Darling and Beckett’s expenses scams just add to the long sorry tale of New Labour sleaze.
These people are moral and political pygmies.
I try from day to day not to dwell upon the way they ended my career as Ambassador and subjected me to an onslaught of slur and smear in what one senior Foreign Office source told the Guardian was “A campaign of systematic undermining.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/oct/18/uk.foreignpolicy
They did this to me because I queried internally their support for a vicious dictatorship in the “War on Terror” and because I was arguing in internal secret correspondence that it was illegal to obtain intelligence from torture.
They brought eighteen allegations of gross misconduct against me, and I was cleared of all charges after an internal invesitgation in which they loaded everything against me. Now you could make one or two charges of gross misconduct against someone, which turned out to be untrue, as part of a genuine process. But eighteen? All unfounded? It was a political stitch-up, overseen by Jack Straw.
They hastily added at the end of the process a nineteenth charge of disobeying an instruction to keep the false charges secret, and that was the only one I was found guilty of.
Of course, if I had not made it public, I would have been quietly stitched up on all charges.
But there was a sequel. After I was cleared and they were forced to let me return to Tashkent, they subjected the Embassy to an unscheduled “Surprise audit”. A team of three accountants was flown to Tashkent to go through every single transaction in the Embassy accounts since I arrived there, looking at every voucher.
This cost the taxpayer over £100,000.
The FCO had figured that if you went through anybody’s accounts with that fine a toothcomb, you would be bound to get them on something. But as it happens, I am pathologically honest about money. At the end of this vast exercise, it was found I owed the FCO just over 26 US dollars for a claim for which I had lost the receipt.
I paid them back.
And this was initiated by the unspeakable people who at the same time were themselves raking in to their personal accounts hundreds of thousands of pounds from the taxpayer!
New Labour are scum.
When the word ‘hate’ trips so easily off someone’s toungue, I think it says more about the person using the word, than it does about the target of the bile.
Thank you for sharing that with us Mr. Murray. You have told us all we need to know about you, what makes you tick and your increasingly whacko views.
Philipe,
Hatred is a very unpleasant. negative thing. I wish I didn’t hate them for what they did to me. They did much worse things to other people. But I am not that much of a saint. I would love to have the capacity for forgiveness of a Gandhi or a Mandela, but I haven’t found it in myself yet. I’ll keep trying.
For someone who professes to be so damn clever (just read your CV) and who has positions of influence in a various seats of learning, you have a responsibility – indeed a duty – to use words like “hate” more carefully and more judiciously.
You are preaching hate Mr Murray – by your own admission.
I repeat. This blog says more about you than it does about any political party or movement.
Move on man for God’s sake and your own! Grow up and get over it and get yourself in the process.
Just
Philipe
Just googled you and found your various silly right wing posts attacking Muslims, and your demand that Channel 4 have its status as a public broadcaster removed for giving airtime to the President of Iran.
Really got better things to do thatn debate with a troll from Harry’s Place who presumably thinks it is fine to try to frame someone on false charges, if he was trying to protect the human rights of Muslims.
“Leave ‘im Den! ‘E’s not worf it!”
(with apologies to Neighbours)
Please read the description of this programme below, and then email/phone the BBC and tell them they are broadcasting an interview with a war criminal on Good Friday.
Radio 3, ‘Belief’, 11 p.m., Good Friday
Joan Bakewell explores areas of belief with authors, screenwriters, thinkers and other public figures.
She talks to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was a committed Christian throughout his premiership. His press secretary, Alistair Campbell, once said, ‘we don’t do God’, fearing his boss would be considered a ‘nutter’ by the British public. Since leaving office, Blair has converted to Catholicism and talked more freely about the importance of his faith to him.
Joan hears how faith and politics have gone hand in hand for Tony Blair since his days at university; she hears how his faith helped him take on the job of leading the country; how he now views his decision to invade Iraq; and what he hopes the Tony Blair Faith Foundation will achieve. His role as envoy to the international Quartet involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process regularly takes him to the Holy Land, and Joan hears what impact these visits have on his own faith.
Outstanding stuff Craig keep it going.
I see from other comments that the NuLabour zombies are still reading your comments.
NuLabour sleaze merchants out out out
Dame Joan Bakewell has recently been nominated as the Voice of Older People by Harriet Harman.
Not my voice she aint! I’ll speak for myself, thanks very much.
Craig isn’t ‘preaching’ hate, he is merely expressing it, for people who tried to stitch him up for corruption when it was their own snouts that were in the public trough.
At least the Tories had the decency to confine their sleaze and corruption largely to the private sector, taking their pay-offs in paper bags rather than from the public purse.
Oh yes and I suspect Blair’s recent conversion to Catholicism has very little to do with any genuine personal religious conviction and rather a lot to do with his ambition to become EU President, a post for which being a Catholic is required. It’s not called the Treaty of Rome for nothing.
@Philipe du Bois – so, Craig’s “preaching hate”, is he? Would that be in the “New Labour” definition, in your view, i.e. an imprisonable offence?
I suspect that your being hung up on the emotional aspect of this post is designed to distract from the key point. So, let me bring you back on track with questions on the key issues: do you think the FCO treatment of Craig was reasonable? What would you suspect was happening if eighteen official charges were brought against you and not one of them could be substantiated? Do you approve of the use of torture by UK authorities to obtain intelligence, and do you think any intelligence thereby obtained could be regarded as reliable?
I shalln’t expect yes/no answers, though you may supply those if you wish. In many topics a nuanced answer is sometimes the right one, but if you do try answering these, at least you will be reflecting on the point of Craig’s blog, rather than just hectoring about trivialities.
I was sacked for gross misconduct after complaining to higher authority about the behaviour of my employers (the head and governors of a South London comprehensive). The experience was quite an education. I couldn’t sleep at nights for 12 months. Every authority, including my Union (who insisted I take a few grand and run), did exactly the wrong thing at every stage of my dismissal.
It was a torment……but I don’t have to tell you that.
I beat them in court a year later under ‘unfair dismissal’ (14 separate counts)and the ‘Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblowing)Act’. It was a surprise to discover that winning here made be less rather than more employable, as it happens.
Employers are a cowardly lot. I was now not only an obvious troublemaker but also a threat.
I was able to eventually forgive the people involved, perhaps because I had made them suffer in public also and they really were rather pathetic, if bullying, types.
The damage my employers had done to me in no way compares to the scale of destruction and distress for which your accusers are responsible.
I’m not surprised you are still angry.
New Labour politicians have blithely taken decisions that have resulted in the deatha of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, and the unending torment of many more.
We must trust that at some time in the future they will experience for themselves the consequences of their own actions. This is Karma.
Pity them. They are fools. Despicable, yes, but fools……despite their big careers, big incomes and big pensions. I don’t envy them a penny of any of it.
For there is a God.
Thanks for sharing that, KevinB.
And don’t worry, folks, I am not going to allow them to distract me on to this ground at the Joint Committee on Human Rights hearing.
I should note that in my case, my union were excellent.
WRT falloch’s comments: One aspect of Blair’s legacy that wasn’t discussed much when he went was his apparent desire to replace the increasingly-untenable established anglican church with some kind of established multi-faith arrangement, rather than the rather more obvious secular state. Faith schools may well prove to be more divisive than Iraq and the ‘war on terror’; we’ll see.
Karma certainly does come around – but legal action would be more appropriate in some cases. I recently bumped into a former senior member of the Blair Government and had quite a long chat about a number of issues. What was most apparent however was that this particular person looked like a lost soul, looking for any sense of justification to continue their existence. Having completely sold themselves out there was nothing left, no dignity, no pride, no respect…just a lost soul.
Craig should never have been put through the nightmare that he has so remarkably survived. For all his colourful foibles he gets my respect any, and everyday. And when he holds his new beautiful baby in his arms in a few weeks time, he will feel so proud and strong and so much love. That is something that his persecutors may never understand.
I’ve just directed a show ‘Talking to Terrorists’ in Birmingham (on allmthis week). I and many in the cast have started to follow your blog because of the show.
I can’t believe how ignorant I’ve been… I’m sorry that you had to be subjected to such a vile campaign – and for what? For speaking the truth. Please don’t stop. The world needs people like you – there are too few truly good men left.
Another man with integrity who suffered a similar fate is Gordon Smith, a former senior Customs & Excise solicitor, who was involved in the prosecution of London City Bond cases in which Customs concealed a participating informant.
He was aware of the existence of the participating informant but Customs wanted this fact to remain concealed during trials. If it had been revealed the cases would have collapsed as an abuse of process. Gordon Smith was put in the position whereby his employers were more or less forcing him to commit a crime. He feared he’d become part of a wider conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He had a nervous breakdown.
He stated: I couldn’t see any way out. I believed that my mind would not take any more and I believed that my mind then started to shut down, and that’s when I became very ill. In 2000 I contemplated in actual fact committing suicide. It reached such a pitch, things… meetings that were taking place, evidence or facts that I was finding out, lies that I knew I had been told.
Customs lost almost £2 billion
I passionately hate New Labour, amongst many other reasons, for their failure to act on bank charges. Screw the court case, they should have just stepped in and outlawed all these despicable charges! For example, a £35 charge for not having enough cash in your pocket to pay a direct debit bill? Ha ha. Just dwell on that a minute folks. As much as I hate sleaze and corruption I recognise it is a slippery slope we are all on. The system and our society need some big changes and it obviously should be starting in our schools. If the majority of those coming out of education aren’t vociferous, critical and genuinely interested in politics what hope do we have? You just have to look at voting statistics to see that currently isn’t the case. Corruption and erosion of liberties will always take hold. Then, and only then, can democracy begin to thrive. We are just in an endless cycle of crap at the moment. We need a good man at the top to start these changes off. How about a man that will ‘seriously’ take on the banks? I don’t think Brown is that man.
‘Another man with integrity who suffered a similar fate is Gordon Smith, a former senior Customs & Excise solicitor, who was involved in the prosecution of London City Bond cases in which Customs concealed a participating informant.’
Research Darlene Novinger and Alisha Owen, to name but a few, and look what they suffered. They had integrity.
Hi Kerry
What a coincidence. I came to see ‘The Bus’ at the Crescent a few weeks ago, and it was incredibly powerful stuff (the fight scenes were truly scary). I do wonder though, of the various people who come to see this trilogy, how many of them will connect the laudable underlying messages of religous and ideological tolerance, to the current political situation and how morally bankrupt all sides of the Establishment have now become.
I fear some will enjoy the shows, but will continue reading The Telegraph.
The truth of all of this is New Labour/Tories/Lib Dems are not political parties but are in fact criminal organisations or should that read organisation?.
“I would love to have the capacity for forgiveness of a Gandhi or a Mandela, but I haven’t found it in myself yet.”
That is a wonderfully human statement. Sadly we live within a society where human values must be continually defended against assault from the entrenched, inhuman elite, who consider the “bewildered herd” to be subhuman, unworthy of rights and incapable of responsibility.
“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies.”
–Noam Chomsky
“. . . the power of the government’s propaganda apparatus is such that the citizen who does not undertake a research project on the subject can hardly hope to confront government pronouncements with fact.”
–Noam Chomsky
‘The truth of all of this is New Labour/Tories/Lib Dems are not political parties but are in fact criminal organisations or should that read organisation?’
If a party takes power in an undemocratic climate it will become corrupted. The more undemocratic the climate the more corrupt it will be come. There will be a few uncorruptible shining lights who know themselves and what they stand for, but they will be overwhelmed by the majority seduced by power. This recent expenses scandal is a prime example. How they have the balls to come on TV and say they did nothing ‘wrong’ is simply beyond me. They say they took advice on it beforehand! That translates as I know i’m doing something disgusting and i’m going to try and cover my ass in case I get found out. Mobsters take prior advice on dodgy activities too i’m sure. It’s tantamount to a murderer getting off on a technicality and saying ‘I did nothing wrong’! And Gordon Brown didn’t sack them? What has he got to hide? I think we are much less corrrupt than the U.S., but if we don’t act we will go down the same path. Praise to the person that leaked all this. It even took me by surprise that this legitimately went on under our noses and I believe in some conspiracies that a lot of folk would find wacky!
I am delighted that you are not letting the bastards get you down, Craig. Keep going. We desperately need people who tell it as it is – even if they are a bit abrasive at times. But then you know what happened to the oyster with a bit of grit inside.
You have presumably read Jackie Ashley’s article in today’s Grauniad — http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/06/mp-expenses-daniel-hannan-conservatives — reporting an insider claim that some MPs’ expenses, when they’re all published in a month or so’s time, expose behaviour so venal that resignations, by-elections and the end of a few political careers may be at hand.
Ho fucking ho. Live by the so-called “rules”, die at the hands of the taxpayers.
Oh, I thought the reason they didn’t want them published was because of the need to prevent terrorists gaining information on them? 🙂 I haven’t really followed this story myself. Are they alomst definitely going to get fully published then?
I don’t have a problem with you hating New Labour. I hate them as well. I especially loathe and despise the Great Moron who has wrecked the UK economy and is continuing to do massive damage in the hope of salvaging his political career.
I hope the next election sees Labour (new or old) annhialated and without hope of ever forming a Government, ever again.
Everyone should read the comments on Jackie Ashley’s article (link given by Joseph above).
I can only hope that Jack Straw is thrown out by the good people of Blackburn, though I fear the even split between Tories and LDs there and the postal vote system will preclude that…
Nobody’s addressing the real issue as to why there’s so much visible corruption. There’s a reason for it. The South Sea Bubble in our economy from the early nineties to today is more likely to to have been spawned not from Gordon Brown’s measures as Chancellor but from secret illegal activities, which would shock. Hence, when one has to execute such corrupt policies people get tainted; corrupt practice becomes the norm running into all aspects of one’s life. The same thing happened to the Conservative government in the early nineties and just the same thing will happen to them when they come into power next year. To get rid of this corruption one has to take out the real power behind the Cabinet but then again if one does the UK will be a very poor country with a lot of ex-politicians clutching their cut of the spoils in offshore tax havens.
‘but then again if one does the UK will be a very poor country.’
As opposed to being slaves to the banks on the verge of bankruptcy like we are now? We should bite the bullet and do what needs to be done.