"There seems to be a public understanding that the expenses scandal is only a symptom of a party political system that is not functioning and not helping people. " - That's surprising but encouraging.

P.S. Craig. Not heard about your funding campaign yet. But I advise you to get donations from personal donations and individual that are prepared to go on record (publishable if necessary) as having donated to you, with a declaration the money comes from their own pocket.

I fear some 'spook' will lob some money at you and strangely, it will be "exposed" later. Also only accept money from up-front legit businesses and organisations. Ask your team to research these companies before accepting their money if necessary.

They'll most certainly be out for you.

Dear Craig,
Very best of wishes for the campaign! I hope people will be able to gain access to your website. I was in a hotel in the Netherlands and tried to access your site via one of the hotel computers. However, the site was inaccessible, purely because the words "naked women" (or it might have been "nude women") appear somewhere on the site and their software identified this as possible porn and blocked the contents. I say this as you will need to be as visible as possible and a website free of blocking triggers might be a plus.

I live in Cambridge - not too far. So will be very happy to come up. When does it all kick off? Or has it?

Sex filtration in the Netherlands? Crikey

Dear Craig

I hope the Campaign is going well and remember you have to fight hard every single minute of every single day to the close of polling.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

"I have been trying to hire empty shops to use as campaign centres, but the Conservative Party has in some cases got there first and been hiring them for two months - so they obviously expect an early election."

Who told them?.How did they know?.

Good luck.

Will inform the people I know in Norwich, and good luck seconded.

No empty shops in Norwich?

Does that imply there are green shoots of recovery?

Craig,

I think your first poster is great. I've been thinking about how to get your message across as quickly and cheaply as possible.

One thing to consider is all large gatherings in the Norwich area - like Festivals

http://www.visitnorwich.co.uk/norwich-festivals.aspx

e.g

Lord Mayor's Celebration
Norwich
Gather your friends and family and hit the city, we are having a hot festival bonanza. The Lord Mayor's Celebration is the city's biggest community celebration and is set in the heart of the city on the streets of Norwich. Celebration events include a carnival, fireworks, two-day music festival, funfair, street entertainers, dancers, comedy, outdoor cinema and lots more.
9 - 12th July 2009 more details

It should be possible even at short notice to set up a stall - and even if not just leaflet everyone.

Just go round sticking small flyers in peoples hands and on their windscreens.

You could do thousands in hours with a few volunteers. Most will get binned - but the message will still get across even if subliminally, very efficiently.

Tony

Accomodations is sorted out. Those who come to Norwich should give Craig a call.
Some spectacular events are planned that cannot ignore Craigs campaing, because the local Archant media, rumoured to have a Tory party member on the examining board for their higher jobs, will do its utmost to ignore anyone, bar the usual rabble that it now keeps company with in Europe.
If the Tory party is now hobnobbing with the Flamish fascists and polish homophobes, they are standing side by side with the UKIP and the BNP as well.
They have made their own bed, now they are discovering that in the light of day, these new allures, do not look as pretty as they thought.
Norfolk county council now has a Tory majority, some 54 out of 80 councillors are also District councillors. By running for cover to find a job at the County level, they are now subverting a futile unitary process in Norfolk.

And they are taking two expence allowances since they are elected,the Tory's are playing games with taxpayers money in Norfolk and we will say so.

Come on up/down to beautifull Norfolk, Norwich is a 'fine city', just as the university of East Anglia's motto, 'do different' it is intended to raise the issues of sleaze and self centred politicians.
The media has already abandoned electoral law, not one candidate is called propsective anymore. Norwich is 'swamped' with party politicians opening their pockets, 'flooding' the voters heads with their most aspirational promises and wishfull thinking, but generally not saying very much at all. We will.

Those who'd like to come and love the outdoors, can bring a tent and gear to camp should they so wish, there is ample space to pitch it for that Glastonbury feeling without the mud.

I see the Green Party have selected their candidate: Dr Rupert Read, a university lecturer.

Seeing as I live right over the other side of the country there's little point in my offering any help, but please accept my very best wishes with this - I really hope you give the establishment a shock! :)

How do we make a financial contribution?

Here's Rupert: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/24-06-2009-rupert-read-norwich-north.html

Seems like a nice boy!

Can I come up and campaign for both of you?

Strategist, you can get one better, you can choose.
Between a dogmatic Green party campaign, run with target to win strategy taken from the Lib Dems. and strictly along party lines, with Roo bursting a vessel now and then.

Or, a totally retro anarchic campaign, with some expertise, which with your help, could only improve.
There is a large interest by very young voters, honesty being an issue, expense scandals, nationally as much as in Norfolk, there are issues galore.

Come on in, strategist, the choice is yours.
We have a very relaxing space for those who come for work and help.

Rupert could pick up a lot of votes that might otherwise go to Craig. I suppose it is too much to hope he might have been a member of the Bullingdon Club :-)

Thanks Ingo, I really will try to come up soon.

Please don't waste energy attacking the Greens though ("totally dogmatic" etc), tiresome though LibDem-style "target to win" no doubt is when in your face.

We become what we despise - it happened to the LibDems, could well happen to the Greens, but hasn't happened yet, in my view.

You must have a great chance now that Nadal is out.

Orrabest.

There is now a facebook events page set up by my son last night. It is set up as an open event so anybody wanting to come can leave supporting messages, there is also a contact email address.

I hear what you are saying Strategist, one mustn't fall into the trap of negative campaigning, already in full swing. Should you want to trawl the news items of the EDP you will find the first spats are already developing.
After 34 years of Green party membership, having done many activities and volunteering within the party, I had not even a thank you, how would you feel about such touchy feely greeny rejection?
They are lucky I have not started a blog up highlighting their parties hairy backside.
When you come up I shall elaborate, or hand you a beer, whatever is more appropriate at the time.

why werent you at a single dundee graduation this week? you are the rector and neither you nor your assesor could be bothered to turn up, so much for your outlandish pledges to make regular visits and get involved with students, i think you've made it up twice this year...

This is the price of having an increasingly successful independent international statesman as your Rector. You should be proud!

I'm sure Craig would be up at Dundee as often as he possibly could, were he not in Ghana or fighting by-elections!

Are you Dundee folks coming down to Norwich to help campaign? You should - it will be a fantastic experience, better than any summer work experience placement!

we should be proud? the rectors job is to represent students and listen to their concerns and i've been told he hasn't beeen to a single SRC for over a year, hasn't attended a single graduation for 2 years and we're lucky if he's met a single student out with two or three stop the war meetings since he was elected

as it says on this site he pledged to do more than Lorraine Kelly to represent students and has actually done less.

Have you graduated Dundee student? If you have, why do you question that Craig is prioritising an election campaign and not your graduation?

I have many times said that I would do stuff, but could not always keep up with it, because of some circumstances that crept up.
I did not expect anybody to come to my graduation, cause I worked for it, not my lecturers, but then I'm a mature student. Why should I bother to drape myself in traditional robes and mortarboard in an act of academic poncification? no need what so ever, unless you like pomp and circumstance.
Come on down and enjoy some time out with some real work, you can talk to him in the flesh.

i have indeed graduated and in fact am already doing 'real work'

the point i was making is that students at Dundee have had an absentee rector for 2 years now. If Craig is too busy to get involved then he should simply step down and let students elect someone who has more time.

had he lived up to his promises and then not turned up at graduations then i wouldnt care less, what bothers me is that he has spent 2 years doing nothing, hasn't met a single student who is not part of a left wing fringe group, as i said he has not been to an SRC meeting all year, a single graduation ceremony since he was elected, a single summer school graduation ceremony, his court attendence has been hit and miss and he hasn't organised a single surgery.

this is not a one off blunder, this is a consistent record of failure and broken promises, we elected him because we wanted a figure head who would spend time with students, instead we have someone who has failed on every level

Congratulations to both, your grades and your job, mature students struggle on the latter believe me.

Would you have felt much better with Craig being there? His wife just gave birth to their first son and he had to re-adjust to life as a father at an age when your eager self will probably yearn for retirement, give the man a break.
Further more, why don't you have a a break yourself, Norwich is such a fine City.

dundee student

How strange that you turn up on this blog at this time?.Saying things like..."this is a consistent record of failure and broken promises, we elected him because we wanted a figure head who would spend time with students, instead we have someone who has failed on every level".

Me thinks like others that you are trying to tell the voters of Norwich North that Craig will not make a good MP. It won`t work dundee student you are so transparent.

If you were a regular reader of Craig`s blog you would know that Craig does work to help people in far off places and was doing that just last week and on many other occasions, as Craig has just blog on here..."June 21, 2009, I am finally back in the UK!".

Very strange that you say..."i have indeed graduated"...Hmmmm,yet you come on here calling yourself "dundee student" as I said you are so "transparent".

i think that is very naughty of u 2 suggest such a thing mr dutton

ok george i have obvously wound you up, are you suggesting i'm not a student? check the dundee papers or the alike, graduations took place today, also if i werent a student then how would i knoe that he hasn't attended a single SRC meeting in over a year?

to repond to your conspiracy, the reason i posted today was because it was the last day of graduations for the year, had the last day been last Friday i would have posted then and if it were next Friday i would have posted next Friday (persuming he failed to turn up)

you are right though, i dont think he would make a good MP and that is in a large part because he's been such an anonymous rector. However that is a decision for the people of Norwich to make, personally i would vote Green

i do not intend to camp or spam though and that is why my comments are limited to this thread and this thread only. i will not post about this on another thread as i dont wish to spam and i have more important things to care about than how Craigs election goes...

i notice not one person who has defended Craig has actually taken on the points i made about his record of attendence. to repeat, this is not about is attendence at this weeks graduation, it's about the fact this is one example from two years of failing to turn up to ANYTHING, no SRC's, surgeries, meet and greets, summer school visits or anything.

as someone who voted for Craig i am actually a regular reader of this blog

"ok george i have obvously wound you up"

"to repond to your conspiracy"

dundee student

That is so eddie?...Are you related?.

thanks Ingo

i am sure it is a lovely city and regardless of my views on craigs time as our rectos i do hope the good people of Norwich end up with a better representative than some cash thieving labour MP.

my own prference is for the greens but the electoral system will almost certainly produce a Tory

grades were good thanks, i know what you mean about students having trouble finding work though, a lot of my friends are unemployed a year or two after graduating so in coparison i'm one of the lucky ones

Craig, can you please respond to the facts that you have done nothing in your capacity as Dundee Rector?

How can you say you will serve the people of Norwich North if you can't fulfil a few functions in your other role?

How can you say you are an honest man when you left your wife and kids for a belly dancer less than half your age?

welldundee student, you do know Craig and do not like him for your own reasons, I on the other hand know

Rupert Read, as well an academic who comes over as aloft, he has a vile temper and is not seen as particulary close, to students or constitutents.
And thats not coming from me but froma stall halder on Norwich market.

You castigate Craig for having other priortities than your graduation, but are prepared to vote blind for a Green that has not much to offer Norwich.
Do you think thats an objective judgement?and can we digress therefore that your previous judgement was equally skewed?

denim justice, your taboidally challenged mind ought to realise that your third quote is very close to malicious slander, check your facts before you mouth off here.

Good luck with the campaign Craig,
I'll be coming down to help out where I can soon!

Go get em Bro...

denim justice...if you had bothered to read Murder in Samarkand, all your questions would have been answered!

Best way to get Craig to attend your graduation would have been to offer him a nice lunch with a decent bottle of vino...it normally works for me.

I went to all the graduation ceremonies in my first year and found that There is no role for the Rector ar graduation. You don't make a speech or give out degrees. You are just one of several score people seated on a stage - I am flattered you noticed I was not there.

The real job of Rector is to represent students on University Court. I have attended 85% of Court meetings. On occasions I have flown back from other continents to attend.

Lorraine Kelly attended 5% of Court meetings, so don't bullshit about how she represented students better. She also went to hust one graduation ceremony. I have been to four. You are talking complete nonsense.

I have never received any communication from the SRC and never received notice of any meeting of the SRC. I went voluntarily to one meeting - again, one more than Lorraine Kelly. If someone has the grace to indorm me of a meeting, I will see if I can come.

I don`t think you will be able to match this Craig...Tells you what to expect after the next election...New Labour in turbo mode...

http://tinyurl.com/nu8v2o

Maybe Craig may have attended more Dundee meetings had there been young belly dancers in attendance?

I think it's amazing how those supporting Craig on this blog love to resort to negative attacks on other parties' candidates. It's bizarre how Craig thinks that just because the Tories are in pole position, only an independent candidate can win. Um, hello? Now you're just splitting the vote between Labour, Greens, and Lib Dems, and Ian Gibson himself if he stands! I'm not saying this to say "you'll let the Tories in", just to point out how illogical your argument is!

What have you already done for the people of Norwich North? What is your track record of serving constituents in a political capacity? How can you prove you will be an effective constituency MP? How do we know you won't just run off with a wee young Norwich lass because you got bored of your current model?

This is all smacks of a vanity project. You can't win, the people of NN don't know who you are, if you're trying to make a point about sleazy MPs it would help to run in an election where the MP was actually sleazy rather than just a bit nepotistic... are you really so bored of life that you want to humiliate yourself in such a fashion?

Come on Craig... you're a decent, outspoken guy. I think you're an awesome public speaker, and have proven you are a brave man. So why the vanity project? You will end up like George Galloway, the only difference being he actually won his election.

denim justice..... straight from your pants, how putrid and illogical.
Sadly during election campaigns, one is very busy with walking and other physical activities so you might talk to yourselfs for a wee while.

How much does denim justice get paid for his services here, the mind boggles

Denim thingy obviously hasn't read the rather touching love story in Murder in Samarkand.

My wife and I have just got back from the funeral of one of my wife's friends. She had just got of hospital after a major operation. At the funeral a friend said to my wife..."Do you know what she died off" my wife said "no"...The friend said..."MRSA, the bastards".

Denim Justice seems to like the sound of his/her own voice.

http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2009/06/24/david-camerons-new-eu-alliance-of-bigots-crumbling-already/
(Comments)

On a point of English grammar in his/her post at 1.26am, it should be 'bored with' and not 'bored of'.

Yes, it's 23 July

As revealed by the Daily Maybe last night, the mainstream media is also now reporting that the writ for the Norwich North by-election will be moved in the Commons this afternoon

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6608243.ece

Best of luck, i am based in london so willbe suporting you moraly.
Have you though of standing under the Jury Team banner

I am a lifelong Liberal Democrat, but I will support you in this byelection. My party has lost its moral compass. What it needs, to help it regain its principles, is a kick in the backside from your good self!

Here are some ideas for an A5 handout leaflet in case you find them useful.

SEND THEM A MESSAGE

To: The Right Honourable Gordon Brown, David Cameron Esquire, and the Honourable Nicholas Clegg,

We, the electors of Norwich, are not going to vote for ANY of your people again, until you:

STOP the expenses fiddle

STOP paying bankers multimillion-pound bonuses out of our public money

STOP trying to kid the public about jobs, taxes, and phony promises

START listening to people and taking notice of the things that matter to us

We are going to

PUT AN HONEST MAN INTO PARLIAMENT

CRAIG MURRAY X

Every vote will count!

(two-line biography in smaller print to make the point that your career sacrifice shows you are the honest man)

Thanks for the support David, do come along, we have got 22 days to pursuade the electorate.
last night, Newsnight, was well informed of Craig's standing in Norwich North via a press release, they did not even have the decency of putting him on the list of candidates.

The local media is equally shy and we will have to do this all by ourselves.

help is very much appreciated get in touch with us.

Why the people of Norwich North should vote for an HONEST man and put Craig Murray into Parliament...

"The Tory shadow cabinet contains 13 millionaires, and the party has just taken on a new treasurer, Crispin Odey, to boost City donations. Odey is a leading hedge fund manager, said to have made a fortune out of short-selling banks in last year’s crash."

"In reality, both Labour and the Tories are working hand in glove with finance capital to place the cost of the recession on the backs of working people and ensure that the financial aristocracy of the City continue to pocket their millions."...

http://tinyurl.com/lnty3y

"My wife and I have just got back from the funeral of one of my wife's friends. She had just got of hospital after a major operation. At the funeral a friend said to my wife..."Do you know what she died off" my wife said "no"...The friend said..."MRSA, the bastards"...

http://tinyurl.com/nk6ba8

They are not as big as the maggots you will find in the houses of parliament.

WHAT THE HELL 3 DVDS. CAME THROUGH DOOR TO DAY I AM SURE ONE PER HOUSHOLD WOULD OF BEEN ENOUGH. AND WHICH RUBBISH BIN DO WE PUT THEM IN .THE BROWN GREEN OR GREY VERY ECO WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY