craig


Assassination and Trump’s Mentality 197

Six months ago I said to a well-known public figure that the US intelligence agencies had destroyed Trump’s first Presidency and that, in a second chance, he would have to uproot their entire leadership or simply let them continue to run the country and concentrate on making money for himself.

My contact replied that they had recently been told by Tucker Carlson that Trump was very aware of the danger that the intelligence services would have him assassinated. Trump was therefore likely to go for the second option. The last sentence was the musing of my contact, not of Tucker Carlson.

I am not suggesting that the intelligence services were behind the assassination attempt this weekend. I have no idea. I am however wondering what thoughts are currently flitting through Trump’s head about his near-death experience.

I was incidentally trying to calculate what fraction of a degree the rifle was mis-aimed by, to miss his brain by one inch at a range of 120 yards. My maths were not up to it, but it is a margin of the tiniest tremor of the hand on the trigger.

I think it is almost certain that Trump has wondered whether the security lapse were not, at the least, caused in part by a lack of zeal and enthusiasm on the part of those state actors co-ordinating his security.

That is no criticism of Trump’s immediate bodyguards, who acted admirably. It is also fair to note that Trump’s own defiance was courageous. He could not have known if other shooters were around, nor how seriously he had himself been hit already.

That personal bearing has almost certainly increased his election chances. Even more so is the fact that, by some strange political alchemy with little relationship to logic, it appears to be accepted wisdom that this incident makes it much more difficult for Democrats to make Joe Biden stand down.

In his address from the White House, Biden did not mistake Trump for Frank Sinatra or forget why he was there. It is thus touted as restoring his position. It was however a typical Biden performance, snide and partisan, particularly in restating his 6 January narrative as though that were a serious threat to democracy and not a stupid, isolated riot.

That democracy in the United States is meaningless is plain from the choice offered to the electorate between two incredibly flawed individuals. It is a scenario you could not make up.

If you were to put Donald Trump and Joe Biden into an entirely random yoga class in Oklahoma, neither Trump nor Biden would be the person in that yoga class best suited to be President of the United States.

There is however one sense in which democracy in the United States is more alive than in the United Kingdom. Here the Establishment got the operative they wanted in Keir Starmer elected, but had no argument with the Tories other than over competence.

In the United States the Establishment is worried that Trump’s isolationist tendencies and lack of enthusiasm for starting wars, may damage the never-ending gravy train of the military industrial complex.

In particular Trump sees both China and Russia as potential trading partners with whom money can be made to mutual benefit. He does not see them primarily as a military threat.

Trump is in short not on board for the whole propaganda narrative that requires designated enemies to fuel massive defence spending, and justify the continuous series of invasions of other countries.

This is not ideological opposition to war on Trump’s part. It is simply that, like China, he realises that trade, finance, investment and soft power are ultimately much more lucrative than the classic western imperialist model of armed conquest.

Trump’s problem is that the powerful vested interests who make money from the western imperialist model include the intelligence services. That is why they ruthlessly undermined his first Presidency.

We saw the utter empty nonsense that was the “Russiagate” hoax, on which I have written extensively, but the simple fact remains there has never been any evidence whatsoever of Russian involvement in leaking the DNC, Clinton or Podesta emails.

We saw the hounding from office of Trump’s National Security Officer General Michael Flynn for conversations with the Russian Ambassador which, when finally released in full, turned out to be entirely proper. We saw the jailing of Roger Stone for lying to the FBI, which the mainstream media disgracefully failed to reveal was for claiming to have links with Wikileaks that he did not in fact have.

We had the famously putrid Guardian front page claiming Manafort/Assange meetings that never happened.

Then to cap it all we had the CIA co-ordinated monstering as fake of the Hunter Biden laptop revelations two weeks before the 2020 election.

That this laptop – which all concerned knew was genuine – was proclaimed false was perhaps the most significant example of fake news in the history of the world. That lying narrative was coordinated between security services, and mainstream media all over the western world and undoubtedly affected the election result.

Even more significantly, both Facebook and Twitter cooperated to suppress Hunter Biden laptop stories and to boost the narrative that the laptop was fake. There was therefore the perfect alliance – security services, state and corporate media, alternative media corporate gatekeepers – working together to promote a lie and ensure Biden’s election.

It says something about the world in which we live that the most important and successful fake news in history was set up precisely by those who claim to be the arbiters of fake news.

Which brings me back to the start of this article. What does Donald Trump do about it if he gets back in to power?

I think Trump is quite right to fear that were he to negotiate a reasonable settlement of the Ukraine war, rather than continue the multi trillion dollar bonanza of weapons, death and high energy prices it now is, then he might be assassinated by his own security services.

For Trump to really run the United States would require an unprecedented cleanout of the Clintonite leadership throughout the security establishment, going much deeper than a normal change of administration. I think Trump always did understand that but found it impractical to “drain the swamp”.

With the ailing Biden, it is obvious to everybody he is not actually in charge of anything. I predict that, if we get a Trump administration, Trump will not actually be in charge either but will settle for an easy life while allowing the Establishment to continue to run the country.

When Peter Cook founded the Establishment Club, nobody scoffed at him and said “what a silly conspiracy theorist, there is no such thing as the Establishment”. I prefer to use that word rather than Deep State. But it is the same thing.

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Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.

Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.

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The Election Where Nothing Changed 205

What exactly has changed as a result of that election, other than a different team of snouts in the trough?

Starmer’s first act as Prime Minister of the UK was to attend a NATO warmonger fest and promise unlimited resources to keep the terrible and unwinnable war in the Ukraine going. In addition he is pledging to increase UK “Defence” spending to 2.5% of GDP, or over £18 billion a year extra – a massive bonanza for the arms industry.

Let us be absolutely plain that this is not “defence”. There is no country which has any plan or even vague intention to invade the UK. In modern history, only Germany, France and the Netherlands ever had such plans (the Netherlands actually succeeded but nobody noticed as the victors write the history).

Russia and China in particular have no intention whatsoever of attacking the UK. Let me write that again because, while it should be a basic fact of international relations, it is one that our entire geopolitical system depends upon denying. In fact I am not sure I have ever seen it stated plainly anywhere else.

Russia and China have no intention whatsoever of attacking the UK.

Our “defence” expenditure is not for defence. It is for power projection overseas. It is spent on aircraft carriers and worldwide nuclear submarines, not on anti-missile defences around British cities.

Our “defence” expenditure is geared to attacking other countries. And attack other countries we do. Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen to name but a few. We are currently attacking Russia by proxy.

Not Gaza but Sirte, Libya after benefiting from NATO "defence" expenditure.

That picture is not Gaza but Sirte in Libya, once Africa’s most prosperous country, after receiving the benefit of NATO “defence” expenditure.

Ask yourself this simple question – when did a Russian missile last land on British soil? The answer is never. Yet Starmer has just announced we are explicitly sending Ukraine missiles capable of striking inside Russia.

Aircraft carriers have no purpose whatsoever except power projection. There is no defensive use of an aircraft carrier. You don’t park them just off the UK to intercept incoming attacks. Aircraft carriers have the sole purpose of taking aircraft to attack countries far away from us. They are agents of imperial power projection.

Starmer’s second call after NATO was to meet Joe Biden to do homage. Which is fitting in this context as our aircraft carriers are incredibly expensive platforms for American aircraft. If Biden had any idea who Starmer was at the time, he will certainly have forgotten by now.

All of this money dedicated to destroying human beings is a firm pledge by Labour. There is however no firm pledge of anything for the NHS beyond further “reform”, which means piecemeal privatisation. There is no firm pledge for anything that does not kill people. It is of course a question of priorities.

For one quarter of the cost of the pledged increase in defence spending, Labour could both lift the two child benefit cap, thus taking over 300,000 children out of child poverty, plus give junior doctors the 30% pay increase they deserve.

Instead we have the unchanging priorities of the British Establishment, enforced by a Labour team who are more heartless and self-serving even than the Tories. Amazingly Labour are more in thrall to the private healthcare lobby, more in thrall to the armaments lobby and more in thrall to the Israel lobby.

Since the advent of universal suffrage, no government has ever been elected with the votes of a smaller percentage of eligible voters. 34% of those voting delivered a massive landslide under the ludicrous UK electoral system, and with a low turnout only 20% of eligible voters backed Starmer.

Picture 70 adults inside a big superstore. On average only 14 of them voted Labour. You can be walking down several aisles and to the checkout and never pass anyone who voted for this government. That is the foundation of popular “support” on which this Starmer regime rests. As the gap between rich and poor grows at unprecedented speed, it is not public support Starmer has to worry about, but something much more fundamental than that.

The Establishment is hacking away at the foundations of public consent to be governed.

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Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.

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Scotland and Me 173

I left Scotland during this election campaign simply because I thought I could do more good campaigning explicitly for Gaza in a seat where Starmer could be punished for his genocidal zionism.

Scottish independence and the freedom of my own country remains the cause closest to my heart. But although Scotland suffers the drain on its resources of every kind that it has suffered every day of the pestilent Union, Scotland’s little children are not currently being blown into pieces. I am therefore justified in my prioritisation of Palestine at the moment.

I formed an alliance for Palestine with my old friend George Galloway. We have had very different positions on Scottish Independence in recent years, though he used to be for it. George told me, and indeed the media, he has given up campaigning against it.

I was happy to support the Workers Party in England because I supported more of their manifesto than that of any other party there, and particularly the re-nationalisation of all natural monopolies.

It was the intention that more of the Independent pro-Palestinian candidates across the country would stand as Workers Party, though with the election being called so quickly structures and alliances for the Left had to be cobbled together.

I did not actually join the party and I did not use the party’s leaflets or its red white and blue branding (except in small imprints of the party logo). I very definitely refused to wear a red white and blue rosette! My campaign concentrated very heavily on Gaza.

It has to be said that the political situation in Scotland is a toxic mess I was glad to be out of for this election. The SNP absolutely deserved the kicking they got.

Support for Independence remains defiantly around 50% as it has done this last eight years, despite the SNP having squandered every single chance to take it forward. The key moment was when Brexit occurred against the will of a very large majority of the Scottish people, expressed in a referendum. That was the moment to declare Independence, against the hated Johnson government.

It is not that Sturgeon bottled it. It is that she had no interest in Independence. She was far more interested in building an extreme cult of personality, featuring hoardings, conferences and vehicles plastered with giant images of herself, and forming a Praetorian Guard of ultra loyal supporters fuelled by a highly charged culture wars agenda.

That included the effort to jail Alex Salmond based on false accusations, which were orchestrated from ****’s office and **** HQ. Were I to fill in the blanks they would send me back to jail.

By accident or design, those most strongly opposed to Nicola’s side of the culture wars agenda also happened to be the most radical supporters of Independence, who were driven from the party en masse, which enabled Sturgeon to continue the conversion of the SNP into a de facto devolutionist party.

Scots are not stupid people, and given the choice between two parties, Labour and SNP, neither of which appeared willing to do anything in practice about Independence, they voted in this election for the one less obsessed with weirdo culture wars, and with a leadership less under criminal investigation.

The SNP were also not helped by the fact that those who left for Alba included nearly all the actual footsoldiers. In the constituency where I live, all of the ward captains who organise the leaflets and posters in their wards left for Alba. It turned out that the SNP’s remaining culture wars enthusiasts were less big on canvassing in the rain.

However Alba itself got nowhere. The ostensibly pro-Independence space is too crowded by the SNP while the media and electoral system militate against new parties. In my view Alba is also over-obsessed, from the other side, with culture wars issues that ordinary people are much too sensible to spend much time thinking about.

One thing that saddens me about the SNP rout is that the party’s talent lay heavily at Westminster, which is where the accident of timing sent many great activists after the 2014 referendum. The SNP benches at Holyrood make me groan, being a result of Sturgeon’s outrageous selection procedures.

Nobody is more sympathetic than me to mental illness (I am bipolar myself), but a situation where a candidate wins over another who got ten times the votes, because the mentally ill get preference, strikes many people as not entirely sound.

So it is a huge mess. I am not sad I missed this election in Scotland, because nothing I could do would have helped. My hope is that this huge defeat will wake the cult up to what Sturgeon did to the party and her monumental failure.

That can lead to a reconciliation to reunite the Independence movement in an SNP which becomes again a broad church, and again focused on gaining Independence, not only at elections.


The Scottish parliamentary elections are two years away. We have that period to capture the 30-40% of Scottish Labour voters who support Independence. I have no doubt disillusion with a Starmer government, elected on 34% of the UK vote (and just 1 in 5 of eligible voters) will set in very, very quickly.

Scottish Independence is still coming within my lifetime. I shall be home soon.

————————————————

Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.

Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.

Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.

Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:

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MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
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The Rejection of Starmerism 172

Millions fewer people turned out to make Keir Starmer Prime Minister than turned out to attempt the same for Jeremy Corbyn. That is the most important fact of this election, and the one the mainstream media works hardest to hide.

TOTAL LABOUR VOTE

Corbyn 2017: 12,877.918
Corbyn 2019: 10,269,213
Starmer 2024: 9,634,399

I don’t think any Prime Minister has ever come to power with less popular enthusiasm than Keir Starmer.

Here in Blackburn we had an astonishing result. I was working on projections which had the Labour vote falling from 29,000 to 15,000 which seemed amazing enough. Although on the doorstep the Labour vote seemed extremely soft, I didn’t imagine it could fall from 29,000 to 10,000 in one election.

This is even more extraordinary because the sitting MP, Kate Hollern, was standing again and during the entire campaign I never heard a bad word against her.

The Labour vote collapsed for two reasons. Firstly because of Starmer’s ardent zionism and the genocide in Gaza. Secondly because Blackburn is a town with a strong socialist tradition, which held entirely firm for Corbyn when the red wall collapsed in 2019.

It is fair to say that Gaza caused the Labour vote to collapse in the Muslim areas and that Labour’s extreme switch to the Thatcherite right caused the Labour vote to collapse in the (there is no good way to say this) white areas. But it is important to realise that there is community crossover on both issues.

While there was concern that “vote-splitting” of the pro-Palestinian vote would let Labour back in, in the end Labour just collapsed too far and in fact the mechanism was more complicated than that.

Very little of Adnan Hussain’s vote came from the “white” areas. I personally witnessed the counting of one ward in the south of the constituency where he only got 2 votes but I got 120, in a ward normally entirely Labour. In fact my ability to take “white” socialist or protest votes from Labour allowed Adnan Hussain in.

I have published my doubts about some of the figures behind Adnan. I sincerely hope he will now prove me wrong and become a formidable opponent to Starmer, particularly over Palestine.

Allow me to say I thought we did brilliantly to get over 7,000 votes. Only 5 weeks ago we had only Naila, myself and one local man who wished to be anonymous. We had no office, no money except what you readers crowdfunded, no party members and no contacts.

From that standing start we wrote, designed, printed and delivered 170,000 leaflets, held five great public meetings and spoke to thousands of voters. We had 80 volunteers working really hard by the end. 30 came from Blackburn and others from 13 different countries!!

Our opponents had well-established networks of supporters and activists. At times our campaign was enormously stressful, at times enormously fun. I must confess I found some of the personal and religious bigotry thrown at me hard to cope with at times.

Well, that is over. The voter turnout in Blackburn was a horribly low 53%. In an election where only 3 million people could bother to watch a Sunak/Starmer TV “debate” that was a race for the right-wing ground, the foundations of Starmer’s apparently huge mandate are very shaky indeed.

Watch this space.

I am exhausted today – obviously more developed thoughts will follow.

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The Happiest of Days 267

I cannot tell you how happy I am at Julian’s release. It is 4.00am and I haven’t been to bed yet. I have spoken to John Shipton but everyone else is on a plane en route to Australia.

The guilty plea is of course coerced in the extreme and nobody should take it seriously. It gives a chance to claim hollow victory to the odious Biden regime, at the cost of a terrible precedent in law classifying journalism in espionage. But the precedent is only in a court of first instance so is not binding.

I should be plain I have always advised Julian and Stella to take a plea deal if offered and get out of jail. I have no doubt this was a life or death choice. I also believe we will be grateful for the still greater contributions Julian’s immense intellect and capacity for radical thought will make to human development in the future.

The Justice Department were further motivated to offer a deal by the fact that they appeared to have painted themselves into a very difficult corner at the next UK extradition hearing in a fortnight, over Julian’s ability as a foreign national acting outside the US to claim constitutional protections, and could have lost the extradition case altogether.

There is so much more to say but if I don’t get some sleep I will not be alive to say it. I am crying with happiness.

Meantime my election campaign in Blackburn continues. We are very seriously out of money. If you can channel your elation into a donation that would be very helpful.



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What Really Happens in Blackburn 87

When I stood in Blackburn against foreign secretary Jack Straw in 2005 as an anti-Iraq war candidate, Jack Straw’s campaign manager was Ibrahim Master. He is now the campaign manager of “Independent” candidate, vote-splitter Adnan Hussain.

This is him on the right campaigning with Adnan.

When I attended a meeting with Adnan until 2.30am three nights ago to try to resolve the vote split that could let Labour back in, Ibrahim Master was in the meeting as Adnan’s second, and did much of the talking.

Jack Straw was the Foreign Secretary personally responsible for the war in Iraq and the death of a million Iraqis, with the blatant lies about Iraqi WMD which he personally told as Foreign Secretary.

Yet in 2005 Master openly campaigned for Straw on the basis that the war in Iraq was not important in Blackburn.

Master drew great criticism for this pro-Straw stance from the wider Muslim community outside Blackburn, but the Muslim community here was under such tight control they voted overwhelmingly for Straw.

Now consider this.

When my candidacy for Blackburn was announced in March, Jack Straw issued an attack on me on 3 April, stating that I had “no cause” to stand in Blackburn.

Then lo and behold, two months later after the election was called Jack Straw’s old fixer turns up with an “Independent Candidate” to split the pro-Palestine vote.

Now you can believe that the man who thought that at least 1 million dead Iraqis was not important enought to oppose Straw and Labour, has had a conversion and is desperately concerned for the children of Gaza.

Other explanations are available.

We are still fighting very hard here. We need help. Come and join us as a volunteer here in Blackburn. Floor space is available.
Contact [email protected].

We are also now completely out of funds! Please donate.



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MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
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The Leaving of Blackburn? 248

With a very heavy heart I have agreed to the toss of a coin to decide whether I or local independent candidate Adnan Hussain should stand in BLackburn.

I feel I am letting down all those who helped and crowdfunded me, and all our local supporters. The amazing support is swelling every day.

But the last minute decision by Blackburn’s independent group of councillors to run a candidate against me, gives the real danger that Genocide Labour will win. As I was unable to agree in a late night meeting with their young candidate yesterday who should step down, I find myself obliged to agree to a coin toss in the wider interest of the Palestine movement.

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Craig Murray in Lahore: Interview With Moeen Azhar, Media City Lahore 15

This wide ranging interview took place in Lahore in May this year while on a tour from Lahore to Chittral.

I also met with the PTI leadership and with Imran’s legal team.

I also got to umpire some cricket matches, including at the wonderful Lahore Gymkhana, venue of Pakistan’s first ever Test Match, and at Langlands, Chittral in the Hindu Kush which may be the world’s highest cricket pitch.

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Public Meeting On Gaza Genocide With Chris Hedges and Richard Medhurst Blackburn 13 June 2024 52

This was a fabulous meeting to a packed hall. There were moments in both Chris and Richard’s speeches where you could have heard a pin drop and breath was held.

https://rumble.com/v51rgsj-craig-murray-richard-medhurst-and-chris-hedges-talk-to-a-packed-hall-in-bla.html

[ The speeches begin at the following points:

0:00 Introduction, by Craig Murray
01:42 Chris Hedges
25:04 Richard Medhurst
46:07 Craig Murray

Chris Hedges has also posted a discussion between all three speakers which took place after the main event. ]

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Ten Facts About Craig Murray Part 1 32

I have been told that many people in Blackburn know nothing of me, so I have made ten short videos giving ten facts about Craig Murray. I am posting one a day to be followed by ten equally short videos giving key policies for the future.

So here is number one:

Our campaign HQ is looking rather smart

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Our Current Campaign Leaflet 88

This is what we are currently putting through doors.

In 50 years of political campaigning I have never before known a leaflet which in itself changes people’s attitudes towards you immediately. This one really does, in the most positive way possible.

Do come and help me campaign. It is enjoyable to be on the side of good and seeking to defy the two big pro-Genocide parties. Floor space is available if you need it.

Contact [email protected]

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George Galloway and Me: Stop the Genocide 376

Now updated with Campaign Launch Video below.

In December 1980 I stood alongside George Galloway in Caird Square as the flag of Palestine was hoisted above Dundee City Chambers to mark the twinning of Dundee with Nablus in the West Bank. I was 22 years old.

George had led the campaign for the twinning, against much opposition. In those days I worked alongside George to support the striking miners, in support of striking workers at Timex and NCR as Thatcherism ripped through the city, in the Anti-Nazi League and in other causes.

George and I never had the same politics. But we cooperated.

And now we are together working to do everything within our power to halt the sickening genocide of the Palestinian People in Gaza and indeed in the West Bank. Because that is the absolute priority at this moment.

Both major parties support arms sales to Israel, military cooperation with Israel, intelligence links to Israel and trade with Israel. We have to give people something else to vote for.

But I am happy to say I also firmly support the need to give an alternative to the Thatcherite economic policy offered by both Labour and Tory.

I heard Rachel Reeves launch Labour’s economic policy yesterday and the emphasis on fiscal rigidity, on tax cuts, on allowing untrammelled capital formation, bore no trace of social democratic, let alone socialist thinking.

The return to the homely analogies of state finances with family finances absolutely mirrored Thatcher and either wilfully embraced a fallacy or showed extraordinary ignorance.

Fundamental reform is needed as late-stage capitalism hurtles towards unsustainable wealth inequality and widespread lack of opportunity in a helot society. I am very pleased to align myself with the Workers Party on nationalisation of Rail, Water, Energy and all natural monopolies – which has always been my position. That is just a start.

Finally the Tory stance of Starmer, banging on about “Border security” and endorsing huge amounts of money pumped to the military-industrial complex, sickens me in supposedly coming from a left-wing party.

Starmer leads a Genocide Party and is as Tory as they come.

There isn’t a cigarette paper on domestic policy between Labour and Tory. But I am unapologetic in admitting that I would not be in Blackburn fighting this election were it not for Gaza.

Will a politician who is prepared to be complicit in thousands of children being slaughtered in Gaza, genuinely care about the education of your child as a poor person in the UK?

George and I still hold different views on many things, but the notion that you have to cancel anybody with whom you disagree on anything is a foolish one and can only lead to a general decline in intellectual rigour.

Here are George and I debating Scottish Independence. I hope it is an example of how two people can hold fundamentally opposed positions on an issue, and debate them openly without softening of the differences, yet with mutual respect.

Now we have to win this election in Blackburn and send a message against genocide, and provide me with a platform in the House of Commons where I can take forward my views as expressed for two decades on this blog.

This is the moment when I need help. Come here now and join the campaign on the streets of Blackburn. Come now from wherever you are. Give a few days or weeks to working against the genocide.

Accommodation here is strangely expensive; if you have a sleeping bag we can find floor space.

If you can help in any way please email [email protected]. Otherwise donations to the election fund are very essential!



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Genocide in Rafah and the ICJ 161

It is difficult to imagine a more depraved, brutal and cowardly act than bombing refugee families in their tents, but I think we now all understand there is no moral depth which the terrorist entity that is Israel will not plumb.

I think you know I have been regularly crying hot tears over the slaughter of innocents and the complicity of the western states. I hope that you will understand it is not from indifference to the unspeakable suffering, that I respond with a disquisition on grammar.

There was an extraordinary unanimity across the entire mainstream media in giving the same misrepresentation of the recent ICJ Order to Israel to stop operations in Gaza.

How does it happen that both media and political class unite in pumping out the same misinterpretation of a document, when that interpretation is not only wrong but impossible?

We are told that the ICJ did not unambiguously order Israel to stop its operations in Rafah, but left “wiggle room” for Israel to conduct operations in a surgical manner without endangering civilians.

The propaganda line goes that Israel was only ordered to halt its offensive insofar as it may cause conditions that could endanger the Palestinian group as a whole.

But what the court said is this:

Israel must immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

The Zionist spin is that the final clause qualifies the first clause and thus the offensive need only be stopped if it “inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

The argument then runs that an offensive in Rafah allegedly designed not to do this may go ahead. [I explain the Zionist spin, leaving aside for the moment that it is plain to the entire world that Israel is anyway inflicting exactly those conditions of life on the Palestinians.]

But that is a grammatically impossible interpretation.

I do accept that the second comma means that the final clause does also apply to the first statement and not just the “any other action” clause, although that is arguably ambiguous.

But even accepting that, if we remove the middle clause and apply the final clause only to the “offensive”, we still get this:

Israel must immediately halt its military offensive… which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

The order to stop the offensive is peremptory. There is no way to parse the entire sentence which does not give a direct order to “immediately halt its military offensive.”

Let me give a precise analogy.

“Stop playing football in the house, you may break the Ming vase”

CANNOT mean

“Carry on playing football, you might not break the Ming vase.”

I might take time to note the position of the British Labour Party, which is claiming it supports the International Court of Justice, but on the basis of the deliberate misinterpretation of its rulings. Keir Starmer has still at time of writing not condemned last night’s massacre in Rafah.

This is a turning point in history. The mask has been pulled away from the West and the pretence of support for international law has almost entirely been abandoned. It is fascinating to witness the determined efforts of the media and politicians to keep events in Gaza out of the election campaign.

As both major parties support continued arms sales and military support to Israel, and in the words of Keir Starmer support Israel “unequivocally”, it is unsurprising they wish the genocide happening now to be ignored in the campaign.

We have to make sure that does not happen.

 

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Craig Murray Blackburn Election Fund 222

This is it. The election is called and I am standing in Blackburn to offer voters there a viable alternative to the Keir Starmer Genocide Party.

I cannot do it without your financial support and practical campaigning help.



Any individual donations over £50 in value will require to be declared to the Returning Officer together with your full name and address and you must be on the UK Electoral Register at the time the donation is made (we are required by law to verify this). No overseas donations over £50 can be accepted unless you are currently on the UK Electoral Register. No anonymous donations can be accepted above £50. Information about donations, including donor details may be published. Returning Officers make returns prepared by candidates available for inspection after elections. These include details of donations.

Keir Starmer has calculated that no matter how far he abandons working people and moves the Labour Party to the right, those voters who are themselves getting the short straw in the vastly unequal distribution of wealth in society, or who simply wish to see a fairer world, have nowhere else to go.

In doing so he has completely sold out the party to the Israeli lobby, to the extent Starmer has actively supported the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. Labour still support UK arms sales to Israel. He stated three times Israel has the right to cut off water and electricity and supported the UK stopping funding to UNRWA. Labour actively oppose sanctions against Israel. Labour support the provision of British military and intelligence support to the Israeli military.

Labour do this because they receive millions in funding from the Zionist lobby.

Not one Labour MP has resigned from Labour Friends of Israel over the Gaza genocide. Not one: I have cried bitter tears every single day for eight months over the children slaughtered in Gaza.

I have also done everything one man can to stop it. I was in the courtroom at the International Court of Justice for the South Africa vs Israel genocide hearing. My articles on the use of the Genocide Convention were read by key members of South Africa’s cabinet before they took the decision to go ahead.

A decade ago I had advised the Palestinian Authority to accede to the Rome Convention on the International Criminal Court. That is what has enabled the prosecution of Netanyahu.

I travelled to Geneva and spoke at the United Nations there. I have spoken at pro-Palestinian demonstrations in eight different countries since the genocide started, and have done hundreds of interviews with media worldwide.

In October I was detained at Glasgow Airport under the Terrorism Act and subject to police investigation because of my support for Palestine.

My voice is one of experience and authority on the issue and needs to be heard in the House of Commons.

But not only on Gaza. Labour has abandoned the key policies which are needed to return us to a more just society, including the abolition of tuition fees and the renationalisation of the privatised utilities. Starmer lied and lied to get elected leader, and is a complete creature of the Establishment.

The Labour Party majority in Blackburn is massive. The Tories are an irrelevance in Blackburn with under a quarter of the vote even when winning the last election. Labour have 66%. The only way to stop this genocidal juggernaut in Blackburn is my campaign.

Across England the Workers Party, Independents and Green Party candidates offer alternatives depending on location. (The Celtic nations have wider choice and a better starting position).

I particularly want to see George Galloway, Jeremy Corbyn, Andrew Feinstein and myself in parliament as the core of a principled and hopefully large group of real intellect and capability.

I intend to stand in parliament and fight for the interests of the people of Blackburn, against a state and political class which does not care and is increasingly oppressive.

This blog is the repository of millions of words of my views. I am an open book. Those are the things I intend now to say in Parliament. I am standing at the invitation of Blackburn people, and under the flag of their alliance with the Workers Party.

I am going to need both financial and practical assistance from readers of this blog. I need as many people as possible to come to Blackburn to do leafleting, door knocking and organisation according to their talents and preference. We should be ready to receive you there shortly.

Those who cannot do this will find there is still much to do spreading the word on social media.

We are going to speak truth to power. We are going to have great fun mixing with wonderful people. And we are going to win.

Cryptocurrency donations welcome:

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Alternatively

Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB

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