Am finding it very difficult to get a contact number for you Craig. My name is Geoff Webb and I am the 'Make Your Vote Count' coordinator for the Public and Commercial Services Union in Eastern

I am organising a Candidates Question Time Session at Norwich Council Chambers on Thursday 16th July as part of the run up to the by election. You are invited to attend. 01733 558587 07969751487 Thank You

Puppet Theatre! Barrack St!
Should this venue not be reserved for NuLab/Old Tory toadies?

Geoff Webb:

In his post on June 24 Craig gave the contact number 07979 691085

I hope some comments on your leaflet on www.putanhonestman.org might be helpful.

You have worked very hard to show that you are personally a strong credible candidate, and that has some value. But what I think you need for your next leaflet is something much punchier, and something that is centred more on JOE PUBLIC than on Craig Murray.

Individual people need to be motivated to vote for you. The vote has to mean something for THEM. Explain to them that your candidature gives them the chance they needed to kick those cheating b*st*rds in the teeth, and then they will get motivated!

It's not about Samarkand, and in a sense, it isn't even really about you. All Samarkand demonstrates, now, is that you have the right to act as the symbol of the honest man, just as Martin Bell might have done.

Take that demonstration as read, and run with it. Explain that EVERY single vote you get really does matter. Winning would be good, but even 5% would be good, because the big parties know that 5% is a winning margin. So if you score even 5%, they are going to be scared, they are going to feel the pressure of public opinion to clean up their act .... and the more votes you get, the more scared they will be....

Thank you for the invitation Geoff Webb. this campaign is running fast and we haver heard of the hustings, excellent idea.

I can assure you that Craig will attend the hustings, indeed he would like to encourage as many as possible, because people have to hear it from the horses mouth.
They will want to ask Cloe Smith were she originates from, they will want to know why young New labour boy Chris, replacing old Labour Ian, favours City academies as the panacea to our educationay ills?
Pseudo religous and unqualified for education, happy clappy car dealers of the Varsy variety are carving up educationary budgets, thriving, whilst many main stream teachers are laid off, as was the issue today of a demo at Norwich City college.
Theres nothing wrong and nothing right with grammar schools, but giving more control over the curriculum to local teachers, children, schools and parents has got to be a better option than a blind central stranglehold over our local schools by christian fundamentalists.
City academies under their leadership could easily become the breeding grounds for madrassa type ills, delivered by dogmatic godworshipping? ideology before humanity, where will it end.
Answers on a second class postal stamp and in neat handwriting please.

Craig

Excellent advice to you @David Allen below.

It's the voters' egos that need boosting, not CM's - some would argue that's big enough already!

Good luck from Perthshire - there are a lot of people out there rooting for you.

For David Allen

Thanks for your helpful comments on the introductory leaflet. I will be manning Craig's campaign office in Norwich for most of the time from tomorrow (and was busy delivering leaflets last weekend). I'd be grateful if you could send me contact details (email/phones) as I'd like to consult you as the campaign develops, including the angle about the BBC's perverse preference for old style party politics.
Please contact me by email (biodiplomacy@yahoo.co.uk), mobile 07918-634-146 or - today only - my London landline 020 8693 3584. Thanks

And do something about the bloody football team. I'm going to see them in Kirkcaldy on 14th. Your Rector's Assessor.

Democracy is dead - The Conservative Party no longer believe in telling the truth nor do they believe in civil rights. I live in Rutland and tried to publish the following online in Rutland Online link to chat forum. It has been removed. The local press won't hold corrupt councillors or political leaders to account and it seems that we are increasingly treated as the serfs of those who consider themselves our political masters, rather than our political servants:

Hi Trojan Horse

See you got my posting - seems to have shown what the Rutland Chat is really all about. However the original copy reads as follows:

CRY FREEDOM - What the press won’t say (And wiperound won’t report)

Patsy Clifton, stalwart of the Conservative Party, one time local Oakham shop owner and Councillor overheard a conversation in Mel’s “Corner Shop” on Sunday morning. Like the rest of Oakham, a man and a woman were slagging off the MP over his expenses.

Bravely joining battle on behalf of Dinky Dunc she sallied forth, demanding to know what the man did. He said he worked and drew a pension as an ex-RAF serviceman.

‘Well what’s the difference between you and Alan Duncan?’ she asked. ‘He’s taking only what’s rightly his and you’re doing the same.’ Pensioners who claim their pensions and bus passes are only doing exactly the same she insisted. ‘I’ve worked hard all my life, I ran two local shops and I claim my pension and I’m no different from Alan Duncan,’ she said, entirely forgetting that on top of his £23,027 second home expenses Alan Duncan also received a salary of £64,766.

Indeed?

Locals tell me Patsy Clifton gained some notoriety as a Councillor, blocking planning permission for competing retail initiatives in the town. According to local gossip she also rented a garage; a garage owned by the Council, that should be rented out to Council tenants, for which there is a long waiting list. I’m told Patsy got to the top of that waiting list in no time at all. So far as I know Patsy Clifton is not a Council tenant.

If Patsy knows anything different perhaps she’d like a right of reply.

And the band played on -

Mrs Fillingham, Mayor and Greta Garbo wanna be, could be seen on Sunday 14th June watching the band play in Cutts Close. Local resident and keen amateur photographer, Martin Brookes, had already snapped a rear view picture of The Mayor, seated prominently in a deck chair, surrounded by colourful green and blue glasses and an empty wine bottle.

When, too late, Mrs Fillingham spotted Martin she hid behind her newspaper, peeping round at Martin, in an OTT pose of: ‘I do not vant to be seen / photographed.’ The camera shy Mayor has been a keen campaigner to stop drinking in the park. It seems some animals are more equal than others. Martin then snapped a picture of the new sign in Cutts Close:

“OAKHAM IS A DESIGNATED PUBLIC PLACE
If you continue to drink alcohol in this area when asked not to do so by a police officer you are liable on conviction to a

Maximum fine of £500

You may be arrested if you fail to surrender any intoxicating liquor to a police officer in this area.”

Martin posted the photos on FLICK’r and within a couple of days his FLICK’r account had been closed, after reports of abuse to Yahoo. Coincidence?

http://www.flickr.com/

Waterloo

Attended by the press The Mayor (aka Greta Garbo) opened the new public loos in the car park, opposite All Saints Church (no sign to say what they are) in Oakham on 22nd June.

When Roger Begy, Leader of the Council, saw local political campaigner Jo Goodliffe and her placard he was heard to mutter “Here comes that damned woman.”

PARK AND PEE

RCC flush your cash down the pan

In Iceland

Rent a potty

Jo was demonstrating about the M£1 lost in an Icelandic Bank and wants to know what other reserves are held by the Council. Something we are all entitled to know under the Freedom of Information Act. The Council doesn’t seem to want to embrace financial transparency.

A photographer from the Leicester Mercury refused to take a picture of the opening ceremony if Jo Goodliffe and her placard were in the frame.

I always thought the press were there to report the news. The photographer said he’d been told not to get ‘that woman’ in his photo – or else he won’t be paid.

When did the Leicester Mercury gain a political agenda?

When freedom’s just another word

On Wednesday 17th June Alan Duncan could be seen stalking Oakham market with clipboard in hand. Witnesses did not see him actually talking to locals. Market traders, asked if they had heckled the MP, said: ‘We’d like to, but we got to think about keeping our trading places in the market.’ When did Oakham stop believing in freedom of speech?

I should think you feel better for getting that off your chest Helen but what it has to do with Craig and Norwich North, I fail to see. Rutland County Council (a unitary authority?) sounds like one of the old style Rotten Boroughs. I would not like to live there and to have to put up with such petty restrictions on freedom of speech.

Decent thread in political betting.com (30 June).
Best of luck with your campaign

Does the sacked ambassador have a chance in Norwich?
June 30th, 2009

Could Craig cash in on the anti-pol mood?
The news that Craig Murray is to stand in the Norwich North by election could really shake up the race and makes the betting quite interesting. Murray came to public attention in 2003 when he was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to Uzbekistan for taking a stance against torture.

He now says that he’s to run in the July 23rd by election on an anti-sleaze ticket which might just capture the public mood.

Craig is a well known blogger and campaigner on freedom issues and might just have the right proposition for this very strange by election which by its very nature is going to be sleaze-centred.

My guess is that he’ll get a mass of media attention and could possibly do well. Certainly he’s a lot more going for him as an independent than the Esther Rantzens of this world.

I think this move could make it that much harder for the Tories to take the seat which is normal circumstances you would have regarded as a certainty.

When Ladbrokes first listed him as a runner the price was 100/1. I got on at 33/1.

Mike Smithson

Craig,

I think your Pig Poster is Great, but your First campaign leaflet is a bloody disaster.

Whilst I personally don't have any issues with you being the Executive Chairman of a Company deploying Power Generation in Ghana, nor being Chairman of a Gold mining Company (despite claiming on your blog being an impoverished writer scratching about trying to self publish)..the entire image of your First campaign leaflet (including Flash Ambassador Car) gives the impression that you are an extremely wealthy Fat Pig yourself.

This will go down like a ton of lead with a large section of your potential electorate.

And who gives a toss where Chloe was born?

Must Try Harder.

Tony

Tony

I agree with you about the leaflet. Too much about Craig ( as written from the me) and not enough establishing that common ground with potential voters.

What does Craig believe, what is his vision that he wants to work to? How will he represent me? Does he have a perspective that I can relate to? Do I want to give him a mandate to represent me and others?

I don't know from the leaflet.

It is difficult to write about yourself in a way for another to relate to or be empathic with. But it has to be done.

Probably better if he doesn't write it himself. But sits down with someone he trusts and they draft it.

A far better intro would be something like this

Craig Murray currently Rector blah, blah has dedicated his life to the issue of human rights, honesty and justice. He was formerly Ambassador blah blah, and has seriously embarrassed the Labour Government with regards to them receiving information from Torture. As a result of telling the Truth the Government attempted to discredit him with untrue personal smears and then forced him out of his job.

Craig currently works for a British company blah blah who's main activities are involved in bringing power, water and infastructure development to Third World countries using British technology.

If elected Craig will work tirelessly for all the people in Norwich North to blah blah.

FFS don't mention the Gold Mining company. I could find absolutely nothing about it on a Google search - but Gold Mining Companies have an absolutely appalling reputation.

You aren't applying for the job of CEO of BP.

Tony

Agree with Tony that the Gold Mining thing is a bit of a turn off. Also the Ghana Power business could be worded better to emphasise its benign - and non-profit making - intent.

But let's not throw out the baby with the bath water here. Craig's strongest suit probably is his career path and personal qualities. If he doesn't have a thought-through manifesto, quickly scribbling one on the back of an envelope is likely to back-fire and play into the hands of his opponents.

Would strongly suggest however reconsidering the line: "Conservative supporters in particular have an opportunity to show their disapproval of Tory expense sleaze comfortable in the knowledge that there will be another election in Norwich North within a year".

The proposition that it's safe to vote for you because I can get rid of you within a year hardly inspires confidence.

MJ, Tony, Roger, everybody,

Here is the rough-draft suggestion I made for a simple A5 handout leaflet. The idea would be somthing people can read, absorb and support within a minute or tho - hence suitable for handing out to shoppers on Saturdays.

I don't know if this is what you would prefer, but, maybe you'd like to look at it and make comments, see if you can suggest useful improvements etc?

.......

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)

David Allen:

I think that's excellent. Good-humoured, brief and to the point.

Naybe the line "STOP trying to kid the public about jobs, taxes, and phony promises" should have 'public spending' at the end instead of 'phony promises', because it's phony promises they are actually making, not kidding us about.

Point taken MJ, thanks

David Allen,

Your words illustrate how I feel, though I personally would change a few of them...

..............................

SEND THEM A MESSAGE

To The ESTABLISHED Political Parties

We are not going to vote for ANY of YOU

STOP the expenses fiddle

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

STOP Telling Blatant Lies

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

We Are ASHAMED Of YOU

We are going to

PUT AN HONEST MAN INTO PARLIAMENT

VOTE CRAIG MURRAY X

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

.......................................

Personally I think I'd go for slightly smaller than A5 if printed on high quality card - as less likely to be immediately binned - and much quicker to deal (hand out)

It could have Craig's Pig Poster (see blog June 11, 2009) on one side and the words on the other.

(Though I've not actually printed it out yet (to see what it looks like on A5 or smaller) - cos my daughter is hogging the Printer)

Tony

"In 2004 Craig Murray resigned from the large salary and highly coveted lifestyle of a British Ambassador."

or perhaps

In 2004 Craig Murray asked to be removed from the highly coveted FCO payroll after being sacked as Ambassador, charged with gross misconduct and being given £500k.

Well spun, but if it needs spinning, better left unsaid. Why leave yourself open to defending an ambiguous statement with what little time you have.
Looks like a dodgy Saatchi ad to boot.

You lot, the existing leaflet, in Norwich canary green & yellow colours, is being read everywhere it is delivered, and going down just fine.

But it - and the next 2 leaflets - need to get out to 30,000 households: this campaign needs footsoldiers, not armchair generals!

So quit drafting leaflets, and get down to Norwich if you possibly can to start delivering a few!

Strategist I couldn't sleep and am catching up. I sense your irritation but am chuckling at the well meaning Warmington on Sea brigade's suggestions. No thought about the logistics of getting stuff printed and the cost etc.

Maybe English is the preferred of global trade because it permits vast distortion of the truth. Local girl, means 'spent childhood years hoeing mangles' not 'raking profits in the City'.

The bankers are still talking about the financial Industry. Sorry. Do you people make things which are useful to people or even install them? For Market read Money Cartel. For Profits, read stuff we pinched earlier from real Industry and you the taxpayer reimbursed us with two trillion smackers, SO FAR.

We might all just as well go back and hoe mangles.

Strategist: for a variety of reasons not everyone can make it over to Norwich but if only one decent or even half-decent suggestion emerges from the armchair generals then that's helpful, isn't it?

As I recall the picture of the trappings of power, with the "would you give up all of this..." headline was first suggested by someone on these boards.

Indeed, the first leaflet is based largely on suggestions from commenters. Remember it is only the first leaflet.

Those of you who think the business side is a turnoff aren't from Norfolk. There's an admiration here for self made men.

"Executive Chairman of a Company deploying Power Generation in Ghana... Chairman of a Gold mining Company"

Some man of the people you are, Craig Murray!

Craig,

Did you get a £500k payoff?

Bloody Hell. When I got sacked for 'gross misconduct' I had to drag my employer through the courts and after a dreadfully difficult year, I was only awarded £38k.

I'm in the wrong business.

Kevin - yes I did. It vanished in the divorce. Remember they had tried to frame me with false allegations. They were pretty keen to pay me off. And at the time, the doctors had given me six months to three years to live, so I wasn't expecting to be able to fight.

Denim Justice.

Yes I am. I gave away 72% of the company to Africans, of my own free will. I don't take a salary or dividend. You really are a sad little man.

Good man, Craig.

I didn't want to cast aspersions but was just astonished by the sum. You risked much more than me when you stood up to the unacceptable anyway.
....but they really didn't want you making an issue of torture in the courts and in the press, did they?

I'll try and get up to Norwich to help out when we break for the summer..

Strategist,

I was the one who suggested the "Would you give all this up...?" idea (among others). I would love to deliver leaflets in Norwich but I live in France and cannot. All I can do from here is to suggest, encourage and spread the news about Craig. I post links to his site in various online discussions.

The volunteers who will deliver leaflets in Norwich certainly have the harder job, but the rest of us can still contribute not matter how far away we are.

Craig: how did your first meeting at the Puppet theatre go?

denim justice is hiding behind his moniker, smearing. just like the other parties he always calls grey parties, nothing new for us matey, you have been spotted and you may remove yourselfs back on to the campaign trail you have come from.

From MJ

"Strategist: for a variety of reasons not everyone can make it over to Norwich but if only one decent or even half-decent suggestion emerges from the armchair generals then that's helpful, isn't it?"

I am from North of Dundee.

From Mary

Strategist I couldn't sleep and am catching up. I sense your irritation but am chuckling at the well meaning Warmington on Sea brigade's suggestions. No thought about the logistics of getting stuff printed and the cost etc.

From Strategist (the comment before)

You lot, the existing leaflet, in Norwich canary green & yellow colours, is being read everywhere it is delivered, and going down just fine.

But it - and the next 2 leaflets - need to get out to 30,000 households: this campaign needs footsoldiers, not armchair generals!

So there are 2 more leaflets to come. See we had thought about " the logistics of getting stuff printed and the cost etc".

I would suggest what Craig needs is also 'not just yes people'.

If someone is going to deliver leaflets, they will get asked questions. Those questions need to be answered on Craig's behalf.

An "I don't know" is a vote lost or not gained.

From comments Craig has outlined what he doesn't think.

Part of the conceptualisation is "Put an honest man..."

One of the major criticisms of the Conservatives is they do not say what they stand for.

By Craig saying what he believes, what he stands for, what he wants to do. Does risk losing votes from people who may not agree.

But surely Craig's campaign is about open honesty. I would throw into the debate, Craig risks more buy losing votes, by not saying what his positive beliefs are. Than saying what they are and risking voters not agreeing with them.

If Craig says what he positively believes and wants to do etc. Even if he looses. At least as a man, for his own integrity he has stated what he believes.

When you open your heart, when you bare your soul. Then get rejected, that is hard and it hurts. But is this not the core of the campaign.

In Craig's strategy there are other leaflets. So we are saying start being positive in the sense of saying what you truly believe.

If he gets rejected, it will hurt. But he has been true to himself. Is that not getting to the core of a new politics?

Us 'armchair generals' are just trying to be an objective datum. If he can't deal with us he can't deal with being an MP.

I might be unpopular with Craig and his core support. But I never said i wanted to be popular.

Whenever I get conned or shortchanged, whether it's half a rupee on a train in India or some other smartass here in the UK, I always feel grateful to my ex-wife, who taught me how to put up with the removal of everything except the air I breathe.

I have no doubt that Craig's clarity of understanding for the victim has been sharpened by his rotten treatment by the British Establishment, in contrast with ten years of ham from Blair, Brown and Miliband, who have huffed, puffed and stuck their fingers in their ears about torture, while riding the rollercoaster political gravy train.

I completely sympathise that not everyone can easily get to Norwich to help - I am in that position myself - but may still want to help in whatever way they can.

Happy to withdraw my earlier comments.

But I still hope that people who find themselves with the opportunity to go to Norwich to help will do so.

Craig, can you change the banner on this site to link to your election site? I couldn't remember the name of the site and had to search through the messages to find it.

Tom.

If you can direct the suggestion to Tim Ireland at Bloggerheads, you'll save me a job

Hi all, sorry for the late reply to your comments, but this "armchair general" has been busy pounding the Norwich streets all weekend. I do think that it can be pretty useful for people to comment - though don't kid yourself, it's a lot more useful to get down there and do the work. Craig has some great strategic ideas, go and help with them!

Tony July 4th at 12.15: yes, you make a good case for making my draft leaflet even shorter. Editorial team please note! We have to win the Sun readers' vote, not just the Guardian readers' vote. (I would retain the humour because people like it, and I would omit the word "lies" because some people have a pathological aversion to it - but that's detail).

Mary at July 4th 4.27 am: Well, as you see, there are going to be more leaflets. So we can all help contribute. I'm interested to see that "would you give this all up" came from a blog commenter. On the streets today, it was that posh diplomatic car picture that was working a treat in capturing the voters' attention. (Which most political leaflets, most of the time, don't do!)

Finally, a view from the street campaign. Our worst problem may well be that people simply do not like the idea of an "independent" candidate. The word "independent" seems to be understood as "oddball weirdo on his own who you can't trust!"

We really need to shift perceptions here, or we will not win votes. I suggest we stop using the word "Independent". We should talk about "Craig Murray's Team", we should include some sort of "Team" picture in the next leaflet, and we should quote some endorsements from public / local figures (for example Martin Bell has made complimentary remarks).

Let's remember, Obama didn't say "Yes I can", he said We, and he got people on his side!

Will do Craig.

Came across this...

http://tinyurl.com/mx6m3c