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July 26, 2008
Civility in Politics, and Other Thoughts
My post below brought a comment from Darren who objected to my rather strong and personal attacks on Margaret Curran and Doug Hoyle.
I used to be one of the most civil and orthodox people you might meet. Then I came across the hideous torture in Uzbekistan. I could give hundreds of examples. Two men were boiled alive, a woman was raped with a broken bottle, my neighbour was held down while a truck was driven over her legs, the teenage grandson of Professor Mirsiadov was abducted from outside his home and tortured to death while I was inside eating dinner with his grandfather. And I found that our government not only supported the regime that was doing this as part of the "War on Terror", but was knowingly and repeatedly receiving and using the intelligence reports that arose from these hideous torture sessions. I then discovered we were doing this not just in Uzbekistan, but all over the world, in support of "extraordinary rendition".
Then we have the War in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians - indeed many, many thousands if you only count the children - have been brutally and violently killed as a result of an illegal war launched when we had full knowledge that Iraq no longer had any significant WMD.
We have actively caused the deaths in agony of hundreds of thousands. And yet I found that my colleagues in the diplomatic service were carrying on politely as though none of this had happened - just as those who loaded prisoners on to cattle trucks for Auschwitz were nice people with wives and kids. And I found that at home we were supposed to conduct the charade of party politics in the normal way, as though our government's actions were not causing screaming deaths in agony. Well. I sincerely hope that the worst that ever happens to Margaret Curran is that I called her a shrew-faced bitch. Compare her distress to that of a mother watching her children die crying with their guts hanging out. Margaret Curran is a lot better off than thousands of very real women, who were just as human as her, and whose lives the illegal wars of New Labour have destroyed.
So think about it, Darren. And fuck the politenesses of politics.
Posted by craig on July 26, 2008 6:20 AM in the category War in Iraq
Comments
Well said. It needs saying more and more and louder and louder.
Posted by: ken ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 26, 2008 9:28 AM
Nightmarish to read. Even more nightmarish is the practical expediency of so many of the politicians who've never been to the places they influence. You have, and react, which is why I continue to read your site.
Fuck their 'politeness' indeed.
Posted by: richo at July 26, 2008 9:43 AM
Brilliantly expressed! It's time the British people rose up, stopped being frightened of creating waves and called a bastard a bastard.
Posted by: ruth at July 26, 2008 1:52 PM
politeness is a tool of the establishment, it is used to defuse criticism and helps to keep the status quo, It tends to stand in the way of honesty and truth and in the field of politics especially, should be removed.
Posted by: ann arky at July 26, 2008 8:14 PM
But one has to be grateful to Curran for, once again, graphically reminding us of the nature of the beast.
These self-interested, unprincipled, amoral animals have tunnel vision.
Posted by: Chuck Unsworth at July 27, 2008 8:35 AM
Have you read Neil Mckays article in this weeks Sunday Herald, Craig.?
CACI will be conducting the next census!
I will not comply nor pay any fine that may arise.
Short video here,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcCbdbpZJtU
Posted by: Den at July 28, 2008 8:47 AM
Craig good to see you blogging regularly again we need your informed comments and yes you are quite right about Curran or the banshee from Baillieston as we call her.Good also to see you are at the book festival and if you want a bed let me know Hugh Kerr
Posted by: Solidaritysupporter at July 28, 2008 1:36 PM
What really breaks my heart is that nobody seems to care about the things Craig describes, but as soon as the economy has a little hiccup, Nu Labour suddenly seem to be on their way out.
Posted by: NoJags Neil at July 30, 2008 1:15 PM