Dave Llewellyn sat next to me in the public gallery of the Salmond trial as we witnessed the defence witnesses – largely female – who shredded the prosecution case. A few weeks ago, seven detectives of the Serious Crime Squad raided Dave’s home at 5am, handcuffed him and questioned him over conspiracy to murder – in relation to a public Facebook post. Dave has now been charged with a lesser but still imprisonable offence.
You will recall Mark Hirst, friend of both Dave and I, being charged with threatening communication for using the expression “reap the whirlwind” in a political sense – a charge from the Crown Office so outrageous that it was eventually thrown out by the court as “no case to answer”. Well, the Dave Llewellyn case is extremely similar.
Future poet laureate John Betjeman should have been hung, drawn and quartered, oh at least three times, for writing in his famous poem “Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough”, if the standard of pretend literalness and credulity being applied by Police Scotland and the Crown Office had been applied to Betjeman. (And no, Dave’s post does not reference bombs.)
The truth is that in Scotland we now have a police, prosecutorial and justice system which is at the disposal of the Sturgeon clique for the pursuit of their private vendettas against political opponents. The fact that I am set to be jailed for “jigsaw identification”, when I demonstrably and provably did far less of this difficult to define activity than the mainstream media, who have not been prosecuted, is further evidence of that, as were the charges against Mark Hirst, and indeed Jeremy Gilchrist.
Please note that all of these political prosecutions have been based on thought crime. People in a small and definable political group – all people I know – are being prosecuted merely for publishing or saying things which annoy somebody in the Sturgeon clique. This is even before the Hate Crime Act, with its further swingeing restrictions on free speech, comes into effect. These are very dangerous times indeed to be any kind of dissident writer or campaigner in Scotland. The interesting thing, of course, is that the political orthodoxy being enforced is superficially liberal-left; a set of right-on beliefs whose exponents are so convinced of their own morality, they are happy to jail anybody who differs.
My personal crime against this orthodoxy is not to accept the mantra that all men accused of sex crime are automatically guilty, and that the “victim” must always be believed, whatever the evidence to the contrary. I also think people accused of serious crime should have the right to be judged by a jury of their peers. These are seriously unfashionable opinions.
On Tuesday I wrote a different post to this. It actually gave the detail of what David Llewellyn posted, and examined it. My article also revealed who was behind the complaint against him, and referred to some interesting history of Llewellyn’s own investigations.
However I received strong advice that to publish my article might itself be construed contempt of court, and that I ran the risk of being instantly jailed rather than free pending appeal, and further that to publish may attract yet another political prosecution from the Crown Office. I therefore did not publish and cannot give you the detail of the Llewellyn case, at least until after its conclusion.
I find this deeply depressing. I should not, in normal circumstances, have had the slightest hesitation in giving you the detail of what is happening to Dave Llewellyn, and more importantly why, in the same way I did with Mark Hirst. I find the notion that my own journalism is successfully being “chilled” in this way highly worrying, and this adds to the sense of injustice I feel in my own case. In fact anger and perhaps even humiliation at the powerlessness – and fear I am becoming a coward – has pretty well prostrated me for three days. I feel somewhat recovered now, and determined to fight on. But for the first time I find myself seriously considering, after my case is concluded, leaving my beloved Scotland and going to live in a country which does not jail dissident writers.
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Craig,
I take it you know of this quote from Britain-s favourite statesman, don-t you_
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
This conspiracy has been a long time in the making.
When people start thinking about nationalism, they will encourage national socialism as an inevitable consequence. That’s what has happened in Scotland. Being half Scottish, I began thinking I about moving to Scotland to enjoy my retirement in the Highlands. However, two years ago I decided it would make as much sense as moving to Germany in 1930.
Al Dente
Yes, the SNP under Sturgeon is half way between a zombie nightmare sweat and an out of tune zombie piano with no ivories.
But nobody has decided yet whether it’s a nightmare, a bad trip, a film starring a female , vampire Hitler deliriium tremens, or the opening stages of the troubles of Northern Ireland orchestrated by the foaming Tories in Scotland.
Whatever. Question is , are the nutters who used proxy jihadist crazies in Yugoslavia and the Mediterranean capable of doing Nazism light , with Humza too hot in the Kitchen Yousaf and bent as a mattress spring Wolffe inventing thought crimes by which to send intellectuals to prison?
Definitely yes, but I’m not convinced that wherever you now live will not also be encompassed by this madness unless it is extinguished pretty soon.
Any thoughts on why Nicola and her crew are being protected?
That is such an absurd statement I don’t believe a word.
Ian
It’s an absurd situation, but sadly a rational statement imho. I was in Glasgow last week and of course none of the SNP’s high octane politics affects normal life in Scotland. The community I was visiting were not interested in Scottish politics.
But the jailing of Craig Murray looks from the outside like a Sarajevo incident. A small event that crosses the line from sanity into make-believe. Al Dente is quite justified in being appalled by it, even though it wouldn’t affect his or her retirement plans in the least.
Whatever it is it isn’t Germany in the 1930’s, that is just ridiculous.
Ian – well, it’s sufficiently bad that I, for one, have quietly jettisoned the plans I had to return to Scotland when I retire. I have been following the Craig Murray case with great interest and, as a result of Lady Dorrian’s judgement, I strongly advise anybody who can to get out as fast as they can.
One of the reasons so many Jews got caught by the Nazis is that they, too, couldn’t believe that the pogroms of the past could happen in “modern, civilised” 1930s Germany.
As Al Dente rightly points out, the SNP are both socialists and nationalists. No, they’re not racists, but then most fascist regimes weren’t. They were still ruinous for the average person, however, and deadly to dissidents.
The difference between Germany in the 30s and other industrial states was that Weimar Germany was a democracy and the others weren’t. Making the working class foot the bill for the Depression didn’t need an insurgent political movement in the other states, because the working class electorate couldn’t dominate the legislature. Bruning resorted to extra-parliamentary methods to circumvent the Reichstag and that was the end of the Weimar democracy, not the jobbing of Hitler into a coalition government three years later.
There are many excellent resources available on the internet of the history of the interwar years in Germany. That would be a profitable use of your time instead of the hyperbolic hysterical false parallels being made.
Nothing so sickening as a British nationalist criticizing nationalism.
Craig Murray
Maisie Glazebrook
Fri 21/05/2021 11:39
Reply
Dear Mr. Meredith,
Thank you for your letter. The judge in Salmond trial in 2020 had issued an order forbidding the publication of the names of the women who testified against Salmond, or other information that might identify them. A court of session later concluded Murray was in contempt of court since information published in his blog and on Twitter could potentially lead to identifying some of the complainants.
His defence lawyers now argue that there is little indication of any actual identification having happened since those articles were published – and that it did not cause the trial to be adjourned.
However, we are still waiting to hear the outcome of his appeal. Worth pointing out that the initial conviction focused on the possibility of whether identification could occur. One could argue the inclusion of the word ‘might’ in the judges initial rules is why he was initially convicted.
Best,
Private Eye
From: Glenn Meredith
Date: Saturday, 15 May 2021 at 20:27
To: Private Eye
Subject: Once more in support of Craig Murray
The letters from Julia Pickering (Post-sleaze era) and John Heawood (Full fat facts) in issue 1547, although printed separately, should have been printed together since they were both written in support of Jeremy Corbyn as responses to a a criticism of him in Legal Media News, issue 1546. Mr Heawood concludes by saying that Private Eye should direct its attention to Corbyn’s critics rather than continually sniping at the ex-leader of the Labour Party. Ms Pickering concludes in a more general way which is worth quoting at some length:
“… many of us still value a politician with principles and integrity.. Against the current backdrop of brazen political sleaze I feel it is important those who still recognise the truth when they see it are prepared to support the very few who are prepared to pursue it, whatever the personal cost.
Keep up the brilliant work”
For me the last sentence demands a caveat saying, “and be prepared to go where other organs of the mainstream media do not go”, which brings me to Craig Murray.
At the outset, I have to say that if the mainstream stream media, including Private Eye, had done its job without fear or favour, I would not have to supply this background, but that is another story. Murray is currently facing the prospect of having to serve a jail sentence of eight months for having been found guilty by a legal tribunal, not a jury, on a charge of contempt of court. The execution of this sentence is dependent on him being granted, by this same tribunal, leave to appeal both conviction and sentence before the UK Supreme Court. If this leave to appeal is not granted, then his legal team will appeal directly to the Supreme Court, although this a process that will take months, during which time he will have to serve his sentence.
Therefore, by 15th June, when the winner of the 2021 Paul Foot Award will be announced, Craig Murray will either be in prison or be in state of legal limbo awaiting the outcome of an appeal that could still go against him. Lest we forget, Craig Murray is being punished for producing an item of journalism consisting of his reports of Alec Salmond’s trial on sexual assault charges. By reporting the defence case in some detail, he made clear that there was no mystery as to why the jury produced the not guilty verdicts that they did. In fact, it made outside observers, like myself, wonder why the charges were brought in the first place.
The relevance of all this to the Paul Foot Award is that if the man himself was still alive he would be supporting Craig Murray in his quest for justice. Furthermore, I am prepared to say that he would have supported Murray in his reporting of the trial of Julian Assange and would have expressed the same scepticism that Murray did in relation to the state’s line on the Salisbury poisonings. In other words, Paul Foot would have recognised that Craig Murray is one of those who are, as Ms Pickering says in her letter cited above, needing “support”, being one of “the very few who are prepared to pursue [the truth], whatever the personal cost”.
Dare I say it, but I think that Private Eye and the Paul Foot awards committee have a problem. To a mere outsider that could be resolved by Private Eye ripping up the rulebook and awarding the 2021 prize to Craig Murray. Of course, if Lord Gnome did that its representatives would be performing a massive mea culpa since they would be admitting that Craig Murray has “boldly gone” into areas that Private Eye and the rest of the mainstream media have not been prepared to go into. They would be admitting that the investigative traditions represented by Paul Foot still live on but not there.
Incidentally, I think that Craig Murray took scrupulous care not to identify anyone who opted to remain anonymous. Why he should be charged with, and found guilty of, doing something that he did not do, I leave Private Eye to comment upon.
Yours sincerely,
Herewith a copy of an email I sent to “Private Eye” regarding the “Craig Murray Case”, together with a reply from Maisie Glazebrook of Private Eye. It would be interesting to know whether any one else has written to them in the same vein, and whether they have replied. Ms Glazebrook’s reply is remarkable for what she does not say as much as for the pretty servile way she recounts the Scottish Court’s case against Craig Murray. Thus she she does not seek to deny that Paul Foot, were he alive, would be supporting Craig Murray’s journalism as a whole, never mind on the particular matter that is currently at issue. Furthermore, given that by the date the Paul Foot Award for 2021 is handed out, Craig Murray will either be serving a prison sentence, or be a legal limbo awaiting the result of the appeal to the UK Supreme Court, it would amount to a massive injustice NOT to give the Paul Foot Award for 2021 to him. What Private Eye, and the rest of mainstream journalism, has to answer is whether or not Craig Murray’s reporting of the Alec Salmond case and its aftermath amounts to a notable act of journalism which demands to be honoured. To be honest, I am puzzled as to why I was why I was replied to never mind in the terms copied above, Are the staff of Private Eye not possessed of the self reflection to wonder whether or not I would use the reply copied above. On the other hand, to follow the line I suggest, would amount to a massive admission that they, with the rest of the much derided Street of Shame, have failed.
With best wishes,
Glenn Meredith
I wouldn’t have any expectations of Private Eye; it’s a bastion of the establishment.
The moment of truth for me was during initial period of the Snowden revelations, that in fact the tinfoil hat brigade were right, and the intelligence services could and were monitoring every phone conversation, email correspondence, and internet activity, yet, for a publication that based its reputation and supposedly prided itself on spilling the beans about hidden corruption in high places, Snowden’s leaks, inexplicably, prompted nothing more in the way of reaction or analysis than one silly cartoon.
Hmmmm, now why would that be?
It then occurred to me that if I was running the intelligence services, what better resource for hoovering up hidden private information, than establishing a so-called “satirical” magazine to which people would willingly submit every kind of intelligence and low gossip in multiple fields of national activity, be it journalism, the law, medicine, industry, publishing, farming, and so on.
I have never bought nor read it again.
* plus politics, trade unionism and academia, of course.
I wrote a response to this which seemed to disappear as it was being uploaded! So I’ll try to remember the main points.
Private Eye’s Peter Cook must be whirring in his tomb at what his anti establishment thorn has been neutered into under the proselytising gnome Ian Hislop. The toadiest of toads and Uber minion who along with his BBC chums in ‘light entertainment’ and ‘News’ are responsible for the Narrative control that gave us Bozo and BrexShit. Along with the ‘controlled hard left’ of the RCP and its agitprop journal Spiked.
The considered plan of bridging the fake ‘left and right’ that ends in Labour strongholds voting like Tory military garrison towns – against their own interest.
Through gaslighting comedy of HIGNFY and the Now Show – the agenda of the Mockingbirds have been crystal clear as the apparatchiks of the NeoLib Con merchants from LauraKoftheCIA soft porn soft focus adoration of Bozo the ‘once and future king’ was elevated to a national ‘icon’ whilst Corbynism was buried under lies upon lies …
Hislop will end up in the Lords like his deep state goon RCP leader Claire Fox elevated by Bozo for being the great servants of their great conspiracy.
Just like the Groan under Rusbridger, The Eye under Hislop is just a lying proselytising Zionist facist rag.
Glenn,
Superb post and letter, also the responses from other posters.
No wonder they are trying to ‘put the tin hat’ on this blog.
I have to say I don’t understand this. Could Craig please provide rather more detail, perhaps in particular about the Scottish legal system.
I’m an English lawyer, though not one who practices criminal law of been near a court for a very long time. My law studies are also some time ago. But I just don’t see how under English law there could be a contempt of court here. I just don’t understand why Craig is apparently unable to even say what DL has been charged with. Must this somehow be a secret? Is Craig saying that publication of even this would be a contempt of courts?
Much more detail needed Craig.
Interesting point. Craig could have written all his blogs with impunity if he’d done so from Berwick or Carlisle. Just shows you how incredibly insane the separate Scottish justice system is within a united country.
You should know that Stuart Campbell of Wings Over Scotland was threatened with similar by the Scottish Crown Office. He lives in Bath.
Unfortunately, although Scotland is a separate legal jurisdiction, it operates as a colonial outpost of Westminster/Whitehall – and its officials see themselves as colonial administrators.
The sad fact is we share an Island with England – and essentially England rules us – no matter how we vote. Craig’s ‘crime’ is to challenge this filthy system.
I have little doubt that living in Bath would not have save Mr Campbell – just as living in Berwick – nicked from us by Edward Longshanks – would not have saved Craig Murray.
We only put up with the SNP because it is currently the only available means of gaining independence. But there is substantial doubt that its current leadership share that goal. They are doing quite nicely out of the colonial administration racket – and they just make appropriate noises to appease their base.
To be fair, they are likely well aware that if they were serious about independence, they too would be ‘sorted out’ just as Mr Salmond and Mr Murray have been ‘sorted’.
Adrian C
The SNP are in contempt of court by commandeering some feminist gossip about Alex Salmond, and weaponising it as rape charges. Then, when Craig exposed their contempt of court process by exposing the snp lies, the Lord Advocate who attends cabinet as well as being crown prosecution walley in Scotland got together with Humza Yousaf and accused Craig Murray of contempt. Using the MSM, they have also said that the court that cleared Salmond got it wrong and ordered Craig to remove his reporting of the Defence case in court from his blog.
Maybe you weren’t expecting to find injustice and gross abuse of power from the SNP. The SNP has removed the evidence of Salmond’s innocence and the evidence of its own perjury. It stinks. There is no way on earth the Supreme Court will stand for it, but sadly by the time they make YouSap , Wolffe, Drearian and the Twa Murrells resign, Craig will have finished his 4 months in custody and be awarded £1 million in damages for wrongful imprisonment.
Nice work if you can get it, but I’m sure he’d rather just be sitting at home with his wife and young family.
I agree with Adrian C. Like him, I can’t see why Craig can’t give at least basic details of the charge against DL unless, of course, it has something to do with a person who has been granted anonymity by a court, in which case Craig’s reticence would be completely understandable. As things stand, without any knowledge of the circumstances it is difficult to form any opinion on the justness or otherwise of DL’s arrest.
DT
“I just don’t understand why Craig is apparently unable to even say what DL has been charged with. Must this somehow be a secret? Is Craig saying that publication of even this would be a contempt of courts?”
Indeed he is. We have a Crown Office (prosecution authority) that is both corrupt and out of control. It recently admitted bringing “malicious prosecutions” and had to pay out £24millions in damages – plus God knows what in costs.
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/former-rangers-administrators-24-million-23466740
We only know this because those against whom the malicious prosecutions were brought had enough dosh to challenge them in court.
The cases against Salmond and Murray too are vexatious, malicious and political.
No heads have rolled. No heads will roll. They are fulfilling their job-descriptions as defined by the malignant British state.
Will you forever be in their crosshairs now? And would they have any compunction about taking it the whole way again? That must be the concern.
sorry to hear you’re feeling down in the dumps, Murray. But if you weren’t feeling a bit ‘undone’ by this monumental persecution enacted upon you & y/our friends, let alone the wider societal implications of these mental times we’re going through, then you wouldn’t be human.
I just hope you’ve got folk around helping you keep your sanity intact & hopes alive, as much as you have done relentlessly for us, your eternally grateful readers, for decades now.
Shame to hear you are feeling inclined to get ‘oot of toon (is that Scots or Geordie?). From your writing it does seem like you have a deep love for your country & people, so it would be a shame to think that the nasty folk would have managed to chase you away.
Anyway, a change is as good as a rest so perhaps a sabbatical in some other part of this beautiful planet would be a sufficient ‘tonic’ to the toxic politics you’ve had to wade through in these recent times.
But your ‘home’ is your home at the end of the day, don’t let the nasty basTurds let you feel otherwise. They may have the loudest soapboxes today, but when they are gone to dust & quickly forgotten in the years to come, folk will still be reading ‘Murray’; learning, thinking, chuckling, imagining & hopefully rolling their eyes at the folly of humans in days gone by…………
p.s. by way of “chilling”, when I goggle “Dave Llewellyn-scotland-arrest-serious crime squad-conspiracy to murder-etc etc”, I get absolutely nothing, like it never happened, just some links to an airport protest or to making ‘legal’ high products – all penned in such a way as to cast the fella as some nefarious Blofeld to be feared & distrusted……hilariously sad to read the desperate attempts to make “legal high” sound like the complete opposite :-)))
Income earned by writers, composers, visual artists and sculptors from the sale of their works is exempt from tax in Ireland in certain circumstances. great place to live
The political orthodoxy is actually a minority view, albeit they are skilled at persuading people that this is the consensus. Ask one hundred dudes what they think of trans people, I dare you. This ‘hate’ speech bill is pure poison: the worst kind of censorship poison, wrapped in a pretty pink pill. And they will arrest people for speaking out. I personally consider the whole agenda to be evil, and historians will not look kindly on these grotesque ‘operations’ which troubled young men are undergoing.
It is what it is. History has seen such outbreaks of mass hysteria and ‘Biological Lenninism’ previously, and hopefully people will wake up. I personally no longer read the MSM, nor watch any news at all. Sometimes I’ll glance at the odd article and just think it’s written from a parallel universe. Some tough times ahead in Scotland I fear.
Yeah the most dangerous, ‘evil’ and ‘grotesque’ aspect of British political orthodoxy . . . non hatred of trans people.
Dave Llewellyn was involved in an effort at the border threatening to post car registration numbers of travellers from England. His approach can’t have been motivated by intelligent fears of virus infection, because he doesn’t know how to wear a mask. Last year he issued a message on a US advertising company’s website containing a map he’d got of Boris Johnson’s flight plan (although strangely only a part of it that went across England) and saying “if there are any Russians in the area (…) perfume please”.
If any of Dave’s neighbours are reading this – and regardless of their ethnicity – why not take the fellow a nice cup of chamomile tea?
Direct to you from The Sun, that impeccable journal of record. Well done, you can use google, pity you just repeat trash you find.
I happen to know that Dave Llewellyn was not involved in the first protest, and the article you link to from the Sun does not say he was. It was a perfectly sensible protest anyway. I haven’t bothered looking up your second two links because I am bored with your continuing returns here to talk pish.
*applause*
Suggest Sochi….mountains….snow…. halfway house uK and eastwards….good cultural climate…..etc
While reading a review of whistleblower Daniel Ellsburg book ‘Doomsday’ I became acutely aware of Craig’s anguish that has ‘pretty well prostrated me for three days’ when Daniel said this:
..Yet in the end, it wasn’t the White House, or its crimes, that stopped me from disclosing to the world, in the mid seventies or after, the thousands of pages of notes and documents on a possible nuclear holocaust that I had begun to copy from my safe at RAND four years earlier. It was an act of nature: a tropical storm. An act of grace, my wife Patricia calls it, since – thought it frustrated my deepest plans and caused me great anguish – it allowed me to sleep next to her, in loving embrace, for the last forty years.
N.B. Above top secret is the fact that the U.S. has delegated a launch of multiple nuclear weapons from British nuclear submarines if communication to Washington is lost within 12 minutes of a nuclear launch.
Mark.
And, some people still believe we have an independent Nuclear Capability. Washington controls the supply of Launch vehicles, Washington controls the launch code technology and apparently, re. your comment, Washington stipulates the targets.
And, we’ve built and paid for two floating barges to transport US planes around the globe to project US force on ‘foreigners’.
The Brits are just the Monkey’s that dance to the US tune.
Solid Stevie Boy. In fact UK now pressured by the U.S to keep 2 nuclear armed subs at sea raising the limit on our nuclear stockpile: https://rusi.org/commentary/going-ballistic-uk-proposed-nuclear-build
Robot Starmer queried the increase after pointing out his unwavering support for nuclear weapons prick! https://bylinetimes.com/2021/03/23/boris-johnson-toxic-domestic-posturing-is-threatening-britains-global-leadership-status/
If it makes you feel any better, “the US” leadership are just as controlled as the UK’s.
Yes, Observer, that is the distinction we must keep reminding ourselves of.
Pondering as to why there is so much sudden priority coverage of the Martin Bashir – Princess Diana story?
Cannot help but think this maybe leading up to some form of government accreditation for journalists and restrictions that will be imposed on publications.
On another point, I believe the seed to Craigs ‘jigsaw identification’ sentencing lay in his coverage of Julian Assange’s case and his unfavourable descriptions of the Bellmarsh regime, the judge and even the whole judicary system. Someone with influence is trying to make a point and I dont think it’s any SNP leader, she is far too low down the establishment hierarchy.
if you saw the photos of Sturgeon’s recent swearing in as FM, you would have seen Dorrian standing beside her. A perfect snapshot of the establishment and how it works, not necessarily by outright collusion, but by closeness in office, temperament, and culture. An alignment of power through affiliation, without any overt agreement necessary. Incorporation of values and backgrounds into a common wealth of power (literally).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raul_Hilberg#The_Destruction_of_the_European_Jews
As Hilberg put it:
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.[39]
Perfect definition of the establishment.
Hilberg s obtuse way of conveying to reader that no historical documents exist of a planned final solution by the otherwise very bureaucratic nazis
No, a description of how every bureaucratic state exists. The nazi genocides of Jews were planned but only in 1941 under the criminal orders and Aktion Reinhard only in September, as the failure of Barbarossa became manifest.
Ian can you find a link?
There are pictures in the report on STV News 3 days ago, which states:
The SNP leader took the statutory declarations of office during the physically-distanced ceremony, before Lord President Lord Carloway, Lord Justice Clerk Lady Dorrian, and Lord Menzies.
In the photos there are two old blokes sitting in their high chairs with woolly wigs on, and a female lawyer standing beside Nicola (socially distanced of course). I dunno, I think she looks a bit young to be Lady Dorrian, but maybe you’d be a better (ahem) ‘judge’.
Having looked closer, I reckon Lady Dorrian is the old bloke on the left:
https://news.stv.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/43a19cea5a446625deef68a46c2aa1eb-892×576.jpg
Yes, the old bloke top-right wearing the glasses is Lady Dorrian, the old bloke to her left is Lord Carloway, and to his left and out-of-vision will be Lord Menzies. The woman in front of the bench holding the paper is the Clerk of the Court. And goodness knows who the dwarf in the matching mauve dress and face mask is.
Did Lady Dorrian self identify as a man so that she could join the Freemasons?
Dammit, I can’t find it now, Craig. I was just browsing some mainstream news sites, so nothing obscure. However, I clearly remember it because it caught my attention for two reasons. I was curious to see what Dorrian looked like, having heard so much about her via your journalism. The photo appeared to be after the ceremony, outside with two other people, presumably judges or similar. I only knew it was her because of the caption identifying her. The second reason it intrigued me was the apparent bonhomie on show, like after a graduation ceremony. All pals together for a bit of backslapping etc. That is what led to me to the observations i posted, a picture worth a thousand words etc.
I will keep a lookout, though I am somewhat mystified that I can’t find it now. I don’t think it was an ‘official’ photo, as all the stock images are, so maybe it has been pulled for that reason? Who knows.
Hmmm what could it be? How about the financial markets. Inflation up almost double, there is a concerted attack on most high energy generated forms of currencies, such as the dumping of bitcoin by billionaires with all the popularity of a celebrity event, whilst not very much was made over this announcement last week…
https://themarketsnews.com/2021/05/19/ecb-warns-pandemic-debt-burden-creates-financial-stability-risks/
On the Bashir issue, my guess is that intention is to resurrect the Diana issue as a way to try to control Charles by threatening him over his past – given that it obviously won’t be all that long before he is King. Clearly those controlling the British government and media are fearful of a more independent-minded head of state, who might appeal directly to the British people or question what is being done in their name by politicians like Boris Johnson. This latest row is all being peddled in a hypocritical way, of course, with the BBC taking the role of fall-guys for an interview that was very restrained compared with the phone hacking of senior Royals by Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and others at the time (and hard to believe that could have been achieved without the collusion of government at some level). But I could be wrong.
The Nictator and her Femtopians are making a good attempt at making BoJo look good. They’re looking very similar to those lovable US Democrats. I wonder if they’ll invite Hillary to be Queen of Scotland. Wrong skin colour? OK, Mayor Lori Lightfoot might be a good shout.
Anyway the cricket season will be coming up and I’ll be watching Pakistan against April-02.
I might even order in a April-02 takeaway.
Stay in Scotland. Is is your homeland. It is where your heart resides.
~
There are worse things than prison and leaving your homeland is one of them.
~
Peace,
BK
Buffalo_Ken I dunno – if that’s what you think, then my experience is completely different from yours.
I left my homeland (Scotland) and I seem to have settled very nicely where I am (an Eastern European country) and I have absolutely no regrets.
I had been thinking of returning to Scotland at some stage, but having seen Lady Dorrian sentencing someone to prison for the crime of very good journalism, I’ve changed my mind about this – I won’t be returning to Scotland.
Jimmy, I respect everybody’s personal choices, but if you want to know about me, then know this. I’d never give up on my homeland because I consider it something that is part of me and if I left it I would feel lost. Even if it was wrongly acquired by my ancestors. It is de-facto now and it is my home. If you never felt close to it in the first place, then maybe that would not be the case.
~
Bad justice is everywhere, but if you run away from it you will just find it elsewhere, so why not fight it in your homeland. Moreover, any humane justice system would account for a political prisoner and give them the basic human right to survive while they serve the unjust sentence. That means a bed that goes upright to avoid and prevent acid reflux which I know as well. Do you get a flavor of what I’m saying? What I’m saying is if the desire is Independence for Scotland, then that desire will be closer at hand if somebody is unjustly imprisoned, and so why not put in some time for the homeland? Nobody wants to be martyr, and nobody ought be, and after months served with dignity then this will be obvious for all to see.
~
I doubt this will make it through the censors but it gives me pleasure to type it and I feel as if a weight has been lifted off me and I offer myself up to go to prison in lieu of the dignified Mr. Murray. While I was there I would make some friends, gets some rest, and write a book or two.
~
This is an opportunity not to be wasted.
~
Best to all,
BK
Buffalo – good points – and I suppose I did feel lost in some sense when I first left Scotland. The move was never supposed to be permanent. I started by moving down south to England for a couple of years – and it evolved from there.
I’d be very happy to take the prison sentence in Craig Murray’s place – and to stand up and be counted in this way.
(I don’t think this is possible. Even if I did take all of Craig Murray’s articles that had to be taken down by court order and plastered them on my own web page, I’m pretty sure that Lady Dorrian wouldn’t be interested, since I am a non-entity, it is very difficult to see how I could get anybody to read such a web page – and she made it clear that she’s banging him to set an example, precisely because he is a high profile figure. It’s difficult to see what I – or indeed any other anonymous `average joe’ could actually do which would have the desired outcome. I thought that everybody was supposed to be equal in the eyes of the law – but this doesn’t seem to be the case.)
But even if it were possible – even if I could get myself banged up in Craig Murray’s place – I would simply serve the sentence and then goof off again. I would no longer consider moving back to Scotland on a permanent basis, since in recent years the place has looked more and more like a cesspool.
It’s a great pity. While growing up in Scotland, we were always led to believe that we had a judicial system that was infinitely superior to anywhere else in the world (especially the English), that concepts of justice and freedom of speech were so ingrained that certain things which happened in other countries (people getting banged up simply because they disagreed with the ruling party) simply couldn’t happen in Scotland.
Very disappointing to see that it isn’t like that.
Martyrdom has its uses. As Tertullian said, the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.
Craig’s homeland is his work, which knows no borders. He has to write with no self censorship.
From Wings, this would appear to be another case of possible police harassmant uner the Malicious Communications Act::
https://twitter.com/millar_marion/status/1396039076680282112
I’ve no idea what the alleged offence (if any) consisted of, but there does appear to be some heavy-handedness.
DT
Police Scotland sound like the Met of the 1970s
For anyone who wonders what wikikettle is talking about…
Pushback, with Aaron Mate (The Grayzone) – Finkelstein: Gaza assault a disaster for Israel, while Palestine solidarity is revived (22 May 2021) – YouTube, 44m 54s
wondering how it relates to what gerald wrote.
Dave Llewellyn confirms the perception that for many of our contemporaries Twitter functions as a glorified toilet wall.
What next? “I wrote ‘English Out’ on the mirror in the Tesco’s bog, the police were called, and now I’m being persecuted just like Nelson Mandela. I’m a dissident journalist, me.”
One has to draw the line somewhere… If you want a legitimate movement, there are some who would love to join it but who are basically such stupid w*nkers that they shouldn’t be welcome. There is no movement so beautiful that it doesn’t attract such interest. I have seen this many times. Alcohol and drugs often play a role.
Strasserite or supposedly “left wing” supporters of Scottish independence ought to ask themselves whether the Partei would get stronger or weaker if it acquired its own independent state. Maybe address that question without foaming at the mouth and accusing the asker of being English or soft on the English?
One answer may be “Possibly yes, and that would be bad, but we think the risk is worth it, because the benefits if it doesn’t happen will be enormous”.
The question then is what the benefits would actually be if the said eventuality is miraculously avoided. (Or to put it another way, what exactly are you aiming for?) They’ll have to be damned good benefits, because if the Partei did get stronger you’d have no possibility of appeal to any British Supreme Court – you’d all be in jail or dead. That’s assuming you didn’t switch over to the other, non-Strasserite, “18” wing of the Partei. No blogs like this one would be allowed to function in an SNP-run independent Scotland. Indeed it may soon be the case that they won’t be allowed to function in an SNP-run still-British non-independent Scotland.
Another answer could be “Given the dangers, it would be better to fight and defeat the SNP inside Britain and push for independence once that battle is won.”
So – what are “leftwing nationalists” fighting for again?
PS Every time the Sturgeonites hear “leftwing” nationalists say “That would be bad, but it’s worth it” – a recent example being “a hard border with England would be bad, but it’s worth it”, they smile a wicked grin.
When Jimmy Reid spoke in the Clydeside shipyards when they were taken over by the workers in 1971 – the greatest moment in the history of the class struggle in Scotland for 80 years – he said “There’ll be no bevvying here”, or words to that effect. I used to think he was wrong. Took me a long while to realise he was right.
He was right about Scotland needing to regain its independence.
There is certainly consensus among the international left that Scottish independence is a no brainer. I’d be surprised if within Scotland itself there’s even one genuine leftist who would prefer to be ruled by English nationalistTories or Blairites. It makes no sense whatsoever.
N_
Scottish Independence is nothing to do with the public face of British politics Left / Right. Imho.
It’s a back scratching in the unspoken side of British politics , British foreign policy towards Israel. I scratch your back, I trash the Middle East for Zion; what is Zion going to do for me?
We have a little problem on our North West frontier of our now much reduced empire: Carlisle , not Kabul..
Funny that, as the North West frontier of the British Empire is soon going to be Coventry . After trashing Scotland , is there anything else you need us to do?
“Scottish Independence is nothing to do with the public face of British politics Left / Right. Imho.”
Yes, and Cesaire reminds us that colonialism represents “an ideology of racial and cultural hierarchy… (which) is as essential to colonial rule as police and corvee labour”. He maintained, and Fanon also, that: “the anticolonial struggle supersedes the proletarian revolution”. And that an oppressed peoples colonial challenge should not be posed “in terms of capitalism versus socialism, but in terms of the complete and total overthrow of a racist, colonialist system that would open the way to imagine a whole new world”. As Cesaire also points out, much as we see being played our here, there is “a direct link between the logic of colonialism and the rise of fascism (which is) a blood relative of slavery and imperialism”.
In this regard Cesaire maintains that we cannot therefore treat the “colonial question….as a subsidiary part of some more important global matter”. Racism, which is what colonialism is, cannot be subordinate to the class struggle.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/05/01/is-scottish-independence-decolonisation/
You miss the point, ‘N’, by a country mile as per usual, in order to do your usual grandstanding and pontificating.
What on earth is wrong with you? Utter nonsense again that bears no relation to any facts. What Llewellyn posted was nothing to do with “English out”.
Frankly I have had enough of your fact-free nonsense. If any mods see this, can you ban N_ for a month to see if that connects him any closer with the notion that things you say should be true.
Agreed. N_ has been posting unsubstantiated delusional rubbish, both here and in the discussion forum, for many months now. This insidious form of trolling has been met with straightforward refutations from other contributors, which he just ignores. Counterarguments and warnings seem to have no effect, so hopefully a temporary ban will prompt a change of attitude.
N_N_N_ NURSE !!! he’s gone mental again!!
Ah I see the straight jackets are being brought finally – phew !!
Enjoy your month in the cooler dimmbo.
Freedom of speech is jailed in Belmarsh prison along with Julian Assange.
Public gallery Salmond trial witnesses are “REAPING THE WHIRLWIND” of reporting court proceedings.
Seven coppers attacked this poor witness at 5am using handcuffs and stole his stuff.
Are we sure this is Scotland’s serious crime squad’s finest hour?
The dastardly complainers’ names remain a secret by order of an evil judge while history is rewritten.
This has all the hallmarks of Stalinist Russia.
What’s next? Another public hanging, drawing and quartering of Scottish Nationalists?
I’m not sure who you remind me of more, Robespierre or Comrade Beria.
What if someone leaked the Alex Salmond complainants’ names to Wikileaks?
The issue here isn’t the complainant’s names which, for the sake of future complainants, need to be kept secret. The issue is bias in the COPS. If you’re an independence supporter, you get prosecuted; if you’re not, you don’t.
Unexpected but maybe predictable for an SNP government.
Yes. What I have read is that during his infamour “sex pest” rant on the train, Salmond’s QC, Gordon Jackson, named two of the complainants and was recorded doing so. Apparently this was reported to the Crown Office which decided to take no action as the contempt of court was “specifically on publication of information”, and there did not appear to be a “publication issue”. If that’s right, it presumably means that someone could shout out the names at a public meeting and would face no penalty. Having said that, I’m certainly not going to be the first to try it!
DT
Chilling in a good way might be if the plot turns out to be too clever by half (or even no cunning plan but a silver lining none the less) and Supreme Court is obliged to create legal precedent that can assist the relief due Julian Assange – ie in respect of the political, abusive, perfidious, dishonourable, arbitrary, prejudicial, untimely and ultimately un-British manner of your persecution (that might not have been feasible had independence been declared last week already)
That said, reasons to remain concerned include
lifted from moon of Alabama. open thread.
DEFENDING CRAIG MURRAY
[ Mod: — Snip —
Thanks, duggie, but that contribution was already posted in full, by the author himself, earlier in this thread. You can find it here: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/05/chilling-not-in-a-good-way/comment-page-1/#comment-990576 ]
—
“There is a foreign doctrine that has invaded and is establishing itself in scotland.”
Yes and look no further than the US State Department if you’re on a mole hunt.
Humza Yousaf was identified as an “opinion leader” and invited into the State Department’s IVLP in his second year as a humble parliamentary aide.
Jenny Gilruth was on the IVLP and on American soil 45 working days after being sworn in as a rookie MSP.
Meanwhile, who the hell paid for Angela Crawley to be in Washington at the same time as Gilruth (it’s not on her HoC declaration of interest) and why for that matter does the SNP have a “defence procurement” brief at Westminster?
Oh, and Crawley is now the SNP, Shadow Attorney General at Westminster and she attained her Law degree AFTER becoming an MP.
You are no coward, Craig. Take care. Xl
O/T Craig but it might, or might not, have an effect on your upcoming sentence.
“According to the Times, James Wolffe QC and the solicitor general, Alison Di Rolla QC, are to leave office in a matter of days.
Wolffe will surely know where the bodies are buried, it will be interesting to see if he’s bumped up to a High court judge, or if he’ll do a Dominic Cummings and threaten to spill the beans.
Why would James Wolffe QC want to spill the beans and, in so doing, incriminate himself? That wouldn’t be very smart.
Threaten I said, just like Cummings is threatening, there could be a number of reasons, financial, self interest (could be things are about to come out) self advancement in a private company etc.
Ah ha – I see. He threatens to shit in his own pants, knowing full well that the smell will cause serious difficulties for others ……
Wolffe is one of the controllers. He is the beans.
A gentle warning to Craig re: Turkey and Iran as escape destinations; my father was something of an armchair dissident, mainly letter writing to newspapers or participating in local campaigns against road-building and so on, though at one point acting as political agent to a, failed, independent general election candidate.
He retired to a seemingly pleasant sub-tropical country to hang up his hat – but it was only a matter of time until he took up his cudgels again, this time against the endemic corruption amongst the perennially ruling families in his adopted nation, writing critical and campaigning letters to the national press and so on.
He just couldn’t help himself, it was simply his nature.
Fortunately in his case no one was fussed, but it wasn’t Turkey, and it wasn’t Iran. Could Craig resist the temptation to protest against some very real elements of repression in those countries?
Not sure how his declared support for trans rights would go down in Iran, for example?
Norway? Switzerland?
Khomeini declared trans as legal in Iran, and as a result there are a lot. I’m afraid it’s not wise to make presumptions about Iran. Most of the things that are said about Iran are said out of ignorance, or simple malignance and deliberate misinterpretation. I would not advise Iran as a refuge, but that would be for a different reason: that the sanctions regime is very oppressive on the people. Turkey would be better.
@laguerre
Iran is an amazing country, it seems. I think I might enjoy living there, given that I’m interested in history and cultures and civilizations, also given that I’m accustomed to living side by side with people of other cultures and religions, given that I was raised in the multi-ethnical and multi-cultural background where all people are equally respected and never seen like ‘non-native’.
I doubt Mr. Murray has similar attitude. I doubt Mr. Murray could feel like at home in Iran. Especially given that Iran went through some sort of religious revolution, they say.
I admit my sources of info may be not very honest, but their reports coincide with other sources. There are a lot of comparisons of pre-islamic-revolution Iran vs post-islamic-revolution Iran.
E.g. *photos do not need translations*
https://pikabu.ru/story/iran_do_islamskoy_revolyutsii_1979_goda_4786475
https://pikabu.ru/story/iran_do_islamskoy_revolyutsii_7164658
https://pikabu.ru/story/tegeran_do_i_posle_islamskiy_revolyutsii_1979_goda_1968228
https://pikabu.ru/story/15_krasnorechivyikh_foto_iz_vostochnyikh_stran_do_i_posle_islamskoy_revolyutsii_4424716
As to Turkey, I doubt they are an independent country, able to defend their own system of values. Khashoggi?
Iran still has the death penalty and executes around 250 people a year including homosexuals. According to Wikileaks 4,000 to 6,000 gays and lesbians have been killed by the regime since 1979.
I doubt Craig would really want to imply that he supports such a regime by setting up home there.
thank you, Kempe.
there’s more violent event, that attracted my attention and gave raise to the most obvious question in Russian social media – where are all those western FEMINISTS?
Western Human Rights and Human Freedoms speakers?
When we know about the events in which the Saudi Arabia is involved?
Hadil Alkhariti 19 years old, murdered by her brother for TikTok videos
https://pikabu.ru/story/blogershu_zarezal_brat_za_to_chto_ona_pokazyivala_svoyo_litso_v_tiktok_i_nikto_ne_stal_ego_nakazyivat_8225501
They name it the ‘murder of honour’ – you see? a 19 years old girl has no right to video herself singing, in the opinion of her islamic family. They obviously think she is a property, sure they think she must obey the rules they set for her even before she was born.
I see no feminist and no one human rights activist raising their voice PRO Hadil.
Look what the Tehran regime did to these teenagers who filmed themselves dancing and miming to the Pharrell Williams song “Happy”.
BBC News: Iran: Happy video dancers sentenced to 91 lashes and jail
Mind you, some Westerners familiar with the viral craze of flailing along to that irritating tune might agree that it’s a suitable punishment. Weird Al Yankovic took the piss out of the silly fad with his rewritten parody called “Tacky” (look out for Jack Black near the end of the video).
Kempe – if I were you, I wouldn’t be giving Lady Dorrian ideas. She may regret a sentence as lenient as 8 months; she might think that a good hanging would help Scotland to catch up with Iran.
Mr Shigemitsu – just to point out that Craig Murray *has* been sentenced to 8 months by Lady Dorrian.
I consider the sentence and, indeed, the whole judicial procedure as an act of violence and, in my opinion, in perpetrating such an act of violence, they crossed a line. They have initiated a civil war and made themselves legitimate targets in this war.
The situation changed qualitatively when the 8 month sentence was passed – and I suspect that Lady Dorrian was too arrogant to understand this.
Iran and its predecessor Mesopotamians are THE cradle of human civilisation in that geography – most agricultural crops and practices that we Europeans relied on many thousands of years ago to create European civilisation, started there.
‘Iranian’ culture probably extends well beyond 10,000 years.
I hope to visit there, Syria and the rest of the Golden Crescent and enjoy the ancient culture of these lands and peoples before long.
Media suppression is one of the key features of authoritarian states. Here’s today’s big news from Belarus:
Belarus ‘diverts Ryanair flight to arrest journalist’, says opposition
A Ryanair plane flying from Greece to Lithuania has been diverted to Minsk, with Belarusian opposition figures saying it was done so a dissident journalist on board could be arrested. The opposition Nexta channel on Telegram said its ex-editor Roman Protasevich had been detained.
Since August’s election the 66-year-old Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled the country since 1994, has cracked down on dissenting voices. Many opposition figures have been arrested or, like Ms Tikhanovskaya, fled into exile.
Latvia’s Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Belarus’s action was “contrary to international law” and the reaction should be “strong and effective”. Germany demanded an “immediate explanation” from Belarus. In the UK, Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said that “forcing an aircraft to land to silence opposition voices is an attack on democracy.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57219860
The actions against Craig Murray and Dave Llewellyn, for reporting the truth about collusion between the Scottish Government and the Crown Office, suggest that Scotland isn’t far behind.
Info about the guy
https://www.foiaresearch.net/person/roman-protasevich
Actively involved in Maidan etc
I’m sorry if I’ve missed it, but I’m a bit confused – has an outright ban been placed on giving any details of the charges against Dave Llewellyn?
DT
It involves (again) a protected identity.
Ah ha – I see – this has now become their standard trick to suppress information.
The recent elections would suggest that Alex Salmond’s reputation has now been totally trashed as a result of their handiwork, even though he is an innocent man. They choose a few key identities to protect to ensure that any attempt to give a reasonable picture of the defence arguments will be contempt of court.
They seem to be getting away with it. The result is that decent people no longer want to return to Scotland …….
Craig,
“fear I am becoming a coward”
Don’t be completely ridiculous. I might disagree with some of your political views, but you are one of the most courageous people I have ever come across, judged from reading what you have written, and seeing what you have said.
This was 12 years ago. I was about to leave to be a witness at the proceedings, at the House of Commons, and you asked if anyone could record it. It was in a most unusual format, and I was pretty chuffed when it worked. I still fancy a pint with you, with a single malt chaser.
Good luck,
“Craig Murray – Torture 1 of 7” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF9spgagSHI
Tony
Halleluiah. I see at last you’ve banned N_ but sadly, only temporarily – please, pretty please with a cherry on top (apologies to Winston Wolfe), make it permanent. A whole month’s respite from the acres of inane word salad that he pollutes this blog with. At least I’ll have a month’s respite from getting cramp in my index finger through scrolling down past his posts. Marxist?, he’s a Marxist in the same way the German Democratic Republic was democratic.
Permanent is what THEY do – you know the likes of the Guardian and Off-Guardian – state controlled donks.
These are dark days Mr Murray. Not just in Scotland but globally. Expect more and more. Your article is why I continue to say politics is rotten and cannot be cured. The party leadership would/could not do this without the English shutting them down unless there is a far deeper conspiracy against Scottish freedom arising from pass 1 and the fright felt in London at Scottish autonomy. Scotland must have value after all. What is it London value most and can that value to them be diminished.