I shall be standing for election to Parliament as the member for Blackburn. This unexpected turn of events requires an honest declaration.
1) I am standing because of the Genocide in Gaza.
2) I am standing because of the appalling pro-Genocide stance of the Labour Party and Keir Starmer’s continued support of arms exports to Israel.
3) I am standing because the Blackburn Independent Councillors and the Workers’ Party invited me to.
The political class, including both the Labour and Tory parties, has continued to offer wholehearted support for Israel. The Tories are a lost cause, irrelevant in Blackburn and I will not waste words upon them. The Labour Party is led by Keir Starmer, a man who has declared himself an unqualified zionist, is a member of Labour Friends of Israel, who refused to oppose Israel’s blockade of food and water to Gaza, refuses to acknowledge any war crimes committed by Israel, let alone the ongoing genocide, and strongly supports the continued sale of arms to Israel.
40% of Labour’s shadow cabinet, at least, are financed by the zionist lobby.
Starmer has also expelled more Jews from the Labour Party than every previous Labour leader combined – under the excuse of “anti-semitism”, but in reality because they are Jews who honestly oppose the murderous ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the schemes of the apartheid state of Israel.
The people of Blackburn, like all voters in the UK, deserve the chance to vote for a candidate who actually opposes the genocide. The Independent Councillors in Blackburn, who have resigned from the Labour Party over the issue, have chosen me to be that candidate. I have accepted.
Following George Galloway’s victory in nearby Rochdale under the banner of the Workers’ Party, I have also accepted the support of that party. I expect to fight the seat as a party candidate.
While Gaza motivated me to stand, it is by a long way not the only issue on which the voters of Blackburn deserve an alternative choice.
The Labour Party has abandoned working people. Last weekend Keir Starmer said Labour would increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP – a 25% increase. Yet the Labour Party has stated it will be bound by Tory fiscal rules and austerity, and there is no money for education or health and other public services.
The Labour Party has stated it will be harsher than the Tories on welfare payments and on immigration controls. Wes Streeting is itching to privatise the Health Service – and he and his frontbench colleagues are sponsored to do so. Plans to renationalise water and other public utilities have been abandoned. Starmer’s party is a Tory Party.
There is a vast disparity in wealth in society which is growing incredibly fast. The 1,000 wealthiest people in the UK are now worth an average of £750 million each, a figure which has doubled in under a decade. Yet we have millions of children living below the poverty line.
This does not happen by accident, nor is it a factor of a free market. It is the product of a system of law and regulation designed to produce this unnatural outcome. It can only be countered by fundamental reform of laws around the formation and ownership of capital. For that reason, I am happy to ally with the Workers’ Party, which recognises this truth.
The people of Blackburn deserve the opportunity to vote for fundamental social and economic change.
I am standing as part of a wider movement in England which is seeking to challenge the two-party conservative duopoly. This alliance is coming together and will embrace Independent candidates and candidates from other small parties. Informal organisation is developing. I expect the Workers’ Party to have a slate of hundreds of candidates, while Andrew Feinstein spoke alongside me in Blackburn on Saturday and will be challenging Keir Starmer directly in the election. Jeremy Corbyn will romp back into parliament in Islington North.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the nationalist parties have been much better on the Gaza genocide, reflecting the experience of those peoples of ethnic cleansing and occupation. They are also notably more socialist than Labour. I need to explain to you, and particularly to my many Scottish readers, why I am not standing in Scotland.
Firstly, it is important to make clear my support for Scottish Independence is undiminished (which I sincerely believe would be good for the people of England too, including Blackburn, in allowing a modern country to emerge from the trappings of Imperial decay).
Secondly, I talked it over with Alex Salmond before I accepted to stand in Blackburn. I have not left the Alba Party. Alex and I mutually agreed that at this election it would be better for me not to stand for Alba in Scotland, as that would give the unionist press an opportunity to continue to muck-rake over the lawfare to which we had been subjected.
Thirdly, George Galloway has declared that he no longer will participate in the Independence debate in Scotland.
I have also seen it reported that the Workers’ Party will not stand candidates in Scotland. That will need to be worked through, but at the minimum I expect we can reach an agreement they will not stand anywhere against the Alba Party, which would render my own position impossible. As Alba is only planning to stand in up to 16 constituencies this should not be difficult. Working relationships between the two parties in the Commons are amicable, and all of this will be resolved in the next few weeks.
Finally, I would say that the events of the last 48 hours have confirmed my decision. Israel’s murderous destruction of Iran’s Damascus consulate, crashing the Vienna Convention, was condemned by neither Labour nor Tories. George Galloway is the only MP to have even mentioned it in the House of Commons, one clear indication of why I am not just content but proud to stand beside George. Iran’s demonstration attack in response – which killed nobody – appears to have restored the shaken confidence of the entire political class in proclaiming their zionist credentials. They hope we have all now forgotten the genocide.
We shall prove them wrong.
From mid-May I shall be relocating my home to Blackburn. Three short visits to the UK seem to have confirmed there is no longer any current intention by the state to arrest me for my support for the Palestinians’ legal right to armed resistance as an occupied people.
I am going to need help – leafleting, canvassing, manning offices and the many myriad tasks of an election campaign. I am also (I am sorry) going yet again to call on readers of this blog to fund the campaign. I am buoyed by the solid start we have in support across all communities in Blackburn. There will be no shortage of space for volunteers to sleep. So start to look in your diaries. We are going to give Starmer a roasting, we are going to take on the zionist monopoly of power, and it is going to be great fun!
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Blackburn is lucky to be afforded this opportunity. Labour like the Tories stand for nothing except austerity and US/Israeli-led warmongering and genocide. It would be wonderful to see you in Parliament roasting Starmer and all the other empty shells.
Hello Craig.
Will the money donated here via your blog go to your political election fund ?
Or is that going to be a separate account ?
Are you using both arms/hands yet 😀
All the best and the very best of luck in Blackburn ✊
If you see my speech above, I am keeping my right arm carefully hidden (and immobile)!
Will launch an election fund shortly.
Excellent news. The very best of luck to you Craig.
I’ll continue to support you where I can.
You’d make a fine, thoughtful, curious, independent-minded MP. 10x better than the careerist, on-message voting fodder Labour dross alternative.
Hopefully, on the doorstep, you’ll put to Blackburn voters, the fact they need to ask themselves : Do they want to support some Labour candidate who’ll breezily walk through the lobby, with Starmer? Voting to commit UK forces to bomb yet another Muslim country that doesn’t threaten us?
The security elite and politicians, plus their biased, corrupted MSM lackeys, sit isolated in their little bubble in London. Increasingly at odds with their own populations over their free rein indulgence and support for Israel’s Gaza excesses and the West’s obvious double standards over the now UN condemned Syrian Iranian consulate bombing. The elites’s chosen ego-defence mechanism, is blaming their unpopularity on Russian/Chinese/Iranian mis/disinformation campaigns (see Ben Wallace’s piece in the Telegraph today). Deep down though, they know they’re lying to themselves; there’s absolutely no evidence of any successful large scale mis/disinformation campaigns aimed at the West from those countries. People in the West aren’t f’cking stupid, they see the horrible injustice in Gaza and the double standards! Their unpopularity is organic & justified.
“Deep down though, they know they’re lying to themselves;”
But do they, or have they been parroting the propaganda for so long that they believe their own bullshit? It takes a special kind of person to lie continually in the full knowledge that they are lying and such people are mercifully rare. Much more likely is that they have compartmentalised their minds so that they no longer think critically about anything that they say as part of their work. They don’t want to think that they are lying so they don’t think.
They must know it isn’t true, Bayard.
I mean, to be successful, any mis/disinformation influence campaign would inherently have to be overt, reach millions and thus be easily identifiable. The fact they haven’t produced a single example of a foreign adversary, be it China, Russia; Iran, N. Korean propaganda campaign that meets those criteria, should tell them the whole ‘war for people’s minds’ nonsense, is a Western imaginary invention. Probably to justify greater, unjustified surveillance of domestic populations. The attempted hacking stuff Wallace mentions may be going on, idk? But the psychological ‘war of ideas’ stuff clearly isn’t.
Hopefully, if elected, this and other nonsense, is the kind of thing Craig will challenge. UK MPs are suckers for believing their unpopularity is down to some great unseen malign threat brainwashing the public on the internet.
Listen to them talk about ‘the greyzone’ and a great battle of ideas: democracy vs autocracy. Do any of these people actually use social media? All you’ll see is trolls attacking anyone not singing precisely from the US/NATO worldview hymn sheet.
My own personal belief, is that we as a nation shouldn’t oppose other countries simply on ideological grounds. Take Iran for example: Iran’s a theocracy, with all key decisions going through the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (age 84). Iran’s system is hardly going to win converts in the West. But how Iran, China, N.Korea et al. are governed is a matter solely for people there to work through, not us. We should normalise relations. Here’s why:
N. Korea moved on from testing one-stage fission-type devices to testing a thermonuclear (two-stage) hydrogen device, the yield of which was anything up to 260 kilotons (based on ISRO synthetic-aperture radar analysis). That test came in September 2017, and it triggered a 6.3 magnitude earthquake! That’s probably why the US have gone very quiet about N. Korea. Proving if you pack enough deterrent punch, US hawks will leave you alone. N. Korea scientists have since advanced their hypersonic capability and concentrated on MIRV’ing their missiles. Had the US normalised relations 20 years ago, those developments needn’t have happened. N. Korea now pose a credible threat to the US mainland. We risk making similar mistakes with Iran.
“They must know it isn’t true, Bayard.”
Why? The lies are meant to convince us, the public, of things that are not true. Why should they not also convince the people telling them? After all, they have been told the same lies all their lives. Those who do a bit of research and a bit of reasoning, can soon tell that the official line is nothing but propaganda, but the likes of Ben Wallace don’t do that research or reasoning, because they don’t want to. Like all of us, they want to believe they are on the side of truth and good against some evil enemy. It’s much easier to deceive someone when they really don’t want to hear the truth.
Whilst I may not agree with everything you say Craig, I wish you all the best for this new venture, because something is very rotten in the UK, when we back a country carrying out a genocide of some of the poorest, most helpless people on this planet. You are quite correct, in saying that the Labour party has abandoned the working class, the fact that they are backing austerity measures (which always impact the poorest in society the most) proves that.
So, good luck on your campaign.
Very wise decisions, Craig. I think you will have a lot of fun, and will look forward to seeing you and George calling out Sir Keir, the leader who expelled Jeremy Corby and Ken Loach from the Labour Party. England’s general election will be very interesting.
Blackburn sounds great. Just watch out for the dodgy guacamole.
Respect.
Great news Craig, you can count on me and the missus’s vote, happy to spread the word too. Times Bar has cheapest Beer in town across the road from King George’s Hall. Good luck.
Well done and good luck.
Congratulations and best wishes .
Good luck and best wishes Craig.
Along with the cessation of arms exports to Israel, it might be a good idea to campaign for an immediate cessation of pharmaceutical imports to the UK from Israel.
The financial impact of this action would be $1.42billion per annum.
I second this. A friend of mine takes medication for depression, but becomes further depressed that only Israeli pharmaceuticals are made available.
I read Israel gets a lot of its income from sales of diamonds. Time to push for a boycott of Israeli diamonds.
It is good to see you dance again, Craig!
Great Fighting Spirit Craig …Go get them
– “…and it is going to be great fun!”
😀
– “…it is important to make clear my support for Scottish Independence is undiminished”
There seems to be only one Blackburn in England whereas Scotland has eight; a town, a village, and six hamlets.
Well said Clark. I Still Owe you that Poem.
Starmer was an extraordinary choice as leader of the Labour Party. Most, perhaps all, of his policies are slightly to the political Right of Tory PMs like Macmillan, Douglas-Home, and Heath.
He’s relying on (1) the team vote – people who always vote Labour because, well, they and their mates always vote Labour (2) people who hate the current government will vote Labour because there only 2 parties that matter in most constituencies.
I hope you win in Blackburn and will contribute when you open an election fund.
– “…there only 2 parties that matter in most constituencies.”
This will not be true of the oncoming General Election, as recent by-elections have shown. Conservative and Labour support have both collapsed – though Conservative more so, due to people voting Labour to oppose the Conservatives, as you said.
Independent, Green and new party candidates are gaining record-breaking support – like, off the historical scale. To vote effectively, you’ll need to know how local support is shaping up; the following site could be of help:
https://statsforlefties.wordpress.com/
Looking at the front page Stats for Lefties projection of Westminster seats – archived copy to preserve page as displayed right now:
https://archive.is/Up3L3
…it would be ironic, undemocratic and disastrous if Labour won such a landslide – on about half the popular vote that Corbyn attracted.
The coming election will be unprecedented – perversely, we must concentrate our opposition against the Opposition! As Craig said, “The Tories are a lost cause […] and I will not waste words upon them”, and neither should we waste our efforts; it’s Starmer that’s the danger.
Best of luck in Blackburn Craig, and to Andrew Feinstein in Holborn and St Pancras. I was very impressed with the speech he gave in Blackburn. I can imagine him demolishing Keir Starmer in the hustings.
Wow! Great news! I feel suddenly a touch of optimism, thinking about Britain, that I haven’t felt for very long. I am not British, but Danish – and we could surely do with a similar thing there.
Well, you chaps used to rule England 1,000 years ago! Tradition still means something.
Simply the best news in a long time. I wish I lived in Blackburn, or at least that there will be a Workers Party candidate in Reading.
CM: “[Starmer] refused to oppose Israel’s blockade of food and water to Gaza […]”
Refused to oppose it? I thought he positively endorsed it, saying Israel “had that right”
Good luck, I think you have a good chance. Any rational person despises the Tories, and Starmer is inspiring nobody at all. I wish we had someone worth voting for in my constituency.
Good luck Craig!
Sunak seems to be taking British support to Israel to new extremes. So here’s a thought. Sunak is Hindu, and Hindus are really not very fond of Muslims. Although encouraged by the British in their divide and rule tactics, the antipathy between Hindus and Muslims was a major reason for the partition of India in 1947. And there is ongoing persecution of and violence against Muslims in India which is inflamed by pro-Hindu nationalist parties….
“I had grown up imbibing some of the reverential Zionism of my family of upper-caste Hindu nationalists in India. Both Zionism and Hindu nationalism emerged in the late 19th century out of an experience of humiliation; many of their ideologists longed to overcome what they perceived as a shameful lack of manhood among Jews and Hindus. And for Hindu nationalists in the 1970s, impotent detractors of the then ruling pro-Palestinian Congress party, uncompromising Zionists such as Begin, Ariel Sharon and Yitzhak Shamir seemed to have won the race to muscular nationhood. (The envy is now out of the closet: Hindu trolls constitute Benjamin Netanyahu’s largest fan club in the world.) I remember I had a picture on my wall of Moshe Dayan, the IDF chief of staff and defence minister during the Six-Day War; and even long after my childish infatuation with crude strength faded, I did not cease to see Israel the way its leaders had from the 1960s begun to present the country, as redemption for the victims of the Shoah, and an unbreakable guarantee against its recurrence.”
Extract from:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n06/pankaj-mishra/the-shoah-after-gaza
Pankaj Mishra · The Shoah after Gaza
London Review of Books [Thu 21 Mar 2024; article dated Wed 28 Feb 2024]
Good luck, but wouldn’t somewhere in Scotland be a better fit?
yes I get what you mean, but the numbers dictate that the main battleground is in the north of England.
I meant to say, I was sorry to hear you say that Universal Hall had burned down. I only saw it once on a sunny day trip but I was impressed. As I remember the design was unusual but pleasing but it was the possibilities suggested by the building that most strike me ie a local “wonder” of social significance. Whoever built it certainly struck a note with me
yes it is very unfortunate. It was a great asset to the area and provided a venue for the wider community. I am not sure how much energy exists in the foundation at the moment, but I am hoping it will be rebuilt even better than before.
Jeff, I think we are in “special” moment. The Biblical slaughter taking place on livestream has changed the calculus – many thought those days where gone, yet find their politicians inadequate for such a moment. Surely a decent guy like Mr Murray with the platform he is standing on, is a choice voters need to have now.
Nobody knows how things will turn out but for those of us can’t stomach this slaughter and the attendant warmongering and MIC corruption, it seems important to know that there is, at least, a choice
Great speech. You certainly were in the presence of evil during Israel’s defence at the Hague. You will also be opposing genuine evil in Sir Keir Starmer. A human rights lawyer who openly supports denying people food, water and electricity. A cold-hearted chickenhawk and NHS privatiser. You are doing God’s work. Good luck.
Wonderful platform Craig! Wish things were as out-spoken here in Canada. Being a foreign reader of your blog and a very small contributor, I believe that is fine, but I’m not sure about the legalities of contributing to your election – that would be very small also I’m afraid. It would be foreign interference or something. Please verify. Have to say that my view is that zionist contributions to political parties and politicians is definitely foreign interference! But I suppose being a “friend of Israel” is defined as being a local thing – grrrr.
Also very pleased to hear the border police are no longer after you for supporting Palestine!
Hah, I was just wondering if I could write something approving here, and whether it would harm Mr. Murray 🙂
Being a toxic guest is an extremely exciting experience, btw.
I think Mr. Murray’s approach can be described as “speak and let speak”, like “live and let live”. And, I think that such a practical implementation of freedom of speech on this site must irritate to no end the various Ambassadors for the State Sponsored Hypocritical Opinion & Lies Expansion (abbr. asshole).
It’s not that I enjoy annoying people, but there’s definitely a lot of fun here.
I fully agree with you, Tatyana.
And, since Craig no longer fears the CIA and other agencies, but is about to move to the North (of England), your chances of driving him around Moscow in the near future are unfortunately subsiding…
But if you manage to pay a visit to Backburn *, keep me posted and I’d like to meet you there, if you’re willing…
* sorry about the typo. I usually keep these for Beatles songs. Here “Black Bird”. Let’s hope it’s not too black…
Wow! the spell works!
Who would have thunk 🙂 my grandma was right when teaching me not to say the word ‘devil’ because it may accidentally summon him.
Now I really want to try another one. Friends, I hope curiosity doesn’t kill me like a cat, keep your fingers crossed I’ll try this:
National Asinine Zero Integrity Bureau for Laughable Interpretations of Nazi Denotations (aka
Nazi-blind)
Strange, no one has responded yet. Perhaps the virgin’s blood was expired, or should I have drawn a swastika instead of a pentagram?
TATYANA
you gonna like this: (cynical laughter – I lack emojis here)
Lavrov via TWITTER shared the content of an official directive handed out to all EU-diplomats how to behave towards Russian representatives!
https://twitter.com/RusBotschaft/status/1777990337396383823
It´s in Russian, 2 minutes, German Subs.
The excerpt in written form says:
“European diplomats should avoid any bilateral contacts with representatives of Russia. They are prohibited from attending events organized by the Russian side. This concerns, among other things, ceremonial receptions on the occasion of Diplomatic Day on November 4, February 10, February 23, May 9 and Russia Day on June 12. Russian diplomats may not be invited to events and receptions organized by the authorities and representations of the EU and the foreign ministries of the EU member states. European diplomats are not prohibited from attending events organized by third countries in which Russian representatives participate. However, it is important to avoid direct contact with Russian representatives. It is recommended to inform the host in advance that European and Russian delegations should avoid being seen together in photographs or attending official meetings together.”
AG, it seems to me that there’s a spelling error there. Not EU-diplomats, but Eww-diplomats.
There’s a scene in the 1950s Hollywood movie “5 Fingers” where the British and German ambassadors avoid meeting each other by each attending a different half of a diplomatic reception in Ankara.
Thx for reminding of “5 Fingers”!
See here on YT. Not a good quality but watchable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXDWmBikLP0
Also note the other titles on the right.
p.s. the public library gave away books. Not reading popular literature too often, I chose a Frederick Forsyth secret agent novel taking place in RU 1999, however written in 1996 (which is a trademark with Forsyth I believe).
To give an understanding of Germany:
The English title is “Icon”.
The German translation is “The Black Manifesto”.
It isn´t entirely uninteresting in hindsight, because it´s about the demis of Yelzin (the novel mixed real people with fictional characters) and the rise of a right-wing nationalist (inspired by Zhirinovsky. Who else.).
Of course eventually a British agent must save the day.
What is telling is the fact that the big majority of American/British fiction has evolved around the presumption that Russians will want to rebuild the USSR and create an authoritarian/dictatorial regime.
Since most of these products in literature and film are affiliated with the real Intelligence “community” it does appear as if all along, internally after 1992, they wished back the old RU enemy. So you could argue they did everything to push Russia into the corner. As to create what publicly they claim to despise and attempted to prevent.
pssst guys, I have a great theory.
What if Russian intelligence discovered that an epidemic of contagious idiocy was spreading in the EU? Perhaps Russian diplomats were instructed to use sanitizer after shaking hands. Then, understandably, idiots are afraid to be filmed with Russians; it’s obvious that a sanitizer could get into the frame and this would raise questions.
reminds me a bit of that odd sci-fi satire “Idiocracy” (2006):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_53_act
Russia has been invited to the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings https://twitter.com/jaccocharite/status/1780323784735526933. Looks like not everyone in the EU is on board with the directive not to invite Russians to such events. Someone really knows who won the WW2 for them.
wow!
it´s christmas! (at least they know who to thank for that the invasion did not turn out a massacre of Allied troops.)
p.s. any news on that odd rumour of yesterday that Mr. Budanov was killed in a major missile attack?
As I understand it Rosemary, the invitation to the Russians is from the event organisers, not EU or French officials. Will the Russians accept the invitation? Maybe, but I wouldn’t put money on it.
France invites Russian delegation but Putin not welcome. https://www.rt.com/news/596051-russia-invite-normandy-anniversary-france/. No info about Budanov on RT or Tass. He seems to be always getting killed. Tatyana may have more information.
No news on Budanov, Rosemary.
Recent reports were on Maluk, who ordered a terrorist attack here in Russia.
Also, opposition Ukrainian blogger Sharij reported that recent armed attack at his car in Spain was planned by Ukrainian state, and Spanish police don’t even investigate. Just like the recent murder of Kuzminov, who was shot down in Alikante. And, an attempted blowing of Prozorov’s car in Russia.
Together with murder of Dugina and Tatarsky, and Crocus case, it’s most likely CK will recognize Ukraine as a terrorist state.
CK in Russian stands for Следственный Комитет -The Investigative Comeetee – don’t mix it up with Calvin Klein 🙂
“He seems to be always getting killed”
😂
“don’t mix it up with Calvin Klein”
😁
(yes, I just found my emojis keyboard. Gosh, getting childish with age…)
I assume by now there should be systematic studies available about the victims of UKR terrorist acts since 2014/2022
p.s. I liked this one:
Gordon Hahn ponders on the alternatives the RU government could have chosen, to going to war in Febr.
“An Alternative Approach to Russia’s Coercive Diplomacy before February 2022”
https://gordonhahn.com/2024/04/16/an-alternative-approach-to-russias-coercive-diplomacy-before-february-2022/
I recommend it since it´s Hahn and not someone repeating official talking points of Western muppets without any critical thinking or scrutiny.
I have to admit I have been very despondent regarding developments in politics. What or who to vote for? Currently we have a meaningless ‘democracy’ – so I just hope you can shake up this state of political torpor and dishonesty. Wishing you well and will add my weight to the campaign. Interesting times ahead.
I’m in. Back in UK nxt month. Will call you. Will come up to give a hand.
Congratulations on this, and on maintaining your moral integrity, Craig, in the face of all the repugnant persecution you have been subjected to.
I wish you success!
An observation: people don’t usually vote for ideas; they vote for hope, for their family, for their bread. I hope that solving Middle Eastern tribal wars will not be the only thing that you will offer to the Blackburn electorate, as people there also face a host of other problems.
Gladstone and the Liberals won the general election of 1880 by concentrating, in the Midlothian campaign, on foreign affairs, in particular on the “Bulgarian horrors.”
Any luck with finding something more recent that would attest to the modern Blackburnians’ high interest in international affairs? We’re not in 1880, mind you, we’re in the middle of an economic crunch, housing crisis, and a general decline of the British state. I believe more people would support a candidate promising an Austrian-style solution to the housing crisis or pensions more like in Europe, than someone who only talks about atricities in distant countries.
Human psyche tends to block uncomfortable truths while clinging to hopes, so promises of a better life are the thing for any election.
The first task I guess is to get elected.
try reading what Craig wrote.
I’m reading it and it contains nothing of substance except for the Gaza genocide and the understandable hatred of the two mainstream parties. Even as he talks about “challenging the duopoly”, I see nothing resembling a proposal to change the UK electoral system to proportional representation. Other than complaining about the Tory and the labour, I see no proposal to renationalise transport or healtchare. I essentially see no theme that would matter to the electorate except for “Gaza genocide” and “all others are bad”.
I wish Craig victory, but I’m very worried that his programme outlined above will simply not be attractive for ordinary people. People tend to elect those who are willing to represent their needs and address their problems; and not those candidates who come and impose own problems onto the people.
Congrats. I would certainly vote for you if I were eligible to vote in the UK. Good luck!
Go for it. On this ticket, in that part of the multicultural world, you ought to do well. Don’t hold back, tell it like it is.
So, what would you compare the Israeli genocide against Palestinians with, if there is nothing in recent history? Children seem to have been targeted by the British in the Tasmanian genocide. Closer to modern Gaza is the British naval bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, which seems to have killed and maimed children at an even faster rate than the Israelis, although the British seemed disinclined to count the dead. I believe some historians estimated as many as 10,000 civilians, many killed during fires started by Royal Navy shells. Isn’t this something that old pals in the Foreign Office could shed light on?
The bombardment of Alexandria only lasted 10 1/2 hours. That’s not the same as the 6 month pursued genocide of Gazans. The Gaza genocide is more the equivalent of a medieval siege, where indeed the besieged inhabitants were deprived of food and water. That is why the Geneva Conventions ban the use of this tactic. Cities often did surrender because they were starving, not because they were militarily defeated.
@Laguerre, I disagree that bombardment by information-age weaponry is like a medieval siege, but the firepower is similar to industrial-era warships. Yes, starvation and disease were also weapons of medieval times. Don’t you think the photograph album of ruined Alexandria looks eerily familiar? Of course, the Allies even bombarded neutral and friendly cities during WW2, where women and children (and noncombatants generally) died in much greater numbers than WW1. But nobody has planned to kill as many children as NATO with the firepower to back it up.
“the British in the Tasmanian genocide” There was no Tasmanian genocide – it’s just a fabricated story.
@dearieme, it is history, see for example The Australian Wars. The British Empire has been involved in mass killings and other serious crimes much more recently. Historian of declassified British history Mark Curtis estimated that the British Empire was at least partly responsible for around 10 million deaths since 1944, around 5 million directly, and that the true number is likely much greater.
Given that the Guardian reports that the Foreign Office is ‘elitist and rooted in the past’, says new report, and that the British have systematically acted viciously against the interests of foreign workers, I’m not sure what assurances our host has given the Workers’ Party that he has quite renounced his service to the Lesser Satan.
Assurances can only be tested by time Sleeping Dog, if any have been given. What manner of assurances can you think of that may be relevant here? Faithfulness to the party’s program or something else?
@will moon, according to the very first article of the Workers Party of Britain ten-point programme, they want:
Furthermore, their manifesto commitment:
essentially damns all the work of Craig Murray and colleagues throughout their careers, with good reason, considering the business-friendly coups and oppressions the criminal activities of the British foreign and colonial services with other departments have helped bring about.
So some clarification at the very least seems in order. Rather than being ‘useless’, as C Murray has described NATO and its nuclear weapons, perhaps ‘evil’ and ‘terrorist’ may closer to the party line. Should our host be elected (good luck with the campaign), we should be looking forward to the new MP delivering devastating and informed critiques of British foreign policy in the House. Shouldn’t we?
I’m pretty sure Mr Murray, if given the job, could muster the same verve when discussing domestic issues – I would be disappointed if this was not the case – but you are right his expertise would be valued in foreign policy discussions in the Commons – I see only two types of politicians discussing it in the House presently, obvious intelligence assets and airheads, with the two sets intersecting and tending towards union.
To me it is a “suck it and see” moment for the voters of Blackburn and for the wider electorate. If one is able to tolerate this flustered cuck of a Parliament, with it’s chipped and faded veneer, then one can stick with the Savile/Epstein uniparty and keep the bond-traders happy, if not one can vote for Mr Murray or his analogues in the WP or any other “credible” alternatives (I put this in quotes to indicate the subjective nature of this judgement and it’s subsequent fragility in the face of propaganda organs “turned up to eleven” – a la Spinal Tap)
On the credibility issue, I think we will know quickly concerning candidates, parties, movements etc as to which way the wind is blowing – if it does not like a “common sense” candidate elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, as that body was rendered in the 1980’s, we will intuit something is wrong. We have got a similar ossification in the body-politic and similar relations between top and bottom of society as the USSR
I’d prefer evolution to tyranny or revolution but all three are “numbers” games, so it don’t matter what I think
Good for you! I’m not surprised, not least given the absolutely woeful state of Scottish politics at the moment.
I wish you all the best, and will continue to contribute, even though Galloway isn’t my all round favourite person. But both yours and his stance on Gaza is vital. Best wishes!
This is very good news (said the German commentator from afar). But it really is.
I wish you luck but I don’t participate in fascist elections, which means that I have only voted in a few union elections.