for that.
Search for this:
GCHQ “Behavioural Science Support for JTRIG’S Effects and Online HUMINT Operations – The Intercept”
It was leaked and is available online, and gives an insight into the level of thought that is put into online perception management.
The Wikpedia entries about the fabricated terror events at the likes of Nice, Brussels, Westminster, London Bridge, Manchester etc, follow the official story from the get go, within minutes or hours of the terror scam being reported. So, there are people who are running the terror Psyops, also running operatives who use Wikipedia as an outlet for perception management.
Looks like Cross is linked into Pro-Israel lobby or related, going by what Craig has stated.
The declared worldwide spend on ‘public relations’ is $450 billion. $21 trillion disappeared from the pentagon coffers between 1998 and 2015. I’m fairly confident these sums of money explain the current shape of world events as well as any other factor.
That theory doesn’t fly: Israel wants to blacken Iran and it were not Shias who done it. Israel’s (deadly) partners the Gulf sheiks & co are the ones egging on unstable Sunnis to commit terrorism abroad.
So, this suggests a coordinated, group effort to undermine non-corporate media commentators who are critical of warmongers? Silly question: Could this Cross personna be a vehicle for distributing “talking points” to the group so everyone stays on-message?
We know how the media were coordinated in Nazi Germany. Every day, Goebbels’s ministry sent out a directive to the media telling them what they were and were not allowed to say. I have long wondered what the mechanism is that assures that the U.lS. media are so uniform.
“I have long wondered what the mechanism is that assures that the U.lS. media are so uniform.”
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raul_Hilberg#Critical_reception
As the Nazi regime developed over the years, the whole structure of decision-making was changed. At first there were laws. Then there were decrees implementing laws. Then a law was made saying, “There shall be no laws.” Then there were orders and directives that were written down, but still published in ministerial gazettes. Then there was government by announcement; orders appeared in newspapers. Then there were the quiet orders, the orders that were not published, that were within the bureaucracy, that were oral. Finally, there were no orders at all. Everybody knew what he had to do.[44]
Philip Cross eh…….BTW, the only Nazi’s are Ashkenazi’s…..and they fill up the so called Holy Land…..God’s chosenites…..like f***
Sounds like the hasbara is always alive.
“Old trolls never die, they just get new usernames”.
Oh, and interesting to see Sarah Brown in there…..makes me wonder where Miriam Clegg is these days…..if you want to totally flip your ‘world view’……one should look into Mrs Clegg’s apparent undeclared income stream…..be careful now, “the female of the species…..” as they say
My friend works for Sarah Brown, shall I ask him?
Yes, indeed do ask ‘him’……ask abut George Robertson too in regards to Dunblane…..and Lord McAlpine
On a lark, I decided to see what anagrams of “Philip Cross” can be made. My top three, in descending order:
3) His Lip Corps
2) Rich Piss Pol
1) Rich Lips Ops
You’re probably right, Craig, that there is indeed someone named “Philip Cross,” whose identity a group of conspirators use to shield the others’ identities, but it does seem like the sort of self-satisfied style of the establishment to make an in-joke name for their mutual propaganda organ, hiding in plain sight.
If you include “Andrew” beforehand, there are apparently 147059 results. So, if this unlikely but true-to-form route was the one they took, so it would take someone exceptionally lucky or skillful, or aware externally of some otherwise unknowable element serving as a clue, to figure out what it would be. For what it’s worth, removing “spin pro,” leaves 386 results of additional words. But that’s just a shot in the dark, and probably too on the nose.
Could you please list the people and organisations PC attacks – it would save me time compiling my link-list of favourites.
Here’s the list of Wikipedia edits by Philip Cross:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Philip_Cross
Which shows that Philip Cross is still busy “editing” Wikipedia today, with 30 edits and counting on May 21th…
Also https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Philip_Cross&oldid=842169796
There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators’ noticeboard regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you.. No biggie I think, but I am concerned about the amount of crap being thrown around. Guy (Help!) 11:18, 20 May 2018 (UTC)
Thanks Guy. Philip Cross (talk) 11:22, 20 May 2018 (UTC)
The extent of media and internet manipulation exposed in recent months from Cambridge Analytica and now the ‘Philip Cross’ construct is a repugnant indictment of the body politic – and threatens the very future of the Web. Just who can we trust these days?
BBC gets “technical difficulties” when reporter mentions MI6’s involvement in torture.
LMAO – Check out the presenter’s face when the camera cuts back to her.
https://youtu.be/coXS2d0Hljo
We all have the T-Shirt here. It’s been posted.
Mark Russell I guess the answer is the only people we can trust is the alternative media such as Jonathan Cook, Moon of Alabama, The Saker and others. However, although Cambridge Analytica have filed for Bankruptcy – I have read somewhere on other blogs here that there is another organisation comprising of the same board members who are more shady, more powerful and less transparent – not that there was anything transparent about Cambridge Analytica. I am also thinking about this week’s announcement by Mark Zuckerbugger that he has joined Facebook to Atlantic Counsel to protect privacy and information. Strange choice given the serious concerns about Atlantic Council.. I personally never have and do not use any social media such as Facebook or Twitter and I am the happier for it. However, it seems that Big Daddy really is watching you now with information being so controlled in this Country and in the USA that it takes energy to dig for the truth. This week, when I have logged into my Yahoo account I get a pre-screen that tells me Yahoo are now part of Oath and therefore, if I provide the relevant information, they can ensure that I get only adverts and things that reflect my interests. I have not signed up for it and have not agreed to it. I strongly suspect this statement is a euphemism for “We would like to use your information to censor information on your political and other interests” and to bombard you with establishment propaganda”. It requires concerted, mass action – I wouldn’t use Facebook at all now if I were a current user – it’s unsafe, risky and dishonest.
Craig. I recall an article on electronic intifada several years back detailing similar ADL shenanigans on Wikipedia involving wiki editors . possibly connected
Interesting find by Charles on page 1 of the previous blog post – the IP address.
Go to wiki. Search IP address 172.202.56.12 in the wiki search box. Will bring up Cross first day on Wiki. 7 contributions on his initial day, the second being the setting up of the ‘Philip Cross’ account.
If you trawl through his edits to his own account from day one to present (next, next, next etc), over time you will see he actually states his name as Andrew Philip Cross (63 refers to born 1963(?) which would make him 54/55 dependent on month born).
The very first contribution from the IP address was the editing of/addition to a one Simon Hoggarts page (deceased journalist + broadcaster BBC/Guardian) Cross adding – ”His wife Alison, is a psychotherapist.” If you bare in mind over the lifetime of the self editing to his account (adding and subtracting the same info as he goes) he describes himself as having Asperger syndrome and being a ”psychiatric survivor”, so he may possibly have been a patient of Alison mentioned above, which initiated his presence on Wiki and explain his rather obsessive, uniform (no social life) presence?
If you search the IP address on an IP search site it points at a marker in the Thames river/London but also states the ISP provider is AOL, located both to AOL Virginia, USA and to AOL Rayleigh, Essex. This might seem misleading but it just a reflection that AOL as the ISP owns the IP range from 172.000.00.00 all the way to 173.000.00.00 or something similar. It will not give an accurate location of the street or address etc.
If you google Andrew Philip Cross and 192.com database there is one hit for an Andrew Philip Cross (age50-54) located in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. You need an account for more information on that address. If you search for Andrew P Cross there are numerous results in and around London as well as beyond, a few hitting the age range too. If you search Andrew Cross the list is longer. So please do not jump on the lazy option of it has to be the first option, it probably is not.
As J Spencer stated previous, the twitter account craig linked to has all the hallmarks of Andrew earning a living maintaining and attacking wiki pages on behalf of the professional people he is in contact with through twitter DM’s. Nice little earner. Where do I apply :)))
He also seems to have had connections/employment to journalism in the past when analyzing the evolution of the wiki pages he has created and maintained over the years there when added to craigs connection to Andrews twitter followers. One of Andrews very first pages listed on his own timeline under ‘I created’ was Paul Dacre.
In short, if and when Andrew is outed, prepare for an onslaught of negative ‘victimhood’ attacks from his friendly twitter ”followers” in the MSM. Their platform is national. their pockets deep.
How did I do Mr Bostock? Is Paul worried? Andrew should be. If he had any sense he would step out of the shadows and hang his ”followers” out to dry (like they will him) ;))
You did very well, Mr Bananas. The Stasi would have been proud of you 🙂
But iLikeBananas is just doing the same as employers do these days when they check out prospective personnel via social media, and what New Labour did to try to eliminate people joining to support Jeremy Corbyn. Behaving like the Stasi is perfectly standard practice these days.
Not that we’re turning into a surveillance state or anything. After all, “if you’ve nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear” right?
Depends on what is considered right by current surveillor, Clark. Time goes on, ‘right’ turns ‘right, but…’
and lists are all ready and handy.
Sounds like from what you say that Cross is an isolated obsessional.
According to companies house, Cross of Wisbech was born 1967, though I don’t know what proof of age etc they require. The business (partnership) was only incorporated late 2016 and its website consists of one page which describes activities which do not match the nature of business described in companies house, no accounts seem to have been filed.
I see there’s an Andrew P Cross (50-54) listed on 192, located in Westminster like the IP pointed to, with a long list of ‘other occupants’ suggesting an office or apartment block. Would explain the .12 port at the end of the IP…..One in Windsor too. Was he active during the ginger nuts wedding? Anyone know if that was the SS uniform minus the red armband Mr Coburg was wearing down the aisle. Good PR not going with the red coat….the Americans watching wouldve had flashbacks to the White House burning down…
quote:
Can WHOIS Be Used for Geolocation?
The WHOIS database was not designed to locate IP addresses geographically. WHOIS tracks the owner of an IP address range (subnet or block) and the owner’s postal address. However, these networks may be deployed in a different location than that of the owning entity. In the case of addresses owned by corporations, addresses also tend to be distributed across multiple different branch offices. While the WHOIS system works well for finding and contacting owners of Web sites, it is a highly inaccurate IP location system.
unquote
emphasis mine — bj
source: https://www.lifewire.com/does-ip-address-geolocation-really-work-818154
@ iLikeBananas 20:52
I, too, have been wondering about the Aspergers Syndrome possibility, with this single-minded dedication to a particular field. This article below expands on the increasing awareness by employers of the benefits of employing high-functioning autistic staff, GCHQ being a leader in this area. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/11/autism-in-the-workplace-an-opportunity-not-a-drawback
Let us all remind ourselves of SCL Group’s stated self-description, shall we?
“SCL Group provides data, analytics and strategy to governments and military organizations worldwide. For over 25 years, we have conducted behavioral change programs in over 60 countries & have been formally recognized for our work in defense & social change.”
Philip Cross strikes me as just the kind of “behavioral…[and] social change” program for which SCL is renown.
Meanwhile in Salisbury the circus continues
Decontamination work complete at Maltings site in Salisbury
Today, we can confirm that the decontamination efforts at the Maltings site in Salisbury are complete.
Published 21 May 2018
From:
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Ministry of Defence
This follows on-going clean-up operations to remove any potential residual contamination following the nerve agent attack on 4 March 2018.
The site was visited by specialist teams and any items that may have harboured residual amounts of the agent were removed. All waste has been removed and will be disposed of safely.
A Defra spokesperson said: “Following extensive clean-up operations in Salisbury to remove any potential residual contamination resulting from the nerve agent attack on 4 March, decontamination work is now complete at the Maltings.
“The site will now be handed back to Wiltshire Council, who will decide when it is appropriate to release it back into public use.”
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/decontamination-work-complete-at-maltings-site-in-salisbury
Defra: ‘Nerve agent decontamination at the Maltings is over’
Rebecca Hudson @JournalRebecca Head of News
THE Maltings has been released back to Wiltshire Council by Defra following a month of decontamination.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) today handed back the Maltings to the Salisbury Recovery Coordinating Group.
A Defra spokesperson said: “Following extensive clean-up operations in Salisbury to remove any potential residual contamination resulting from the nerve agent attack on 4 March, decontamination work is now complete at The Maltings.
“The site has now been handed back to Wiltshire Council, who will decide when it is appropriate to release it back into public use.”
Decontamination started at the site on April 24, when the site was released by counter-terror police conducting an investigation into the nerve agent attack on Russian former-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Chair of the recovery group Alastair Cunningham said the clean-up process would involve testing the sites for traces of the nerve agent Novichok, and caustic chemical cleaning, before re-testing to determine sites are safe.
Public Health England have declared that Salisbury is safe to the public outside of the cordoned-off sites.
Plans to re-open the Maltings are currenty being discussed.
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16240358.Decontamination_work_ends_at_the_Maltings/
Astonishing, BBC now reporting that a male white rhinoceros called Ionesco, believed recently extinct, has been discovered in a garden shed at The Maltings during the decontamination. Asking for it’s owner to come forward.
J – stupid question time – how do the police know it is called Ionesco? Has it escaped from Porton Down?
It can talk and looks like a human.
Baby Wipes stocks are going through the roof.
That has to be the most expensive comedy show in British history. They might even beat the budgets of some real domestic nuclear power spills..
Off topic, but 24th May ed of the London Review of Books is worth £42.50 of anybody’s money not just £4.25 and a few days of reading. It has some excellent pieces on: BREXIT and its constitutional implications, Erdogan and Turkey, Israel and Palestine. It really puts the rest of our media to shame.
Sad to say but the LRB looks good because the Digger flushed the TLS down the toilet.
Thanks Squeeth. How is the LRBs funded?
This Philip Cross business on here is becoming rather tedious. Let’s be honest about it, it’s of interest only to left-wing ‘dissenters’ and malcontents who are pissed off that Wikipedia mentions things about their “heroes” that they would rather not see publicised (ie, they’re not winning all the victories in the area of the alternative media.) and who see, as a bonus, a chance to initiate a witch-hunt against some of the people they don’t like (eg Oliver Kamm). It is of absolutely no interest to 99.9999999% of the Wikipedia-using public who – if they have even heard of this business (which they haven’t) – wouldn’t give a toss. The loss of revenue resulting from the announced intention of some commenters to stop contributing to Wikipedia is as nugatory as the BDS movement. The threats by Mr Murray and Mr Galloway to take legal action are mere bluster and will be quickly forgotten by their authors – they are not even willing to specify what they would institute legal proceedings about.
Surely the time has come to move on to something rather more serious? This story has run out of steam.
Standard Kipper response.
You are free not to read about it further.
Oh, but i will. I never refuse free entertainment of such a high standard.
You are the one who said it was “becoming rather tedious.”
I imagine your opinion carries as much weight with Craig Murray as it would with Xi Jinping.
Nonsense. Thousands of readers are learning how Wikipedia works, how others exploit it, how to find out who and what their targets and objectives are, how to find the information those others have tried to hide, and what the rules are so they can edit Wikipedia themselves.
Editors like “Philip Cross” can try to influence public impressions, but if they do so at Wikipedia they also inevitably reveal their targets and objectives and demonstrate their methods.
That’s why I think the story must go public, Clark. It also could provoke a wide discussion, and possibly we find the way to keep both precious source of info together with balanced presentation.
I see people stop their donations to Wiki – another good method to let Jimmy Wales know something is going wrong.
The story is public – it just isn’t being widely dispersed as most people are not that interested. Perhaps your friends can help. In the meantime I’m doing a bit of research into your former local Governor and now Minister of Agriculture who is now on the sanctions list. Little things like why was he promoted, how much did he make out of the Sochi Winter Olympics, how is his plan to export pork to INdonesia going – perhaps you can go public on some of the details, rather more interesting than Philip Cross don’t you think.
Just pay attention he is no longer Minister.
Sure, I can provide you with rumors from my place, Resident. Send me invitation to discussion, when ready, OK?
So far, don’t you think it’s me who deside what’s interesting?
All rather more interesting that Philip Cross – and I thought I had invited you to discuss Tkachev
Apologies I hadn’t appreciated that he had now been sacked and replaced by a KGB banker type. I suspect that Putin and little Dima were quite happy with the racism and stupidity but being caught with the hand in the till in your own back yard was probably a little too much or perhaps he didn’t offer his patrons a big enough cut?
https://en.crimerussia.com/gromkie-dela/agroholding-of-agriculture-minister-family-interested-in-asset-of-promsvyazbank-ex-head-/
Resident, I’ve just came back to leave a review on the research you’ve made. It is some commerce-info on poultry and chicken-meat in my region and looks like a Soviet report on harvest achievements. I see you’ve left reference to Kommersant and RBK – russian news outlets. I don’t think copy-pasting is a resarch, I’m sorry.
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If you’re really interested – dig into Khuchevka massacre, we expected Tkachev to be ousted after it.
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P.S. In my country it is common thing to say “Hello”, “Thank you”, “Will you please be so kind as…”, “Will you please look into…”, “Thanks for your time” and similar.
Charles is bored with this. So, instead of moving on to something else on the internet or elsewhere that interests him, he hangs around here to implore everybody else to be bored with him,
Tony, we don’t expect every participant to be like
https://static7.depositphotos.com/1141341/709/i/950/depositphotos_7098045-stock-photo-statue-of-cicero.jpg
Otherwise this blog would be a completely dull place – Craig saying “Amen”, and commentors always answering “Hallelujah”.
It is difference of opinions, what makes it so live and so real!
We’ve got all sorts of us here:
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/124/031/166.jpg
and
http://10sopeachy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Top-23-sarcastic-memes-15.png
and
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/843/271/4f8.jpg
and even
https://i.imgflip.com/1nuumz.jpg
Sometimes discussions turn spectacular actions, let’s enjoy it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meZcZG_Msg0
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easter egg!
“This Philip Cross business on here is becoming rather tedious”
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On the contrary, Craig Murray’s expose is fascinating and of the greatest importance. I think Mr. Murray is being tipped off by disaffected members of British intelligence. Craig, can you confirm that this is the case?
One of the beauties of Western democracies is that the obsessed are free to obsess and actually do little harm because the rational can put them in their place – far better this way than the totalitarian states where the obsessives do real damage to their own people.
How long have you been rational? Is it serious?
Resident Dissident – I believe Western Democracies is a contradiction in terms isn’t it? In case you hadn’t noticed, this Govt is moving on quite rapidly now, to having considerable characteristics of a Totalitarian state of the fascist type. When a national broadcaster cuts of on live television former Heads of the Armed forces whose views were not in accord with the establishment agenda, when views challenging the establishment narrative are deleted by the MSM, social media, twitter and other platforms by the moderators, when the Govt has perpetrated outright lies and engineered an international incident in order to divert away from the appalling mess they are making of Brexit and to set up an anti-russian hysteria campaign and a false flag in Syria, when the Govt does not consult parliament about illegally bombing a Sovereign nation, when it has covered up racism and fascism in the Windrush scandal, when it is about to change the House of Lords to make it ‘more helpful to them’ – i.e. to make them toe the Govt line – how dare they dissent from the Govt’s view, a decision that strikes at the very heart of a democratic Government – then you know we do not live in anything that resembles a democracy. We are on the slippery slope to full-blown Fascists – the Muslims have replaced the Jews as the necessary scapegoat, the suppression of dissenting voices, the forced expulsion of legitimate immigrants a la Windrush and other similar fascist characteristics bear a testament to the slippery slope. As Orwell said, “The further a society drifts from the Truth the more the tellers of it will be hated” – very very true of our present Govt. and the MSM
The BDS movement. Gotcha!
I think the point is Charles, as you correctly point out, it is only people who challenge the establishment view are getting this treatment – it is censorship by any other name – whilst others who not only promote the establishment view but are serious questionable people, are promoted as being rounded, valued human beings – because the right wing always knows best. The point is, other editors and contributors have been suspended for less than his activity. People have a right to post their views whether they are left or right wing, pro establishment or anti-establishment without censorship which is entirely to the negative where the Left are concerned and entirely to the positive when the Right are concerned. The question is why is being Left wing considered to be so undesirable and being an extremely right wing, fascist neo con be so desirable?
Bostock doth protest too much. CM’s postings on Philip Cross can’t but be of interest to anyone vaguely conscious of or concerned to understand how Wiki might work and wonders what is the pay off for what on the face of it seems fantastic and free.
Just as with free apps there is a cost. For Bostock to suggest 99.9% couldn’t care less is simply to say that Wiki is now where Apps and Facebook where two years ago ie they are getting away with things.
So keep it up Craig.
The complaints are a sign that Craig has struck a nerve.
Hey, someone mention my name?
They were talking about someone across from you.
Operation Mass Appeal
Maybe Wikipedia is more insidious than suggested.
Everyone’s favorite newspaper, The Daily Mail, is carrying a story about an English racist who attacks innocent taxi drivers (or perhaps not)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5754583/Pixie-Lotts-beau-Oliver-Cheshires-Wikipedia-CHANGED-racist-assaults-people-car-crash.html
Two quick notes
* On Ken Livingstone’s resignation from the Labour Party: after a few years during which I’ve tried to find positive things in that party and in Jeremy Corbyn, I’ve now had enough. Obeying the orders of a fascist and racist power network to suppress the truth about the actions of two big business-supported fascist movements in the 1930s makes the Corbynite-LFOI coalition no better than the Blairite party of the noughties. The whole point is to terrorise people into suppressing the truth. The hell with the Labour Party forever.
* Roman Abramovich is a man without a British visa. Sell your shares in Chelsea!
Precisely the reaction you’re intended to have?
RT
Philip Cross mystery: Craig Murray asks if Wikipedia editor is network ‘demeaning alternative media’
https://www.rt.com/uk/427359-phillip-cross-wikipedia-anti-left/