My Defence Fund has now reached over £75,000 from almost 5,000 donors. I am extremely grateful to each and every one. Work is now proceeding apace with the legal team. If charges are brought against any of the others who have been threatened by Police Scotland or the Crown Office over this case, including the journalist whose laptops and phones were seized by police, the funds will be made available to their defence also.
Original Post (from 24 April, with further update below).
I know of four pro-Independence folk who were last week phoned or visited by Police Scotland and threatened with contempt of court proceedings over social media postings they had made weeks back on the Alex Salmond case. Then on Monday, a Scottish journalist I know had his home raided by five policemen, who confiscated (and still have) all his computers and phones. They said they were from the “Alex Salmond team” and investigating his postings on the Alex Salmond case. He has not to date been charged, and his lawyer is advising him at present to say nothing, so I am not revealing his name.
Then on Tuesday morning, a large Police van full of police pulled up onto the pavement right outside my front gate, actually while I was talking on the phone to a senior political figure about the raid on my friend. The police just sat in the van staring at my house. I contacted my lawyers who contacted the Crown Office. The police van pulled away and my lawyers contacted me back to say that the Crown Office had told them I would be charged, or officially “cited”, with Contempt of Court, but they agreed there was no need for a search of my home or to remove my devices, or for vans full of police.
On Thursday two plain clothes police arrived and handed me the indictment. Shortly thereafter, an email arrived from The Times newspaper, saying that the Crown Office had “confirmed” that I had been charged with contempt of court. In the case of my friend whose house was raided, he was contacted by the Daily Record just before the raid even happened!
I am charged with contempt of court and the hearing is on 7 July at the High Court in Edinburgh. The contempt charge falls in two categories:
i) Material published before the trial liable to prejudice a jury
ii) Material published which could assist “jigsaw identification” of the failed accusers.
Plainly neither of these is the true motive of the Crown Office. If they believed that material I published was likely to have prejudiced the jury, then they had an obvious public duty to take action BEFORE the trial – and the indictment shows conclusively they were monitoring my material long before the trial. To leave this action until after the trial which they claim the material was prejudicing, would be a serious act of negligence on their part. It is quite extraordinary to prosecute for it now and not before the trial.
As for identifying the failed conspirators, I have done less than the mainstream media. But plainly the Crown Office, or whoever is pushing them to this persecution, had no genuine interest in protecting the identities, otherwise why did they tip off the media that I was being charged, and thus guarantee further publicity? If protecting the identities was their motive, to tip off the media would obviously be counterproductive.
But what proves that the Crown Office is acting from base motives and not those stated is the one-sided nature of this. Only supporters of Alex Salmond – the Alex Salmond found innocent by the jury – are being pursued by this continuing Police Scotland operation.
There are literally thousands who put out “Salmond is guilty” “Salmond is a rapist” “Salmond is a pervert” posts on social media before and during the trial. Not one has had the police knock on the door. The Herald published absolutely deliberately, the day before the trial, a montage of Alex Salmond amongst photos of mass murderers. They have not been charged. Every newspaper published “jigsaw identification” information which I withheld. They have not been charged or investigated, despite the evidence brilliantly compiled and presented to the Police.
No, this is a blatant, one-sided political persecution. That much is entirely plain. I have therefore decided, in the interests of open justice, to publish the entire indictment against me (with a single sentence redacted where I think the prosecution were excessively indiscreet). Neither the indictment nor the covering letter is marked confidential or not for publication. It is, so far as I know, a public document.
The Crown have very deliberately not included the names of any of the failed conspirators in the indictment and instead refer to the women by their court allocated letters. That is a plain indication to me that this is a public document drafted specifically with publication in mind. Otherwise the document would have more naturally used the names and not the alphabet letters.
More fundamentally this indictment is the basis on which they are attempting to put me in prison – in fact the indictment specifies up to two years in jail and an unlimited fine as the punishment sought from the court. I think the public interest, and my own interest, in it being public is very substantial.
The state believes it has finally discovered a way to put me in prison without the inconvenient hurdle of a jury of my peers. Contempt of Court is just decided by a judge. It is extraordinary that you can go to jail for a substantial two years with no jury protection and no test of “beyond reasonable doubt”; and on the whim of a judge defending what he may view as the dignity of his own office. This really is the epitome of bad law. To use it against freedom of speech is disgusting.
So here is the full indictment against me:
redactedcaseagainstcraigmurray (1)
If the indictment contains anything they did not wish to be public, well, I didn’t force them to serve it on me. From my side, the proceedings against me will be entirely open. I will remind you that you may find all or part of the indictment initially convincing; but you are yet to see my point by point reply, which naturally I shall also publish in due course.
[UPDATE
Pending the outcome of the trial, and on legal advice, I have redacted from the indictment those sentences complained of as aiding identification of a witness, and have redacted same sentences from original blog posts. My position is firmly that they absolutely do not they do not contribute to likely identification of witnesses, and the mainstream media did that to a far greater degree than I.]
The purpose of this operation against free speech is a desperate attempt to keep the lid on the nature of the state conspiracy to fit up Alex Salmond. Once the parliamentary inquiry starts, a huge amount of evidence of conspiracy which the court did not allow the defence to introduce in evidence during the criminal trial, will be released. The persecution of myself is an attempt to intimidate independent figures into not publishing anything about it. The lickspittle media of course do not have to be intimidated. To this end, I am charged specifically with saying that the Alex Salmond case was a fit-up and a conspiracy in which the Crown Office was implicated. So I thought I would say it again now:
The Alex Salmond case was a fit-up and a conspiracy in which the Crown Office was implicated, foiled by the jury. If Scotland is the kind of country where you go to jail for saying that, let me get my toothbrush.
Before then, I am afraid we have to fund my defence and I shall be very grateful for donations to my defence fund. My initial target is £60,000. I shall post daily updates on total reached, but I shall be using my established funding channels and not involving a crowdfunding website. I do not intend to fight this battle entirely on the defensive, and some of the funding may be put to launching actions against the Crown or others.
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What’s the “procedural diet” they refer to in the official letter?
@ Martin Pritchard April 26, 2020 at 17:24
Bread and water!
Humble pie, we all hope.
Martin Pritchard
It’s the date set by the court for hearing the case.
Done. Best of luck Craig
I don’t have any money except what I have borrowed from the bank to survive covid 19 lockdown. But I could do some electrical work if that would help. I have family in Glasgow.
Giyane
I Know your heart
We are mostly all on the same wave on this one..I have had Three ScotGov letters and Phone calls about emergency Food..This quarantine is Testing.. At least I can See The Mountains, and the River ( Clyde ) from my Garden.. I, every day think of those worse off.
Stay safe All.
Locked down Germans sing Bella Ciao in solidarity with Italians… Beautiful stuff…
How about it, residents of the Byker Wall estate or the North Peckham estate or the Glasgow schemes?
Or could it be that people in Germany and Italy have a better understanding of fascism than many in Britain? In any case it’s good that people subjected to coronafascism are singing an antifascist partisan song.
Several clips show the flying of the Italian national flag while they are singing it. I imagine many communist flags have been flown too, without getting shown much in the foreign media in countries where punters can be led into thinking it’s some kind of popular-nationalist outpouring, which it is NOT.
Incidentally the melody has Yiddish roots (“Oi oi di Koilen”), but that’s not mentioned in its Wikipedia article.
Joe Lauria has an interesting article today, which may(?) have relevance to the circumstances here:
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/04/26/assange-extradition-espionage-is-the-charge-but-hes-really-accused-of-sedition/
bj,
I really thought that the Pentagon Papers case had long since answered the nature of the charges against Julian Assange. Since the First Amendment prevailed there and the New York Times was free to publish – what is so different with Assange for doing pretty much the same thing?
Further, one can’t get through the door of the court house for extradition if the action complained of is ‘political’. Precisely what Assange is being prosecuted ( persecuted?) for.
The British justice system in this instance is – fundamentally corrupt – for these two basic reasons if not for many others which many an able lawyer can spot.
The U.S. Justice Department is apparently arguing with a straight face that non-U.S. citizens are not protected by the First Amendment. And at the same time Australian citizen Assange can be charged under the U.S. Espionage Act for acts committed outside the U.S.
Yes Lysias – it is that ludicrous and frighteningly bad.
The USA is the only country that maintains that their laws apply anywhere in the world, a position that has been upheld by the US Supreme Court. Arrogance, much?
Indeed Stuart – and I have commented on that very point:-
https://blog.effectivelearning.net/a-crisis-within-capitalism/
1. Do we have military bases on your territory?
2. Can we execute you and/or your family at any time with the push of a button?
3. Do all of your financial transactions pass through banks that we control?
It’s the inevitable result of having accumulated that kind of power; I’m not sure “arrogance” is quite the right word. And even if it is, it’s not in essence a moral failing, to be repaired by putting better people in charge.
Two interpretations. One is that US considers Australia, and other 5 eye members as part of its jurisdiction. Second one is that the US can interpret their own laws anyway they want.
one way on tuesday, and the opposite way on wednesday, stare decisis be damned.
Yes. That the US government can seriously expect to try an Australian citizen for sedition just shows how far we have come – down. Of course there is not the slightest legal grounds or precedent for it – but the Washington gang like to make their own rules.
“ when we act, we create our own reality.”
He might have wished. But it doesn’t work that flaw-lessly — if at all.
Also, there’s hope in the hint that apparently many in the Scottish legal profession are have a bad taste in the mouth over the AS-affair.
Actually, had he known – and maybe he did – that is exactly what the Nazis said about themselves. Whenever a group of people start to believe that they are the top dogs and can do as they like with the rest of us, everything is fine for them until reality asserts itself. (In the shape, perhaps, of the Red Army).
Then suddenly it’s time for, “Oh, I don’t know what came over me. I must have been hypnotized by so-and-so”.
Tom Welsh
There’s no better example of fake reality than the magical creation of an 80 seat majority for Big Lie Boris who is sadly coming back to annoy us today.
All good things must come to an end one day. He will have spent his time at chequers plotting his Nazi style exceptionalism and Tory Mory relativism.
Thank God for people like Craig who have the courage to grab their toothbrush in readiness for the indignation of the Taghoot / nobheads who believe in their own exceptionalism and and moral relativism.
Thankfully at the height of their madness many dictators are fabulously cartooned, like Gove making ready to press the red button of ultimate release or Erdogan’s mouth as the entrance to Hell: Abandon hope all year who enter here.
Steve Bell absolutely identifies Johnson’s symbiosis with the interests of the ( also fake ) Queen. All of this control freak campaign against Salmond and now Craig is about the Queen getting ignominiously
kicked out of her stolen estates in Scotland.
@Tom+Welsh:
Carl Schmitt is the common source for both, and for what it’s worth it’s unlikely that Rove or any of his compatriots were unaware of Schmitt’s status under the Nazis.
Yes. I like to boast that I am a fully paid-up, card-carrying member of the reality-based community.
Wonderful quote Shattnersrug. Moral relativism in a nutshell mixed in with American Exceptionalism.
@ Shatnersrug April 27, 2020 at 00:54
They are entitled to think that way, seeing as the world let them get away with 9/11, and are well on the way to letting them get away with Covid 19.
The problem is Paul, that it’s not a question of ‘letting them get away with it” it’s a fact that there was no possible to resistance. What Rove said was to allude to that. He’s basically saying “we do what we like and there’s nothing you little people can do” that is the CP’s message to the people of Scotland over Craig. We need to demonstrate that they are quite wrong in that assessment. I think some physical protesting against the first minister at Holyrood on Craig’s behalf maybe in order.
bj, thanks for the link! The article makes some very interesting points.
Hi Tatyana. Hope you are well.
Very good read bj
I’m a poor pensioner with a tiny pension but this is too important to skip. Modest sum donated. Good luck Craig.
Good man!
The number of donor matters. This is a political case, and the size of support may prevent brazen actions by the judge(s). If you can donate 2 pounds, it helps too.
Good point P+B.
The court order issued to Craig references The Contempt of Court Act 1981 Sections 11 and Sections 4(2)
Unless The Contempt of Court Act 1981 is different in Scotland or the one online is not up to date.
What is in the Contempt of Court Act 1981 Section 11 and Section 4(2) is not the same as the court order issued?
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/49/section/11
11 Publication of matters exempted from disclosure in court.
In any case where a court (having power to do so) allows a name or other matter to be withheld from the public in proceedings before the court, the court may give such directions prohibiting the publication of that name or matter in connection with the proceedings as appear to the court to be necessary for the purpose for which it was so withheld.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/49/section/4
(2)In any such proceedings the court may, where it appears to be necessary for avoiding a substantial risk of prejudice to the administration of justice in those proceedings, or in any other proceedings pending or imminent, order that the publication of any report of the proceedings, or any part of the proceedings, be postponed for such period as the court thinks necessary for that purpose.
****************************************************************************
Missing from the Contempt of Court Act 1981 on line in the sections referenced in the court order is this.
“Any Information likely to disclose the identity”
So if Craig was to check online what he should do regarding Contempt he would not see this instruction?
“Information likely to disclose the identity” comes under “such directions prohibiting the publication of that name (…) as appear to the court to be necessary”, and in any case the court order was made at common law as well as in terms of the 1981 Act. A challenge in terms of the order would do better to argue the toss about the meaning of “likely” and “disclose”.
N_
Like Peter Hain’s disclosure of Philip Green’s million pound non disclosure agreements with his staff using parliamentary privilege.
It had zero effect on Green’s shameless activities apart from a fleeting twinge of embarrassment. In this case now that the alphabet women have been exposed as politically motivated liars, the public interest is that they are now named. Something Craig absolutely refrained from doing at any stage.
It would be good if somebody named them in Westminster, Holyrood, or the foreign press, putting the names beyond doubt into the “public domain”. Nicola Sturgeon would probably resign within a day. This is why she is siccing the police and prosecutors on to Craig and others. She’s “frit”.
Or perhaps 10000 of us could co-publish the information. Cf. the hundreds of co-publishers of an edition of Michael Baumann’s book “How it All Began”.
Note to leftwingers in the SNP: the strategy of a nationalist alliance between yourselves and the nationalist right has failed. If you split and set up a new party, how about an alliance between the pro-independence and anti-independence left? Two points of an agreement might be 1) to hold a FINAL referendum on independence and to envisage working together after it whatever the result is; 2) to crack down like nobody’s business on the official corruption which we know blights Scotland from one end of the country to the other.
I’m thinking of analogies to the publication of DeCSS in 1999 by Jon Johanson (enabling circumvention of DVD encryption), and the prohibition to publish the code.
I seem to recall people and professors started printing relevant code on T-shirts and wearing those in public, I believe arguing that the code was the fruit of (reverse engineering) and research.
Of course here the scientific/discovery/research argument cannot readily be made. Unless maybe –hypothesizing here– there is legal novelty, for instance the case set new legal precedent, but even then the actual names are probably immaterial.
Is Craig appealing to the SCCRC (Scottish Criminal Court Review Commission) to review the indictment, and get the High Court to quash it if it finds it unjustified?
Have raised my gift to 200 pounds to the bank coming in the mail.
I don’t use my debit card ever since Bernie Sanders ripped me off for over $500 during the 2016 campaign while I was having cancer treatment for my right lung.
Ford,
Good job and I trust that you are healing well from your cancer treatment.
I wouldprefer to have a full court expose of this than a quash at an early date. I will contribute funds to tht objective.
I hope it’s a vast sum to contribute as UK courts are known to cost fortunes even if you win.
Yes; in a country (like the UK or USA) which is supposed to be democratic and ruled by law, isn’t it strange how everyone accepts that justice is really an expensive luxury available only to the rich?
Or of course the very popular like Craig.
Tom
As I said earlier what is interesting to me is it’s a sign that the establishment now realises it can no longer just ignore alternative media.
It isn’t an Indictment that Craig has been served with. It is Petition. Different thing all together. The case is quasi criminal in nature in that the court can impose a criminal penalty (fine or imprisonment ) if proved but it follows civil case procedure. Answers in written form require to be lodged and the matter will proceed to a hearing at some point thereafter.
The SCCRC (Scottish Criminal Court Review Commission) is to review and investigate cases where it is alleged that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred in relation to conviction, sentence or both.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange wanted for rape in Sweden – Shady or Not? (Flashback.org)
Salmond case is a smokescreen. This is all about persons affiliated with Julian Assange.
Nah, it’s a combination of a lot of things – see the Karl Rove quote above it pretty much explains everything.
Whatever else they may be, the powers that be are very much pragmatists and opportunists. They have a list of things they would like to achieve, and whenever some important event comes along they ask themselves how it can be put to good use to accomplish their goals.
Go massive – sweep it all up, things related and not.
£50 donated, defeat the deep state Craig.
Craig it’s so hard to realise the abuse of power that is being used against you . It was definitely a fit up against Alex and we all know it and I believe the Powers behind this have shot themselves in the foot . I for one will expose everything that comes out of this action that’s being taken against you . At no time did you reveal the names , either in Jigsaw fashion or otherwise. Many of us know exactly who libelled Alex and now doing the same to you . Many good people are behind you Craig this world is turning into a cesspit and we honour men like you who won’t stand by and let this happen.
I too have no idea who these Alphabet women are, save they are at the top of Scottish politics – a public and risky calling for all who go there. I don’t care who they are, but believe, as an Englishman, we’ll need an open Scottish polity with full and truthful reporting of the judiciary such as we get from Craig to fully engage with today’s issues. Yo Craig.
Is it OK to give a big shout-out to Alex Prentice QC. We all know you are reading this Alex *waves* 😀
Let’s all moon him!
Your friend who had his computers taken. This happened to me several years ago as I was viewed by the police as a possible accomplice to a possible crime. So that they can look thro. your hard drive.
As you can imagine, if your doing your tax records, emails and all the rest on one machine, it is rather more than an annoyance
After, I think, three or four months, I started phoning them up. Nothing, just stalling. I eventually got my MSP onto it.
I got a phone call from them one day, saying I could have it back. Few days later, a cop turns up at the door, with the computer in a poly bag, brought thro. from Edinburgh, specially.
However, if I had Not made a song and dance, it could have been held till any trial happened.
I assume the computer was returned in good working order, since if it wasn’t you would have said so.
FWIW, if it were me, even if a computer was returned from “indefinite detention” in good working order, and with the familiar programs and data seemingly intact, I would worry that it had been secretly compromised. I know that the commonsensical response would be to dismiss this as paranoia, along the lines of, “Don’t be silly– the authorities got (or didn’t get) what they needed from the machine, and have no need to ‘bug’ it just to monitor or sabotage your humdrum activity.”
If it worked properly, I’d probably resume using it. But I still wouldn’t “trust” it, whatever that means.
Believe me, every PC is compromised.
“Intel inside” is a catch phrase for a reason.
Although there are other manufacturers. AMD has just decisively overtaken Intel in performance/price, for example.
But the UEFI “trusted computer” standard creates a potential core of insecurity within the PC’s “BIOS”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface
And with Windows we don’t need Gates 😉
Ort
After police raided Jameah Islameah in Sussex with a flood of white Vans, they left their phone line active in the building. Not good PR for a hyper-sensitive, innocent imam. In this case it seems weird that the alphabet coven are still in post. You would have thought the SNP would have paid them off immediately they were found guilty of lying, if only to clear the air.
The stink of westminster infiltration is going to require multiple Lady Macbeth handwashing.
Ken (20-49): your story reminds me of another story told by a blogger who goes under the name of Tallbloke. In 2011 the Norfolk police were trying to find out who, a couple of years earlier, had leaked or hacked a large collection of e-mail correspondence from the Climate Research Centre at East Anglia University (an event christened ‘Climategate’ by the Torygraph). It seems Tallbloke had had some e-mail correspondence with one of the first recipients of the unsolicited Climategate hoard, Wisconsin blogger Jeff Id, and the plods thought Tallbloke, or some of his large collection of old computers, might be able to help them with their enquiries.
As far as I know no leaker or hacker has yet been identified. See https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/tallbloke-towers-raided-many-computers-taken/
tallbloke is a shill. “climategate” was a put up job, much like salmond’s trial.
Mr Murray, £50 from me should hit your account tomorrow morning. A comparative piss in the financial ocean, I realise, but as those intensely irritating Tesco adverts say, “every little helps”.
Quite a bit of bread, considering. ;O)
As a retired Scottish police officer from a proud apolitical era before the formation of Police Scotland, I was pleased to donate to this fund, having done so before to support Craig Murray’s blog at the time of the Alex Salmond trial. Let justice prevail once more.
Dave, indeed, Police Scotland was a huge mistake.
Have you got enough to take a trip on the Shetland Bus? ;O)
Many are wondering who the other journalist is who got a visit and some feng-shui tips courtesy of Keystone Removals, it couldn’t possibly be one of the state-security/corporate media wretches who’ve indulge in the most contemptible mis-reporting of everything that happens in Scotland, could it? Contemptible to all that is but the anointed yoons and the Corowna Persecution Service.
The wee ginger dug is still having a regular sonorous yap: https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/
The Prof is still sticking it to the Broadcasting Corpse: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/
The Grousebeater presses on and and has them on the run: https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/
Calling it a police-state is unfair I think to the police. I’m thinking of Orwell and language as mind-control -we simply don’t possess the terms to describe this state of affairs, and this dysfunctional dystopian state; these stock phrases, synecdoches and metonymy, through which we communicate ideas, are here inapplicable, narrowing the range of thought and tending to alienate where they’ve a literal meaning, too literal for the more metaphorical idea being elucidated. Can we take the police out of police-state and substitute something else which still conveys the full-horror of what’s transpiring, accepting they might possibly be more neutral than many suppose, have not, cannot speak for themselves. I know they’ve taken oaths to Lizzie Guelph, the QE2 and all and some being ex-military, have doubly done so, and must serve the chinless wonders for their pay-pokes or join the ranks of lower-middle class and underclass from which they’ve risen, but they’re not I hope fully de-humanised unless selection favours unthinking yoons. I hope I’m not going too far and cutting them too much slack, blindly following orders applies to them too, but not I think unthinking, their consciences never fully subdued.
Corona virus came just in the nick of time for witness Nicola Sturgeon to absent herself from the court proceedings with the consent of both sides in the ludicrous game, the adversarial farce the theatre of the absurd and archaism that the law has fossilised to become. Consumately professional, as slick and slippery as a well-oiled Jackie Bird in her press-briefing public appearances, a star is born, on the ball with the now tame media once so unremittingly hostile to all the party she leads stood for, still are, but now hanging on her every word. Recently though lost looking, with an ‘I’d rather be anywhere else but here’ air about her. Where next for her ambitions, can Scotland contain, satisfy them, is one eye looking wistfully towards the big hoose the bigger audiences, at Westmidden itself, has she had enough of us, is she too good for us, are we not good enough for her? Must the sun melt the rocks for her too before she’d join the nobbled Lords and Ladies.
Tony M
Thank you .
Bojo wasn’t expecting a good Flyting with his bacon and egg first thing back in No 10. Delicious. Much appreciated. Is there any more?
You’ve been Assanged, for reasons that are self-evident.
Craig,
I hope that Natwest will not confiscate your money as they did to me. Open a crypto account in monero or bitcoin cash to be safe,
Or buy gold 😀 physical gold 😀
“I know of four pro-Independence folk who were last week phoned or visited by Police Scotland and threatened with contempt of court proceedings over social media postings they had made weeks back on the Alex Salmond case.”
Threatened? What did the police demand that they do to avoid prosecution?
N
Just Stop your Crap..
One had his house Raided ..that leaves Three to ponder NOT FOUR
I didn’t know he was one of the four. Dunno why you’re railing at me. In my book a threat means “If you act in way X, then I’ll make sure you experience circumstances Y that you’ll find unpleasant”. It’s a way of pressuring someone to act in way not-X. So I was wondering how the police were trying to encourage the four “pro-independence folk” to act. Did they twist their arms to make them sing their hearts out about some other person or persons maybe?
You’re thinking of coercion. Threat has no such automatic connotation.
So best off and find some other nit to pick.
karel, good point ! They froze the Miners accounts and the Printers during Wapping. Speaking of Murdoch, In his early years in Fleet St. my father was a printer one of many that ran his presses for nothing to stop the press barons and the banks putting him out of business. Murdoch was in the machine room in shirt sleeves where he said ” Thanks lads I won’t forget this”. Off topic I know but Craig you have integrity something Murdoch gave up a long time ago.
In the miners’ strike the authorities did more than freeze the NUM’s accounts – they sequestered them. Nowadays nobody should rely on Paypal long-term. It can be OK to use to raise money over a few days, before they notice, but in the longer term the company will be bound to make it difficult for anybody who is having any success using it to fight against vested interests. All capitalists are c***s.
As someone that has repeatedly suffered at the hands of the state and seen others have the same or worse done to them how can you continue to believe that the state should exist? It is always and everywhere a tool for the elite to oppress the masses and particularly the discontented. You should read “The Most Dangerous Superstition” by Larken Rose, it might open your eyes to the absolute immorality of government. If you can’t do that just watch this videos-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb8Rj5xkDPk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4LtEciQUF8
@ Alec April 27, 2020 at 07:04
I don’t think Craig will be buying that –
Paperback
from £551.58
1 Used from £551.58
2 New from £971.57
Those sorts of prices generally indicate the PTB don’t want people reading it, so they buy up virtually all the copies.
The book can be downloaded for free here.
Thanks very much for the link, N_.
I cannot be the only one who has noticed, over the years, how any book critical of the establishment tends to retail at hundreds of pounds. Available on Amazon, certainly – in theory – but priced out of the reach of 99.9% of readers. And virtually all of those to whom the book’s contents would be news.
I sometimes find that Alibris has copies of such books at affordable prices. And, of course, any possible alternative to Amazon should be used whenever possible.
usedbooksearch.co.uk is a meta search engine that looks at Alibris, Abe Books, Ebay, and many other places (worldwide, or you can restrict to Britain or to the US).
bookfinder.com is a new kid on the block doing much the same with a poorer interface.
But a heck of a lot of stuff is online for free, either as .pdf or in one of the ebook formats that can be converted to .pdf using Calibre (free). I <3 my comb binder!
N_,
Many thanks for THAT link. Strikes a chord immediately!
Craig, I made a donation at the weekend. I have been so impressed with the integrity of your writing on so many subjects for a while and will do what I can to spread word of your presence in a very strange world
Don’t know how much I have in my UK bank account and I cannot log in to check because my sim has expired and I cannot get the stupid text code, it’s less than a ton, but I don’t need it, it’s yours now: £50 lump sum now and a monthly sub until it’s gone.
Good luck we’re all here for you.
We support you, Mr. Murray.
All people have the right to know the truth. Nobody has the right to hide what is happening and how exactly it actually happens.
6800 Russian-speaking people saw the news about your situation. I hope they help spread the word.
This is from today’s Daily Rectum:
“A new pro-independence party may have to set up because the SNP is so rotten, according to a veteran Nationalist.
Jim Sillars claimed the fallout from the Alex Salmond trial would be like a “volcanic eruption” and said something “new” and “untainted” may have to replace the SNP.
Salmond, who was First Minister between 2007 and 2014, was cleared at a trial in March of sexually assaulting nine women.
Some of his female accusers are in the SNP and the former leader’s supporters believe there was an attempt to stitch him up.
Salmond is understood to be writing a book about the trial and an initial Scottish Government investigation into him over misconduct claims, which he successfully challenged in court.
In the forthcoming issue of the Scottish Left Review, Sillars, a former SNP depute leader said: “The criminal trial of Alex Salmond may be over, but the trial of the SNP both at party and parliamentary level is yet to begin.
“It is unavoidable.
“The book he is writing, with the material he was not allowed to produce at trial, but which has all the authenticity of Scottish government and SNP party documents, will be like a volcano going off underneath some people. Some whose identities I and others know, but cannot name, must tremble at the prospect of what is to come.
“There could be another police investigation, this time not into Alex Salmond.”
On the wider political consequences, he wrote: “For the rest of us, it is the effect of that coming volcanic eruption on the SNP as a party, as the electoral wing of the independence movement, that matters.
“Not being in the Salmond camp, but in the SNP, and having devoted the major part of my political life to the cause of independence, I see a need for a complete clear-out of the highest levels of the party before it is again fit to lead.
“The cult of personality, the obsessive desire of leaders for complete control of the membership and parliamentarians, the growth of a clique of acolytes, one-person rule – there has been a rot growing at the heart of this organisation for years.”
He also suggested the SNP’s existence is not guaranteed: “The independence movement is not just the SNP, but the movement as a whole has much invested in the party as the instrument to achieve democratic success.
“As the rot is uncovered, the temptation – already being thought of by some – will be to set up something new, untainted, in its place.
“That might need to be done if the damage to come proves fatal. I hope not, because it is not easy to replace and fill the electoral space of a long established organisation.”
The sooner Salmond brings out his book, exposes these perpetrators and brings the whole SNP shit show down the better.
Hopefully his book will have that effect but the unionist media is showing a very strange propensity to shield the SNP leadership and instead attack Salmond. That suggests his revelations would probably receive as little MSM attention as those in the leaked Labour report. For whatever reason, they want to protect the current leadership of the Scottish independence movement.
Interesting stuff from Sillars but one must ask what the effect on the independence movement would be of a collapse of the SNP.I fear a revival of Labour and Tory in that event.
I think the electorate would not be easily persuaded to move en masse to a new party. The better approach might be reform and renew.
Jane
Sturgeon’s position is now completely untenable. When things go wrong, leaders have to take responsibility, even if they personally are not to blame. It makes no difference. The SNP is in government and cannot be dissolved. Therefore she has to resign. She is young enough to recover her political career and if she wishes to , realign herself publicly with her political alliances rather than secretly, and then put her package to the electorate again. She has abused the cause of feminism, willingly or unwillingly . Feminism does not mean the destruction of men.. it means the validity of the female perspective, which the Salmond trial has brought into prejudice.
She is indelibly attached to this disgraceful police witch hunt after the innocent verdict has been given.
Ah yes, a book – good idea. It can be published abroad if necessary. Richard Tomlinson published “The Big Breach” in Moscow. Alex Salmond had better be quick if Craig’s a*se is going to be kept out of jail. Mind you, a few days in the slammer might help with marketing! (That’s a joke BTW. I’ve already donated to help Craig defeat the indictment.)
The same scribbler, Paul Hutcheon, was at work there. He tried to smear Craig with details of his house purchase as if there was something dodgy going on. We assume Hutcheon lives in a house and not in a tent somewhere. I won’t give a link but the attempted hatchet job started with ‘A notorious blogger…..’
The Daily Record belongs to the REACH group (formerly Trinity Mirror) who acquired previously decent local papers and turned them into advertorial dross..
Noticed the huge ‘Reach Scotland’ sign and the much smaller ‘Daily Record’ and ‘Sunday Mail’ signs on the front door of the building down the Broomilelaw the other day. Mistakenly thought that ‘Reach Scotland’ was some sort of employment agency 🙂 and things had gone so downhill for the Daily Record and Sunday Mail that they had had to vacate that huge building a little bit down the road and squat in some sub-let office space 😀 😀
LOL Mariigold.
Sorry it is only a tenner Craig.( I work for the NHS) Stay strong. I hope the judge is not Baraitser or you will be seeing Julian sooner than you think.
Spencer Satch,
Hearing adjourned until November, 2020 – because of covid-19 ( if my information is correct).
Guess the authorities are protecting Assange – for he might catch covid-19 in Court – but is safe in prison?
No, there have been several Covid deaths in Belmarsh already, which is why Julian made his bail application. It was summarily dismissed by the judge. There is no evidence whatsoever the authorities are protecting Assange. Quite the opposite.
I suspect that Courtenay was being sarcastic.
Tom Welsh,
Funny you said that – I was just about to post the same point – then I scrolled down a bit and saw yours.
A sense of humour; not reading too literally …huh?
Sarcasm is a weakness of mine – I have to fight hard to restrain it, as on the Web many people tend to miss it. Even when it’s a lot less subtle than yours!
Is there such a thing as a “sarcasm” smiley? Maybe something like 8-\ ?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I agree with the commentators who have said that this threat of court action is an attempt to silence criticism of the existing hierarchy of the SNP. Aside from setting up a regular subscription I have also made a donation, and can make another if that becomes necessary. Whatever your views we need to hear voices of criticism and analysis to even make a semblance of democracy, which is not what we have got at present.
€100 are currently winging their way to your bank account from Sweden, all in support of your cause, Craig. We need you now more than ever. May the force be with you.
Craig , is your defence fund separate from your ongoing blog subscriptions , i.e. is there a separate account to send contributions to , or will all previously regular subs for your blog now go to your defence fund ?
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Mr Murray you are worth every penny and I will donate again at the end of this week once I’m paid and will donate every week until this is over. My best wishes and thoughts are with you, don’t let the bastards grind you down, please defeat these lying insidious bastards once and for all, the truth must always out.
I am looking forward to the eventual publication of your offending article on 23rd August 2020, as detailed at Clause 12 of the indictment. Should we all refrain from judgment until then, or press on regardless?