I could have told you that ages ago, mate.

There are worse things in life; imagine being 'popular' for no reason, the curse that catches up with all parvenues.

Would you betray the measured choice of those hundreds that voted for you, all because you failed to be meretricious?

If you want an army, beat a drum and offer prizes for the most blood spilled; if you want to be considered wise, make do with the 1%. Any more will be a compromise on your own integrity, and those that care as you care.

If blogging was about numbers, then Stalin would have been right when he said: "Quantity is its own quality." Alternatively if you want quality as your guiding light, then Chairman Mao maybe closer to you with: "It is good to anger your enemies, as it makes clear the demarcation between your virtues and theirs."

"Keep bloggering on", as Churchill might have said.

Alan Cambell wrote:

"I could have told you that ages ago, mate."

Did it take that long for the cheque to clear, or your balls to drop?

Craig

You do make the difference in more ways then you think...Believe me.

If not for people like you where would we be?. You have already made many aware of what is going on. You have been proven to be right on all you have said about torture.

"Stay true unto yourself" and you will never lose. Craig, you did not lose...Believe me.

Ignoring any religious spin, I guess Jesus the Christ felt much the same when he was ignored by the mass of the population. You were denied a fair, or in fact any, hearing by the media, especially the publicly funded BBC, so it is not surprising that the folk of North Norfolk knew little about you. I heard Malcolm Muggeridge on radio once comment that 'the majority is always wrong.' Don't give up Craig. You owe it to yourself to continue blogging. We are not living in a democracy and we need at least one person to remind us of the fact. I want to vomit when I hear our politicians claiming, in our name, that we are fighting them over there (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or wherever) so that we don't have to fight them over here. Rubbish. I am not the only person who didn't want British troops in those countries, killing brown people until they agreed to what the corporations, and foreign governments wanted. I choke on the lies spouted about Lockerbie, 7/7 and 9/11, about keeping us safe with intrusive CCTV and endless databases. Al Qaeda is a fabrication of the security services. Why would a Terry Wrist organisation call itself 'the toilet'? I could go on but most of it is already out there, and, typically, ignored by the media.

If anything, I thought that your bid for Norwich North took your attention from the more important issue of what goes on here on your website. The beauty of the internet is that people can find and talk to others, anywhere in the world. It's not a question of commanding huge numbers so much as disseminating information and exchanging ideas.
Keep on blogging: your posts will continue to show up on Google; the number of your followers will grow. Your opinions are more likely to get noticed from your blogging than from standing for Parliament.

You did not lose, Mr Murray. Every ordinary Uzbeks who know you were praying for your victory, and every Uzbek regime officals were holding their breath out of fear of your possible victory. If you can scare the dictators, torturers and killers of peaceful people with your words of truth and courage to tell the truth then you are more powerful than kings. You deserve BIG respect and I envy you because I have no qualities of yours.

Craig, I think you're wrong. You said yourself that mainstream news media were filtering and framing the entire by-election in terms of the usual suspects, and shutting out any inconvenient candidates with their inconvenient views. The turnout was 45%, set against the GElection turnout which was 61%, itself not especially wonderful. Don't you ever wonder why the media have never carried out investigations/documentaries on the subject of non-voters? I would love to hear what they have to say, rather than regular voters - in that Norwich North turnout it seems clear that the main parties are down to their core vote, whose loyalties are scarcely in doubt. What happened to that 16% who decided to sit this one out? Who were they? Were they evenly distributed across all political views, or skewed towards one or another party?

I have myself stood in local elections (aye, I`m a Libdem, so sue me), and once had the honour of gaining 180 votes in the last regional elections held in Scotland (I stood in Knightswood, part of Donald Dewars old consituency), so I`ve got some idea of what you feel. It still remains the case that we have to find that firm place to stand, and a strong enough lever with which to move the world.

Please don't give up.

im in agreement with all the above we the sheepie are wakeing up slowlyand with people like you me us planting the seeds well its happening all around us slowly slowly catchy monkee o yeah check out john harris tpuc.org to see the bigger pictureweve all been sold out

Ian Cobain and the Guardian have been giving more coverage to the torture issue recently. Without your campaigning, would that have happened?

I hope before long you will regain your appetite.

Best wishes.

The greater the obstacles, the greater the humanity needed to overcome them.

Intellectual honesty and responsibility, and the morality that goes with them, have nothing whatsoever to do with public popularity.

Imagine if the likes of Prof Chomsky based his activities, and his compassion and care for the welfare and well-being of the victims of his own government's policies (foreign and domestic) on whether or not it was going to make him popular in the public eye - this world would be a lesser place without him and his special talents.

Likewise Craig, think about the difference your own efforts make for the victims of our own government, at home and abroad. It may not be much. It may be a great deal but, personally, I always give the victims the benefit of any doubt and do with I can for them.

The only personal benefit I'll ever get from trying to help others in need is maybe a 'thank you'. That's it.

Never doubt for a second you don't make a difference Craig. The victims you are trying to help never do.

And don't forget, there is a whole industry specially constructed to stop awkward sods like you asking awkward questions in the public arena and generally making a nuisance of yourself trying to hold that powers that be to account. I'ts called the corporate news media.

Use your own special talents in the most efficient and effective way you can. For instance, Prof Chomsky couldn't organise a piss-up in brewery. He doesn't like admin and that sort of thing. What he can do, he sticks to like glue, and the reults are wonderful.

Do what you do best Craig, is all I can say. Don't burn yourself out.

Sorry for going on, except to say (as an SNP supporter myself) what are your views on the SNP-minority Scottish Government's releasing Mr Megrahi from jail?

ps
Being unpopular has never stopped the Palestinians struggling against vast, almost impossible odds, in their pursuit of peace and justice.

Please continue blogging, I think the space it is providing for people to exchange and discuss information about topics that are going to continue to affect all our lives is very important. Those of us who have little of importance to add, appreciate being able to have some access to these discussions. At present your blog does not seem to be attracting many 'nuts' and regular posters seem to be able to deal with them fairly effectively allowing the general level of comment to be of a high quality.
I suspect you are right to think that at the moment most people do not pay much attention to the matters you cover, most people are busy with their lives and if they are anything like me, find it very difficult to consider that all the propaganda we have grown up with might be just that. Despite the experience and evidence of the last couple of decades I still find it difficult to accept the fact that my country together with others has chosen to slaughter and displace so many innocent people, so of course our leaders are not concerned about lies and torture.
We may not want to know this truth but we do need to receive it and a lot more.

The many Iain Dales, eddies and Charles Crawfords of the world will be chuckling at this post; and the Karimovs, Usmanovs, and Schillings comfortably continuing in their ways.

Get angry.

Your blog is a beacon to those of us who have identified the arseholes of the world and see the danger to humanity.

Dont be so hard on yourself Craig.

Cobley made the important point about how your message and your very candicacy was shut out by the mainstream media.

Breaking into the three-party closed shop is always going to be tough for fringe candidates not riding on the back of a big national or local issue, or where the mainstream party machines are united in doing you down. You have to have a stick with which to beat the mainstream candidates.

The Tories have been been clever in spinning the expenses scandal into an attack upon the government when in fact all the parties throughly abused the system and all of them should have been rejected by the voters.

There are many good bloggers out there who hold down a day job. Not many of them are successful politicians.

You need to ask yourself what you really want. You can be like Iain Dale or Guido, a party hack pretending to be a journalist. Not the same as being the winning candidate in a by-election, but you will be patronised by the political establishment and you wont be ignored by the media pack.

Or you can be a full-time policitician and turn the blog into your personal diary in between chasing by-elections around the country.

Or you can be a proper journalist and commentator and wait for the right cause in the right place at the right time to stand up and tell the people what you believe in.

Personally I would prefer that you carry on being yourself. The party machines and the media set out to marginalise you and make your views seem irrelevant. They succeeded. Thats what they do for a living. Get used to it.

You became a blogger in the first place because you had something worth saying. You still do. Anyone who has ever read or heard what you have to say knows that your views arent irrelevant. Your time will come.

Dear Craig

Remember when the Labour Government shafted you?

You got back up and done well.

You lost but it isn't the end of the world.

You can stand again, soon enough there will be a General Election.

You have to get your brand across on the doorstep, face to face with voters.

Although you were a good candidate, people have to believe that you would make a good MP.

The Tories had more money, bods on the ground and experience.

So why feel upset or down, if you are serious about being an MP then the people have to know it.

How?

Stand again!

Was standing a gimmick?

If not start learning the tricks of the trade to have a better campaign.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Keep going Craig..nobody gets any thanks for speaking the truth. Do it for yourself. I read all your blogs and find them useful and interesting.

Stop being a twat and pull yourself together. This is one of the most important blogs there is.

Yup, being disrespected as being of no significance by Chloe Smith must have really hurt.

It is a sad fact that the great majority of the public care more to have their prejudices confirmed than to understand the truth about important issues.

If we all start to suffer seriously this might or might not change.

You are probably right about blogs too. The 'audience' is pretty static and consists mostly of people who already agree with you.

What matters, I think, and what will continue to change society is saying what you think to ordinary people you meet every day. This kind of activity has an important (if immeasurable) impact.

As someone who has been a member of 9/11 Truth (UK) for some years I have seen slow but significant change on this issue over the years. I have long stopped going to meetings where much preaching to the converted takes place but there was a time when it was genuinely dangerous to raise 9/11 anomalies in public. I even received a threatening visit at 5am one winter's morning from a leather-jacketed person. He didn't say a word but I knew what he was about and where he came from.
Today knowledge of 'false-flag' terror is not exactly common currency but it is very much 'out there' and I would say that very large numbers of the thinking classes are open to ideas and evidence to which their minds would have been closed a short couple of years ago.

I focus on money issues now. Understand the money and you will understand what is driving political events.

Deeper, and equally or more significant, is the 'spiritual' dimension.....but I know that's a place you don't like to go, Craig.

However, we should not be too downhearted. We are headed for very difficult times but in the end the truth will surely win.....I know successful city people who see themselves as part of a criminal machine.

They will play the game for now....but if (or when) civilisation crashes they will turn on this machine and smash it with their own hands.

.....so let us continue to do what we can. It is not possible to do more.

But 'giving up' just because we can't rule the world (or get elected) would be a sin.

I agree with the general sentiments. Voices like yours are rare and therefore desperately needed. If you give up Craig they will have won. Please don't give them the satisfaction.

As Burke said: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men stop blogging".

Elections, especially FPTP elections are about power first and foremost. Even David Davis struggled to get heard in that context and he won!

Craig,

I feel pretty much the way you do, unfortunately. You have to understand that you were a player in a 'game', sometimes dubbed 'democracy', which is rigged, managed, and controlled. Whilst, many people agree with your views, which are really very reasonable and moderate, that doesn't mean that they would vote for you, or anyone like you, except under extraordinary circumstances, which as yet, don't exist.

Your role isn't in traditional politics, in my opinion, individuals without a party behind them, have a very hard time in British politics, unless they are exceptionally tough and determined, like George Galloway. I don't think you are cut out for the rough and tumble of politics as practiced in the UK, your skin simply isn't rhino, thick, enough.

You should stick to what you do best, which is writing agitprop.

Finally. I don't believe in 'democracy' anymore, at least not in the managed, diverted, and controlled form, it's evolved into.

Society is not going to change by voting, especially not to the degree which is required by the multiple environmental, economic and social challenges we face as a civilization.

What's required is a revolt - a Revolution, on a scale similar to what was seen in eastern Europe when Stalinism was overthrown. We need the same kind of changes, if we are to stand any chance at all of surviving as a civilization.

Craig

Why bother with this campaigning blog lark? For the most part it's just a bunch of haggard masturbators sat around agreeing with each other. I've just knocked one out myself.

Not so.

Zero Hedge, a financial blog in the US written by people using pseudonyms, has succeeded in forcing the issues of Goldman Sachs' predatory behavior, High Frequency Trading, and more into the mainstream press and the Halls of Congress. Congress has been investigating. And the initial attack came from Zero Hedge. This is not exaggerating.

http://www.zerohedge.com/

A fair reflection I'd say, however, not a reason to give up and join the masses. Chin up mate, some of us care...

Don't give up Craig. In Feb 1989 some freedom loving people in East Germany might have felt like losing hope when Chris Gueffroy was shot trying to escape.

tough decision:

vainglorious self indulgent dilettanteism or roll up your sleeves and settle for making a fuckin' difference.

did you lose an election or did they eat your balls?

No Mr Murray, you're wrong. You were outgunned by electoral machines - that happens.

The internet is quite a different animal. You should persevere. People with difficult and complex things to say are commonly ignored - persistence is the key.

Anonymous is aware of your efforts to report the truth and of the trouble you have faced because of it.

By writing this blog, you circumvent the very measures put in place to silence you. Your words reach far further then you might imagine. Through the internet the truth becomes loud and inescapable. Do not be disheartened by the acts of discourtesy dished out to you by lying politicians.

Be glad that you will never have to fear public dislike of yourself simply because of your job. Change is coming, but that change can only come if every one of us continues to speak the truth, even in the face of seemingly impossible odds.

We are Anonymous,
we are Legion,
we do not forgive,
we do not forget,
expect us.

Keep at it.

And try harder to resist the appeal of fame and recognition.

Your true work is more important.

You periodically emerge with a post about how useless and pointless it all is and how the media are out to get you and then go into some starry-eyed frenzy about how you're going to storm the corridors of power any minute now and how you're reaching millions through the daily mail. Up and down constantly having a feast or a famine when maybe you'll just have to work at it on a more long-term basis. You stood ONCE and expect to win trust from the whole constituency in a matter of weeks? You'll just have to accept that building a relationship in a community takes time and you'll have to work much harder to show you're a serious candidate. First, why don't you put a bit of distance between yourself and conspiracy theorists like the loon who thinks he gets five am from silent chekists to warn him off his important 'research'. The comments boxes fester with crackpots. You don't help yourself when you paint yourself as a Scottish nationalist who's more Norfolk than thou when it comes to someone who wasn't born there, your opponent. In fact, given the fact you've stood in other places to become MP your attacks come off as petty and obnoxious at times.

You've got a lot of good stuff to say but you get mired in too much tinfoil crap that does you no service or credit.

Craig,

You should get out down your local pub, and see a band and dance. We may all be on the equivalent of the Titanic and its about to sink, but there is no point worrying about it or getting pissed off about it.

Yesterday morning for no logical reason whatsoever ( we had just had some incredibly good news ) my wife was feeling really depressed.

She didn't want to go to her regular weekly Yoga class.

I came close to screaming and shouting at her - like I had sometimes before - but just said...

GET READY - You ARE GOING

She Came Back a New Woman - All The Shit Cleared Out of Her Brain. I'm not sure if it is the Exercise or The Meditation or The Communal Farting

But It Definitely Works

Our Daughter Got Great Results in Her "A" Levels and is going to The University of Her Choice - Not Only That - She has got a Full Grant cos we are in theory Skint - well according to the rules. You see I retired early - and we live on a small pension. Money isn't everything - there are more important things in life.

She already knows loads of people at the University she is going to via the Internet - and has already been asked to go on a trip to Amsterdam in November..

She is now in South Wales - with one of her boyfriends and his family.

She thinks the World is Great - even if we are all going to hell.

You might as well enjoy it while you can.

A Turkish friend of mine got seriously depressed a couple of years ago, such that she couldn't leave the house.

We went to see her - and because we arrived - she forced herself to get up and get dressed.

I said - when I was a kid, I learnt a little mental trick when everything was completely shite and I was worrying like hell. I just managed to parcel up the thing I was worrying about - and slide it over to the other side of my brain. The worry was still there - but it was slid over to the compartment to be dealt with later. And then I just got on with my life and did something more interesting instead. When I went back to deal with my worry, the problem had disappeared.

My Turkish friend, later thanked me - when she became her normal self again - and said - you were right - it really worked.

Tony

I've frequently thought the same things about everything I've ever written Craig and wondered if there was any point.

I know what you've gone through is harder than anything i've gone through.

Look at it on a bigger scale though.

Uzbeks have posted in this thread. Would it be better if you said nothing and they didn't know that at least one person in Britain who's knowledgeable enough that they can't be ignored was speaking up on their behalf and against the dictatorship oppressing them? I don't think so. The knowledge that even one other person is speaking up on their behalf and letting the world know what they're suffering is enough on its own to make it worth you continuing blogging - and standing for parliament again if you want to do it.

How many decades did Nelson Mandela have to wait in prison before Apartheid ended? He must have suffered even more and must have doubted whether anything would ever change.

Greater change will take perseverance and determination. Anti-slavery campaigners in 19th century Britain had to campaign for decades until they made a break-through.

As for the Norwich North result, yes it was disappointing, but it shouldnt really have been surprising. Two weeks isn't long enough to even get known in a constituency never mind get a majority of votes there. If you want to get into parliament you may have to become a councillor first and build up from there.

As for getting the real facts out to the majority the problem really is just getting through to the majority of people. What percentage of people in most countries read political blogs and websites at all though? Not very many. It may take a very long time to get the information to the majority and it may be very hard to make many of them, the ones who dont read beyond the headlines in the newspaper or watch beyond them on the TV News.

A lot of people just believe whatever they've heard the most times and to counter it you're just going to have to repeat the truth even more times and with reliable sources that cant be dismissed. It could change enough peoples' minds in 5 years or 10 if some events take place that make people look again, or maybe it won't change them till after we're all dead - but it's worth it anyway.

I'd agree with anne at 1:21. Blogging is what you do, and what we out here want you to do. You'd probably be a fucking useless MP (don't frown - it's a compliment).

I'm a political activist (SNP). I imagined when I began to take part that everything was now going to change, because *I* was now a part of it. I learned fairly quickly that it just aint so - you've just had the same lesson. I make a useful contribution - I'm a good administrator, have some facility with IT stuff, and don't mind working many hours. I've seen my skills make a difference, but only slowly. The SNP now controls a council which would previously have been thought unassailable, and my little tuppenceworth helped to make that happen. Similarly, you may consider your work as a blogger rather slight, but it isn't. Don't let a foolish vanity be your judge - your efforts will tell, however slight they may often seem to you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You say the little efforts that I make
will do no good: they never will prevail
to tip the hovering scale
where justice hangs in balance.
I don't think
I ever thought they would.
But I am prejudiced beyond debate
in favor of my right to choose which side
shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight.

(Bonaro Overstreet)

Good points Vronsky and i like the quote too.

Craig, you often an rightly criticise Blair and others for seeing everything in terms of absolute good versus absolute evil.

It's easy for us to see our own lives in terms of absolute success or absolute failure too, but i doubt there's anyone who ever went through their life without failing to meet some goals they hoped to achieve - and even most of those that succeeded didnt succeed without putting decades of effort in and having to accept many disappointments and a lot of suffering along the way.

There are plenty of very famous ones who probably felt they had failed, but are still remembered today - and probably many more who were never famous and whose names are forgotten but did plenty of good in their lives.
At the end of the day that's all that matters - did you try to do your best by other people and try to do what was right? Everyone's bound to make some mistakes along the way.

Maybe the absolute numbers of people interested in what you are saying in Norwich North is not so big compared to the more mainstream people -- but this blog is not only read in Norwich North, not only in England, but probably in a number of countries. I guess the number of readers you have who are really interested in your thoughts is quite big.

And there are probably several reasons not connected to your person why some people are not interested: Mainstream media are barely covering "conspiracy theories", defined as ideas that elite groups or the government could deliberately break the law (lie, torture, support terrorists) or follow hidden agendas not in the best interest of the people. And it is not convenient to believe your own government, democratically elected (?), could perhaps adhere to non-democratic, not-legal standards or possibly finance terrorists.

Keep up your good blog, thank you for your work.

Do not leave Mr Murray.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men stop blogging".
--MJ

"By writing this blog, you circumvent the very measures put in place to silence you."
--Anonymous

Exactly. And you know from experience, Craig, that when you publish documents, or may say things that people will pressure you to take down, other bloggers will rally round to provide space for them.

I can well imagine that Norwich North flattened your morale - for a while. And I'm assuming (not really knowing) that it cost you a packet. (It would be easy for commentators here to say that 'money isn't important', but it is. Anyone without a roof, adequate sustenance, and an internet connection, is at a serious disadvantage when it comes to activism. Tony is right when he says that 'money isn't everything', but it must be very hard to think of activism when looking for a crust.)

I often feel that "nobody cares". And yet, a whip around the internet on both sides of the pond, shows that many, many people do indeed care, and are busy writing and blogging about the issues that really matter - issues the both worry and anger them. (And anger is far healthier than depression, because anger spurs us to action, while depression does the opposite.)

Your voice is a very important and unique part of this. You are informing and inspiring people that you don't know and have never met. Provoking them to question things they've never given much thought to before.

You're in a special position to write from a background that not many of us have. And you're honest in a way that so many lemmings are too blind or too afraid to be. You may be much more valuable outside the system than within.

Go and find your lost anger, and use it here.

Craig,

Yes you are a complete and utter arsehole, probably almost impossible to live with at times. I guess you are like an overcharged hormonal emotional psychotic female that needs taming..

But when you are on form - you are like Wayne Rooney - you just go right through all the defenses - and stick it into the heart.

Your courage is enormous - you are fearless - you couldn't give a Fuck About The Evil Bastards who want to Kill You.

That is Why We All Love You So Much

You Don't Let The Bastards Get You Down

You Just Go Straight Through Them and Fight For FREEDOM and JUSTICE and an END TO TORTURE

You Have Already Had a Massive EFFECT at Changing World Government Policy

We Need More Men Like You

Now Stop Moping about How You Feel Cos Chloe The Cat Beat You...

If You'd Wanted To - and Used Your Talent You Could Easily Have Joined Any Of The Main Parties and Get Parachuted Into a Safe Seat..

But You Are Much More Valuable Outside - Pissing On Their Tents

Tony

["but it must be very hard to think of activism when looking for a crust" - was a generalisation, and not meant to refer directly to Craig.]

"I guess you are like an overcharged hormonal emotional psychotic female that needs taming.."
-- Tony

Oi! There are women here, Tony. It's not the men's loo!

"We Need More Men Like You"

Absolutely. And women too.

Craig, surely the role of an activist is to bring issues that are important to the attention of the public to effect gradual change. In running in Norwich you gained country-wide publicity for the issues that are important to you, and in this you were successful. When people elect MP’s they are really electing a government, or protesting on its performance – electing a party, not an individual! Far better to fight for real democracy as an advocate where one has a voice that can be heard, that in a parliament where a lone backbencher is neutered.

One thing you have learned is the power of the establishment to influence the media against you. Is that not an issue, and are there not other examples of the establishment pushing the media and government around? What about the banking issue? Why did we help the establishment out by bailing out the foreign obligations of private British banks, while burdening the middle-class taxpayer for generations to come? Home obligations, yes – but foreign obligations as well! And did we not unnecessarily help the establishment just a generation ago with the bailout of Lloyds of London. The establishment’s philosophy is – we keep the profits, the middle class taxpayer pays the losses. And, what about Human Rights in the UK? As my issue shows, the UK’s Human Rights industry In “Don Quixote fashion” are lions when fighting Pinochet-types thousands of miles away, but wimps when dealing with issues at home that involve the UK establishment as the culprits.

By running in Norwich you have raised your profile, and the profile of the issues you care about, and in that you have been successful.

Craig,

You look like me when I was 45. I am now considerably older.

You could do with going on a diet - you know just losing a bit of that beer gut.

You have got really good skin and a beautiful Baby Face...

Actually - You are Potentially incredidibly Good Looking..

You Have Got an Incredibly Beautiful Wife who Loves You To Bits

I suggest you do far more Exercise, Cut Down on The Beer, Grow Your Hair - and Go To a Good Hairdresser to Colour it Blonde.

White hair makes you look 70, when with a bit of hard work you could easily look about 35...

It may result in no reduction with regards to the number of people being tortured...

But why not try and look like your beautiful wife

My wife is my model

Tony

Craig

You've hit the wall in the marathon. That is something to get through and not turn back at.

You are making a unique contribution to freedom and political development and you are not allowed to quit. Falter yes, quit no.

You are the top bookmark in my list, and believe you me, I have deleted and demoted a legion of them.

Your commenters may be an incestuous group, but your readers are wider and the effect of what you put in the public domain is incalculable.

If I may be allowed to quote a a bit of RC bog latin from my youth:

Sed tantum dic verbo ...

[No pedants please.]

Well well. Isn't this where the foreign service, or perhaps the British government, exactly would want to have you?

Clearly, from the popularity of your blog, you're writing for an audience of some size. But, no, that doesn't mean your audience has a reasonable enough influence in the outcome of the by-election of some small nothing in the middle of nowhere, so to speak.

You speak from your heart, the size and relevance of your audience is not trivial, but imagine the hordes of bloggers who have a dedication like yours and some, perhaps, a cause on the same level as yours, but without an audience.
You are, indeed, the better man. Or, at least, in a much more comfy position. You have an audience. And though you might not think it big enough, it's bigger than most could hope for.

But that's not all. I would hate to think that you're doing what you're doing because you want to be popular. I'd like to think that you're keeping your blog alive, writing as you are, in order to communicate what you believe in. You don't need an audience for that, just the ability for others to year you.

Of course people don't care about things like this. People only really care about things that are related to their immediate family and friends, provided that they're easy to identify and not farther into the future than a year or so. But you're missing the point. Your goal as a politician or dissident is to _make_ them care.

Unfortunately, you're a pretty lousy communicator, which causes you to lose the argument regardless of whether you are right or not (I can't tell, I haven't done any independent research, and that is not what this post is about anyway).

For decades, hardly anyone cared about the environment. Then Al Gore made a film and a book, and now everyone talks about climate change, and there is even a new administration in the US that might actually do something about it.

But Al Gore didn't go on a rant about how the evil powers-that-be are wrecking the planet. He didn't hurl insults at political leaders or personally attack the CEOs of oil companies. He knows that only works if you're preaching to the converted, and he wanted to persuade the rest of the world.

So instead, he explained human behaviour with a funny story about a frog, evoked a love of nature by painting a nostalgic picture of a happy childhood spent on a farm, told a moving story about losing his favourite sister to cancer, underlined the seriousness of the situation with some whizz-bang graphics and a little stunt with a lift, and overall came across as a guy who is just like us, but has found out a few things that are going pretty badly wrong. And he gently but persistently tells us to start doing something about it, because sooner or later it will affect us too.

You, by contrast, come across as a cantankerous old man with a score to settle, at least to me (from reading your blog, I'm not anywhere near Norwich North), and judging by the foreword you posted about, also to the committee you testified to about the UK government's involvement in torture.

I think that you would have had a far better chance if you had positioned yourself as a dignified and well-spoken gentleman, rather than an indignant ranting blogger. That would have given you a nice contrast to the heirs of Cool Brittania, while making you a credible alternative to the Conservatives in times of expenses scandals. But you presented yourself in a way that made you look no better than Iain Dale.

In between blaming the public for being apathetic, the media for being biased, the political parties for cheating, and the current leaders for being corrupt, you may want to consider the enormous amount of political experience and skill that the established parties bring to the table as a factor in their success.

I'll join the sentiments of the other commenters in encouraging you to go on, because these issues do need to be brought to the fore. But you need to take a step back, reevaluate your strategy, and learn a thing or two about communicating with the public, before trying again.

Lourens - if you meet Craig, watch him in debates or watch video of his testimony you'll see that actually, face to face, Craig is a very skilful and experienced diplomat, who gets his points across very well.

If you read his books they're also very well written, managing to make serious points and be informative at the same time as telling a story and giving some laughs at the ridiculous that goes along with the serious in life.

He does sometimes blow off steam on his blog (i have to plead guilty to doing the same) but he's a lot better at getting his message across than some of his less diplomatic blog posts would sometimes suggest - and frankly his anger on a lot of issues (e.g torture) is entirely justified.

I felt his first leaflet in the Norwich campaign could have been better and gave the false impression that he was a member of an elite out of touch with ordinary people, but i've made some bad mistakes myself and it's only my opinion.

While the fact Craig refused to stay silent on or go along with torture is probably the best evidence of his good character and the best reason to support him, it won't win any elections on its own. Most people have no choice except to think about how they can get a job and how they can be financially secure and provide some security for their children. They're also strongly encouraged by many governments, big companies and the big parties to focus mainly on those issues and not anything wider.

So it might be necessary to start any leaflet with what a candidate will try to do for them on those issues and how - and back it up with the rest.

I'm far better informed having followed your Blog. I have been reading it daily for many months (via RSS).

PS. I'm clearly not alone in wanting to hear your "comment and information on the sick farce of the Afghan elections, the extraordinary and cynical charade over the Lockerbie "bomber", or even the hope destroyed in University admissions this year."

And I'd like to know what you think about reports coming out of Iran, and Chinese suppression of the Uighurs, &c, &c, &c.

So please quit this angst and get blogging, man.

How can we make intelligent judgements if we don't hear opposing views? Keep going. Sometimes I agree with you, most often I don't. But whichever it is you are worth a read and consideration - many who ignored you are not!!

So let's have those views on the Afgan elections, the Lockerbie charade and the University farce - we won't hear them on the BBC, even if we bother to listen to them anymore.

If you honestly thought you could do well in a by-election despite having virtually zero public profile in an area where you have never lived, then you need your head examining. On the other hand, as a commentator and expert on diplomatic practices and the 'Stans, you have a fair amount of profile among journalists and other opinion formers. You have a box of lemons, try making lemonade.

Dear Craig,

if you really don't want to keep blogging then I shouldn't try to persuade you otherwise. However, the reasons you've given above are all wrong. I won't argue with them, you can work out why they're wrong yourself, in fact I'm pretty sure that you already know.

You have, of course, already done more than enough to help make the world a better place, far more than the vast majority of people will ever do, or even get the chance to do. It would be utterly selfish of me to ask you to keep blogging if you'd really rather use that time for something else.

Yet I do ask just that. Your site is my regular starting point for checking the news. Other sites may express similar opinions, but here is one of the very few places that I can find those opinions backed by facts, by someone who has seen the workings of The System from the inside. This, for me, is the proof that I so sorely need. This is the one site that reassures me that I am not crazy to hold the views that I do, in spite of opinions of the majority which are so very different, and the constantly repeated consensus of the mainstream media.

Craig, I think you probably need a holiday, or maybe just a break from your analysis of "current affairs". I spent six years when I never read a paper or watched TV news, I deliberately avoided "current affairs" as much as I could. I think I was much happier then, though "blissfully ignorant" would probably be nearer the mark. But that was back in the days before blogging on the Internet.

I'm rambling. I just hope you'll keep blogging.

Best wishes,
Clark

Mate, what you are experiencing is a bigger version of what we all feel every day. It seems hopeless. It probably is. But better to raise your voice in protest against the injustices and lose, than give up and let them win unopposed. Get back in the saddle. And tell us your thoughts about the Lockerbie thing, I really want to know; I miss your voice out here where the people who get it meet.

Your feelings are understandable but you shouldn't equate the effectiveness of your blog with the charade of Norwich North. As Clark suggests you most likely need a holiday away from it all.

You may not feel that your views are being heard or that people do not care. But can you imagine how things might be if whistleblowers such as you didn't exist at all? We would really be in the dark ages then.

Craig, your views DO count and many of us are grateful that decent people like you still exist. And as has been noted "you have a fair amount of profile among journalists and other opinion formers."

So don't let the bastards grind you down!

Craig,

Keep it up and keep blogging. And if you need thanks to keep going then I thank you from the bottom of my heart for informing and enlightening me as to the present state of some of the politics in the world today.

Keep going!

No no no! Craig. What you think is of every account.

I observed a little of what was happening during the Norwich North campaign, and have eventually reached a conclusion after voting in, and observing, more elections than I can remember.

That is, the vast majority of voters vote for who they think will win.

I may be crazy, but I think the obsession with modern TV and media material in which the public are exhorted to vote for the most inane things imaginable, and have to pay for the privilege, has in recent years accelerated that culture; the culture of voting for who you think will win in a general, local, or by-election.

I just read KevinB's posting, who, I think, says almost the same thing.
"It is a sad fact that the great majority of the public care more to have their prejudices confirmed than to understand the truth about important issues."
They do that by watching the media that feeds them, judging which candidate most other people will vote for, and following suite.

Also, for some reason, most people are incapable of 'following the money' on any issues. Again Kevin puts it another way: "Understand the money and you will understand what is driving political events."
Since time immemorial, war has served one purpose: to enrich the leaders who wage it, quite often including the leaders on the 'losing' side. It simply transfers money out of the pockets of 'the public' to the pockets of those leaders.
And the power held by the 'leaders' is sufficient to prevent ordinary people realising that.

I'll pinch yet another writer's line: "Tell people something they already know and they will thank you for it. Tell them something they don't know and they will hate you forever."

Craig, never stop telling us things we don't know.
(Things we already know will be fine too).

I've had a comment sitting in moderation for most of the day. Too many links.

If Craig wishes to reach a wider audience than his own blog allows he should consider writing for a Web magazine or group blog (Salon, Alternet, Truthdig, Talking Points Memo, Firedoglake, Crooks and Liars... all American, never mind). He could also network this blog better than it is now. I'm not aware of a British equivalent of the Liberal Advertising Network though.

I'm totally with Vronksy on this Craig. You must continue blogging because your common sense and truth telling is refreshing in today's world.

Now surely you haven't forgotten that old Dundee saying 'mony a mickle maks a muckle'?

I'm a very wee mickle and you're a much larger mickle but onwards and upwards we must go.

I just spent a somewhat dispiriting evening yesterday attending a party at the Edinburgh International Book Festival thrown by the 'London Review of Books', a magazine which, in my opinion, would be better entitled, 'The Review of London Books'. Somehow, I'd got onto their e-mailing list and of course am always grateful for invitations. But whenever I go to these things (not often, and now, this morning, I remember just why that is), it makes me realise just how impossible it would be for someone like me even for a moment to break over the consciousness of those people and their institutions. To them, my voice is no more than that of a barking dog in a distant street.

But I'd rather be a barking dog in the street than a silent mouse in the house.

Don't let the bastards get you down, Craig. It is an unending struggle. There is no victory, there are only measured losses and tempered gains. Keep on pushing. Remember the last paragraph of 'Middlemarch'. You scatter seeds, you don't know where they might lead. We have no idea, really, what consciousness is and the universe is mostly dark matter. Everything we do is absurd. So fuck it - and them - and keep on fighting! That's what I do, every day. That's what we all do, every day. You are not alone.

I was interested in subrosa's referring to many a mickle makes a muckle.

It reminded me of another one: where there's muck there's brass.

You are wading through the muck and exposing the brass. Keep it up.

I know I am claiming a bit of poetic licence here, but you know what I mean.

why on eaqrth do you think you have some unique right to be listened to?
Not only do you lack any sort of mandate, having been thumped in 2 elections, your status as a sacked diplomat has gone stale and your personal life is far from edifiying.

Get a life.

Sushayl Saadi wrote
"It is an unending struggle. There is no victory, there are only measured losses and tempered gains."

Very true. No permanent or complete victory is possible but there's no permanent or complete defeat either. There's always hope, it's a bigger struggle than any one of us, it was going on in other forms before any of us were born and it'll continue in new ones long after we're all dead.

Much of what Tony opmoc says i agree with, but i draw the line at his suggestion that you dress up in drag like David Shayler.

I beg you not to cease blogging. You provide information and insight, some of which is not available elsewhere. I do hope that your revelations will ultimately lead to change; what other practical alternatives are there to your provision of education.
Screw the voters of Norwich.
People will eventually wake up.
I look forward to you and honest people such as you to provide us with the leadership which is now otherwise so lacking.

I beg you not to cease blogging. You provide information and insight, some of which is not available elsewhere. I do hope that your revelations will ultimately lead to change; what other practical alternatives are there to your provision of education.
Screw the voters of Norwich.
People will eventually wake up.
I look forward to you and honest people such as you to provide us with the leadership which is now otherwise so lacking.

As, in the electoral sense, a non-supporter, my comment might be of limited interest.

Nonetheless, you should continue blogging. You have a degree of cachet on issues relating to Central Asia and torture that there is no point squandering. You should continue to campaign on this issue in the way you clearly believe it is right to do so.

There is however almost nothing in that making you a likely electoral performer. Good on Central Asia does not, I'm afraid, really mean much in terms of being a good MP- foreign policy is largely not a legaslative matter.

Of course, you can have another go if you want to. But there is little reason to expect a performance improvement to something approaching winning. You don't seem to find fighting to lose satisfying campaiging, nor does it appear you have the constitution to handle defeat. So its probably the case that electoral politics is not for you.

I'm a member of a political party and have, for quarter of a century, been involved in many elections as candidate, election agent and campaigner/supporter. What you feel now is par for the course and only points up what political activists often forget; we're so fired up about issues that we lose track of the fact that we're simple human beings who feel bad when we're rejected.

So what you need to know now is ....

When I joined all those years ago we were regarded as a radical protest group which couldn't attract any positive media coverage. Now we're in government and our aspirations are shared by a large part of the population. Changing people's thinking isn't about elections. For every thousand words you utter only half a dozen will stick in most minds. 500,000 words from now, they'll start to feel that you're familiar. When they feel you're familiar, they'll ask what you stand for. The trick, if you want to be elected, is not to kill them where they stand.

What you're doing is important and will, eventually, result in change.

I support your decision to give up blogging. This makes life much easier for me.

My Uncle Frank was part of the army that liberated Belsen in 1945. Forty-odd years ago he told me what it was like and ended his remarks by saying "It's terrible what those foreigners do to each other". I think that pretty much sums up Uzbekistan or whatever it's called.

Expecting folk to vote for you on the basis of nasty things in nasty countries is asking a bit much, anyway, but you add carpetbagging to the mix. What earthly connection did you have to Norwich? Far better I would have thought to have picked a constituency and worked it on the basis of a mix of policies, some local some national.

Craig's expertise goes far beyond foreign affairs, to domestic and economic policy. At the Norwich North hustings, he outclassed the other candidates on virtually every issue. He set the bar high every time and the others (including Chloe) conspicuously failed to clear it. It was an education in how to answer questions directly, honestly and powerfully.

Before I reach a firm opinion on a political development, I visit this blog to check whether Craig has lifted the lid on it and exposed the media spin. It's often a revelation. There's nowhere else to seek this level of honesty, insight and sobering fact. Occasionally, some comments posted by visitors amount to pure genius (if you can wade through the crap and the waffle). Overall, this is an inspiring web resource. And when we talk to other people about what we've read here, word spreads. The influence ultimately isn't quantifiable, but it does make a difference in the bigger picture.

When I came back from Norwich, a friend who greeted me from the train said "I saw the results; he did well". Indeed. For an independent candidate with a fairly low media profile and no history of political activity in the constituency, that was an exceptional result. Maybe a quick spell in the Total Perspective Vortex would help to restore the flagging mood.

Chin up, chaps! One day we'll look back and see the difference we made, even if we missed the transformation.

I see little connection between the value of your blog and your showing in Norwich. There are many obvious reasons why your election result was disappointing, one being that of those familiar with you political beliefs, many may disagree. I for one do and have mentioned a reason for doing so on my own page.

More fundamentally, perhaps, your message is too radical for ordinary, busy, not particularly well educated people to believe. For years New Labor, with the full amplification of the media, has been saying that Britain is at war in Afghanistan because they attacked us on 9/11 or because they will attack us if we don't attack them, etc., etc., whereas you say Blair, Brown, Straw et al. are war criminals guilty of lying Britain into a war of aggression and of being complicit in torture, and so on. Undoubtedly you are right and the fact that most people cannot understand that clearly shows what a dangerous form of government prevails in the West.

All the leadership needs do to establish a despotism is convince about 30% of the dimmest members of the electorate of some ridiculous rubbish. They can then ignore the majority of reasonably well informed and thoughtful people.

This is a truly evil form of government against which knowledge, reason and truth will not readily prevail. But what else can be brought to bear against it? And if the best commentators we have give up the struggle to break the hold of a corrupt political class and the lying media the prospect of any change becomes dim indeed.

There is no doubt that your blog is among the best informed, most incisive and most enjoyable to read that I am aware of. I understand that one has to make a living a therefore one must decide where to expend one's energy. But I very much hope your commentary on the Web long continues.

It is near midnight here and I have not read all 72 of the preceding comments. If I merely reiterate what has already been said, my apologies.

Alfred Burdett

Did you ever answer the allegations made by Iain Dale during the NN BE. Maybe that's the answer

Craig, have you examined the visitor stats for this blog? If not, you might want to ask your service provider to compile some for you.

At the very least, stats from the webserver logs would show how many people have read each post, and where they are geographically. I suspect the numbers are larger than 953 or even 13,591.

Your opposition to torture has been heroic. Someone has to do it. Truth is not decided by a majority vote.

Besides, I visit your blog regularly for provocation, entertainment, becoming a little bit more informed about the world... I would sorely miss it if you stopped.

Don't give up - please!

Never mind about Parliament, Craig. What you have been exposing over the past few years is much more important.

I'm sure many of us who purchased "Murder in Samarkand" were only then made aware of the unholy liaison between the US government and the Taliban in the late 1990, via the discredited Enron. It looks like the link between Afghanistan and oil was made at around that time, and explains why a case was made to invade that country after 9/11 and stay in there to present day.

You clearly have more information than most about dealings between the Taliban and "oil lords", and would do well to devote more of your time to the extent of the corruption that you started to unveil through your blog and Murder in Samarkand.

The war in Afghanistan is now such a controversial issue that radio 4 "Any Answers" completely blanked it yesterday, despite this topic providing the most stirring debate on "Any Questions". Even US public opinion has swung against continuing that conflict.

Your energies would certainly be usefully deployed promoting the "troops out" demonstration scheduled for Saturday 24th October. As large a turnout as possible is needed on that day.

PLEASE don't give up on us Craig.

This is your site profile on Google Ad Planner.

https://www.google.com/adplanner/site_profile#siteDetails?identifier=craigmurray.org.uk&geo=GB&trait_type=1

Look at Ron Paul in the US. He talks absolute sense and yet is constantly ridiculed by the media on the few occasions he appears.He is a little known Republican that speaks for the people but they would not vote for him!

Dirty dealings on Pinochet's behalf by Chloe's erstwhile employers are exposed in this article.

'A one-time representative of Deloitte & Touche, Richard Evans, is alleged by the Brilac report to have acted in connection with Ashburton Trust, which was created by Riggs and whose beneficiaries included Pinochet's five children, who each had a 20 per cent share. Mr Evans was also listed by Brilac as a director of Althorp Investment Trust, another repository for Pinochet family funds. It said he
was active in promoting businesses in Argentina and was being investigated for money-laundering.

Deloitte spokesman Ignacio Tena said: "Deloitte & Touche Corporate Services was contracted by Riggs Bank and Trust Company (Bahamas) to render administrative services for Riggs and some of its clients. Riggs did the due diligence, and gave all the information related to its clients, in accordance with the usual commercial practice and the Bahamas' law."'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pinochets-lost-millions-the-uk-connection-1776180.html

Craig,

I care deeply about what you have to say. In fact whenever some major world event occurs I find myself turning to your site to see whether you have some new insight on it or some angle that I may have missed. Maybe over-educated, intellectual, socially engaged people like me are a minority but we do exist. We might not be the best basis for a political party seeking to win a majority in a first past the post system, however you do have a very real constituency here on this blog.

I myself would be deeply saddened if you stopped blogging.

Bear up Craig, good man! Your blogging is precious and essential. Your insights and special knowledge are sterling. For heaven's sake don't get lost in the deepest pits of depression.

What you went through in Norwich was a deeply soul-bruising assault, by the massed forces of authoritarian anti-democracy. You're in no way to blame for their villainy.

Nor is it true that we, the commons, don't care about what people like you have to say. It's just that most of us never get to hear such honest, humanely-principled, real-world commentary, or even to know that it exists, outside the pernicious deceits of the corporate media (very much including the BBC) and the wholly-owned pocket-pols and commentariatchiks.

There's also the fact that an awful lot of us obscure commoners are ahead of you on one matter, Craig. Remember that you've just begun to disinvest yourself of the doctrinal and ideological baggage that you had to take on board long ago as you made a career in the orthodox diplomatic 'service'.

Tearing your mind away from a deeply-injected worldview of half a lifetime, and taking on board the new, real-world truths (which are often ultimately bleak and horrifying to newcomers) is no small undertaking, and leads pretty inevitably to some serious emotional/spiritual upheavals.

Please don't repine, good man! If we of the AAPA commons ['awake-and-paying-attention] don't have people like you to turn to for insider-informed and intelligent commentary on what's really happening behind the Permanent Bullshit Blizzard, who are we going to turn to?

And remember: informed discussions and information exchanging are the absolutely-essential precursor to intelligent revolutionary political mass-action.

That's going to come back into fashion with a bang from now on, and the reason why isn't hard to see, once you clear your mind of the orthodoxy clutter:

What we're experiencing now isn't a recession, nor even a depression, but a fundamental shift from an old expansionist era which is now foundering -- for ever -- on the Limits To Growth to a new era of increasing scarcities, and the shrinkage -- sic, sic, sic! -- of just about all the measures which we've all been trained from childhood on to expect to grow inexorably for ever.

At the very least, this new era is going to shake things up. And there are going to be an awful lot of very pissed off people, especially amongst us of the Pampered Twenty Percent of humankind, who are discovering that our pampered lifestyles have gone away and won't be coming back.

In such a time, populations are prone to slide one of two ways: towards sober renewal of our ideas about what we now need to do to deal with the changed reality; or towards demagogue-driven fascist lunacy.

Eloquent, knowledgable, and above all decently-humane souls such as you, Craig, are absolutely vital as way-finders -- and way-pointers -- towards the former option.

But Craig -- you really do need to cure yourself of the illusion that Britain is, or has ever been, a genuine, functioning democracy. A very sophisticated fake, to prevent the real thing ever happening? Sure! But the real thing? Absolutely not.

Don't waste any more time setting yourself up for these savage beatings-up of your spirit by trying to work the system as if it means what it says on the 'democracy' packet. That's just part of the con-trick which fools enough of the people enough of the time.

What we have to have is REAL democracy, urgently, as a prophylactic against the fascism risk. And we're not going to get that without fighting -- in some way -- the gics ['gangsters-in-charge'] who are the self-perpetuating real power-holders in our polity, and who will never volunteer to give up that power without first being thoroughly beaten into submission.

Despite my belligerent language here, I believe that to have the best chance of succeeding in this great quest, we -- the massed commons -- have to do it strictly non-violently, but in irresistible numbers, just as Norman Finkelstein and others are organising right now to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza, at the turn of this year.

In such stirring times, the understandings and commentary of people such as you, Craig, are absolutely vital. Feeling like shit, and going into spiritual hiding, is the last thing you should do, friend. The enemies of truth, democracy and justice, and their sucker-puppets (such as Chloe), want you to feel like that, and to become ineffectual as a result.

The best way to off them is to refuse to repine, and to keep on doing the VITAL stuff that you do so well. It IS vital, Craig. Never succumb to the deliberately-induced delusion that it's worthless.

Be true to yourself Craig and you should have no regrets. The problem here Craig is that we need a cultural change and it will only happen over time. People are conditioned by the media into believing we do not have other choices. We should be campaigning for awareness in people to vote for the 'best' candidate to represent them in elections not the 'party' candidate. (Some 'party' candidates are good people). Once people realise that we can perhaps get people who represent people and not themselves. Carry on blogging!

Dear Craig
whilst I might not agree with everything you say - the fact the you obviously make the effort to be accurate and fair sets you apart.

It will be a great loss to public debate if you decide to throw in the towel even though Cassandra might appear to be something of a role model.....

Please carry on your fight against the dark side.

As for the media - if you haven't already - please acquaint yourself with Nick Davies Flat Earth News.

http://www.flatearthnews.net/

Blogging is a powerful tool - Sir Michael White et al would not expend as much energy as they do attacking it if it weren't. They're terrified of it.

Where is William Cobbett though when you need him?

Bear up Craig, good man! Your blogging is precious and essential. Your insights and special knowledge are sterling. For heaven's sake don't get lost in the deepest pits of depression.

What you went through in Norwich was a deeply soul-bruising assault, by the massed forces of authoritarian anti-democracy. You're in no way to blame for their villainy.

Nor is it true that we, the commons, don't care about what people like you have to say. It's just that most of us never get to hear such honest, humanely-principled, real-world commentary, or even to know that it exists, outside the pernicious deceits of the corporate media (very much including the BBC) and the wholly-owned pocket-pols and commentariatchiks.

There's also the fact that an awful lot of us obscure commoners are ahead of you on one matter, Craig. Remember that you've just begun to disinvest yourself of the doctrinal and ideological baggage that you had to take on board long ago as you made a career in the orthodox diplomatic 'service'.

Tearing your mind away from a deeply-injected worldview of half a lifetime, and taking on board the new, real-world truths (which are often ultimately bleak and horrifying to newcomers) is no small undertaking, and leads pretty inevitably to some serious emotional/spiritual upheavals.

But a lot of us obscure commoners have already made that journey of the spirit, and simply don't have anything to do with the wretched modern British 'democracy' game. (You're aware of the abstention levels, even in General Elections, of course)

Please don't repine, good man! If we of the AAPA commons ['awake-and-paying-attention] don't have people like you to turn to for insider-informed and intelligent commentary on what's really happening behind the Permanent Bullshit Blizzard, who are we going to turn to?

And remember: informed discussions and information exchanging are the absolutely-essential precursor to intelligent revolutionary political mass-action.

That's going to come back into fashion with a bang from now on, and the reason why isn't hard to see, once you clear your mind of the orthodoxy clutter:

What we're experiencing now isn't a recession, nor even a depression, but a fundamental shift from an old expansionist era which is now foundering -- for ever -- on the Limits To Growth, to a new era of increasing scarcities and the shrinkage -- sic, sic, sic! -- of just about all the measures which we've all been trained from childhood to expect to grow inexorably for ever.

At the very least this new era is going to shake things up. And there are going to be an awful lot of very pissed-off people, especially amongst us of the Pampered Twenty Percent of humankind, who are discovering right now that our pampered lifestyles are going away unstoppably, and won't be coming back.

In such a time, populations are prone to slide one of two ways: towards sober renewal of our ideas about what we now need to do to deal with the changed reality; or towards demagogue-driven fascist lunacy; always a disaster, this time like to be terminal.

Eloquent, knowledgable, and above all decently-humane souls such as you, Craig, are absolutely vital as way-finders -- and way-pointers -- towards the former option.

But Craig -- you really do need to cure yourself of the illusion that Britain is, or has ever been, a genuine, functioning democracy. A very sophisticated fake, to prevent the real thing ever happening? Sure! But the real thing? Absolutely not.

Don't waste any more time setting yourself up for these savage beatings-up of your spirit by trying to work the system as if it means what it says on the 'democracy' packet. That's just part of the con-trick which is maintained so elaborately to fool enough of the people enough of the time.

What we have to have is REAL democracy, urgently, as a prophylactic against the fascism risk and against the even greater risk of the meltdown of our planetary life-support systems.

And we're not going to get that without fighting -- in some way -- the gics ['gangsters-in-charge'] who are the real, self-perpetuating power-holders in our polity, and who will never volunteer to give up that power without first being thoroughly beaten into submission.

Despite my belligerent language here, I believe that to have the best chance of succeeding in this great quest, we -- the massed commons -- have to do it strictly non-violently, but in irresistible numbers, in just the same way that Norman Finkelstein and others are organising right now to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza, at the turn of this year, with practical mass-Satyagraha. (I'm aiming to be there myself, if I can haul my nearly-seventy-year-old carcase out there)

In such stirring times, the understandings and commentary of people such as you, Craig, are absolutely vital. Feeling like shit, and going into spiritual hiding, is the last thing you should do, friend. The enemies of truth, democracy and justice, and their sucker-puppets (such as Chloe), want you to feel like that, and to become ineffectual as a result.

The best way to off them is to refuse to repine, and to keep on doing the VITAL stuff that you do so well. It IS vital, Craig. Never succumb to the deliberately-induced delusion that it's worthless.

Bear up Craig, good man! Your blogging is precious and essential. Your insights and special knowledge are sterling. For heaven's sake don't get lost in the deepest pits of depression.

What you went through in Norwich was a deeply soul-bruising assault, by the massed forces of authoritarian anti-democracy. You're in no way to blame for their villainy.

Nor is it true that we, the commons, don't care about what people like you have to say. It's just that most of us never get to hear such honest, humanely-principled, real-world commentary, or even to know that it exists, outside the pernicious deceits of the corporate media (very much including the BBC) and the wholly-owned pocket-pols and commentariatchiks.

There's also the fact that an awful lot of us obscure commoners are ahead of you on one matter, Craig. Remember that you've just begun to disinvest yourself of the doctrinal and ideological baggage that you had to take on board long ago as you made a career in the orthodox diplomatic 'service'.

Tearing your mind away from a deeply-injected worldview of half a lifetime, and taking on board the new, real-world truths (which are often ultimately bleak and horrifying to newcomers) is no small undertaking, and leads pretty inevitably to some serious emotional/spiritual upheavals.

But a lot of us obscure commoners have already made that journey of the spirit, and simply don't have anything to do with the wretched modern British 'democracy' game. (You're aware of the abstention levels, even in General Elections, of course)

Please don't repine, good man! If we of the AAPA commons ['awake-and-paying-attention] don't have people like you to turn to for insider-informed and intelligent commentary on what's really happening behind the Permanent Bullshit Blizzard, who are we going to turn to?

And remember: informed discussions and information exchanging are the absolutely-essential precursor to intelligent revolutionary political mass-action.

That's going to come back into fashion with a bang from now on, and the reason why isn't hard to see, once you clear your mind of the orthodoxy clutter:

What we're experiencing now isn't a recession, nor even a depression, but a fundamental shift from an old expansionist era which is now foundering -- for ever -- on the Limits To Growth, to a new era of increasing scarcities and the shrinkage -- sic, sic, sic! -- of just about all the measures which we've all been trained from childhood to expect to grow inexorably for ever.

At the very least this new era is going to shake things up. And there are going to be an awful lot of very pissed-off people, especially amongst us of the Pampered Twenty Percent of humankind, who are discovering right now that our pampered lifestyles are going away unstoppably, and won't be coming back.

In such a time, populations are prone to slide one of two ways: towards sober renewal of our ideas about what we now need to do to deal with the changed reality; or towards demagogue-driven fascist lunacy; always a disaster, this time like to be terminal.

Eloquent, knowledgable, and above all decently-humane souls such as you, Craig, are absolutely vital as way-finders -- and way-pointers -- towards the former option.

But Craig -- you really do need to cure yourself of the illusion that Britain is, or has ever been, a genuine, functioning democracy. A very sophisticated fake, to prevent the real thing ever happening? Sure! But the real thing? Absolutely not.

Don't waste any more time setting yourself up for these savage beatings-up of your spirit by trying to work the system as if it means what it says on the 'democracy' packet. That's just part of the con-trick which is maintained so elaborately to fool enough of the people enough of the time.

What we have to have is REAL democracy, urgently, as a prophylactic against the fascism risk and against the even greater risk of the meltdown of our planetary life-support systems.

And we're not going to get that without fighting -- in some way -- the gics ['gangsters-in-charge'] who are the real, self-perpetuating power-holders in our polity, and who will never volunteer to give up that power without first being thoroughly beaten into submission.

Despite my belligerent language here, I believe that to have the best chance of succeeding in this great quest, we -- the massed commons -- have to do it strictly non-violently, but in irresistible numbers, in just the same way that Norman Finkelstein and others are organising right now to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza, at the turn of this year, with practical mass-Satyagraha. (I'm aiming to be there myself, if I can haul my nearly-seventy-year-old carcase out there)

In such stirring times, the understandings and commentary of people such as you, Craig, are absolutely vital. Feeling like shit, and going into spiritual hiding, is the last thing you should do, friend. The enemies of truth, democracy and justice, and their sucker-puppets (such as Chloe), want you to feel like that, and to become ineffectual as a result.

The best way to off them is to refuse to repine, and to keep on doing the VITAL stuff that you do so well. It IS vital, Craig. Never succumb to the deliberately-induced delusion that it's worthless.

Bear up Craig, good man! Your blogging is precious and essential. Your insights and special knowledge are sterling. For heaven's sake don't get lost in the deepest pits of depression.

What you went through in Norwich was a deeply soul-bruising assault, by the massed forces of authoritarian anti-democracy. You're in no way to blame for their villainy.

Nor is it true that we, the commons, don't care about what people like you have to say. It's just that most of us never get to hear such honest, humanely-principled, real-world commentary, or even to know that it exists, outside the pernicious deceits of the corporate media (very much including the BBC) and the wholly-owned pocket-pols and commentariatchiks.

There's also the fact that an awful lot of us obscure commoners are ahead of you on one matter, Craig. Remember that you've just begun to disinvest yourself of the doctrinal and ideological baggage that you had to take on board long ago as you made a career in the orthodox diplomatic 'service'.

Tearing your mind away from a deeply-injected worldview of half a lifetime, and taking on board the new, real-world truths (which are often ultimately bleak and horrifying to newcomers) is no small undertaking, and leads pretty inevitably to some serious emotional/spiritual upheavals.

But a lot of us obscure commoners have already made that journey of the spirit, and simply don't have anything to do with the wretched modern British 'democracy' game. (You're aware of the abstention levels, even in General Elections, of course)

Please don't repine, good man! If we of the AAPA commons ['awake-and-paying-attention] don't have people like you to turn to for insider-informed and intelligent commentary on what's really happening behind the Permanent Bullshit Blizzard, who are we going to turn to?

And remember: informed discussions and information exchanging are the absolutely-essential precursor to intelligent revolutionary political mass-action.

That's going to come back into fashion with a bang from now on, and the reason why isn't hard to see, once you clear your mind of the orthodoxy clutter:

What we're experiencing now isn't a recession, nor even a depression, but a fundamental shift from an old expansionist era which is now foundering -- for ever -- on the Limits To Growth, to a new era of increasing scarcities and the shrinkage -- sic, sic, sic! -- of just about all the measures which we've all been trained from childhood to expect to grow inexorably for ever.

At the very least this new era is going to shake things up. And there are going to be an awful lot of very pissed-off people, especially amongst us of the Pampered Twenty Percent of humankind, who are discovering right now that our pampered lifestyles are going away unstoppably, and won't be coming back.

In such a time, populations are prone to slide one of two ways: towards sober renewal of our ideas about what we now need to do to deal with the changed reality; or towards demagogue-driven fascist lunacy; always a disaster, this time like to be terminal.

Eloquent, knowledgable, and above all decently-humane souls such as you, Craig, are absolutely vital as way-finders -- and way-pointers -- towards the former option.

But Craig -- you really do need to cure yourself of the illusion that Britain is, or has ever been, a genuine, functioning democracy. A very sophisticated fake, to prevent the real thing ever happening? Sure! But the real thing? Absolutely not.

Don't waste any more time setting yourself up for these savage beatings-up of your spirit by trying to work the system as if it means what it says on the 'democracy' packet. That's just part of the con-trick which is maintained so elaborately to fool enough of the people enough of the time.

What we have to have is REAL democracy, urgently, as a prophylactic against the fascism risk and against the even greater risk of the meltdown of our planetary life-support systems.

And we're not going to get that without fighting -- in some way -- the gics ['gangsters-in-charge'] who are the real, self-perpetuating power-holders in our polity, and who will never volunteer to give up that power without first being thoroughly beaten into submission.

Despite my belligerent language here, I believe that to have the best chance of succeeding in this great quest, we -- the massed commons -- have to do it strictly non-violently, but in irresistible numbers, in just the same way that Norman Finkelstein and others are organising right now to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza, at the turn of this year, with practical mass-Satyagraha. (I'm aiming to be there myself, if I can haul my nearly-seventy-year-old carcase out there)

In such stirring times, the understandings and commentary of people such as you, Craig, are absolutely vital. Feeling like shit, and going into spiritual hiding, is the last thing you should do, friend. The enemies of truth, democracy and justice, and their sucker-puppets (such as Chloe), want you to feel like that, and to become ineffectual as a result.

The best way to off them is to refuse to repine, and to keep on doing the VITAL stuff that you do so well. It IS vital, Craig. Never succumb to the deliberately-induced delusion that it's worthless.

Bear up Craig, good man! Your blogging is precious and essential. Your insights and special knowledge are sterling. For heaven's sake don't get lost in the deepest pits of depression.

What you went through in Norwich was a deeply soul-bruising assault, by the massed forces of authoritarian anti-democracy. You're in no way to blame for their villainy.

Nor is it true that we, the commons, don't care about what people like you have to say. It's just that most of us never get to hear such honest, humanely-principled, real-world commentary, or even to know that it exists, outside the pernicious deceits of the corporate media (very much including the BBC) and the wholly-owned pocket-pols and commentariatchiks.

There's also the fact that an awful lot of us obscure commoners are ahead of you on one matter, Craig. Remember that you've just begun to disinvest yourself of the doctrinal and ideological baggage that you had to take on board long ago as you made a career in the orthodox diplomatic 'service'.

Tearing your mind away from a deeply-injected worldview of half a lifetime, and taking on board the new, real-world truths (which are often ultimately bleak and horrifying to newcomers) is no small undertaking, and leads pretty inevitably to some serious emotional/spiritual upheavals.

But a lot of us obscure commoners have already made that journey of the spirit, and simply don't have anything to do with the wretched modern British 'democracy' game. (You're aware of the abstention levels, even in General Elections, of course)

Please don't repine, good man! If we of the AAPA commons ['awake-and-paying-attention] don't have people like you to turn to for insider-informed and intelligent commentary on what's really happening behind the Permanent Bullshit Blizzard, who are we going to turn to?

And remember: informed discussions and information exchanging are the absolutely-essential precursor to intelligent revolutionary political mass-action.

That's going to come back into fashion with a bang from now on, and the reason why isn't hard to see, once you clear your mind of the orthodoxy clutter:

What we're experiencing now isn't a recession, nor even a depression, but a fundamental shift from an old expansionist era which is now foundering -- for ever -- on the Limits To Growth, to a new era of increasing scarcities and the shrinkage -- sic, sic, sic! -- of just about all the measures which we've all been trained from childhood to expect to grow inexorably for ever.

At the very least this new era is going to shake things up. And there are going to be an awful lot of very pissed-off people, especially amongst us of the Pampered Twenty Percent of humankind, who are discovering right now that our pampered lifestyles are going away unstoppably, and won't be coming back.

In such a time, populations are prone to slide one of two ways: towards sober renewal of our ideas about what we now need to do to deal with the changed reality; or towards demagogue-driven fascist lunacy; always a disaster, this time like to be terminal.

Eloquent, knowledgable, and above all decently-humane souls such as you, Craig, are absolutely vital as way-finders -- and way-pointers -- towards the former option.

But Craig -- you really do need to cure yourself of the illusion that Britain is, or has ever been, a genuine, functioning democracy. A very sophisticated fake, to prevent the real thing ever happening? Sure! But the real thing? Absolutely not.

Don't waste any more time setting yourself up for these savage beatings-up of your spirit by trying to work the system as if it means what it says on the 'democracy' packet. That's just part of the con-trick which is maintained so elaborately to fool enough of the people enough of the time.

What we have to have is REAL democracy, urgently, as a prophylactic against the fascism risk and against the even greater risk of the meltdown of our planetary life-support systems.

And we're not going to get that without fighting -- in some way -- the gics ['gangsters-in-charge'] who are the real, self-perpetuating power-holders in our polity, and who will never volunteer to give up that power without first being thoroughly beaten into submission.

Despite my belligerent language here, I believe that to have the best chance of succeeding in this great quest, we -- the massed commons -- have to do it strictly non-violently, but in irresistible numbers, in just the same way that Norman Finkelstein and others are organising right now to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza, at the turn of this year, with practical mass-Satyagraha. (I'm aiming to be there myself, if I can haul my nearly-seventy-year-old carcase out there)

In such stirring times, the understandings and commentary of people such as you, Craig, are absolutely vital. Feeling like shit, and going into spiritual hiding, is the last thing you should do, friend. The enemies of truth, democracy and justice, and their sucker-puppets (such as Chloe), want you to feel like that, and to become ineffectual as a result.

The best way to off them is to refuse to repine, and to keep on doing the VITAL stuff that you do so well. It IS vital, Craig. Never succumb to the deliberately-induced delusion that it's worthless.

Craig,
When you've done whatever you need to do today on the home front, could you please give us your views on "the sick farce of the Afghan elections" and "the extraordinary and cynical charade over the Lockerbie 'bomber'"?
I'm just watching them discussing today's papers on Sky News and throwing my eyes to heaven, as usual.
I'd really love to have your input.

Another victim of depression, Stephen Fry, also disappeared from public view during period of self doubt a few years ago. I hope you get back on the horse, too.

I agree with Dreoilin -- there's an awful lot to learn about the Lockerbie affair; and I'd like to hear what Craig has to say about it.

If you are after instant gratification and don't have the stamina for the grind of continuing to present your point of view to an audience that does not always appreciate it then by all means quit. Or, you could recognise the fact that changing minds on any scale is a tough job and even if successful it takes time, generations sometimes. Your choice.

I would like to join in the great chorus on here and declare my allegiance to the precious truth you have been purveying on your blog, Craig.

If it is too much, cut it down to one /week, it will still be important, just less responsive to others.

I support and agree with your assumption that the greater british public is politically inept, lead by the nose and too apathetic, a state fostered by our party political system, to make an informed decision.
The European election really showed it, noLabour forgot to launch their campaign, too scared of expense repercusions and questions by R4Today team, they declined to use this precious time given to them on a major news platform, awol is another term for it.
The result, some 20.000 less labour voters could be botherewd in the North west, people were not encouraged to vote Green and went for the greater evil, they voted in Nick Griffin.
I also agree with those that say change will be gradual, but there are positive moves afoot amongst all this hopeless apathetic political landscape.
Martin Bell has come forward this week and called for Independents to stand up and come forward. Should this happen in any number at the next general election, and these Independents come out all firing on the issues that matter, ie. bring Craigs honesty on torture and apply it to the financial morast and address the mistakes made with plausible changes, harrangue the two major political parties for throwing away taxpayers money, only to see it appear in tax havens, if that becomes a campaign, some of these Independents might get elected.

After the first period of speaking truth in Parliament and working together to highlight the issues that do not get dealt with by the main stream parties, speaking with a local mandate, the public will cotton on and understand the need for more support, at present Independents are seen as hollow, because history has shown that many after getting elected aligned themselves with one or other large Government party, a futile move for any Independent cause.

Independents have to stay independent when elected, speaking out and supporting the local mandate will be the arbiter of getting re elected.

Many thinking people in Norwich have given you your vote, from the whole political spectrum I might add, so do not let these depressive thoughts run away with you, your judgement is still needed.
Elections need preparing for, ideally, instant success is impossible and those who want to seriously run for Parliament as Independents should start now to put out newsletters and announce their intent, make a massive stink, there're enough smelly heaps around us, no shortage of it, but keep it local, be seen to do stuff locally and get to know those who you want to lead in Parliament.
Coalitions with others on important issues, long before a general election, for example climate change and alternative energy generation and PR, will strenghten the issue in your locality, start now for next May.

Please, all of you, let us not bury the rebirth of Independents before it has happened, in a first past the post perpetual system its the only chnace to getting alternative voices heard.

I do not think that the UKIP, whatever their promises of striking at the heart of Europe might be, can be regarded as a party that speaks for me, or for any others.
Should there be any intent on aligning Independents with a negative and de constructing party of little islanders, although some in the public might like that, more apathy and lethargy will be created.

What will be very important to find a media base that supports such a campaign from the start, i.e.now, we can not expect a dependent BBC to be impartial, their rightwing drive is manifest and will not change with Cameron, maybe one has to look outside Britain for fairer coverage, what do others say?

CRAIG, please give me a ring, some strings need tidying up before Wednesday and I need two signatures of you.

Craig,
Ive read every single comment and agree with the vast majority who support you. Having spent a lifetime supporting a 'minority' political party,who were treated by the mainstream media with disdain, and by the great British state as dangerous subversives- (see BBC Alba gaelic documentary Diomhair http://www.scottishindependence.org)we are now the party of government in Scotland.
Don't give up your blog. We need your insight now more than ever, to expose the cant, hippocracy and feigned outrage over the release of Magrahi, and the whole Lockerby affair. We at the Scottish Independence Convention would welcome you as a guest speaker at one of our regular meetings in the Scottish Parliament. How about it?

We come here of our own volition to read what you have to say.

It is depressing that we are so few, but there you go.

I understand it must have been unpleasant to have been marginalised in public though...

"The reason is that the media is not manipulative, it is merely making a shrewd and correct commercial decision that almost nobody cares."

Sorry Craig but this is totally false. The media are manipulative and more over it is their responsibility to keep people in check, hopeless and believing their is 'no alternative' to the system; to normalise wars and torture, to paint brutal empires and their lapdogs as the 'good guys' etc.

Over years and years, this DOES have the desired effect on the masses. And when people do start to become cynical, it is the media's job to ensure that they turn on each other and blame immigrants, the poor, gypsies, Muslims - ANYONE but those wielding power. And that's when you start to see the rise of fascist ideas.

The one time that a tabloid took the decision to oppose an upcoming war and promote an anti-war march, that march had a turnout of 2 million people. I do not see that as a coincidence.

It has been said that the BBC killed Harold Pinter the day they chose to ignore his Nobel Prize speech and I concur. The media has enormous power to mould and manipulate people. Don't ever think they are just reporting what people 'want to hear'.

Smears, lies, censorship, distortions, under-reporting and outright propaganda is the order of the day with the mainstream media. It is an important and deliberate obstacle to positive change.

"The many Iain Dales, eddies and Charles Crawfords of the world will be chuckling at this post; and the Karimovs, Usmanovs, and Schillings comfortably continuing in their ways."

Not fair, I think. Iain Dale has linked to this even though you are invariably rude to him. I hear your gloom - sounds like a surge of your bipolar down-ness after all the feverish work you put into that doomed election effort.

It's all about humility. For every million people who read Guido, there are 40 million + who do not and who may be utterly unaware of him. You have a lively fan club, as the above torrent of comments shows. But aren't they really only a tiny echo chamber for themselves, like most blog fan-clubs?

Where I part company with you is mainly about 'method'. You portray everything in the starkest, absolutist terms ("the sick farce of the Afghanistan elections"). This leads you to a sort of monotone nihilism, from which people drift away.

Sure, a lot of things are not ideal. Probably most. But is there nothing noble or positive eg in the efforts we are making to help Afghanistan people choose their own leaders freely? Why focus on the 'hope destroyed' by University admissions this year? Surely there have to be more candidates than places, in the nature of things?

Maybe the practical Norwich voters are telling you that life is all about awkward compromises, and that it is not enough to be right - you ought to show yourself to be persuasive as well as sympathetic to the fact that others have different points of view?

QUOTING George Dutton (above):
"Craig

You do make the difference in more ways then you think...Believe me.

If not for people like you where would we be?. You have already made many aware of what is going on. You have been proven to be right on all you have said about torture.

"Stay true unto yourself" and you will never lose. Craig, you did not lose...Believe me."

>>Seconded.

>>And Rhysiart Gwilym's response too.

Like many others, I've discovered that the 'democracy' in which we live is actually anything but. Many years ago, it was a big wake-up call when a former KGB officer emphatically told me, "You live in an elected dictatorship". Oh the irony. The truth hurt.

The globe is dominated by governments comprised of those who are plainly dysfunctional - emotionally, psychologically and in daily administrative practice - and driven by short termist, skewed ego needs for power and control. Our job out here is to get our own egos out of the way and keep on speaking truth to that sick and often insane power.

It doesn't garner medals or thanks or seats in Parliaments very often, given that most human beings gave up the fight for truth, freedom and justice as toddlers and live ostrich-like lives of quiet desperation. (There appears to be a distinct correlation between the real and increasingly parlous state of the world and the excesses and excess of celebrity culcha which most of these people would rather have fed to them, soma-like, in ever increasing dollops). But speaking fact and truth keeps us sane and provides a space of more functional sanity for others to join.

It seems to me that this is actually where the real power lies. Corruption isn't just about taking a bung or defrauding expenses. At heart, it's about the corruptee's complete inability to see how skewed and debauched their thinking and actions have actually become. I offer the example of leaders with 'profound Christian faith' who somehow mangle and skew that faith - with the Church's blessing, no less! - to allow them to launch torturous and murderous attacks on innocents. (Nowhere did Jesus say 'Love your enemies, turn the other cheek - but, hey guys, if you want their wives/asses/oil go maim and kill the bastards!')

I think that the real power lies in where you are Craig (and where most of your correspondents are). Interpreting accurately, presenting clear, factual truths with plain, unskewed evidence. It's a very brave, revolutionary thing to do. Keep on doing it. You'll always have far more companions and supporters than you realise...

"The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter".
- Sir Winston Churchill (who was in a position to know).

Keep blogging. You have no idea how many folks copy&paste your blogs on to other sites. I came across your stuff on football forum!

Your blog has been a vital source of dissident information and is widely sourced across the web. It is one of the few, lone British voices offering sustained and intelligent critique of the mainstream media.

This is how they work here. They don't use torture - they use isolation and ridicule.

Don't let the bastards grind you down.

It is our duty to our victims to present rationally-argued testimony to the hypocrisy of our times. Our duty is to lay out the evidence of our crimes for anybody who cares to look. It is undiminished by the smallness of the minority which chooses to do so. Our victims cannot speak. They can only fight. We must speak on their behalf by confonting corrupt power using the freedoms we enjoy. If no one listens, so be it. Our duty is discharged.

You say the media is making a rational judgement because nobody cares about torture. Does the media ignore the torture of our servicemen and ordinary people by enemy states? Of course it does not. The examples are numerous. From this it is clear people do care about torture.

The way you were treated at the count was plain rude. People are rude. Deal with it. Our victims still die in the street at our hands. Rudeness will never hurt you. This is the privilege that makes it our duty to speak.

you didn't get your picture on the puzzle but your still a part of it and without all the bits it's not complete.so keep blogging,what you say is important.you do your bit please keep doing it.

What are you going to do instead? Nothing?

I vote with my feet.
I read your blog at least once a week.
I have watched the BBC news 3 times in the last 4 years...

Craig,I hope you will continue to blog. It is both useful information, and a heartening focus for those who are seeking reassurance that alternate views/truths are out there and will eventually be heard. Loss of hope and loss of heart is a debilitating risk we all face. It is not surprising that you should feel downhearted at times, but it is important that you know and that other posters know that this exchange helps to give us all heart. Please keep up the good work.

If you stop voicing your thoughts online you have allowed them victory. This is what they want to do - demoralise you.

Please fight the self doubts and never allow them victory. They are scared of you Craig, that is why your opponents wish to discredit you. Your Blog is important.

Democracy is to choose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hg4dxJZcWQ&

Why do we fall down? So we can learn to get back up ;) Chin up Craig, you are a good man fighting a good fight - don't let it beat you. Keep blogging and keep campaigning - if you only ever convert one person to seeing things as they really are then it has been worthwhile.

Keep going. You dont see the others quitting do you? and almost everyone hates those dishonest thieving murderous greedy fuckwits. We know who we're talking about.

As my original post still seems stuck in moderation I'll link to the Wikipedia article on Chomsky and Herman's Manufacturing Consent, including the five filters of the propaganda model of mass media:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

To try to penetrate the pale of lies is the hardest job Mr Murray.
You are doing such important work, please don't be downhearted.
May I respectfully suggest that you only expand your spheres of research.
We need you to continue.

I turn to your blog for inspiration. I click on it every day, maybe more than once a day. I have it on bookmarks. I've been depressed about things but people like you give me hope. Don't give up. People need you.

Teachers teach,
Bloggers blog,
Lonely twitter
Others do

and wankers wank.

Big oaks from little acorns grow. If you give up what hope have we.

Yes, it's difficult. Yes, we may tell the truth over and over again and still be defeated. But the alternative is giving up and I won't do that. Please don't stop telling the truth as you see it.

Dear Craig,

I may not agree with everything you do. I don't agree with everything you say. I have problems with some of your analysis. I think that you are bad at marketing yourself.

BUT... your blog is one of the most insightful, intelligent and courageous English language blogs on the planet and it sends out ripples of influence thousands of miles beyond W3.

Would Socrates have stayed doing nothing in his cell if he had known that 2,500 years later people would still be reading what other people thought he was trying to tell us? No, he would have taken the time to write it down himself.

So don't drink the hemlock - KEEP BLOGGING!

Craig, others like myself, will stumble across your site and will find it an inspirational source of intelligent analysis. You are one of the candles of truth in the darkness of ignorance. Keep shining your light sir. Don't think for one second that what you do does not matter. It matters an awful lot. If you are finding it hard to blog at the moment, then maybe just do the occasional when you are up to it. Spend more of your energy on joyful things until your spirits are raised again.

Craig - I have read both your books, and much of your blogging, all of it in the past few months since I became much more aware of you. I'd heard that there had - at one point - been a brave and honest UK Ambassador, but little more than that.

Had it not been for your efforts, I would still be in total ignorance about the many issues you raised (particularly within 'Murder in Samarkand'). So would the people to whom I have referred your work.

The fact that a man - yourself - could be in your position and be decent, honest, and give up all that in order to do the right thing is truly inspiring. The perspectives provided on your blog often make me reconsider my holding of conventional wisdom on points -even to a seasoned cynical news-junkie.

I've looked at your site repeatedly over the last week or so, and greatly missed your updates, and felt a little disappointed when the entry was terse.

As far as your Norwich North performance went, what could one expect, when faced with the well practiced machines of "New" Labour and the Tories, backed with the well-oiled industry of their media lackies? You didn't have a chance. I'm amazed you even got 7% - that's a swing in polls for which politicians would sell their first born.

There are many sources of decency and truth which have but a small voice, and struggle to be heard. Look at great and decent, passionate and thoroughly honest Mike Malloy in the US, for example, and how he just about scrapes by, while by stark contrast the pig-man himself, the lying, filthy racist corporate shill Rush Limbaugh gets $50 million a year for plugging the far-right line on his hate-radio programme.

If an election were held based on newspaper readership, The Sun/Mail etc. would win hands down, while the Guardian, Independent side would hardly get a look in. What's the listenership of Radio-4 compared with Radio-1? You cannot measure your worth by popularity, particularly when most of the voters have no idea who you are, and are too intellectually lazy to find out.

I look to your blogging as a valuable resource for giving my perspectives a reality check. If something major is going on, I want to know what Craig Murray thinks about it. Please keep going - there are truth-seekers out there (myself included) who consider you an important part of their understanding of the world, and would see your disappearance as putting another smile on the face of our friendly fascists in government. Glad that another bump in their road to utter compliance is smoothed over.

One other thing... I wouldn't have asked you to sign two hard-cover copies of 'The Catholic Orangemen of Togo' if I thought you were about to disappear on us ;)

Craig,

Please don't quit the blogging (or writing) - without people like you, those of us who do occasionally take an interest in the world around us have very little to go on, except what we hear and read in the mainstream media.

It only takes a few facts or insights to puncture the bullshit - or at the very least, present a credible starting point for those willing to explore an issue.

If a Tory bore decided to stop blogging (mentioning no names) I very much doubt he would get this sort of panicked 'don't go!' response. But then a certain Tory bore will never give up or lose hope, because he is not in it to change things or expose corruption or promote a rational society, and has the might of the establishment on his side which he is happily propping up like a useful little Tory idiot.

Take a well-deserved break to re-charge your batteries, and then come back more gobby than ever! You are needed and so very highly thought of Craig, as I hope you realise.

Hi Craig, I'll give you an anonymous comment this time, since my political party would prefer that... But you may perhaps remember my support in Norwich North, and guess who I am.

As Anne Baird at August 23, 2009 3:33 AM said, it is par for the course that losers in elections get depressed. In my own experience of losing, you go through mood swings.

First comes a strange mood of defiant exuberance. In my own case, I originally put that mood down to the fact that my three fellow candidates had overruled me on campaign strategy, and I had said that what they were insisting we do would be disastrous, and the election result had proved me right about that! However, you seemed from your blog response to be equally defiantly upbeat in the days after the result. Perhaps our similar moods do in fact stem from similar causes.

Second and later comes a counter-swing, an excessive depression when reality bites. This is an over-reaction. Things are not as bad as they seem to be. Don't over-react to the pessimistic mood. Don't do anything silly. Wait for your feelings to balance out.

I suspect a good psychiatrist would be able to explain the sequence of emotions - rather as they do explain the sequence of emotions that people go through when they experience real bereavement. Losing an election is, I guess, a milder form of bereavement.

Well, you know, this is just the start of Internet driven radical politics. Just look at Ron Paul in the US. Said a lot of true stuff which doesn't conform to mainstream opinion. Attracted a lot of smart and creative people on the net, but it didn't translate into, for example, winning the New Hampshire primary, where he only got a small percentage of Republican voters. It's gonna be a long battle. I don't know, I've heard that the political tipping point is only 10% of elites who need to be convinced of something before change occurs. Hang in there.

Craig,

A follow-up comment about the Norwich North campaign. I've commented previously about the campaigning errors which I knew the big parties would not have made, because they do have a lot of experience, and they have been able to learn from it. Now I want to comment about campaign mistakes which I have only recognised with the great benefit of hindsight!

First, that slogan "put an honest man into Parliament". I originally thought it was a brilliant slogan. I now think I was quite wrong about that.

There's an American maxim in politics, "When you're explaining, you're losing." What it means is, Tell the voter something he/she can immediately connect with and agree with. Don't try to force the voter to follow any sort of analytical thought process. Most voters won't be prepared to do that for you.

So let's look at your pitch. It was basically as follows:

"You probably won't remember my name, because I'm not a celebrity at the level of a Martin Bell or an Esther Rantzen. However, I do have a long story to tell you, about torture and sacrifice, and when you have listened to it, you might believe that I am more honest than the average MP. If you do believe that, despite never having met me, and despite some bad stories about my private life, then perhaps you might trust me enough to vote for me, to clean up Parliament."

Now let's try an alternative pitch. This goes:

"Ban the Bung! That's my slogan, that is why I am standing in this election. I am an independent, I have never been an MP, I am disgusted with what those guys are doing, and if you elect me, I will promise to do everything I can, to clean up Parliament."

Now, your own pitch made big claims about your own character, which the voter could not easily take on trust. So, you had to be explaining. So, you were losing.

The alternative "Ban the Bung" pitch makes much lesser claims, but they are instantly credible claims. The voter does not need to believe that a "Ban the Bung" candidate is personally a saint. He/she only has to accept that the "Ban the Bung" candidate is a reasonably serious guy, who will probably do more or less what he says he intends to do. In hindsight, the simple "Ban the Bung" pitch would have worked better!

Respect to you as ever.
May I suggest you make contact with others who have rent the film of lies?
http://www.peterdalescott.net/q.html
We require an holistic approach to the machinations of the lie factory...
Keep smiling!

Re "Ban the Bung":

anon - I think that's a good slogan but I doubt Craig would have been elected with it. It takes *time* to get the kind of name recognition that Craig needed, and the electorate of NN were not in the mood at that election to choose an independent, unknown, candidate.

Craig might have stood a better chance, perhaps, if the outgoing MP had not been as well-regarded locally. The vote had the characteristics of a protest vote - voters decided the best way to hurt the Labour Party was to vote for their arch-rival.

Sometimes that's the way it works out. But never mind, there will always be another day.

Craig,

You're a student of history. Name three people who succeeded in any significant way without at some stage of their lives experiencing disappointment, failure or loss.

Now dust yourself off and continue what you do so well.

Craig,

Although I do not subscribe to the ethos..it is money and power that run the election game...and Craig....do you have...sorry...did you have ....either?
CB

Free information leads to freedom itself. Without knowledgeable people like yourself providing information and analysis we're stuck with the same farcical machine that shut you out of the democratic process.

You have a distributed community of people like myself looking forward to your updates. Don't let the narrow constituency that didn't know you deter your efforts to get information to the people of the world. Maybe they'll come here in a year or two once they manage to remove head from arse and find something true instead of merely commercially viable.

Please don't give up. Who else is so wonderfully rude about people who deserve it? And who else can we rely on for the truth?

Getting involved in the Norwich election was a mistake IMHO, as the old saying goes " Whoever you vote for the government gets in". I don't think you need to get mixed up in this.

You are giving us a view from outside having once been inside. This is invaluable. Who else can give us that?

I look at you every day - I missed yesterday becausde of the cricket ( strange priorities?), but I'd love to hear your views on the Lockerbie affair ( everyone knows that the Afghanistan elections are a farce, but we don't have the inside info that you have) . Come to think of it, your views on the Ashes wouldn't come amiss. Sometimes when I hear the news I want to scream. Accuracy, honesty and humour keep us going. So please , please keep going

Love

Janet

Craig, do you get it yet? 130 comments later and you can count the negatives on one hand, even with a missing finger!

Let me add my voice. Your opinions and insights are valued and trusted. Your courage is inspirational. Your candidness is refreshing and sometimes astonishing. This blog is my first stop for understanding current events; it is a rallying point; it is a safe haven for truth; it is badly needed, and would be sorely missed. My suggestion is take a break until the passion comes back--which it surely shall. It probably won't take long. Meantime just enjoy your family, do what you must to get by, and keep in touch.

Craig,

People follow your blog because they want to - there's no electoral leaflets through their doors, no posters on lamp-posts. That alone should show you that people want to hear what you have to say.

In elections, people vote (or don't bother) for all kinds of reasons (habit, tactical voting, prejudice); the beliefs and policies of the candidates are sadly often a minor factor.

The two audiences could hardly be more different.

Wow, where to start? Well, firstly, with a handful of unpleasant people pitted against 100-and-something voices of positive encouragement, I think a decisive answer is coming through!

I listen to BBC Radio 4's morning news broadcast most days, and the no-go questions that are avoided have me screaming in the car, as does the joviality with which their faux worshipping-big-money news is presented. The corporatised mainstream news lost the plot, I suspect, well before I became politicised - and the Beeb despite its responsibility as a public service has followed suit (specifically including the farce of board resignations following the basically true story that the government was knowingly lying over the WMD/Iraq issue).

So, I come here, as do many others. I visit every day and am heartened when you post. I, like the other commenters on this thread, are after some insight that the MSM is lacking, and here we get it in droves. I'd love to hear the MSM comment about the drugs explosion tolerated in Afghanistan, or an analysis as to why the legalisation of all drugs would be the least-worst option, or to hear the view that armed "drones" over Pakistan represent declarations of war on that country, or commentators invited onto news programmes who will call for Blair and Bush to be tried for war crimes. But alas, these things are rarely touched, even with a barge-pole.

I disagree with your assertion, and Charles Crawford's, that the people of Norwich North took a distinct view on your candidacy. They did not. The media quite wrongly got in your way, just in the same way as they failed to report en masse on your Parliamentary evidence, which should have been front-page news on most papers.

And most of the people in NN are just like the majority of people in Britain: selfish, amoral, parochial, ill-educated and herd-following. So, I am not sure quite where you got the idea that "people in the UK have [not] lost their capacity for sensible judgement"! I am certainly not applying these negative adjectives, incidentally, to people just because they did not vote for you. But in the main, people are self-serving at most things, and lazy too, and they vote to better their own comfortable lives, and they say that everyone else can go hang, because it is a "dog eat dog world", etc. Selfishness, as I say, rules.

On the issue of popularity: Glen is right on this. If the newspapers we bought determined our political environment, we'd have a substantially racist government, and we might even be in an anti-Muslim purge now. And the BBC would have been broken up and sold. We'd quadruple our military expenditure, spend even more on replacing our nuclear weapons, and be nodding at US/Israel to bomb Iran. But the politics of tolerance are never going to be as attractive as the politics of hate; accordingly you and we your supporters are unlikely to be popular for our political views. We will just have to get used to it, I think!

So, please keep blogging. Your voice is precious mainly because you've come from the Establishment, and you have solid experience of where it is corrupt. I too would be interested in your analysis of the Lockerbie "bomber": I have yet to read "Cover-up of Convenience", sitting on my bookshelf, but perhaps now would be a good time to do so.

Keep blogging, you have knowledge and experience of "realpolitik" that most of us will never have.

I learn from and am buoyed by your postings. I don't vote in the UK but there's more to the universe of political discourse than measuring by elections or by media coverage. To accept that your words are read and that they are sustaining is a leap of faith on your part, of course, but that's the pith of life -- keeping at it.

What's that Gandhi quote?

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

So you've been ignored, keep it up they are going to laugh at you next.

"What's that Gandhi quote?"

"This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, in its place is something that you left behind let it be something good."

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

True. We are beyond the stage now where they have to conspire in their silence, we are now at the point where people are so utterly empty-headed and careless that they are not capable of listening.

It can only lead to disaster.

What's that Churchill quote?
"This is not the end..."

Hold tight folks.

"Norwich North showed that no significant minority of the general populace has any interest in what I have to say"

I am convinced your vote in NN could have been substantially higher with a better run campaign. The only exposure most voters had to you was your first leaflet which I am afraid was pretty poor.

But even so it was always unlikely you could make a breakthrough as an independent. People always hold up Martin Bell as a successful independent but he only won because both Labour and LibDems declined to field a candidate.

You must of course do what is best for yourself and your family, but I would miss your insights if you gave up blogging completely.

And it is not true to say no one pays attention to what you have to say. I remember for example the incident in 2007 when the Royal Navy personnel were detained by Iran and the newspapers were full of righteous fury about how dare Iran detain our boys in "our" waters.
It was Craig Murray who pointed out on his blog that the maps the MOD were showing on the news were wrong and the border had never been agreed. The national newspapers then started repeating the same story (without attribution of course).

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

The media ignore you because you tell the truth, and that challenges their cosy self-consistent world view that basically the UK government and foreign policy is a noble force for good and justice.

People love being subservient to power, it's been programmed into our brains from the second we go to school. Anyone who is brave enough to challenge power is dismissed as a crackpot - put down by smears and dismissals rather than engagement with arguments.

But there are people out there who are brave enough to think for themselves, who actually care whether people are being tortured in foreign countries, and who are prepared to challenge the consensus.

Please don't stop blogging - it's the best on the internet.

The closing image you describe is a painful one, a powerful one.

I can add my tiny voice and say that I am listening, along with many others and that your ideas and thoughts to educate many and enable us to spread ideas and debate.

Mr Murray,

you start my online day. You offer hope and insight, wit and humour. The knowledge you bring to the table is invaluable. The people above are surely testament to the effect you have.

Now is the time to push forward, not retreat. Politics is an interesting word appearing to consist of 'many' and 'blood sucking insects'. It is a busted flush and certainly should not be the altar upon which to sacrifice your efforts. Their world is a dying one. What comes next is of supreme importance to all of us. Now is the time to fight and shout for what is right.

>I cannot get out of my head the idea that my blogging is but the virtual equivalent.

Firstly, that doesn't necessarily devalue it.

Secondly, things do feed out to the wider society from blogs - even when not acknowledged or noticed. The work that you have been doing in e.g., working for "defamation reformation" is important.

The most important things I've helped do with my blog would be unlikely to register much in the media even if they knew about them (example). In one way that matters, in another it doesn't.

Bah. Links are stripped.

The example is on my name in this comment.

Yes it's both exhilurating and earth shattering --having been involved on and off with first the ecology party (we too thought that 4%/7% would be something to build on until the SDP happened)and later the greens-it's the case I'm afraid that people only want to hear at most 3 speeches-I usually used to drift away with everyone else having come 4th in local council elections-how many times can you thank the local plods-- the time I had to speak for our Euro candidate in 1994 -I too was barracked by sickened Lib Dems.
By the way it is also dispiriting to see how these besuited tie-wearing lot have taken over some parts of the Green Party- I agree-which is why I devote my energy to Cafe Diplo.
Best
Anny

You give us hope Mr Murray.

"I cannot get out of my head the idea that my blogging is but the virtual equivalent."

It is not, and you know it.

Craig,
Keep on blogging. You speak as a man of conscience. I like that.

MR. Murray-the british elelction process is farce and has alwys been. the third party let alone an individual has hardly any chance unelss in a bye lelction when media needs another circus to amuse peasants and amass circulation.
so please donot give too much value to the electorate fradulent process.
what you write is more -much more important and life changing for others than what most of the 100 MPs do combine! belive me.
britian has never been a democractic country it ofcourse always has used the word "democracy" to postitute the word and then loot other countries through sacntions and propaganda.

your wirting is more imortant than sitting and airing in that useless isntutution called the british parliament-a fradu isntitution.

most of the chicago school of fraudulent economics have bnever stood for elelction but have manipulated power through fraudulent writing to destroy so many poor countries. so yes elcltoral power is not that imoportant than tyuour ablitiy to convince people about perception of reality.
remebr in this fraudulent anglosaxon jewish looters' world the perception and not reality is what matters.
so please keep blogging sir.

Craig, please keep going!

You are such a bright spark of honesty and clarity!

*Much* appreciated!

Looks like you're on a temporary downer. A good meal (lucky you, that you have someone willing and able to provide that) and maybe a good film or meeting friends, and in a few days you should be ready to think about taking Norwich North next summer. but with more realism and planning this time.

I agree with Mr Rene. I would also add that you had access to professional, knowledgeable and inspiring human resources from this blog alone. And yet you ran pretty much a one man show, asking for help with your campaign, but not for input, feedback or opinions. Perhaps this was a natural result of time contraints. Still, the way the alternative functions, which is what makes it alternative, is by communal agreement from the grass roots; by consensus. I would suggest using this blog for a consulting period before you next run for election if, that is, you still see being a politician as your natural metier. Otherwise, of course your blog is important, in the sense that any writing is important. And the comments here surely represent a much larger, silent, readership. When the BBC receive one letter about a subject they take it for granted that 10,000 (I think) feel the same way but can't be bothered/don't have time to write.

Craig,
Keep on blogging-we need original,independent and visionary reporting.The electorate doesn't care about anything -until stark reality hits them-then its too late.

155 comments? Most of them saying "please carry on"?
You must have got the message, Craig.

BUT: If for various personal reasons, you don't wish to carry on blogging, I think we should respect your decision. Just know that we'll be disappointed. I'll pop in in the morning to see if there's any news ... Be well.

I see Derek got there first at 1.41pm !

You know about international negotiations on maritime boundaries, and it showed .

So much for the "kidnapped" RN sailors.

Seriously Craig, I mislaid my bookmarks , so re-created a very short list , and along with the indie, times , ft, ouestfrance, libération, georgewashington2, there is craigmurray up there in the top eight .

I physically printed out all your docs from """ Samarkand""" , just in case my computer got " hacked" and they got wiped.

Blogging and commenting on those blogs is addictive, and I broke the habit by having a stroke 5 months ago and then spending 10 weeks in French hospital .

In the UK it would have been 10 days, at most, and I dread to thnk on the outcome there.

If you decide to drop off the radar , go and grow veggies or distill moonshine, the world will still turn,................... But I would prefer that you share your experence and insights,

and stay with us !

Are the people who ignored you more important than us? We want you. Don't leave us.

One individual shouting in the wilderness gleans at best a shrug from the majority and a flicker of interest from the few.

Four or more regular contributors to an online samizdat publication with insights not easily read elsewhere is more likely to get increased readership and punch above its weight..

I have a basic idea that would close the circle re: feeling blue over not being elected.

Somebody should set up a shadow blog Parliament, with elections to it, and debates held online. It could parallel usefully the existing agenda in Westminster, along with broaching trans-party issues that are beyond the reach of our 'democracy' (which, to my mind, invalidate the idea that UK is a democracy. eg - is anybody in any doubt that all 3 main parties will enter next General Election committed to continuing military occupation in Iraq/Afghanistan)

If sufficient quality could enter the debate, public submit questions, table bills, form committees and so forth, this could be game-changer.

I thank you.

So you gave up more than the big black car when you gave up the job of ambassador. Welcome to normality. You used to belong to the elite, now you are a pleb, and you are finding out what all plebs know, the odds are stacked against us.

Step out of the big black car into the embassy reception and people want to know you, not because they care about your opinions, but because they see you as a rung on the ladder. Give up the big black car and you are no longer of any use to them.

So you really have to ask yourself what your real motivation is ?

Mr John - your final sentence should be self addressed.

What is this crap ?
Shades of Sinatra's "My Way"
Get off your bum and start blogging again.
What the hell else Im I going to read over here in Congo ?

Please accept that the low like that is perfectly acceptable after difficult experience like a badly lost election.

Not a time to make decisions about direction of your life.

Your blog is extremely important. Democracy does not survive without variety of viewpoints.

He's from the Congo, I'm from Germany, and I'm reading your blog regularly. Don't let your locals' indifference bring you down.

Please keep going!

Craig, you got 2.8%. If that's national, you speak for a million people. OK, I don't suppose you're impressed by the comments that say the herd are rubbish and you speak for the intelligent few, because I don't think you want to do that. But its an election. Even the intelligent and honest and reasonable people - a big majority, in my opinion - know that the electoral process is rotten, distorted by its own legal structure, by plain dishonest campaigning by a couple of big parties, and a very unbalanced Media. (Hey does it sound like I also lost an election in June? Well I did, actually.) The big story was always: Labour Lose Badly. The way to make that come true was to vote Tory or abstain. Would it have helped if I had come along to help? Yes, a bit, but you would still have been hugely outgunned by the money, workers and press that the established parties can call on, and above all by the negative voting assumptions that the electoral system imposes on the voters. If you want to vote anti-Labour, vote Tory. If you want to vote anti-Tory etc. The only weapon the rest of us have against the power establishment is information, knowledge. You're doing more than just about anybody to provide that. Keep it up.

The reality of our political system is that the majority of people vote for political parties and not for individuals. They do this for the very rational reason that a winning party might carry out the policies in their manifesto whereas an individual is a lone voice and has no hope of carrying out policy no matter how good or reasonable.
You are capable of influencing opinion in your blog by changing minds and revealing truths. Commonly held views influence the choice of policy made by political parties.
Yours is a successful blog. Do you really want to give up blogging and hand over opinion formation to the voices of unreason?

Craig,

Both your books and your blog are sources of wonderful insight and inspiration. My brother and I always discuss your latest post with vigor whenever we find the time to speak to each other!

I hope you're well,
Chris

Keep at it Craig!

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill

My friends and I watched the Norwich North discuss Britain's role in the Afghanistan disaster and cheered you for explaining the brutal facts behind the bullshit.

You put the odious Chloe Smith party machine to shame. It really shakes my belief in democracy that anyone could vote for the Establishment puppets after listening to you.

I always check your blog in the morning, it helps me articulate my anger and frustration over Britain's political life and foreign policy.

Blogitas ergo agnoscamus.

Apologies for the off-topic post, but I post here as I think it would be of general interest, and - as an angle on news that to my mind has not been explored by the MSM - I'd like to hear Craig's views on it, as I sure many of us would (hint, hint). It's a letter that comes from the letters page of a recent issue of a certain British satirical magazine:

"Sir,

"In spite of reams of comment about Gary McKinnon in the Daily Mail, the real reason for US insistence on his extradition and the UK Government's reluctance to accede to public pressure to refuse has never been suggested.

"It is an absolute fact that a single individual of normal means, especially anyone ill or curious, cannot penetrate the computer systems of major American defence and security institutions. The combined or even splintered resources of NASA, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, CIA, National Security Agency and others are not vulnerable to an amateur, however enthusiastic, sitting in their bedroom with a laptop.

"The reality is the same in all these situations. A foreign power or agency, and we can speculate as to which that might be in this case, recruits a vulnerable and unwitting stooge to act as a front for their carefully planned and highly resourced penetration. The attacking country or organisation provides their "agent", through innocuous contact, with all the likely means to mount a remote attack.

"When the penetration is discovered, as it inevitably will, the sponsoring organisation melts into the crowd, leaving the hapless individual to face the music. In Gary McKinnon's case, the USA is desperate to interrogate him to discover details of his sponsors. The UK security agencies, fresh from embarrassment about their involvement in the rendition of terror suspects, will not be willing to undertake a sufficiently robust interrogation of McKinnon to satisfy the US authorities.

"Yours faithfully,

"SQN LDR J.N.Bennett (RAF Ret'd)."

Searing analysis or elaborate hoax? I think we should be told!

I agree with the other commenters (E&OE - I can't say I read every one in detail).

As to not showing better in Norwich North, surely your international views overlap so much with those of most Liberal Democrats that the official party candidate was always going to do better?

@mary
my motivation ? I'd rather Mr Murray continued to blog on a range of issues, rather than belly ache over a blow to his ego.
You may find my words a little harsh, but you must remember Mr Murray gave up a position of influence on a moral principle, now he must find if those principles will carry him through even after he has lost his momentum.

Have a look at the Obama and Empire presentation by John Pilger on You Tube. The trick is to stop hoping that Obama, Father Christmas, or the Tooth Fairy will sort everything out for us!

Just cut and paste the link below into your browser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXL998q7skI

SQN LDR J.N.Bennett,

I have previously worked and been trained in the area of computer systems security, and become aware of extremely lax standards. This is both in large organisations I have worked for - and insisted to Senior Management that they be resolved - and also having become aware of extremely lax standards in other organisations including the Military. This was as a result of meeting other computer systems security professionals who related their experiences whilst withholding any sensitive details.

I would not be in the slightest bit surprised if "a single individual of normal means, especially anyone ill" (I believe he has Aspergers - which often means an extremely highly intelligent and obsessive individual) "or curious", could penetrate the computer systems of major American defence and security institutions"

However, so far I am aware, there is no suggestion that this individual broke through the security in order to cause any damage or to personally benefit in any way. The only suggestion - which he has denied - is that he deleted critical files. All organisations must have multiple secure backups of all critical files - or they are not secure (files can be deleted by human error or hardware or system failure)

As such rather than him being prosecuted and extradited, he should be congratulated and employed to find all the holes and to fix the security properly - and indeed employed to test the security of other systems.

Complacency and lethagy are endemic in the very senior management of many organisations. They simply do not take computer security anything like as seriously as they should. Often the weakest point is not the physical, nor the systems security, but the staff employed who use the system on a regular basis.

The amazing thing is that security breaches don't happen far more often than they do. Often organisations go to great lengths in an attempt to hide such infiltration for fear of loss of confidence or major embarrassment.

The high level of publicity over the prosecution of this individual is probably more of a deterrent nature to other hackers.

Whilst such activity is not as much of a problem as it was 10 years ago, the alleged offenses were deemed to have taken place nearly 10 years ago.

Whilst I have not followed this case in any detail, I feel it would be outrageous if he was extradited to the US. The UK Government should instead give him a token slap on the wrist - and give him a job

Tony

"I feel it would be outrageous if he was extradited to the US"

Under the provisions of 2001's US Patriot Act the US may hold foreign nationals suspected of a criminal offence indefinitely, without trial and without legal representation. On these grounds alone the UK should not be extraditing anyone to the US for any reason. It certainly would not have done so in the 1930s.

A relative of mine is an experienced network security professional, and would agree with every single word Tony has written above. To state that "a single individual of normal means ... cannot penetrate the computer systems of major American defence and security institutions" is, I'm afraid, a nonsense.

The USA should be thanking Gary McKinnon, pinning some metal on his chest, and offering him a job.

"Under the provisions of 2001's US Patriot Act the US may hold foreign nationals suspected of a criminal offence indefinitely, without trial and without legal representation."

And if the UN was working half-properly (instead of being a vehicle for the US to throw its weight around) there would be international condemnation of this and a refusal to allow it to continue.

(sigh)

Bollocks to Norwich and bollocks to you giving up blogging.

I read your stuff Craig because I beleive you have certain insights on certain subjects which I'm very interested to hear.

I don't come to you for entertainment news or cookery lessons, I go somewhere else for that and if those people or places decided to shut down I'd be equally miffed.

Your "community" do not live in Norwich North, they live everywhere in the UK and abroad. Frankly, you're one step away from "I don't like America because I got mugged when I was in downtown LA". Just because the gurning farts in Norwich don't want you to represent them, doesn't mean your shouting into the wind.

Bugger Norwich, as opposed to Bognor. Keep on blogging ffs. Otherwise you leave us with the witterings of Dale and Staines and frankly I'd rather piss in my eyes after eating a dozen Scotch Bonnets than do that...

Craig, I come late to this thread because I've been off line for four days, thanks to the incompetence of BT.

In the 1950s and '60s I played a leading role in reforming a cruel and unjust law which criminalised gay sex. When we set out on our campaign we optimistically thought it would take ten years. In fact, it took nine years and eight months. So I can feel pleased at the outcome. But if I'd lost heart at the early setbacks - the hostile publicity, the scurrilous personal attacks, and lost parliamentary votes - it wouldn't have happened when it did.

All public work calls for patience and stamina. You are a key player in a far more important struggle against injustice, hypocrisy and lies than I was. You mustn't give up. The past ten years have been a nightmare for anyone who truly loves our country and cares about its reputation. If I were younger, I would be back on the campaign trail too. All I can do now is a bit of supportive blogging now and then.

You must keep going. Every individual counts. "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."

Keep steady. All power to your brain and pen.

As Craig Murray is being discussed on another blog - largely favourably I should mention, and the discussion drifted such that someone posted this...

"I am an Augustinian, and therefore a Christian. I don't think of Communism or Objectivism as political. They are pagan cults."...

I recommended he/she should watch Zeitgeist - and so should you. I don't agree with all of it, but its truly a fascinating movie

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-594683847743189197

Some memorable words about another lost battle in East Anglia. Take heart.

Brythwold spoke, grasped his buckler,
He was an old comrade, urged the men,
He full boldly cheered his soldiers,
"Thought must be the harder, heart the keener
Spirit shall be more - as our might lessens.

"I don't think of Communism or Objectivism as political. They are pagan cults"

Some sociologists call them "political religions".

All religions are political.

A political religion is a political ideology with features typically found in religion, but that is not an actual religion. It is not a religion with political features. See Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_religion

I repeat: ALL religions - including "actual" ones, whatever that means - are intrinsically political, because they aim at reordering society in their image. They practise politics dressed up in godly rhetoric.

Impelled to reiterate that this blog has contained some noticeably well-written journalism and opinion from an informed perspective, and it would be a rotten shame not to continue it.

But what are you trying to do with this, is a good question, I think. Is it turning into an online newspaper? If so, is it daily, weekly? Either way it must be hard to keep up the range of pieces and topics, and the moderation, without an editor or researcher, and almost impossible if running for election.

My gratitude for the time you've spent on this so far and, as someone asked before, what are your web stats? The Spectator used to sell 20,000 copies a month, I believe, and considered itself important.

>I am not interested in the smug self-
>satisfaction of believing I have
>access to a knowledge or analysis
>denied to the "ordinary" people.

This is not true. You said months back that you deserved a better salary than the one you had been given. From the £500,000 the government gave you for "wrongful dismissal", it seems you were earning around - or at least! - £80,000 a year, excluding perks.

So, like the thieves in government, you want MORE, let's say £120-160,000 a year. Why? Are you that special that you deserve a salary that only a very tiny percentage of the population can ever earn, or is it the case of taking whatever you can off the public? After all, the rest of us have to take what we're given - fair or not! Many people deserve more, but they aren't earning anywhere close to £80k a year.

Perhaps you can write up a section on what your job entailed, what you did for the people of this country, and why British ambassadors deserve to be paid such huge sums.

If you can justify it, I'd be happy to pay it. But I don't think you, or the crooks in government, can justify it. It seems to be a case of corporate servants wanting the same lifestyle as their corporate masters, and the public must, yet again, fork out money to a bunch of criminals who do nothing but lord it over the rest of us.

As for losing your job. I don't dispute that you were treated badly by those in government, but many people lose their jobs thanks to the whims, incompetence, and greed of others, i.e. CEOs. While ordinary workers are punished with unemployment, community service, and then with losing their benefits, the CEOs are protected and given obscene salaries and obscene bonuses for simply presiding over a large corporation that, by virtue of its size - as opposed to the genius of the CEO! - makes large profits.

Are you smarter than a top theoretical physicist, or mathematician? Do you risk your life in your job? Tell me why ambassadors and two-bit politicians - sorry, I mean corporate servants who destroy lives - deserve so much money?

As for standing as an independent. You know perfectly well that will NOT change anything. The corporate control of Britain is almost complete, but you'd rather fool the people of this country that tinkering at the edges will have some sort of effect. Even if your intentions are 100% good, what can you, as a single individual, change?

Tartarus - first you're completely misinterpreting what Craig said. He means he wants to try to inform and persuade everyone and has no interest in being part of a minority exhibiting pride in knowing things the majority don't. That has nothing to do with rates of pay.

Second can you provide a link to Craig saying he deserved a higher salary than he got when he was an ambassador - i don't remember him saying that at all and suspect you're just making it up.

Your £80,000 a year figure seems to be pulled out of thin air too.

You ask "Do you risk your life in your job?". If you'd read Craig's books the answer would seem to be yes, many times - and going far beyond what his job required of him. Unfortunately the British government often wasn't that concerned with promoting democracy or protecting ordinary people in the countries Craig was in.

Craig - I agree with you in having respect for the majority of people and not dismissing their views.

However the media does unfortunately have far too much impact on what issues people consider to be important or unimportant.

Remember the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand rude phone call? That got more intense and long-lasting media coverage than Blair lying to take us into a war we shouldnt have been in. As a result more people actively complained to the media about it than about coverage of the Iraq war.

Was a rude phone call more important than hundreds of thousands dead, or hundreds of British troops dead? Hardly. The majority are often badly misled by much of the media and it takes more than two weeks to change it.
In fact getting almost a thousand votes in a two week campaign was pretty good going.

Tartarus,

That was an interesting rant and I partially agree with you - and would probably have completely agreed with you if it hadn't mainly been a personal and inaccurate attack on one individual - Craig Murray.

Now that you've got it out of your system like a Billy Bragg song - have YOU got anything constructive to say.

You stated "Even if your intentions are 100% good, what can you, as a single individual, change?"

I actually think Craig Murray has already worked wonders to achieve the beginnings of positive change. He has made individuals within both the US & UK Governments and Intelligence Services to start seriously worrying about themselves being prosecuted over TORTURE. As a result of this he has almost certainly been personally responsible for a significant reduction in people being TORTURED.

Its relatively easy to define problems and complain, but producing ideas to effect positive change is far more difficult. To actually risk your own life and stand up to Government Power and Tell Them Bluntly What You Think Of Them - takes tremendous courage.

I'm not suggesting that you wouldn't have done the same thing, but it really is not about money - as I'm sure you realise.

So what are your ideas about solutions? Have you got any or have you given up?

Tony

Dear Craig

So, as you can see by the posts that you have achieved much.

But in order to keep it, you have to keep fighting every day.

I like reading your blog because it is good, I go to others but some people don't have knack and therefore their blogs are weak.

You get supporters here but also critics so you must be doing something right.

Outspoken people always attract attention because they aren't sheep.

Now, pick off and get the keyboard rattling again.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

typo

Now, nip off and get the keyboard rattling again.

Craig,

Clearly you're on a downer.That's understandable.I suggest you're tired too.Again,understandable.

But don't you fucking dare stop blogging.Take some time out.Recharge your batteries,

The road is long......

You are a Soldier of Truth and Humanity.

Fuck Norwich North.Yours is a global mission.

All the work you have done,and continue to do,is vital in shining a light on barbaric practices and evil people.

This is more vital then ever now.

Without your work there'd be damn less revelations about torture coming,as they are increasingly now,to the MSM fore.

Get a fuckin' grip dude.

Stop being maudlin.

I repeat...the road is a long one and YOU are a Soldier of Truth and Humanity.

By the left,then...

If he's any sense, he will have gone off on holiday with wife and child, and decided he's not going to go anywhere near a soddin computer ever again... well at least until it gets cold, and he gets bored and remotivated to again take on the arseholes.

Everyone needs to take a break.

Even in Oldham - they used to tell the millworkers to sod off to Blackpool for a couple of weeks. They even organised the steam train - and believe it or not I remember it well.

Tony

Don't let the bastards grind you down.

I really get value from your blog so get off your arse, "pick yourself up dust yourself down and start" bloging again.

You are great - don't give up.

My best best wishes to you

Mike

On Monday, I read my wife's Daily Mail on the way on The Tube to Camden Town...

We had a really nice day out - and I showed her the Electric Ballroom....

And we had a lovely meal right next to the canal - and we walked to Little Venice - and then to Warwick Avenue...

But on the way there - The Daily Mail was all about doing a home porno movie....

And I thought fuck - We haven't done that for years...

So we had a bit of fun yesterday

With all the lighting - and stuff...

And I even got a HD display working Live...

I had tested my two most recent little HD cameras - but only my Big Sony - well it ain't that big - but it was the first decent HD reasonably small camera that will make my dick look really big LIVE

So the design and the idea was good - and she was up for it - and loved seeing the most intimate parts of her body - blown up massively on the 37" HD Screen that she normally watches Property porn on...

But I was also using my little tiny HD camera...

And the batteries kept running out

So the result wasn't that great - except for the fanny farting in stereo....

So we decided to do it again this morning

Without any of the cameras

It was so much better

Tony

Conversations with a Right Wing American Republican....

You Americans are so completely f**king Stupid with Regards To Your Attitudes about Actually Caring For ALL Americans that it beggars belief...

My Mum at the age of 77, after surviving a week on a boat with us and our kids on the Norfolk Broads completely unscathed - which was an incredibly dangerous thing to do because she was incredibly fragile....

Gets back home, and misses sitting her chair

And breaks her hip...

And is rushed to hospital....

And goes through enormous pain - but gets a new artificial hip....

And is incredibly religious - and she makes a complete recovery and walks again - because she was so determined to see in the Year 2000....

And when her ticker got dodgy at the age of 83, for the first time in her life - they performed heart surgery and fitted a pacemaker....

ALL ON THE UK NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE (she didn't have to pay a penny)

The UK NHS costs less than half the costs of American Health Care

And The Results Are Far Superior

Because

We Care

You Don't

You Are SELFISH AND STUPID

Tony
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Big Jake

Joined: 09 Jan 2009
Posts: 91
Location: Kentucky

PostPosted: Wed 26 Aug 2009 7 17 pm Reply with quoteBack to top
opmoc wrote:
And The Results Are Far Superior

Because

We Care

You Don't

You Are SELFISH AND STUPID

Tony

Your point being, your ladyship?

_________________
"What Jefferson was saying was, "Hey! You know we left this England place cause it was so bogus. So if we don't get some cool rules for ourselves...pronto, we'll just be bogus too. Get it?"
- Jeff Spicoli on the Declaration of Independence
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opmoc

Joined: 18 Oct 2006
Posts: 563

PostPosted: Wed 26 Aug 2009 7 31 pm Reply with quoteBack to top
Big Jake,

I used to have enormous respect for Americans.

I have worked with some of the Very Best Project Managers in The World

And in the 70's and Even 90's

You were the best in the f**king World

But 9/11 did your brains in

Now you are pathetic wimps and have lost your way...

Get your heads together - and get that old sparkle back and arrest all the f**king fascists who are f**king you up

I just want you back - beautiful, strong and nice

Tony
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opmoc

Joined: 18 Oct 2006
Posts: 563

PostPosted: Wed 26 Aug 2009 7 55 pm Reply with quoteBack to top
You see, the development of the computer was really, really important for the future of the human race...

And when I was 19, we really were at the top of the game in Manchester

We were years ahead of the Americans - yet we were going bust...

So we worked at our leisurely pace like we do to make stuff perfect..

And Geoff Cross recruited a load of Top of The Range American Project Managers...

You guys were completely f**king brilliant and used to be their at 7:00 am to find out what all the real problems were by talking to us

We thought you were brilliant because you heard what we were saying and got the dozy British managers who never turned up till 9:00 am to allocate the resources - so we could get the f**king thing out working on time

Well of course you stole all our secrets - and reported back to your own US computer companies... such that when I was in my prime at the age of 28 - I and half of The North of England were made redundant...

But I never forgot the lessons you taught me

Tony

7% of Norwich North? Maybe not - but I bet you have as much as 1% (who knows? maybe more) of the population popping into your blog from time to time. That has to count for something...

If elections were responsible for reflecting what the majority want, we wouldn't have had blair (and by proxy Brown) for so long.

"Stop being a twat and pull yourself together. This is one of the most important blogs there is."

++

The Nobel prize winning Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, who lived through the brutal occupation of his country by the Nazis, wrote, "that which is articulated strengthens itself; that which is not articulated tends toward non-being."

Let us pray that Mr. Murray, despite recent attacks and setbacks, is not daunted but returns from his rest period with his commitment to articulation of the truth confirmed and strengthened, strong in bone and sinew, heart and soul.

We are plagued by liars, dissemblers, nihilists and fools. We need truth speakers.

Come back soon Craig.

Keep going.

aND SO i WAS GETTING INCREASINGLY ANNOYED BY THE BEAUROCRATS who had all the control of the fucking money

So I built the frame...

It took about 10 days of sheer hard brainwork

And then I tested the basic frame by writing the basic programs to prove the machine would work fine - because it was working fine - with my own incredibly unpretty software - I document nothing and write close to machine code and use everything available ( I do not re-invent the wheel) if it is free to use software - which most quality is in the UNIX world - people work on it - and just give it away and support it - because it is far better than the commercial stuff

I said - The Fucking Thing Works - I Have Been Working 2 weeks on this...

They said Fuck Off Tony

I said - no you don't understand - if you want it done pretty it will cost about £250K - but they said - we don't want that - Fuck Off Tony

And I Really Wanted to Fuck Off

So I screwed them for a few thou to send me on all the training courses - under the previous year's education budget that I hadn't used

And wrote the entire thing myself

Not only that - during the design, implementation and testing phases I completely involved all the main users - mainly by telephone - but also meeting them several times

And so after the testing phase

I just made it live...

And then 3 months later the Senior Management noticed a Dramatic Improvement

They said what have you done?

I said - well you wouldn't agree - so I just fucking did it

What are you going to do - take it off your satisfied customers?

So they said

Fuck Off Tony

So I did

Wankers

Tony

Hi Craig,

it's late and I'm off to bed soon. Just thought I'd send a little comment to say hello, and wish you, Nadira and Cameron well.

All the Best,
Clark

You stood alone on maverick ticket and are expert on events remote from North Norfolk.
Your motto 'an honest man' was, some held, perhaps belied by your domestic circumstances, that is, slightly messy divorce and remarriage.
In the circumstances your results were not so bad.
And at least you beat that unctious fraud, the obnoxious BNP's fake vicar, Robert West.
Your writing remains relevant, sharp and interesting. Unlike many bloggers, you have something to say that you have learned the hard way.
Give up politics and keep blogging, please.

Tony
I think you should start your own Blog mate, when you have had a few jars, your ramblings are magnificent, look foreward to the next one ..

Craig,

Don't feel that you don't make a difference. Look at the 206 (no, 207 - you have a new fan)comments that you have provoked.

Keep it all alive

Quote: "In May we had 79,321 Unique Visitors as measured by Statcounter. Pageloads is a much higher figure. This despite some teething problems in switching over to a new server. Yet again, it is a new record."

Personally I hope you are having a happy and deserved holiday.

Craig.

There's no nice way of putting this.

Dry your f*cking eyes.

OK so Norwich wasn't a success. WOW! Independent candidate gets a sh!t vote - well hold the f*cking front page!

Stop moaning. Dust yourself down. And then get back to doing what you do best.

As for your detractors - f*ck 'em all.

Hugs,
Walter

Um ... a little comment moderation wouldn't go amiss ...

You must have been very naieve to believe you had any chance of winning as an unknown independent! The odds were always going to be stacked against you. People told you of this in the blogg earlier. There is of course no harm in trying and by doing so maybe another crack in the armory of this useless democracy has been created.

So get back to blogging. Draw a line under this at the end of August and move on. The words of Jeffrey Archer are well to be commended on these kind of things. Dust yourself off deep breath and get on with it. Liberals are so much into navel gazing and Guardian reading. All a waste of time for sure!

Perhaps you canunderstand why so many people with a cause hold their noses,bite the bullet and join mainstream parties - and the best of them survive the experience to become respected "independent" voices inside the parties they choose to join.

Problem is I cannot imagine any political grouping in England I would vaguely want to join. In Scotland we have at least two interesting alternatives (nationalists and socialists) and a cause that is keeping the spotlight on political objectives. The sorry fact however is tha the media and those who control and own it now determine UK elections. I hold no brief at all for Gordon Brown (a severe understatement) but he is politically dead man walking because the media has determined so. Democracy in the UK is in a very dangerous place - if in fact it lives at all.

Courage my friend; look to KENNY.

Courage

"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." - Gandhi

"I never climbed any ladder: I have achieved eminence by sheer gravitation" (George Bernard Shaw)

None of us can know the catalytic impact of the words we give to the world. It may be that the means need change but the effect is not through the visible count of an audience.
The combination of the new propaganda, the self-serving sycophancy and ambition of the adherents of the new establishment with the diversions and attention-span dilutions of the mass audio-visual media might seek to extend to all of those who apparently no longer care. For when they no longer care they are no source of threat to that establishment and its power.
At such times, continuity of a voice for truth, however small, is vital.
At such times, that small voice for truth helps all of those, as with myself, who try to cling on with our fingernails. For that voice remains as a reminder that we are not alone.

Well, I have just read EM Forster's The Machine Stops, available online.

It is all very annoying, isn't it? I have just come back from a spelll of not listening to much apart from Mozart, Bach and birdsong, and braved Radio 4 news again, which was like listening to an Escher print.

Mr Murray,

You are a man of honour as you tell the truth, openly, despite your fear and feelings of powerlessness.

That you may have few listeners or few readers is not a reason to fall silent in weariness.

Where else may one start a role of greatness but at the bottom ? And a major change of course in life always necessitates a rebuilding.

Self-doubt is natural, and a useful tool.

However, my advice to you is this : even though you may not have been permitted authority by democratic vote, you still have command of the facts and a vision of justice, and these are more powerful than the forces of defeat or humility.

Act like you're in charge and you will be, officially sanctioned role or no officially sanctioned role.

My great respect and the strongest of best wishes,

To cheer this up a bit, all our critical expectations on the electoral process in Afghanistan have been answered by what has happened yesterday. Karzai's wobbly make's it clear that he has no intend to allow a fair election, or a second election.

Paddy Ashdown says that Holborrks intervention is wrong, that we should apease these heroin pushing warlorads and get along with them for now to stop a possible pashtun versus Northern alliance tribal clash and war.
Our support for Karzai and the war on terror has not brought any advances in any of the Stan's, termez is still the main crossing for tons of heroin and I suspect that US flights out of Karshy Khanabad are used, underhand off course, to fly the stuff around the world. With it come all the human rights abuses that come with narcotrafficking and with keeping the population quiet. Karzai, so it seems has lost or is loosing US support, soon the country will be in the pre state of civil war and NATO, unless they are getting out soon, will be entrenched in it up to the hilt.

Israels insistence on a new kind of deal, i.e. Iran sanctions versus a stop of settlement building in the west bank, alone, is a new ludicrous attempt by Netanyahu to widen Israels foreign policy influences, equally their meddling with India, trying to undermine Pakistans internal security with their support for LashkaIToiber, is undermining US policies as presented to us, unless they have not changed since Obama's election. This war ion terrorism is now widening to ever greater fronts and the establishment of seven bases into Columbia opening up most of South America up to US reach is a further sign of their undeminished hegemonial drive.
Unless I hear Obama denounce the principal aims that guide their Council for Foreign Relations, I will rest my trust in his academic fervour.
Another point, what has Brzezinski still got to do in a US Government, it was his book 'American primacy and its geostartegic Imperatives' that send us out on this 'self perpetuating' path to a futile war on terror, he should be resigning or prosecuted for his deviousness beyond contempt.

I hope that cheered everyone up and get you all going again, including Craig.

Norwich North has finished, anybody wanting to know how young chloe is getting on can watch, dare I say comment on this watchfull blog.
http://chloesmithwatch.blogspot.com/

enjoy

Come home, Craig. There is a great cause requiring a coordinator to pull all the facts together and establish in the publuc domain what many of us have known for years
Al Megrahi had nothing to do with the Lockerbie bomb.
The UK and the US was complicit in the biggest stitch up in history.
The trial at Camp Zeist (with no jury)was a travesty.
The only - repeat only - evidence which purported to link al Megrahi with the bomb came from a small Maltese shopkeeper who retired to Oz on the $2million he got for providing his testimony.
US government officials and agents were warned by the US not to travel on that flight.
Al Megrahi has now named a Syrian living in the US as a double agent who planted the bomb.
I could go on and on.........
The United Nations observer at the trial described it as a "gross miscarriage of justice".
The grossest ever,in fact.
As the Arabs say - the truth never dies but its presently not far from death on this affair. I believe that the whole world will know the truth before long if all good men get together and demand the full inquiry which is essential.

For those prepared to search for the truth from Kenneth Roy's excellent Scottish Online review

KENNETH ROY
on the unanswered questions

In the interests of justice

A few nights ago, the man who brought the Lockerbie prosecution gave a short but extraordinary interview to Newsnight Scotland (BBC2). Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, the former Lord Advocate, although 'sympathetic' to the justice secretary's decision to release Megrahi, was highly critical of Kenny MacAskill's handling of the case, suggesting more than once that he should have gone to Washington to explain himself. I am not sure why Mr MacAskill would have wanted to do any such thing; Lord Fraser seemed to think it was a good idea because of America's importance in the world and its military might. But the more remarkable part of the interview (the part ignored until now) was his reply to a question about the prosecution itself and the reliability of the chief prosecution witness, Tony Gauci.
Lord Fraser had this to say:
'I have always been of the view and I remain of the view that both children and others who are not trying to rationalise their evidence are probably the most reliable witnesses and for that reason I think that Tony Gauci was an extremely good witness.'
What on earth could this mean? The fact that the first word to enter Lord Fraser's mind in dealing with the question was the word 'children' was unsettling, children being notoriously suggestible. Perhaps the 'others' – one presumes he is trying to convey the sense of immature or unintelligent people – are equally suggestible. Regrettably the matter was not pursued and so the BBC missed an opportunity to probe Lord Fraser's thinking.
Four years ago, in a newspaper interview, the former Lord Advocate caused much consternation with his view of the chief prosecution witness. The words atttributed to him – so far as I am aware, he has never denied using them – were:
'Gauci was not quite the full shilling. I think even his family would say he was an apple short of a picnic. He was quite a tricky guy. I don't think he was deliberately lying but if you asked him the same question three times he would just get irritated and refuse to answer.'
The then Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd, was clearly disturbed by this assessment of the witness, pointing out that it was Lord Fraser who had initiated the prosecution of Megrahi and his co-accused. Mr Boyd asked Lord Fraser to clarify his apparent attack on Gauci's credibility by issuing a public statement of explanation. Megrahi's counsel, William Taylor, went further: he said that, in view of what was now known, Gauci should never have been presented as a Crown witness. 'A man who has a public office, who is prosecuting in the criminal courts of Scotland, has a duty to put forward evidence based upon people he considers to be reliable,' Mr Taylor added. Tam Dalyell, among others, called on Lord Fraser to give sworn testimony to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which was considering Megrahi's request for a second appeal against conviction. I have no knowledge of whether he did.
The issue went away; from the public arena at least. But on Newsnight Scotland this week, it resurfaced with Lord Fraser's assurance that 'Tony Gauci was an extremely good witness'.
How can Lord Fraser – who is so criticial of the justice secretary's handling of the case – be so confident of his own? What are the grounds for his continuing faith in the credibility of Tony Gauci, the man whose evidence was instrumental in convicting Megrahi of the murders of 270 people?

Let us remind ourselves of Mr Gauci and his pivotal contribution to the Crown case. He was the owner of a clothes shop in Malta called Mary's House. On 7 December 1988, so it was alleged at the trial, Megrahi bought from him some clothes and an umbrella. The clothes were then said to have been wrapped around the improvised explosive device that brought the PanAm aircraft down over Lockerbie: this was the only piece of evidence which linked Megrahi to the device.
But were the clothes sold to Megrahi? Were they even sold on that date? At the trial, Gauci seemed unsure about both these critical points. There was no positive ID: the most he was prepared to say was that the purchaser 'resembled' Megrahi. As for the date, if Gauci got that wrong, the rest fell apart. The only date when Megrahi was in the area, the only date when he would have had an opportunity to buy the clothes, was 7 December. Yet Gauci could not be sure that it was 7 December.
It seems barely credible that, on this unimpressive testimony from the chief prosecution witness, Megrahi was convicted. But worse, much worse, was to follow.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, when it investigated the case, discovered that Gauci had been interviewed no fewer than 17 times by Scottish and Maltese police and that, during these sessions, he had given a series of 'inconclusive' statements. The commission formed the view that there was 'no reasonable basis' for the court's judgement that the purchase of the clothes from Mary's House took place on 7 December. In the commission's view, 'additional evidence not heard at the trial' indicated that the clothes were bought on some unspecified date prior to 6 December. The nature of this new evidence, so damning to the Crown's case, has never been divulged.
The commission unearthed further evidence, 'not made available to the defence', which established that four days before the ID parade at which Gauci picked out Megrahi, he saw a photograph of Megrahi in a magazine article linking him to the bombing. As the commission put it: '....evidence of his exposure to the photograph in such close proximity to the parade undermines the reliability of his identification'.
And there is yet more. Other, unspecified, evidence not made available to the defence, also unpublished to this day, further undermined (in the commission's opinion) the reliability, not only of Gauci's identification of Megrahi, but the court's finding as to the date of purchase.
These findings must be regarded with the utmost seriousness. They are the result of a painstaking investigation conducted over a period of four years.
Why, then, is the additional evidence uncovered during the course of this inquiry not now being made public? Indeed, why is everything the commission knows not now being made public? All we have ever been given is a brief summary of the commission's findings. Its statement of reasons for referring the case a second time to the court of appeal runs to more than 800 pages, with a further 13 volumes of appendices. This is a monumental work of the greatest importance; it would be difficult to think of a document in the history of modern Scotland more vital to the public interest. Two hundred and seventy people lost their lives; a man who may well be innocent of the terrible crimes for which he was imprisoned will die convicted. Yet 800 pages and 13 volumes of appendices, the record of an inquiry paid for at the public expense, a record which could help to clear Megrahi's name, are kept secret except for the barest facts.
The commission said in 2007, when it referred the case to the court of appeal, that it had no power under statute to make copies of its statement of reasons available to the public. Then statute should be changed.

Lord Fraser has been quite free in his criticisms of others. I will, however, refrain from criticising Lord Fraser. I do, however, propose that the time has come for utter clarity on his part. Taking up the excellent suggestion of his successor Colin Boyd, he should make a full and unambiguous public statement about the credibility, or otherwise, of the chief prosecution witness, dealing with the grave reservations of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Comission. I would be happy to publish such a statement. I challenge him to provide it.
In 2007, the commission concluded:
'Of the remaining grounds [for appeal], some of which resulted from the commission's own investigation, the commission has identified six grounds where it believes that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred and that it is in the interests of justice [my italics] to refer the matter to the court of appeal.'
The appeal has now been dropped; judicially, the case is at an end. We are therefore left to assume that the interests of justice will never be served. This is a blot on the conscience of Scotland and it is hard to see how it will ever be eradicated.

Ref the Afghan 'elections' - Holbrooke, Ashdown etc. Good cop, bad cop etc. I thought 'this is the coup de grace' for the division of the country back to tribal areas and long continued domination. They would have known Karzai was unlikely to unite the country and now they pull the rug from under them/him. It will help the 'bring then troops home' movement.

Under it all the Judaeo-Christian coalition could not run a whelk stall; weapons and great violence are all they know. If they had wanted stability in Afghanistan, the first thing they should have done was to build court houses with their flag flying and then to have sent justice teams around. That was a central need.

As the others are saying, we implore you Craig to continue. There is so much wrong and injustice to fight.

This just one example.
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m57363&hd=&size=1&l=e

A run down of Uruknet's main page provides dozens and dozens of similar horror stories. ( www.uruknet.info )

I find it easiest to believe that Lockerbie was an eye for an eye situation.
Iran was a little aroused by the 'accidental' shooting down of a passenger aircraft, revenge was sworn and third parties approached, as very well researched report by a german team of journalists indicates.
They seem to have found information that a CIA bag containing class a drugs was to be switched for one with a bomb and that this switch did not happen in Malta but in Frankfurt, whatever Megrahi says. Jibril apparently had a role to play in it, he is a man who then could initiate such events, maybe a Syrian connection, maybe a Lebanese one, but the guilty are still out there, equally stray missiles don't wash, fingers must have been on buttons and redyness must have been given, so the accidental theory is implausible. If the US would agree to a thourough investigfation into the shooting down of the passenger jet and prosecute/reprimand those responsible, maybe the current deadlock in diplomatic relations would ease somewhat, Lockerbie might become more explainable and other issues primed for debate.
Instead we are given this strawman debate whether the scottish executive has made the right decision, off bloody cause they have, congratulations to a compassionate humane decision, I take my hate off.

Mind you it wouldn't have looked nee good if he'd died in a scottish prison either.

ingo,

You may be interested in the following excerpt from an email sent to me in 2002. The writer did military service in Korea and is an impeccable source. The email is discussing the bumper opium harvest in Afghanistan after the US invasion.

"At least in VietNam, there were enough body bags that the tar opium could be shipped to Turkey for processing into heroin on USAF Military Air Transport Service planes with armed uniformed and plainclothes guards, in coffins. It must be rough to have to ship it in a plain brown wrapper.

Not that the MATS crews were fooled or anything ~ armed plainclothes guard for *coffins*?"

The US has agreed to a thorough (and honest) investigation!

I have just seen a herd of pink elephants flying past my window.

"Paul Foot & John Ashton's 1995 investigation into Lockerbie"

Link below -

"These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value."

Thomas Paine, The Crisis

Some words of encouragement from a former Norfolk blogger who refused to be silenced.

Inspiring quote Ian. Thomas Paine won't be forgotten and i doubt Craig will be either.

Craig - there are two basic choices for people involved in politics. Do you stand for whatever you think will be most populat and will fit best with the preconceptions of the majority, as created by big media companies and parties? If you take that to it's extreme you become like Jack Straw - a career politician, a "dessicated calculating machine" who only considers what will get him the support of the majority and avoid alienating any of them.

On the other hand you can follow your natural inclinations and say what you think is true, as well as you can approximate it from the sources you have. This will often result in alienating large numbers of voters who are basically uninterested in politics and so easy prey to the propaganda of the alliances between media barons and the leaders of the big parties.

Now of course that can be taken to extremes too and there's nothing wrong with trying to persuade people or bringing up issues where you know your position already has the support of the majority.

However the basic choice will keep coming up on issues where compromise becomes morally wrong and costs other peoples' lives or sanity and on those issues the only choice will be to be unpopular or keeping silent, with keeping silent being hard to justify to yourself. Iraq, Afghanistan, torture and Megrahi/Lockerbie are four of these issues.

It seems pretty obvious which choice you've usually made and that it's cost you a lot of votes. That doesn't mean that you made the wrong choice or that the opinion of the majority can never be changed though.

I am sitting i Sweden, reading your blog regularly and with great interest, find it to be one of the most informative bloggs there are, concerning the questions you use to write about.
So please, do not take that source of information and reflections away from us.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6814420.ece

Greed lies behind Mr al Megrahi's release. Some of the usual names from the military industrial complex feature here -

'Mr Blair became the first prime minister since Churchill to travel to Libya when he held his “Big Tent” meeting with Colonel Gaddafi in March 2004. Less than a fortnight later a flight laid on by the Libyan leader’s son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, brought representatives from British businesses.

On board were the architect Lord Foster of Thames Bank; Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, the former Army Chief of Staff; Sir John Bond, the chairman of HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, and the financier Lord Rothschild. Lord Rothschild brought along his youngest son, Nathaniel, and the party was accompanied by four executives from a public relations firm run by Lord Bell.

The delegation marked the first steps by British business back into Libya since the United Nations imposed sanctions in 1992. At stake was access to oil and gas reserves and the opportunity to profit from the country’s $90 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority.'

Related Links
Is truth about dealings with Libya a mirage?
Prince may drop Libya trade mission
Britain’s sustained courtship of Libya

We are all talking to an ignorant herd of beasts who merely do as they are told. Personally, I have total contempt for the British public, and absolute hatred for those who shepherd their rediculous opinions from here to there with the most rediculous ease.

The media does not ignore you because they think it commercially the right thing to do, but because they are not permitted to cover what you say. The BBC for instance is these days a total organ of the state. Most BBC news now is about the brave lads in Afghanistan fighting for freedom and democracy, the only question being whether they are properly resourced and compensated. Nothing about the illegality of the wars or those behind them pulling the strings.

Most are not interested in what you say it's true, but those that are watching you are the most powerful people on the planet, and they fear both you and bloggers like me. They know that it doesn't take too much for the mass cattle to turn into a stampede, charging right over them in the process.

If I ahve one criticism of you it is that you don't always acknowledge those behind much of the horror in todays world. They are not hard to isolate, by following the money, the control of the media, or even the strange people arrested after 911 before being quietly released on visa irregularities.

As a reader of this blog I actively seek it out and have generally found something interesting and thought-provoking.
It's quite different from the election count audience who may indeed have seemed to be politely pretending to listen.
The hacks almost invariably cluster around the election winner, driven by an inevitable media cliche and generally not having much time before needing to file copy.
And independents without already having a nationally-recognised name rarely make any mark at elections - however decent is their platform.
I certainly am already missing Craig's comments - and only hope the blog resumes.

thanks for that little insight Tom. Since the Laos triangle production fell, Afghanistan has been in the forefront of this trade, most of it clandestine. Some of it finds its way over the western border into Iran, most of it is coming out via the northern borders, no doubt some is flown out via USAF regular flights, it would not make a surprising difference from what was going on in Laos Cambodia and Burma just before, during and a little after the Vietnam war.

As long as the British people think it's business as usual and are waiting for the "recession" to end then it is a waste of time. You timed your run too soon - by next years election the collapse of the empire and the need for a completely new direction will be only too evident. Try standing again then.

Craig.

There are some people who are intellectually tall enough to see over the heads of the crowd and view coming events that are invisible to the majority, you are one of them. One of the disadvantages of such intellectual height is that one becomes frustrated when the majority is slow to perceive the things that you see so clearly. However this is always the way if things.

In 2007 Australia finally threw out the conservative Government of John Winston Howard, Australia's answer to Bush lap dog Tony Blair. But the factors that caused the electorate to turn against Howard after 11 years were visible to a noisy minority of latte sipping chattering class types for years before this. The lies and petty dishonesties by which Howard appealed to the bigotries of working class people by scapegoating disliked minorities, including the descendants of the unlawful immigrants who entered Australia 40,000 years before the rightful owners and later unlawful arrivals fleeing Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan and arriving in Australia by boat, even as his Government was damaging the interests of those to whose racism he was appealing was obvious 2 years after the first election of the Howard Government, but it took a further 9 years for the electorate as a whole to respond. In the end the electorate did respond and the wedge issue techniques by which Howard split his opposition ceased to work, the majority woke up and began to see the things that had been obvious to the chattering classes all along.

No doubt the backlash against Tony Blair type government in the UK will arrive, just later than you think it should have.

Keep on blogging, what you say eventually trickles down to the majority.

When you join a group, as you joined the Foreign Office and subsequently joined those who aspire to political office, you have to expect to find that half of them are thick, stubborn and devious and many others are vile in their own unexpected ways you didn't experience before you came into the group.

I know. I came into Islam. But in Ramadhan the Muslim community pulls together and listens to the word of Allah and its an awe-inspiring experience.

My father used to ask me why he should come to my assistance when I had chosen to go in exactly the opposition direction to the rest of the world. Our prophet, peace be upon him, was reassured by God many times in the Qur'an about the challenge of opposing popular prejudice.

He was told he would prevail. I can't give that assurance to you Craig. I think that in this political game and especially in this country plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose. But you have picked up many friends, including myself, along the way.

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we loved reading the article, you totally knocked it out of the ballpark! I have forwarded a link to my dad, and will surely be returning for more updates.

nice post. I would love to follow you on twitter. By the way, did anyone hear that some Iranian hacker had hacked twitter yesterday.

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