**Date for Diaries** Please join us outside HMP Edinburgh on the morning of 30 November 2021 to celebrate Craig’s release from prison. Speech from Craig. All welcome. It’s St Andrews Day – bring your Saltire. #cmcountdown #ScotlandJailsJournalists
— Craig Murray Justice campaign (@cmurrayjustice) November 17, 2021
Craig Murray #CountdownToFreedom series #ScotlandJailsJournalists Peter Oborne, journalist & former political commentator of the Daily Telegraph describes his friend as a hero, truthteller, dissident – https://t.co/MZhxu46YPR pic.twitter.com/hBcd1xj8A2
— Craig Murray Justice campaign (@cmurrayjustice) November 22, 2021
I want to make one or two points for you to ponder while I am in jail. This is the last post until about Christmas; we are not legally able to post anything while I am imprisoned. But the Justice for Craig Murray Campaign website is now up and running and will start to have more content shortly. Fora and comments here are planned to stay open.
I hope that one possible good effect of my imprisonment might be to coalesce opposition to the imminent abolition of jury trials in sexual assault cases by the Scottish Government, a plan for which Lady Dorrian – who wears far too many hats in all this – is front and centre. We will then have a situation where, as established by my imprisonment, no information at all on the defence case may be published in case it contributes to “jigsaw identification”, and where conviction will rest purely on the view of the judge.
That is plainly not “open justice”, it is not justice at all. And it is even worse than that, because the openly stated aim of abolishing juries is to increase conviction rates. So people will have their lives decided not by a jury of their peers, but by a judge who is acting under specific instruction to increase conviction rates.
It is often noted that conviction rates in rape trials are too low, and that is true. But have you ever heard this side of the argument? In Uzbekistan under the Karimov dictatorship, when I served there, conviction rates in rape trials were 100%. In fact very high conviction rates are a standard feature of all highly authoritarian regimes worldwide, because if the state prosecutes you then the state gets what it wants. The wishes of the state in such systems vastly outweigh the liberty of the individual.
My point is simply this. You cannot judge the validity of a system simply by high conviction rates. What we want is a system where the innocent are innocent and the guilty found guilty; not where an arbitrary conviction target is met.
The answer to the low conviction rates in sexual assault trials is not simple. Really serious increases in resources for timely collection of evidence, for police training and specialist units, for medical services, for victim support, all have a part to play. But that needs a lot of money and thought. Just abolishing juries and telling judges you want them to convict is of course free, or even a saving.
The right to have the facts judged in serious crime allegations by a jury of our peers is a glory of our civilisation. It is the product of millennia, not lightly to be thrown away and replaced by a huge increase in arbitrary state power. That movement is of course fueled by current fashionable political dogma which is that the victim must always be believed. That claim has morphed from an initial meaning that police and first responders must take accusations seriously, to a dogma that accusation is proof and it is wrong to even question the evidence, which is of course to deny the very possibility of false accusation.
That is precisely the position which Nicola Sturgeon has taken over the Alex Salmond trial; to be accused is to be guilty, irrespective of the defence evidence. That people are oblivious to the dangers of the dogma that there should be no defence against sexual assault allegations, is to me deeply worrying. Sexual allegation is the most common method that states have used to attack dissidents for centuries, worldwide and again especially in authoritarian regimes. Closer to home, think of history stretching from Roger Casement to Assange and Salmond.
Why would we remove the only barrier – a jury of ordinary citizens – that can stop abuse of state power?
I am worried that this abolition of juries will have been enacted by the Scottish Parliament, even before I am out of jail. I am worried Labour and the Lib Dems will support it out of fashionable political correctness. I am worried an important liberty will disappear.
I want to touch on one other aspect of liberty in my own imprisonment that appears not understood, or perhaps simply neglected, because somehow the very notion of liberty is slipping from our political culture. One point that features plainly in the troll talking points to be used against me, recurring continually on social media, is that I was ordered to take down material from my blog and refused.
There is an extremely important point here. I have always instantly complied with any order of a court to remove material. What I have not done is comply with instructions from the Crown or Procurator Fiscal to remove material. Because it is over 330 years since the Crown had the right of censorship in Scotland without the intervention of a judge.
It sickens me that so many Scottish Government backed trolls are tweeting out that I should have obeyed the instructions of the Crown. That Scotland has a governing party which actively supports the right of the Crown to exercise unrestrained censorship is extremely worrying, and I think a sign both of the lack of respect in modern political culture for liberties which were won by people being tortured to death, and of the sheer intellectual paucity of the current governing class.
But then we now learn that Scotland has a government which was prepared not only to be complicit in exempting the Crown from climate change legislation, but also complicit in hushing up the secret arrangement, so I am not surprised.
What is even more terrifying in my case is that the Court explicitly states that I should have followed the directions of the Crown Office in what I did and did not publish, and my failure to not publish as the Crown ordered is an aggravating factor in my sentencing.
If the Crown thinks something I write is in contempt and I think it is not, the Crown and I should stand as equals in court and argue our cases. There should be no presumption I ought to have obeyed the Crown in the first place. That Scottish “justice” has lost sight of this is disastrous, though perhaps as much from stupidity as malice.
My next thought on my trial is to emphasise again the dreadful doctrine Lady Dorrian has now enshrined in law, that bloggers should be held to a different (by implication higher) standard in law than the mainstream media (the judgement uses exactly those terms), because the mainstream media is self-regulated.
This doctrine is used to justify jailing me when mainstream media journalists have not been jailed for media contempt for over half a century, and also to explain why I have been prosecuted where the mainstream media, who were provably responsible for far more jigsaw identification, were not prosecuted.
This is dreadful law, and my entire legal team are frankly astonished that the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on this point. This excellent article by Jonathan Cook explains further the chilling implications.
Those articles which the Court ordered me to take down, have been taken down. But I was not ordered to take down this one, which was found not to be in contempt of court. I was also not ordered to take down my affidavits, which though slightly redacted are still extremely valuable. I swore to the truth of every word and I stick by that. At the time I published these, far less was known about the Salmond affair than is known now, and I believe you will find it well worth reading them again in the light of your current state of wider knowledge – absolutely nothing to do with learning identities, but to do with what really happened on the whole plot to destroy Alex Salmond (something the judgement states I am allowed to say).
Finally I urge you to consider this truly remarkable speech from Kenny MacAskill MP. Scotland’s former Justice Secretary, and consider its quite staggering implications. It tells you everything you want to know about the British Establishment’s capture of the Scottish government, that the mainstream media felt no need to report the main points he was making, which constitute a simply astonishing outline of corrupt abuse of power.
An explanation: this blog is going dark because I cannot by law publish from prison or conduct a business from prison. Access to this blog has always been free and open and subscriptions have always been a voluntary contribution and not a purchase. It is understood that all new and continuing subscriptions from today, until we go live again, are voluntary contributions to the welfare of my family and not in exchange for anything.
I am afraid one off contributions to the defence fund are also still urgently needed. Legal costs so far paid amount to over £200,000 and continue to rise as we head towards the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which has to be via another Scottish Court called the nobile officium. Astonishingly, over 13,000 individuals from over 120 countries have contributed to the legal defence fund. People all over the world value freedom and realise the terrible precedents established by this case must be overturned.
We are equally grateful for all donations and all really do help – donations of £5 or less total over £30,000. But I must mention the special generosity of Roger Waters and Vivienne Westwood, and the anonymous individual who gave one bitcoin. 80% of the fund is reserved for legal fees, but up to 20% may be used to fund campaigning to raise public and political awareness of the human rights issues involved.
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Marion Millar made no plea today at the Sheriff court in Glasgow today, Millar’s lawyer Joanna Cherry said that Ms Millar only saw the Crowns charges against her ten minutes before her court appearance.
A large crowd gathered outside the court house in support for Ms Millar.
The double speak in the groan tonight about the Taliban regaining their country from would be conquistadors:
“ With the conquest complete, now they have to work out how to rule a country that is desperately poor, facing a crippling drought and has lost large numbers of its educated elite overnight. Doctors and civil servants risked their lives to flee because they were so terrified of Taliban rule.”
Lie from 3rd word on. Absolutely hilarious comedy if it wasn’t serious.
We must understand that is aimed at us, here in the U.K., not Afghanis.
The EU has earmarked 515million to Neighbouring countries to receive and hold those who want to flee to Europe.
That means the body boilers in Uzbekistan. Tadjikistan and maybe Pakistan, not Russia,China, or Iran off course.
The daily stories played for us in the MSM, of crying family members/victims of the ‘terrorist supporting Taliban/Koramchar Isis’ is gun propaganda.
The BBC will not dare to repeat such call for more refugees from Yemen, Bahrain, or from Syria, unless off course, we ourselves have created the outrage, like in Douma, and accuse Sadat over it.
It’s unlikely that this will please anyone (of course, except for those in whose pockets this money will settle).
There is such an opinion:
“By the way, nationalism among Central Asians is directed not only against Russians.
The Kyrgyz have an oath to hate the Uzbeks. Uzbeks are divided into descendants of unknown princely families (bai) and other cattle, and they hate each other. All of them, together with the Kyrgyz, hate Tajiks fiercely. The steppe Tajiks furiously curse the mountain Tajiks as the worst blockheads even among their own kind. And all these “brothers” are at a loss as to who the Turkmens are and why they should live on this land at all. Only Kazakhs don’t look around. They show off, like, everyone around should look at them and envy them.”
https://pikabu.ru/story/otvet_na_post_k_slovu_o_migrantakh_8349094
The Neoliths swept away or absorbed the Mesoliths.
The Celts invaded Briton, sweeping away or absorbing the Neoliths.
The Celts hated the Romans.
The Britons hated the Saxons.
The Saxons hated the Normans.
The English were once “encouraged” to shoot arrows at the Welsh who were considered thieves.
The Scots used to hate the English, some still do.
Then the Scots asked to join with the British ( Welsh & English)
The Irish used to be abhorred, as Catholic bog-trotters.
Now we all love each other, you hardly get riots in the U.K. unlike France, where they riot most weekends.
re michael norton @ September 1, 2021 at 14:18
Most of the ‘hatred’ that you mention was learned/taught behaviour, not everyone was inculcated, and some of the hatred had justifiable reasons.
Children are not born with inbuilt racism.
This random geographical where and from whose birth canal you enter life from is sheer chance, as is ethnicity. And a highly divisive/ chance and determining factor for many, as is the associated tribal baggage. Possibly even more potentially divisive and disadvantageous as the personal financial circumstances directly associated with your birth canal. Exiting from a birth canal should only bestow membership of humanity, not ethnic superiority *nor* ethnic baggage, nor financial advantage. This artifice has been used to divide us throughout History. (”divide and/to conquer”, always has, and will be, continued to be used)
“Then the Scots asked to join with the British”
Michael.
Scots did not ask to join this union if that’s what you mean, the Scottish public had no vote, and rioted in the streets, when the gentry who did have a vote, sold out Scots for financial gain.
RoS I do not think there would have been much voting in Scotland for ordinary people in 1700.
Universal Suffrage only came in for Britain at the end the First World War.
Women a few years after that.
MN: “RoS I do not think there would have been much voting in Scotland for ordinary people in 1700.”
There you go, RoS – I’m sure you’re grateful that Michael has put you straight on that one!
What I was trying to point out, is that The British Isles, like most other parts of the World, have been repeatedly invaded by people from elsewhere, now if you are invaded, wiped out or made to give up your culture or enslaved, you most likely will be rather annoyed.
However after several generations, things probably calm down, maids marry the lord.
Wealthy people drop out and lose their privileges, some peasants because of their abilities rise up but the resentment almost certainly remains for the bulk of the usurped.
Michael Norton
80 seperate petitions were presented to the Scottish parliament by the people of Scotland at the time of union. Only one petition was for the union of Scotland and England in 1707. The remainder were against.
Also there was no “British” at that time.
So your comment that the Scots asked to join with the British is inaccurate on two points.
Not an uncommon error for Unionists to make as all they have ever read is Unionist propaganda.
The state of affairs described in your quotation, Tatyana, is the way human beings are instinctively constituted. We evolved living in small hunter-gatherer bands; there was little scope for cooperation between groups, and many reasons to distrust outsiders. In New Guinea, according to Jared Diamond, it was customary as recently as 50 years ago to kill anyone from another village who crossed the border between them. Better safe than sorry, was the logic.
Of course I do not think that this “war of all against all” is good or proper. One of our most challenging tasks is to end it. But that can’t be done by fiat – just by passing laws or making good resolutions.
We must understand and accept our nature, and work with it not against it. Countries like Russia, which seems to have done a good job of encouraging scores of different peoples to live together peaceably – most of the time – have shown the way.
Unfortunately countries like the USA, which chose to ignore human nature and merely insist that everyone live together in brotherly love, are now finding out that such methods don’t work.
‘The English were once “encouraged” to shoot arrows at the Welsh who were considered thieves.’
Hmm, the colonizing thieves calling the Welsh thieves? And what of their hatred for Russia, the colonization of Africa for its resources, the colonization of the Americas and the stealing/withholding of gold reserves, murder of Iraqis in a filthy war.
You forgotten all that hatred for immigrants as well, not the rich Russians, some of them utter crooks, but those who come here for refuge, some with little more than the wish to work and survive somewhere.
Most important the hatred and fear for its own population that can’t be trusted with a fair proportional system that can derail the apple cart, derail the unfettered warmongers feeding on taxpayers money to back up their shady deals.
Did I forget to mention the French?
But today is all about love for Afghans who helped us, two month ago it was the big mouth advertising visa’s for at least 300.000 Hong Kong Chinese which has all but forgotten.
For us to say that we did not know that we increased poverty by 62% over the last 2o years of warfare, that we did not know that the Taliban made great advances (known since end of June), to lie about that our allied partners knew about it (nobody informed the German or Italian Government, whilst those on the ground could see the markings of a pull out on the wall.
NATO is now a mouthpiece for US hegemony and us, the tail of the poodle, can’t see that the dogs teeth are rotten.
forgot to add the positive link, sorry.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/37/c7/5c/37c75c0ab2c98f0bb19190459df943de.png
The colonisation of Africa after 1880 was a consequence of the demographic catastrophe visited on west Africa by the European slavers after 1440, which rippled inland and began to impinge on European interests on the periphery. Colonisation the easier to rob Africans is a mainly post-1960s phenomenon.
Wings and Rev Stu and Grouse Beater are holding the vigil as the ridiculous pillory of a medically vulnerable CM goes for civil charges. That he is deprived of his medical equipment is madness.
The Governor is being a hoodlum of the psychopaths of the Scottish Government and Judiciary.
Can Craig receive email attachments of documents? Or do they have to be fully in the body of text – I got a few hundred pages that may keep him amused for an hour or so.
“Can Craig receive email attachments of documents?”
Craig Murray can receive emails via https://www.emailaprisoner.com/
This is an expensive option with a basic text only interface. There is no option to send attachments.
Craig can only respond in handwriting if the request reply bx is checked.
Craig can receive snail mail, letters certainly, but books etc may be banned.
Please send your few hundred page letter to Craig and we’ll see if he gets it. 🙂
It would be a distinct advantage to put page numbers on it as it will certainly be examined in some detail.
“Any letters to Craig can be addressed to
157095 C Murray
G3/34
H M Prison Edinburgh
33 Stenhouse Road
Edinburgh
EH11 3LN
the comments of M. Cassidy at WoS which makes it obvious that the judicial authorities do allow prisoners to get e cigs. fluids for it and the batteries/chargers. So why are they singling out Craig by removing his oxy meter? Is this another form of revenge at their hands? Or is it because he has not paid the official battery dealers who are now charging for the habit of vaping.
“mike cassidy says:
31 August, 2021 at 6:57 pm
If batteries are such a big danger in prisons
How do the prisoners vape in those no-smoking environments?
Are they rubbing two boyscouts together?
January 2019
With 7,500 e cig starter kits distributed to inmates, the estimated cost sits somewhere towards the initially projected £150,000. The starter kit contains all the essentials for a smoker to make the switch to vaping including; a rechargeable battery, charger and a pack of three flavoured e liquids. From April inmates will be expected to pay for their own devices and e liquids.
https://archive.is/0ImpI
The Scottish prison service procured 7500 vapes chargers fluids and BATTERIES last year. to stop prisoners smoking tobacco. From this April they have to finance their own liquids and ‘ spare batteries.
Now, who is the real firestarter? Are civil non criminal prisoners to be victimised with petty revenge when someone could take his reading twice daily using his device?
It is sad to see that justice is dispensed unequal in Scotland
“Cathcart’s main explanation is that IPSO, as the creature of the billionaire press, is there to “handle” complaints – in the sense of making them go away – rather than seriously hold the media to account or punish its transgressions.
IPSO has never fined or sanctioned any of its member publications since it was created seven years ago by the owners of the corporate media to avoid the establishment of a proper regulatory body in the wake of the Levenson public inquiry into media abuses such as the phone hacking scandal.”
“IPSO, led by Lord Edward Faulks, a former Conservative minister”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/jewish-chronicle-libel-payouts-small-price-pay-smearing-corbyn-left/5754732
Craig Murray mail update
Wings over Scotland extract
Craig’s been receiving up to 60 letters, emails and packages a day, which have been very much appreciated in helping him pass the 22.5 hours out of every 24 that he spends locked alone in his cell.
The prison authorities, however, imposed some bizarre restrictions.
Craig has been unable to reply to many letters because the prison has refused him access to stamps, on the bewildering grounds that he might use them as currency to buy drugs. He was also initially denied the books that many readers sent him, also on drugs grounds. (Apparently some people soak the pages in illegal substances, and the prisoner then smokes them.)
Happily the latter situation was resolved via a compromise by which Craig has donated all the books to the prison library and the library is then allowed to lend them to him, presumably because while drug use in prison may be rife, the non-return of library books would be considered beyond the pale.
—————-
It is said you can’t keep a good man down and that seems to be the case here.
Craig must be making quite an impression.
Wings is running a series on Craig and the discussion is rather robust.
The lack of stamps is limiting Craig’s ability to reply to our letters.
One suggestion is to place a prepaid self addressed envelope in with our letters in the hope that the prison will not see that as a security threat and allow Craig to post replies.
Probably a blank sheet of paper wouldn’t hurt either.
Keep up the good work 🙂
Glad to hear that the library will be benefiting from the LSD and cocaine-impregnated books people send. ;O) My third missive will be posted tomorrow.
They are ladelling punishments on top of punishments. The system is rotten to the core.
“It is often noted that conviction rates in rape trials are too low, and that is true.”
The juries on these cases don’t think this is true and they have heard the facts and those pontificating about “low” conviction rates haven’t.
The last time I looked, the conviction rate was 48% which might be too high. The state rigs the count by relating convictions to allegations instead of convictions to prosecutions.
“It is often noted that conviction rates in rape trials are too low, and that is true.”
Craig Murray’s reports of Alex Salmond’s defence demonstrated that the legal concept of rape is far removed from the emotive image of the violent penetration and violation of a hapless victim.
An incident that Alex Salmond described as a sleepy cuddle resulted in charges of attempted rape.
The concept of non violent consensual rape has been in legal use for centuries. As an example consensual sexual intercourse on one day must constitute rape but on the next day after the statutorily prescribed birthday may not. The meaning of the word “rape” in the concept of statutory rape and the general legal use of the word has converged over time to the point where a “sleepy cuddle” is deemed to be sufficient grounds to lay charges of attempted rape.
Under Scotland’s laws almost everyone is guilty of some form of sexual assault, without even noticing people are routinely committing serious sexual offences.
It must infuriate the Scottish authorities to have juries constantly ignore their perfect laws by returning verdicts of not guilty. It is virtually impossible for defendants to be not guilty under Scottish laws. 🙁
The whole fiasco of the pseudo legal process can be remedied by passing a simple law.
“Any person charged is deemed to be Guilty as charged and any non compliant jury who find defendants not guilty are deemed to be guilty of being accessories after the fact” 🙂
Perfect Jig Saw Dorian law. Not only does Jig Saw get to sentence every defendant but if the jury resists Jig Saw can vent her fury on them by sending the jury to jail as well. 🙁
There after, no one will note that there are low conviction rates for rape or indeed any other offence 🙂
I found it interesting that in Old Testament, “rape” is intercourse without consent of the parents. With consent, e.g. daughters of Lot, it was fine, however violent, without, it merited bloody revenge, however consenting the female was. That was Early Iron Age patriarchy.
And there were also special cases like Royal Prerogative. Perhaps there is a trace of that in Scottish law. If the Crown sees no problem, there is not problem. Otherwise…
Rape
If Nicola says its OK Its OK?
Things that you’re liable to read in the bible ain’t necessarily so, ain’t necessarily so …
‘The Neverendum’
Roddy – Barrhead Boy in a riveting brilliant article. CM would heartily approve he predicted exactly this. Couple of quotes.
“In the seven years, Nicola Sturgeon has been leader of the SNP there has been no Conference Debates on Independence. The NEC has not discussed or planned for independence for at least five years. There has not been a single SNP led Independence campaign of any sort. In the 2017 UK General Election the word coming down from Edinburgh to all the campaigners was ‘do not mention the independence word!!”
“We need a plebiscite UK General Election in 2023/24 followed by a Scottish Grand Assembly and an Independence declaration. “
https://www.barrheadboy.com/the-neverendum/
Alex Salmond refers to others ??? Craig?
Attribution: Tom Gordon The Herald
Alex Salmond “said he had consulted his lawyers over Break-Up, by the respected journalists David Clegg and Kieran Andrews –”
“Mr Salmond said he considered the book potentially breached the criminal law and had reported his concern to prosecutors –” “– he had referred the book extracts to the Crown Office for “criminal investigation”.
Salmond said,“ — after consultation with my lawyers, I consider that the book potentially breaches the criminal law in a number of ways and I have reported my concerns to the Crown.
The Crown Office has previously taken action against others.
Now it must now display the impartiality and independence which lies at the heart of public prosecution in pursuing these breaches.”
Others? What others!
Jig Saw identification has only one precedent.
Admittedly Salmond did not specifically refer to Jig Saw identification and raised other issues of contempt but apparently his accusers can be identified by reading the book “Break-Up”. The MSM have deliberately outed the Salmond accusers using Jig Saw identification.
The authors probably refer to contemporary published reports still on public record and therefore cannot be prosecuted by Jig Saw Dorian and Co. Legal advice would ensure that authors did not rely on the offending material taken down from Craig Murray’s blog by order of Jig Saw Dorian. So Craig’s not in the frame.
Salmond’s lawyers are far more successful than Craig’s but it’ll be a cold day in hell before the Crown Office prosecutes David Clegg and Kieran Andrews. The MSM have just snubbed their noses at Jig Saw Dorian.
Let’s keep digging the truths that led Ambassador Murray to spurn his career path that would have made him a willing cog of the death and lies machine that is our Crown State run by imbecilic Martial Aristo types looking to return us to prewar servility and have/have not class system. Which the current Labour leadership is conspiring with Tories to further with further regressive taxes.
Two excellent reads concerning the can of worms that is our Crown State and Despotic MSM stenographers.
Just wtf where we doing with Afghanistan since the 80’s? Carrington, Thatcher, the bankrupt SIS whoring to be the cut outs of the CIA Reagan era adventurers , the Private Military Companies that emerged as the vehicle for the modern day pirates and mercenaries that the British State and our military has become not ‘heroes’ at all just lawless thugs and a lot more detail by someone who was at the heart of it all ob the ground – what took him so long?
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-09-04-how-mi6-backed-right-wing-religious-fanatics-in-afghanistan/
And here we have the Obsessive Guardian DS rags baby faced next gen woke darling back stabber worm tongue- Owen Jones – being skewered for his DS duplicity in spades – he really is a nasty piece of work. The sooner people realise the better for their sanity, as he is fast tracked towards grandee hood, for tricking the soft minded supposed socialists readers that are drawn as moths to his mighty flame.
A massively researched and detailed article about the Nazi/Zionist compacts that they are desperate to erase from history.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-owen-jones-justifies-labours-purge-socialists/33831
Thanks for the links during last two days DunGroanin, Barrheadboy clearly shows Independent supporters as well as yhe futile National, that the SNP is just an agit prop Westminster weasel that does as it is told.
At least now the Independent movement has split off the chaff and will hopefully gather under their own speed.
The issue of frittering away campaigns funds should not be forgotten and those involved be barred from any future posts inside the real Indy Now movement.
And why should those who just gained their own Independence from Europe by disregarding some 3 million Europeans’ future by banning them from the referendum, be allowed to do the same in Scotland should there be another vote.
I think a UDI is now the best way forward as the Governments do not want to let go of this crumbling union.
The Scots still haven’t grasped the reality of their situation, consider Ireland, freedom is not something to be given, it has to be taken.
The issue being, do the Scot’s actually want independence? Can we even be sure that in Ireland before the War of Independence a majority of the Irish would have voted for it if there had been a referendum? They certainly got Independence, but how it arrived, that’s a hard one. A bloody insurrection and harsh reprisals against the Irish certainly tipped the balance, but would Scotland wish to go through the same traumas? History has its own trajectory and in regard to Ireland it’s just so damn complicated!! Others commenting here might provide some enlightenment.
Dungroanin (08.36): you mention Carrington. I presume you refer to Foreign Secretary Carrington. The one who resigned over the Falklands war. It was generally assumed that his resignation was on account of his failure as a diplomat. But could it have been been that he secretly disagreed with Thatcher’s drive to war at all costs? Did he ever make the reason clear? Craig might have a view on that point.
CM may have a view – unfortunately we can’t ask him directly today but I am sure you could write to him!
CM certainly had an opinion on Clive Ponting who blew the whistle on the fake war and mass murder of the sailors on the Belgrano. The bloody handed jingofication of Thatcher , who otherwise was a one term failure that Foot was on track to dump.
We would still have our Public Services instead of being conned into being regressively taxed with a lie of hypothecation to supply social care. With the NHS hollowed out by 11 years of Tory rule.
The whole shitfest of the last 40 years brings us to this fascist state of trial without jury and political prisoners; where we are letting foreign finance owned water companies, that we built, dump raw sewage, now that we don’t have to comply with EU regulations – BrexShit means Eat&DrinkShit now.
Carrington went on to be Nato Sec General a couple of years later and was a regular attendee and chair of the Bilderburg meetings.
He was also a ‘heavy hitter’ for RTZ and their illegal Namibian extractions of uranium under the illegal occupation by South Africa – and the whole link with DeBeers – which leads us back to Rhodes and his employers the EIC and the various psychopath CEO’s of the Company and thence to the Money and the always Owners ..
He may even be implicated in the Lockerbie bombing that was blamed only on the Libyans but clearly targeted the UN representative that was to take over Namibia from these ancient murdering robber barons the following day in NY, the bomb most likely loaded at Heathrow.
…
Sorry you asked? ?
Pilger’s analysis of the debacle in Afghanistan is the clearest that I have read, of all the assessments and commentaries I have read to date:-
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56741.htm
It appears to me that any ahistorical assessment about current conflict situations will miss the underlying roots of the problem. For example, it seems to me that there is a straight line connect between the 1953 CIA coup and the 1979 revolution in Iran – one set of events historically set the stage for events which followed:–
https://www.globalresearch.ca/what-law-who-breached-us-iran-west/5689912
Great Piece in G.R. Courtenay.. Well said
– Para Three –
Historical and legal facts
Between 1917 and 1919 Iran suffered a great famine claiming some eighth to ten million lives. How did it happen? Simply stated, there was a British presence in Persia (subsequently changing the country’s name to Iran in 1935) and a commandeering of food from Persia for the feeding of British troops during World War 1. Britain invaded Persia in 1916 and thereafter confiscated the country’s harvests, one reason Iranians, to this day, look suspiciously at Britain in particular and the West in general.
Why did Craig Murray apply for membership of the National Union of Journalists?
Why was he turned down?
Good questions, Garry.
With some hindsight, it seems a perfect set of traps were put in the way of our host.
Craig is not a journalist and neither is Assange, “whistle-blowers and political activists” is more accurate.
The National Union of Journalists, which I have been a branch secretary and father of chapel in, is specifically for people who rely on employment in journalism for a living and in order to qualify for membership, they can prove that they have employers who pay for the work they produce, whether that is on a full-time contract with one outlet or casual more portable arrangements with more than one.
I would not apply because all my work is unpaid and I am not “accredited” as I do not supply anyone.
There were no “traps” as he would not qualify as of right and not be covered for legal issues by their solicitors. He would also not be carrying any press passes or accorded any special privileges when reporting in the field. My understanding is that the model under which both Craig and Assange work or, more accurately, worked was not a business one but one which appeals to people to subscribe and fund by donation so any income is not from an employer so pay, terms and conditions cannot be negotiated. Such things are also much less easy to regulate and oversee, hence the clampdown on blogging, which is much more threatening and meaningful, indeed, as threatening to the union as to the government.
I used to work with journalists who chose not to join the NUJ but were issued with passes by their employers but their refusal to join always caused some degree of tension because often it was a political decision on their part and there was perhaps understandable resentment that they were not paying their subs yet still reporting and negotiating their own pay, terms and conditions which they never disclosed to other NUJ members.
The fatal mistake Craig made was to offer money as a reward for information. My thought at the time was “Where is he getting the cash from?” Has that question been answered?
Any independent Journalists exist in your world view?
Are Stringers journos?
Of course they are journalists and are recognised as such by some of the best in the profession. The fact they relay information the mainstream will not touch makes them two of the most valuable (and dangerous) reporters in the Anglosphere. You prefer to regard them as political activists, but that description better befits the army of establishment propagandists employed by state and billionaire media.
Thanks Garry:
Nice to hear some real life experience.
“The National Union of Journalists — is specifically for people who rely on employment in journalism for a living and in order to qualify for membership, they can [must?] prove that they have employers who pay for the work they produce, whether that is on a full-time contract with one outlet or casual more portable arrangements with more than one.”
Is this based on a section of the NUJ charter or constitution etc?
Please publish the actual wording of the document.
Just a follow up question.
“My understanding is that the model under which both Craig and Assange work or, more accurately, worked was not a business one but one which appeals to people to subscribe and fund by donation so any income is not from an employer so pay, terms and conditions cannot be negotiated.”
Interesting!
“the model — was not a business one –“
Sorry to precis you Garry but the quote seems include the above concept.
Is there anything further that would support the idea that Craig’s work “model was not a business one”?
ie. A tribunal, court, committee, union etc decision would be fantastic.
Garry – I get the impression that you haven’t really been following. The `offering money as a reward’ was clearly never seriously intended; all but the thickest of readers actually understood this.
He later admitted that he didn’t have the cash and would have been in serious trouble if someone had given the information and claimed the reward.
Furthermore, i don’t actually recall Lady Dorrian giving this aspect any serious mention in her judgement. Yes – she was quite willing to be regarded as a sick joke – but even by her standards there was a limit to the extent that she was prepared to be the clown.
What you are basically saying is that membership of the NUJ (or indeed any other journalists union) is (or at least should be) neither here nor there when people apply for and are issued with press passes.
I’m having difficulties understanding what you actually mean by `journalism’; Craig Murray was the only person to write serious and comprehensive reports about the Salmond trial and the Assange hearing. If you’re trying to suggest that he isn’t a journalist then I’d like to see your definition.
Spot on in every respect Jimmy Riddle. If being a “genuine” something or other requires just employment for a dubious media outfit and belonging to a union as a definition then god help us. “Journalist” could mean anything between the sublime (Samuel Pepys) to the ridiculous (Piers Morgan?), but in essence it means any person who keeps or publishes a journal.
If anything important must be attached to journalism it would be the pursuit of the truth – something in very short supply!
“The National Union of Journalists, which I have been a branch secretary and father of chapel in, is specifically for people who rely on employment in journalism for a living and in order to qualify for membership, they can prove that they have employers who pay for the work they produce, whether that is on a full-time contract with one outlet or casual more portable arrangements with more than one.”
What an awful way to define a journalist. Are we still in the medieval period where professions are guarded by guilds? Does a scientist only become a scientist if he is paid? However if we play by these rules then the subscription button above demonstrates that not only is Craig a journalist but also a news outlet.
These questions, which elide the fact that Murray had been a member of the National Union of Journalists for three years earlier, are answered here:
Mythbuster Summary I: Craig and the NUJ
I did try to contact Craig personally via e-mail before his jailing but he did not respond to me.
It had occurred to me that he got into both public courts for Assange and Salmond and I wondered how he had managed to do that and still do.
I suspected that it was because of his political connections rather than his journalistic credentials but he did not address/discuss this.
In relation to the NUJ, was he not perfectly assimilated, having a leftist, republican world view so expecting a warm welcome back into the fold of neo-Marxist Guardianistas? His membership application was cock-up not conspiracy totally in keeping with the embarrassingly inept offices of the woefully ailing NUJ.
Craig was in court as a member of the public, pure and simple, and there is no difference whatsoever in law between press and public though agents of the state are now actively excluding members of the public from public buildings for deeply sinister reasons which we should fight against collectively. The Online Safety Bill will take us back to Stalinist Russia and send us all to Siberian gulags. The treatment of Craig Murray by Scottish law is definitely part of this slow, steady process to criminalise free speech and expression and for it to become normalised. Town Hall Pravdas growing and mainstream newspapers declining is another crucial factor.
He is, indeed, an innocent man but the point I am making is that a politically compromised actor who relies on money from politically motivated backers, enabling him to at one point offer a £25,000 reward for information, is hardly a perfect place for balance and impartiality.
I am astonished by the fact that the SNP has given Scottish people a taste of what independence would actually be like (a banana republic without justice and bananas) yet many want it even more.
Craig is certainly not “a politically compromised actor”. He’s always been clear that he doesn’t dance to the piper’s tune: he doesn’t mind if donors or long-time readers disagree with him, and he’s said that anyone who gets incensed by his opinions is welcome to cease their donation.
And that fabled £25,000 reward was only a rhetorical trick, not a serious offer:
On Friday we withdrew the award offer, which had not been taken up. To be honest I was 99.9999% sure it would not be, and we don’t have £25,000. It was a rhetorical device trying to drive home to people the crucial importance of Geoff Aberdein’s evidence, which proves that Sturgeon knew of the allegations not days but at least three weeks before she said she knew, and that she knowingly lied to parliament.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/02/25000-reward-offered-for-copy-of-geoff-aberdein-testimony/
Hi Garry
I take it you are not a nationalist 🙂
“It had occurred to me that [Craig] got into both public courts for Assange and Salmond and I wondered how he had managed to do that and still do.
I suspected that it was because of his political connections rather than his journalistic credentials but he did not address/discuss this.”
Craig Murray described in his reports of the Assange trial how he collared one of the 4? [very few] available public gallery seats. Probably you could say it was political. Craig arrived outside the Old Bailey only to find a long queue waiting to get in. He was spotted and ushered to the front of the line. Assange’s supporters had heard he was coming and had waited all night to save him a spot at the head of the queue. Craig’s political comrades were freedom of speech advocates.
The result was a stunning series of articles still published on Craig’s blog titled “Your Man in the Gallery”. These are mandatory reading for any one interested in the conduct of Julian Assange’s extradition and deserve to be compiled into a book.
The press were afforded an entire room with a video link and their total combined published reports were trite and misleading. Skilled professional reporters observed the Assange trial and I am hopeful that there are several unpublished accounts awaiting publication.
I hope that answers part of your question 🙂
If anyone wants to send Craig books, here’s the info from his campaign*: they have to be purchased from and sent directly via Blackwells. Here’s the link:
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/home
The address to send them to is:
157095 C Murray
G3/34
HM Prison Edinburgh
33 Stenhouse Road
Edinburgh
EH11 3LN
I understand that only new paperback books can be sent to jails, but please correct me if this is wrong.
* https://twitter.com/cmurrayjustice/status/1430223822595235840
If anyone’s interested, there’s a charity that gives books to prisoners and other people in disadvantaged situations:
https://giveabook.org.uk
Thanks for the links M.J.
I wish Craig had posted a ‘ reading Wish List ‘ before being put away…
I think he should have got my card and wee Poem by now.
“I understand that only new paperback books can be sent to jails, but please correct me if this is wrong.”
Craig has been negotiating.
Craig was initially denied the books that many readers sent him.
Happily the situation was resolved via a compromise by which Craig has donated all the books to the prison library and the library is then allowed to lend them to him
Typical ambassador 🙂
According to this update from Stu Campbell on WingsOverScotland a couple of weeks ago, the books have to be new to avoid any suspicion of Craig getting high off paper soaked in drugs by his external accomplices. It’s probably best to get them sent direct from a major bookseller like Amazon (others are available).
You mean they might be soaked in Lagavulin?
The prison warden redirects all the books soaked in Lagavulin to her personal library.
My latest info is that hardbacks sent via Blackwells will get through without problems, but will go to the library, no doubt in keeping with the agreed compromise above.
Source: The National
KEITH Brown has been urged to use his powers as Justice Secretary to free Craig Murray on compassionate grounds.
“Sally Mackenzie, a National reader from Lochbroom, said the Justice and Veterans Secretary has the power to use such a mechanism in the same way as Kenny MacAskill released Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
She added: “There are so many inhumane elements to the treatment of Mr Murray that I can barely believe that they are happening and that Keith Brown can live with himself whilst he apparently takes no action to release Mr Murray.
She said she had written to Brown ‘some weeks ago’ but had received no response.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The decision of the independent court is not something the Scottish Government can comment on nor intervene in.”
Keith Brown’s public relations office has told Scotland Brown can’t let prisoners out of jail.
I think Scotland needs a competent Justice and Veterans Secretary.
Keith doesn’t know how to answer mail and his press office can’t even respond to the issue.
I’d prefer if they released Craig Murray on the grounds that he is an innocent man.
I suppose that with al-Megrahi, Kenny Macaskill didn’t really have any alternative – the judiciary didn’t have the guts to acknowledge their error and the `compassionate grounds’ card was probably the only way.
Agree with your point here JR, but would not agree that al-Magrahi was convicted in error. The judges knew that they were convicting an innocent man. Exactly as in Craig’s case.
Casperger – agreed.
Could one of the good people who place comments here direct me towards a good, concise, source for the al-Magrahi case. I’m especially interested in the names of the Scottish QCs involved and the roles they played (for example those who tried to block evidence that al-Magrahi was innocent).
This seems to give a fairly clear account, and names the judges
https://www.sacc.org.uk/articles/2014/megrahi-background-his-conviction-and-sentence
According to Wikipedia (well, it might be true…) “Lord Boyd led the prosecution on behalf of the Crown Office. Assisting him were Advocate Deputes Alastair Campbell QC and Alan Turnbull QC”
“I’d prefer if they released Craig Murray on the grounds that he is an innocent man”
Innocence is not a statutory ground on which a prisoner can be released.
“The decision of the independent court is not something the Scottish Government can comment on nor intervene in.”
The Justice and Veterans Secretary can not reverse Craig’s conviction.
The Justice and Veterans Secretary can release Craig on compassionate grounds but failed to respond to Sally Mackenzie’s request.
Why don’t you ask Keith Brown to let Craig go yourself?
That applies to all Scottish citizens not just JR.
“The decision of the independent court is not something the Scottish Government can comment on nor intervene in.”
Certainly not at any point after the independent court has obeyed government orders to condemn the prisoner.
Decency in the tripe shop.
Jon Cofy – yes – absolutely. Of course, any appeal to Keith Brown will fall on deaf ears. He must be corrupt – or he would never have been appointed as Justice Secretary. But numbers are important and it is important that they know that they have made themselves a stench in the nostrils of huge numbers of decent people on this matter.
The hullabaloo manufactured Narrative over NI tax this week is clearly designed to remove The Afghanistan Humiliation from today’s PMQ’s.
The vox pops across the MSM of the ‘working classes’ of Stoke and Blackpool supposedly unanimous in their self flagellation of further austerity makes it crystal clear we are living in a well run fascist state – Mussolini and the Nazis would be proud of their 1000 year reich. Even if it has been ejected from their own countries and offshored to perfidious Little Britain.
Dungroanin
BoJo clawing back the cost of Covid just about sums up this government. We will freeze Working Tax credit, and increase universal credit , and pay furlough because we are scared of popular unrest during Covid. But after covid we will claw it all back from the poor, while the well paid furloughers are now investing in second homes with the free cash. The algorithm election has gone sour, but who cares? We have 3 more years of plundering to go before another election.
Elections are democratic, ergo there are no British elections.
There is a huge range of hardships/grievances to be aired tomorrow at Prime minister’s questions.
Craig Murray locked up in Scotland for telling the truth.
Turning back on coal fired electricity as methane is now too expensive, with expected huge increases in cost of fuel, gas and electric.
Northern Ireland, not yet sorted out, since Brexit.
You can’t see a G.P.
Operations now put off for years.
Afghanistan fiasco.
Broken election promises.
Lack of HGV drivers.
The list goes on and on.
PMQ’s was today.
It’s a pantomime not just for Xmas it runs non stop with the MSM.
The people only care about football.
Cultural Hagemony.
Giyane- there will be NO actual clawback from the poorest – ie these who have no or insignificant savings – they can’t take what you ain’t got!
The whole exercise of putting up numbers in Tens of Billions is BS squared. A ‘talking point’ a ‘dead cat on the table’
The simple fact is Taxes DON’T pay for government Spend. Or ‘Debt’.
Dungroanin
Radio 4 ‘s nice guy Evan Davies was careful to constantly interrupt Labour’s social care spokeswoman yesterday on PM while she was trying to explain that ordinary people with ordinary houses would have to sell their properties to pay for elderly care, while the rich will easily find the funds in their ISAs or other savings.
I will never listen to Evan Davies again.
Delighted from Tunbridge Wells
I was quite struck by Boris’ explanation that taxes would have to rise sharply to prevent old people having to sell their houses to pay for “care”.
Now they will have to sell their houses ten years earlier to pay the taxes.
Dungroaning, I have heard that before, however I do not understand.
If government spending is virtually unlimited, why are they so mean with some things?
For example, I used to have a post office near me, now I do not.
Last week I walked up the town, to the so called post office in the back of a book shop, queued for 3/4 hour, they only had two tills open, one of those post office workers kept disappearing to do other work, yet there are six counters.
If governments have the ability to spend without recourse to taxing the peasants, why destroy people’s access to post offices?
Michael,
Let me give you a potted history I’ll try to make it very short! And won’t engage further here.
The World Trade Organisation treaty of 1995 delivered under their star player, unlikely PM, Major, without a debate or vote in Parliament, is where the world was strong-armed into opening up all their Public Services and Government-owned agencies to privatisation/ownership by multinationals and hedge funds.
This was the Grand Plan worked on for decades.
First they had to kill the Unions. Reagan/Thatcher led that.
Then after the major energy state bodies – we got rid of the Civil Aviation Authority and privatised Air Traffic Control, Airports, Trains …
We got rid of the Forensic Service which is why we have shit forensics.
We have even got rid of the Met Office now! That’s why we got shit weather ?
It has been a non stop daylight robbery – like taking candy off children…
We got rid of the TSB and ultimately the Post Office! That’s why we have shit banking and post offices now.
This on top of all the major public services Housing, Education and Health.
And we even got rid of the Electoral Commission so that we can’t even have transparency of our voting mechanisms – postal votes being the direct vector exponentially increased since.
Since 1970s, when the world came off the gold standard and fixed exchange rates, the nature of Money creation changed.
Taxes don’t pay for Spending.
Government Spending happens by decree daily. Every morning the BoE is ordered to run a overdraft and pay all the people the Treasury instructs them to.
At the end of the day that overdraft is reduced to zero and a number is parked in some ledger.
That is it. Money created.
Every payment by the Government starts returning tax, immediately if Income Tax and later via VAT etc. as these recipients spend. Some of which goes towards paying other peoples wages and they return their portion of Tax. All that Tax arrives in the Treasury Accounts daily – at the end of the day that too is parked into some column in a ledger, that’s it. It disappears. There was a no pile of tax money sitting anywhere; it is ‘destroyed’ just as spending ‘Creates’. The same type of thing happens with commercial banks who are Authorised to create Money.
You and Me and any commercial entity – we don’t ‘Make’ Money with our endeavours. We ‘Earn’ it – it was made elsewhere and transferred to us.
There is NO LIMIT on how much the government can create to spend except that there must be something to spend it on! If there is full employment the government can’t easily hire new public service employees, i.e. the limit is Resources. If resources are tight, that can lead to demand exceeding supply and prices can go up = inflation!
Taxes are the most effective way of controlling the demand by altering the disposable income of these that have too much and are causing such pressures. It is the best tool to avoid massive ever-increasing wealth gaps.
It has always happened. The old Kings would bestow lands on barons, when they died it was all restored back to the Crown for redistribution – now they keep it! And take it Off Shore. Into Trust Funds! So that the money doesn’t return to the Treasury to be destroyed as Tax – why we have the ever-increasing super rich.
Taxes are also not collected on savings and asset price increases – hence those with ISA’s and Property get ‘richer’ just by having some savings and having bought assets.
So go from WTO to Today as a short span in a much longer history to answer why your Post Office banking experience is so degraded.
I am an amateur – there are experts. Best one for making it simple and as easy as possible to understand is Professor Richard Murphy and his outstanding blog site where he is BUSY! There are others. They don’t necessarily agree on everything. And they can’t all be right. But he has actual real world Political Economy knowledge and not just theoretical economics. And has had plenty to do with fair tax and new international efforts.
Try this set of links
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2020/09/15/the-tax-research-videos/
And keep an eye on his daily blogs and tweets.
He is also easily the best exponent of why Scotland can be independent and is not to be fooled by the English GERS crap. That is why he is ignored, as Salmond was conspired against and Craig is prisoned for exposing that.
Dungroaning & michael norton – The claim that “government spending is virtually unlimited” has been misquoted from MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) and should read “government spending is limited only by what is for sale in the economy – not spread sheet numbers such as tax liabilities and bank account double entry bookkeeping records.”
Thanks for the replies.
However if we are to become “World Beating” should we not have a Post Office System that is accessible, easy to use and useful?
There was also, it seemed, a movement to criminalise Sub-Postmasters.
Putting some in prison for something they did not do wrong, would likely not encourage others to seek a career in Sub-Postmastering?
BBC News (23 April 2021): Convicted Post Office workers have names cleared
.
I will attempt to explain why Dungroanin’s statement is right and wrong at the same time.
At present all the money is created as a debt with interest attached. For a reason unknown to me, when government borrows the money it promises to pay it back with interest. That is the main problem!!! Why does the government borrow and pay interest?
It pays back to investors (buyers of bonds) from taxation, and that is where DG is wrong. Where he is right is that in theory a Sovereign state has a sovereign right to issue its own currency, interest-free debt-free!!!!! Is it ideology, demagoguery, or parasitic conspiracy (all countries do)? I don’t know. The problem of creating too much money is inflation, but with the present system IMHO the problems are:
95% of people would disagree with me, and 4.5% will have an objection to this opinion.
For more on this topic I would suggest Positivemoney.org. To be honest I am not sure if they are “part” of MMT (modern monetary theory) which addresses issues of government spending. Positivemoney advocates changes in the way money is created and who creates it. BTW most of our money is created by private banks out of proverbial thin air!!!! – contrary to everyone’s belief that banks are intermediaries between savers and borrowers and they earn money from the difference between interest on saving and lending.
Hopefully you can make some sense out of my opinion.
Sorry PE you are incorrect. Go and check the links I have given and ask there if you are not sure why you are wrong. The only reason there are Government Bonds is because there are entities that want the safest place for savings – it doesn’t have to pay interest for providing a safe home for that cash. In real terms these bond holders have been getting back less than they had saved – taking inflation into account. That is a FACT. What have been the BoE interest rates on these bonds over the last year 10 years?
Why, you have to ask, would anyone put money in a deposit account with less than real-terms interest?
Because it is the safest place to put it – if you had cash it would be like stuffing it in your mattress or even a safe deposit box if you wanted to pay extra or in your home safe. You could put it in the bank but if that bank goes bust – how would you get your money back? You couldn’t. EXCEPT for the fact the Government guarantees anyone’s savings at a U.K. bank for currently maximum £85k I think. Why does it do that?
You are wrong about having to collect taxes to pay interest which doesn’t have to be paid for providing the safest place for savings because the government can always pay – because it just creates it out of thin air when it is needed.
Take it easy and be prepared to dump the lying fairy tales we have been told for ever.
Dungroaning describes MMT correctly. Much better than Richard Murphy is prof Bill Mitchel one of MMT originators.
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/
Since energy is required for all economic activity and wealth creation, its curious that Murphy is so arrogant and wilfully ignorant on energy supply technology and thermodynamic limits, preferring to believe unicorn stories his wind & solar pals from the ‘Green New Deal’ (c2010) tell him, thus rendering his blog writing on MMT at best out of context.
Pigeon English, Positive Money’s (PM) have in recent years gone silent on their ‘solution’ i.e. nationalising all private banks and full reserve banking. Why? Its impossible to stop entities swapping promise notes and others opting to receive them: witness the shadow banking sector. I joined PM in 2010, and in 2013 read MMT and realised PM’s limits. PM are not a “part” of MMT; indeed I questioned them in detail on this at meetings, private correspondence and online. Although they do not dispute MMT’s ‘lens’, PM don’t focus on MMT observations or implications.
“At present all the money is created as a debt with interest attached.”
Pigeon English.
I’m under the impression that the UK government runs the Bank of England, and the BoE prints money or creates it on a computer screen for the Westminster government to spend, ie quantitative easing, how can you owe money to yourself, gilts are of course a different matter.
RoS
Most of the money is created by commercial banks as debt (loans, mortgages, and all other borrowing by private sector).
BoE is “independent” from Gov.
When the State runs a deficit spending, new money is created.
RoS
QE and corona funds are best examples that the government can create money if it was not stuck in ideology.
That was done to save the financial sector and confirmed the Emperor’s new clothes.
Pigeon English.
According to the Bank of England’s website, the BoE is owned by the government.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/faq/general
Ooooh, I like “hagemony”. Is that the form of government they have now in Scotland?
The Scottish NHS will receive £1.1bn a year from a new health and social care tax, the U.K. government has said.
SNP vote against, they do not want the money, they see it as a bribe to keep the U.K. together.
They may be correct.
SNP leadership are Unionists – they have been in post long enough to have declared independence and have their own currency and exchequer. They haven’t because of thinking they need the Crown’s permission – just like George Washington and these Americans did – NOT!
The majority of the current SNP and Holyrood representatives are the WORST revolutionaries EVER in history. They have turned all soft minded Scots into Nicola Worshipping Green Kool Aid drinking lab rats of the English Crown and Aristos.
They get to try out vaxx passports first like good little vivisection bassets they have always been, before it is deployed to the rest of Britain.
Scots will never learn to get off their knees until they realise they are not dancing to their own tune but the Crown’s.
Keith Brown and Lady Dorian threaten the finances of Prisons.
Source: Scottish Prison Service audit.
“Scotland’s incarceration rate is one of the highest in Europe. It has a prison population rate of 150 per 100,000 of population compared to a European average of 117 per 100,000 of population. The Scottish Government’s justice strategy aims to reduce this high rate of imprisonment.”
“In June 2019, the Scottish Government extended the presumption against short-term sentencing from sentences of three months to twelve months.”
Lady Dorian sent Craig Murray to jail for 8 months contrary to government policy.
Keith Brown knows that Dorian should not be sentencing anyone to 8 months.
Keith Brown knows that Murray is a harmless sick old man.
Keith Brown can release prisoners on compassionate grounds.
Keith Brown has been asked to release Craig Murray.
The only reason that Craig Murray is still in jail is Keith Brown’s failure to act.
Craig Murray has spent 22.5 hours a day for 41 days in an 8′ x 12′ cell.
That’s 922 hours of solitary confinement costing the Scottish taxpayers approximately 4,000 pounds.
Keeping any old person in such conditions is criminal, and if it’s not it should be.
Only a heartless monster would sit on its hands and watch this happen.
Keith Brown should stop wasting money and release Craig Murray along with all other harmless sick prisoners.
Why Craig Murray is in jail.
1. Order of Lord Chief Clerk
“The court, on the motion of the advocate depute, there being no objection, made an order at common law and in terms of Section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, preventing the publication of the names and identity and any information likely to disclose the identity of the complainers in the case of HMA v Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond.” [10 March 2020]
The accusers were thereafter referred to as A, B, C etc [“The alphabet women”]
Clerk Dorrian made this order relying on a committee recommendation from 1975.
2.
“… public knowledge of the indignity which she has suffered in being raped may be extremely distressing and even positively harmful, and the risk of such public knowledge can operate as a severe deterrent to bring proceedings…” (Heilbron Committee (1975), para 153)
This is not case law; it is an old recommendation.
The Clerk did not offer any precedent in case law.
It is not an order at common law.
In fact it is an order that offends against the common law principle of open justice.
The Clerk got away with this travesty because Salmond’s lawyers did not object.
3. Even if the 1975 committee recommendation were to be adopted in cases of rape it is far from certain that it applied to the alphabet women.
No one was raped. No allegation of rape was raised.
4. The 1975 committee could have recommended this:
“public knowledge of the indignity which she has “almost” suffered in “nearly” being raped may be extremely distressing and even positively harmful, and the risk of such public knowledge can operate as a severe deterrent to bring proceedings…” (Heilbron Committee (1975), para 153)
But is it the case that an intended rape victim who successfully foils a rapist may find public knowledge of the indignity extremely distressing and even positively harmful?
The committee’s recommendation does not encompass this question.
5. The allegations of sexual assault made by the accusers included the tugging of hair in a crowded lift and the touching of a face at a border check point in China.
Is public knowledge of these “indignities” extremely distressing and even positively harmful to the accusers?
Their chief cause of embarrassment would be the prosecution of such trivial acts under the guise of sexual assault. The practice of open justice probably acts as a severe deterrent to bringing “Improper or illegal” proceedings.
6. Craig Murray asked the Clerk to lift the order preventing the publication of the names and identities, and any information likely to disclose the identity of the complainers, as a matter of public interest.
7. Craig was then charged with contempt. His only possible offence was to publish, “information likely to disclose the identity of the complainers”.
PS. The actual wording of the order may well be still suppressed along with the transcript.
There is a lot of internet material available reporting on the Law Commission Consultations around Contempt of Court and the new media.
I note the strong statements made that no journalist has been charged or imprisoned for over 60 years. The consensus in the consultation papers is that prison would only apply to serious cases mainly where a fair trial was prejudiced prior to it taking place.
Under all the criteria Craig’s offending can only be considered minor with a fine relative to means to pay most appropriate.
Jigsaw identification doesn’t seem to enter discussion so straight away it can be classed as minor. Then on top of that it seems the suppression orders were meant only for genuine victims and certainly not for false accusers.
Its a long read but clearly the respondents in the consultations would never recommend jailing someone offending in Craig’s way. On top of that the law still hasn’t been adjusted to reflect the internet age.
Peter Mo,
The system has undermined its own credibility ( at least such of it as remained before Murray’s imprisonment).
Murray shall rise again as a martyr.
They are ultimately making Murray a respectedhero and simultaneously are undermining their credibility (such as it is).
CB
An excellent analysis Jon Cofy.
Do we have any reason why Mr Murray’s lawyers did not object to the motion of advocate depute? It seems bizarre, that such a motion would not be challenged. Negligent even.
Oh well!
I did not make it clear but Clerk Dorian made her Order during the trial of Alex Salmond.
It was Salmond’s lawyers who did not object to the order being made.
Craig Murray merely got caught in the crossfire of the misapplication of bad law.
I don’t know why Craig Murray did not challenge Clerk Dorian’s order following the precedent in Scot v Scott & anor 1913, which is a very similar case of contempt of a suppression order.
Perhaps it was a matter of principle – misguided??
I would dearly love to see that actual charges, as listed I presume in court documents, that were brought against Alex Salmond. Can anybody please advise if that is possible and if so, where they can be accessed.
Craig’s wife Nadira reads out Craig’s speech for him at the Alba party’s conference.
She speaks well, I hope she becomes a regular speaker for the Alba party.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4QKczZPoX4
The text of the speech is on the Craig Murray Justice Campaign website:
https://craigmurrayjustice.org.uk/2021/09/11/craigs-speech-at-the-2021-alba-conference-read-by-nadira-murray/
I’ve also posted it here in the discussion forum:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/craig-murrays-speech-at-the-2021-alba-party-conference-read-by-nadira-murray/
Cheers
Craig Murray
Alba speech September 2021
“I have this consolation, however many months they keep me in here, I am most unlikely to miss any progress on the SNP’s eleven point plan for independence” —
OK I get it. A Scottish joke.
Craig being in jail is not a joke 🙁
Guantánamo Bay
Clive Stafford Smith
“– everything about Guantánamo was secret, including who was held there – the list remained classified until 2006. It was mad: what kind of democracy locks up hundreds of people in secret? I learned who everyone was courtesy of one of my favorite clients, Al Jazeera Journalist Sami el Haj. Sami was much liked by everyone, detainee and guard alike, and had provided me with a list of each prisoner, his number, his date of birth, and his nationality. What kind of democracy locks up a journalist?”
Well Scotland and the UK do!
Craig Murray
“The ability of the Scottish Government to employ the police and Crown Office to pursue political vendettas is a major constitutional flaw. Their willingness to do so is a black page in Scottish history.
How scared of ideas do you have to be before you start imprisoning writers? My being here is not a demonstration of the strength of the Scottish Establishment. It is a sign of its weakness.”
That is indeed a stirring speech penned by Craig Murray – it reads very well too – at the first Alba conference. I expect this time next year it will be all over and the first independent election will take place to choose Scotland’s first independent parliament or whatever it will be called – to implement the first constitution and currency for that first independent government.
I am also inspired by the prospect of a new Indy little book as reported on Wings which has been greeted with despairing howling that has set up amongst the unionist / SNP cabals.
I see the Obsessive Groaniad is today pushing St Nicola’s sit and beg at Bozo’s table to get his well sucked bone to choke Indy on again.
Meanwhile the DS mass mainstream media trolls parrot the ‘just wait and wait till all the weather is perfect and the sea is not stormy and go for a fair weather tide to sail out on – just to crash directly onto the siren rocks of SIXTY percent ‘polling’ before even considering Indy! ‘
60% ???
Where did that number come from?
Who’s approved it?
Did India get Independence after having polled 60%?
Did any of the rest of the Empire?
What utter bullshit is that? The Empire that ruled without a vote to end invaded asks for a vote on whether it really need to leave and hand-back all its pillage? If hundred percent don’t want to be ruled as a colony than the invaders should leave!
Let’s not forget that the same arseholes pushed through BrexShit on a simple majority of just ONE person- not even stipulating 51% never mind 60%.
As it was reported the margin was 17 For and 16 Against BrexShit! Just 1 out of 33 votes.
And out we were marched!!
Not that I believe even that number because of the huge amount of postal votes issued and forming a majority in some areas – giving a 80% TURNOUT!!
They didn’t need / couldn’t easily use all their PV’s lined up, because it would have been even more easily noticed and suspicious.
Any plebiscite in Scotland shouldn’t involve PV’s – go to the homes of these who can’t make it to a voting booth with 2 people and watch them vote in person!
Any vote must not be arbitrarily set a qualification by Westminster for ANY Scottish Issue.
Any future elections should only happen in the summer so that weather is not an issue for hustings and voting.
Independence does NOT need a referendum just a DECLARATION of it.
If the Scots want to have an alliance with the English , Welsh, Irish, Scandinavians or some far distant lands across the other side of the Planet , such as China or Tuvalu let them mutually VOTE on it AFTER they have Independence and control of their land and resources.
Oh and find a new site for a new parliament building as the current one is not fit for purpose and being made less so by the quislings as Grouse Beater writes.
Based on Alba’s 1.7% vote share, I predict Scotland will be independent by Christmas.
An interesting mathematical problem. Suppose Alba’s share of the vote increases exponentially from today. Alba will need a 32-fold increase in its vote share by 25 December. Make it a few days earlier to allow for Holidays, Christmas, stuff like that. So Alba’s share of the vote needs to double every 3 weeks or so from now till Xmas. So by the time Craig’s out it should be 25% or so, with a last push till Xmas.
Only trouble is, I don’t see anyone calling a Xmas election. I’m not sure about the exponential increase either.
PS. Actually a 30-fold increase would do it, but 32 makes the maths easier.
‘Matt Kennard @kennardmatt
Julian Assange has been locked in Belmarsh maximum security prison since April 2019. Make no mistake: they want him silent, incapacitated or dead. He embarrassed elements of our elite who operate like mafia dons. They demand their pound of flesh.’
The Crown Prosecution Service in the U.K. is deranged.
They believe that JA is a sex pest who has some how eluded prosecution for mass rape all over the world! (Seriously) So it is ok to have gone after him. Extrajudicially.
They think that under the Great Knight Dope Sir Keir there was no attempt to keep Sweden from withdrawing the fake rape charges.
(Can some one put a link up here and send it to the CPS donkeys please)
And one more link to keep the flame on Biden. https://www.newsweek.com/why-biden-prosecuting-assange-telling-truth-about-afghanistan-opinion-1627963?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true
This shit must end and the CPS wonks need to stop doing their deaf and blind act.
Allegations, not charges….
Prototype Letter
Any suggestions?
Keith Brown MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans
The Scottish Government
St Andrew’s House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
Regarding over crowded prisons
Dear Cabinet Secretary,
Despite spending £378 million last year the most recent financial update / budget monitoring position prepared by Scottish Prison Service (“SPS”) notes that there is a funding gap of £19.2million in 2020/21.
SPS has a current daily operating capacity of 7,669 so each prisoner costs the taxpayers approximately £1,000 per week.
The prison system is also overcrowded.
There are many old infirm prisoners that really have no place in prison and qualify for release on compassionate grounds.
Release the old, sick and infirm prisoners to both reduce over crowding and save money.
Yours sincerely
Nicola Murrell
Hurray to everyone who wrote to the government 🙂
Saughton prison has returned Craig Murray’s pulse oximeter. (including batteries)
However I have grave reservations concerning the availability of “Healthcare” in Saughton.
If Craig can’t get a band aid or paracetamol, how will he get to an ambulance?
NHS Lothian is supposedly responsible for Healthcare in Saughton.
NHS LOTHIAN.
Lothian NHS Board
Waverleygate
2-4 Waterloo Place
Edinburgh
EH1 3EG
Main Switchboard: 0131 242 1000
There are enough of them!
https://org.nhslothian.scot/LothianNHSBoard/BoardMembers/Pages/default.aspx
good to see you Mary
all the best to ya
How great to see your name again, Mary!
what a pleasant surprise, Mary, you made my day….straight to the troughers… hope you are well.
It has been really cheering to read your kind remarks. I have been ill but am better now. Thank God (and Aneurin Bevan) for our NHS.
‘Bevan’s most significant legacy is the National Health Service. Bevan foresaw that it would always be the subject of public debate, warning that “This service must always be changing, growing and improving; it must always appear to be inadequate.” But seven decades after it was founded, a 2013 opinion poll conducted on behalf of British Future found that the NHS was more popular than at its creation, and more popular than the monarchy, the BBC and the military.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan
Just to let you know, Mary, you also have well-wishers on the LifeBoat News board:
Welcome sighting of Mary on Craig Murray blog – 17 Sept 2021, 4:40pm
Mary,
Happy to read of your recovery – and – so far as the NHS is concerned – please do not forget the nurses from the Windrush generation who contributed in very large measure (relative to their numbers)…
Courtenay
Hello Mary, hope you are well.
Very good to see you again, Mary
Bless you all. Although I have not been posting, I have been reading the board especially when I was in hospital. Thyroid cancer had returned in May so further surgery, radioactive iodine and radio therapy followed. All well now and so much to thank our NHS for including ALL the members of staff who treated me.
Some of the treatment meant that I was alone in a single room for a week with just an overhead Geiger counter for company and a TV. Food on a tray was delivered at the door and slid across the room. Seems quite humorous now looking back.
I feel so sad about Craig and the appalling way in which he has been treated by this fascist state. Just hope that he stays strong and emerges from prison without any deterioration in his health.
Goodness Mary it sounds like you have had a tough time. I hope you are feeling much much better and back home. It’s just great to hear from you. I hope so much that your condition continues to improve.
Bless you with good health Mary x
Hello Mary. Congratulations to you and deep appreciation to the medical team for seeing off the cancer again <3
Sorry I took so long to answer your message; my emotional health is often poor. What a perilous state our world is in. Good to see you here; it warms my heart.
Garry W Gibb:
“My understanding is that the model under which both Craig and Assange work or, more accurately, worked was not a business one but one which appeals to people to subscribe and fund by donation so any income is not from an employer so pay, terms and conditions cannot be negotiated.”
Interesting!
To precis Garry – the quote seems state “the model — was not a business one –“
Is there anything further that would support the idea that Craig’s work “model was not a business one”?
ie. A tribunal, court, committee, union etc decision would be fantastic.
All comments welcome 🙂
What does the taxman say about Craig’s income?
The taxman is only interested in money earnings not business models. The later only come into consideration if it involves tax exemptions, evasions and offshorings, the later being encouraged if you are a registered establishment trusted friend.
Is he taxed as a private individual or as a business?
Liz Truss!
????
God i wish I was banged up with CM to hear his take on that! The lucky lags.
I bet the FCO wonks were convinced after Bozo and the Rrrrraaabbbb it couldn’t get any worse. Ah the good old days of Strawman and international illegality. And Craig and others getting pilloried.
They really are building her cv up for the big job! Bozo will hand over the crown to the ice Queen – I’m going to love posting about her trajectory. Liz fucking Truss! Stand by.
Let’s start with this.
‘Liz Truss, then Justice Secretary, “advised” the Queen to appointLady Arbuthnot in October 2016.’ (As Chief Magistrate in Westminster)
‘Declassified has discovered that the addresses given by Lord Arbuthnot and other parliamentarians for Tertulias and Tatlidil have been the same — despite no obvious connection between the two organisations other than the UK Foreign Office.’
A tale of Tertulias and Tatlidil an explanation.
‘Tatlidil, which means “sweet talk” in Turkish, was established in 2011 by then prime minister David Cameron and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.’
‘American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a highly secretive meeting organised by the most influential neoconservative think tank in Washington populated by senior US military and intelligence officials.’
‘Declassified recently revealed how the AEI, which has a strongly anti-Assange position, has been courting British ministers for years.’
‘The Foreign Office has long taken a strong anti-Assange position, rejecting UN findings in his favour, refusing to recognise the political asylum given to him by Ecuador, and even labelling Assange a “miserable little worm”.’
This is from an old piece now from https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-02-21-revealed-chief-magistrate-in-assange-case-received-financial-benefits-from-secretive-partner-organisations-of-uk-foreign-office/
It is as if THEY are spiralling ever decreasingly up their own fundament. Hilarious.
Liz Trussssssst in me ???
I commented recently on our host’s regrettable absence during the Afghan withdrawal debacle, following the West’s defeat by the Taliban. His insights would have been as welcome today on the USAUK pact which might end in a war with China.
Although he cannot publish his views at the moment, I hope Craig continues to write material on foreign affairs which we will shortly see here, alongside stuff on Assange and the Salmond conspiracy.
“USAUK pact which might end in a war with China”
USA has agreed to provide nuclear power plants for submarines to be built in Adelaide.
Australia can finally move away form first world war era diesel – battery type subs.
This won’t go down well in the neighborhood
The reality is that for many years the only viable power plant for submarines is nuclear
The question is; does Australia need submarines at all?
Excellent piece today from moon of alabama on the Australian back stabbers.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/09/to-protect-itself-from-us-hostility-australia-decides-to-buy-us-submarines.html#more
What’s apparent, and has been for a long time, is that anyone who buys US technology is in fact undermining their independent defence capability.
The UK is totally dependent on the US for it’s nuclear deterrent, its F35 planes, it’s helicopters, its Carriers, its military communications, and many more. Our defence is predicated on supporting America’s psychotic aggression. Those who point this out end up in prison …
In which B refers to Caitlin Johnstone’s article:
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/09/16/australia-continues-its-plunge-into-authoritarianism-and-military-brinkmanship/
“So there you have it. Australia is not aligned with the US to protect itself from China. Australia is aligned with the US to protect itself from the US.”
There is an embedded video debate in that article between american John Mearsheimer and aussie Hugh White. The upshot is that there is a strategic competition between USA and China for dominance of the east eurasia continent. Nothing you didn’t know there but from USA point of view, if you trade with China you are an enemy of USA and they will do their best to take you out. Hugh White argues that USA doesn’t have the tenacity to see this competition through and therefore Australia ought to be realistic and continue trade with China. Check it out.
In the discussion forums here on this site there are threads you might be interested in contributing to.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/new-world-shifting-to-the-indo-pacific-new-nuclear-powered-submarines/#post-77574
Maybe it will help keep things going until CM gets back.
“What’s apparent, and has been for a long time, is that anyone who buys US technology is in fact undermining their independent defence capability”.
Hardly surprising. The Americans want other countries to be as weak as possible in case the Americans attack them. And no one else is going to.
Can I point out that this topic is currently being discussed in the Discussion Forum
“New World Shifting to the Indo-Pacific new nuclear powered submarines”
It reminds me of the Greek bailout which included the money being spent on German submarines, a vital facet of the Greek economy.
Squeeth
In advance of the US pullout from Iraq at the end of this year, yestetday fake Kurdish president Barzani went to see fake British prime minister Boris Johsnon at No 10.
They were greeted by jeers from demonstrators about ” Barzani Mafia ” because of his political murdering of journalists reporting government corruption and embezzlement. Butt if I’d have been there I would of course have been chanting Boris Mafia.
Not two tiddlysqueaks of difference between the two.
Giyane you must be pleased as punch that the U.K. now has an Iraqi Kurd as a cabinet minister?
Nadhim Zahawi (Arabic: ناظم الزهاوي, romanized: Nāẓim az-Zahāwī; born 2 June 1967) is a British-Kurdish politician.
Personally I like him. He has done a fantastic job on rolling out covid vaccines. He is rich, so could have retired to enjoy his wealth but he works for the betterment of the United Kingdom. Good for him.
Mafiain
@ Giyane, 18 Sept 2021 at 6:13pm
Nadhim Zahawi? I didn’t realise he is revered, but then he was integral to the Tory mafia coup in 2019 – as co-founder of Yougov – and it doesn’t surpise me that he is revered by some. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouGov#History
In January 2014, YouGov entered the Asia Pacific region with the acquisition of Decision Fuel for an estimated consideration of approximately £5 million.
Ahead of the game.
The move to arm Australia with nuclear submarines is a crass violation of the NNPT, as these subs have such propulsion system to allow them to be undetected for month on end.
These subs will carry nuclear tipped missiles, increasing the threat of a full scale nuclear exchange, making the treaty a cabaret of laughs.
It removes the need for Iran to adhere to what has been called ‘progressive talks’ with NNPT breaking USUKOZ aggressors.
This will cool down already fraught relations in the world and endanger us all.
RIP NNPT.
At the risk or ruining a good story:
“Morrison stated clearly that Australia has no intention of arming the new submarines with nuclear weapons and will continue to be bound by its obligations to the Non-Proliferation Treaty”
Assuming that Morrison is not being disingenuous (?), he has to realise that these will be American subs, under the technical, tactical and strategic control of America. Australia is only providing the non specialist and expendable crew. This is exactly the position the UK is in with Trident.
The analogy here is the school bully (US) setting his attack poodles (UK, Australia, et al) on the Nerdy Foreigner (China). The reality is that China could easily destroy the poodles just by passing wind, and the bully boy, USA, would run away, as it always does, leaving them to their fate.
After thousands of years of building modern ‘civilisations’ the best the west can manage politically is acting like a mentally challenged five year old.
“Nuclear tipped missiles”
Is this form of words meant to imply that only the end of the pointy bit is dangerous?
No, it’s meant to say that nuclear subs will not be used to invade but to destroy.
Even the Dolphin class sibs given to Israel as a bargain/guilt-benefit have ICBM capabilities.
Please name a significant threat from subs that do not carry nuclear arms, never mind the reactor itself.
There are enough hulks wating for decomissioning on all sides of this retro cold war debacle unfolding, why would anybody want to add it and dis the NNPT is beyond comprehension. America skinned? MIC desperate for wasting other nations money?
Building nuclear subs to proffer cruise missile is poppycock, these subs will get ICBMs.
imho.
nevermind – ummm – what is an ICBM?
I think the whole point here is that Australia doesn’t have any serious use for these submarines – whether they are supplied by the French or the Americans. Either way (French or American), they are at best a waste of money and at worst allow Australia to participate in America’s wars.
Why do the British, Americans, French or Australians need nuclear submarines? The simple answer is that they don’t.
Yes we share cryptography with America (NSA) U.S. reads our standard HF ‘secret’ military messages unless double encrypted for recipient only. For instance America must know the geo-coords of our nuclear subs and Trident mappings..
Craig Murray is concentrating on “the research materials I have here for my biography of Lord George Murray”
Is Craig researching “Lord George Murray (1694-1760), sixth son of John Murray, 1st Duke of Atholl, was a Scottish nobleman and soldier who took part in the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 & 1719”?
Lord George Murray was pardoned in 1725.
Can Craig Murray be pardoned in 2021?