The Contrarian Prize 59

 in Uncategorized by

I have been shortlisted for the Contrarian Prize. I am honoured to be considered for an award of which the previous winners are Clive Stafford Smith and Michael Woodford. It probably says something about the purpose of the prize, that the rather extraordinary list of shortlisted nominees are not people liable to enjoy socialising together. I shall not elaborate further. But to be associated with an award of which the motto is “courage, independence, sacrifice” makes me feel I must be doing something right.

Allowed HTML - you can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

59 thoughts on “The Contrarian Prize”

1 2
  • Mary's Nemesis

    Do I spot the presence of Ed Husain on the sortlist?

    He has, I believe, got a lot of stick on here: several people have claimed that he was “turned by the Establishment and called him a stooge of the secret services.

    I hope Mary doesn’t notice, because she is a specialist on guilt by association and would surely lose all confidence in Craig if she find him on the same list as Mr Husain.

  • Mary's Nemesis

    On the other hand, the presence of Mr Husain (negative!!) moght, in Mary’s eyes, be outweighed by that of Mr Galloway (positive!!!!).

    BTW, any new news about his crowd-funded film?

  • Republicofscotland

    It’s only been on the go for three years,a lawyer and a whistleblower winning the previous two award.

    Still its nice to be recognised for doing the right thing.

    The award itself is in the theme,of the Three Wise Monkeys,replaced by politicians.

    Good luck.

  • giyane

    But when they read your blog and they see the swatches of ultra-orthodox right-wing half-baked and unintelligible conforminists hanging on here in shoals, picking the flesh off the shark’s fangs, might they not wonder if you are really a lure for boring Hasbara trolls.

  • Phil

    Fucking hilarious.

    Anyone peeked at the judging panel? IPCC, Sunday Times, CBI…it’s the right wing establishment.

    Craig, are you so enamored by compliments, so vain, that it doesn’t occur to you that an award from your enemy is a sure sign of your failure. The establishment never rewards a threat. Threats are crushed. Pseudo threats on the other hand are applauded in order to define the limits of acceptable contrariness (even the word is lame).

    You should tell them to stick it up their jacksee.

    http://www.contrarianprize.com/panel-of-judges.html

  • John Goss

    Craig, you are doing a lot right. So is Peter Oborne. I wish you both good luck though realise that there can only be one winner – unless it is shared.

    Anybody in the company of Clive Stafford-Smith has my wholehearted support. Not so sure whether everybody who comments here would agree since Reprieve got a bit of a pasting two or three blogposts ago when compared with the outstanding achievements of Amnesty International.

  • Phil

    Jesus, the inquiring mind is not on display here tonight is it.

    No one have any questions about why such a panel gives out awards? No one troubled by the hilariously right wing profile of the panel? Suddenly you’re all alright with the IPCC, the CBI? Anyone even look at what you applauded before jumping in with congratulations?

  • Herbie

    Yeah.

    I made a similar point about the Sam Adams award.

    It seems there’s a kinda faux opposition created, which itself is little more than steam for mainstream.

    Liberty went that way, Oxfam etc, all the organizations that we were brought up thinking stood for humanity and humanitarianism.

    It’s a managed thing, now. Just a media thing.

    A brand thing.

  • Phil

    Ah but Herbie we are just party poopers. After all these fuckers have a motto! Apparently that’s enough for Craig to make him “feel” he is doing “something right”. A motto!

    Utter gatekeeping garbage.

  • Herbie

    Yeah.

    See what ya mean.

    But, it’s kinda difficult to attack from outside, as an outlaw, as it were.

    People convince themselves that they’re doing good by bringing small human gestures to what are horrific circumstances, even whilst they work more generally in support of economic activities that produce the self same horrific outcomes.

    The “doing little things”, by the way, is and has been quite a compelling argument.

    It’s quite seductive.

    Soothes the conscience.

  • Phil

    Herbie
    “People convince themselves that they’re doing good by bringing small human gestures to what are horrific circumstances, even whilst they work more generally in support of economic activities that produce the self same horrific outcomes.”

    Word up!

  • Becky Cohen

    “But to be associated with an award of which the motto is “courage, independence, sacrifice” makes me feel I must be doing something right.”

    Congratulations Craig! As my old teacher always said: if you want to get on you have to make sacrifices. (Although I think he wished he’d never told us that the day that he walked in and found us ceremoniously gathered around a first year student strapped to a desk during a lesson about the ancient Aztecs;)

  • craig Post author

    Yes, I actually pointed out to Ali Miraj the impeccable establishment credentials of the judging panel. I don’t actually expect to win it.

    But that is a criticism absolutely impossible to make of the Sam Adams award. Herbie is completely wrong about that one.

    I didn’t say Peter Oborne was shortlisted. He isn’t. I said he ought to get the award.

  • John Spencer-Davis

    Phil
    13/06/2015 9:48am

    Last time someone commented critically on your postings, you sneered at them for attempting to defend Craig, and said he didn’t need his fans to speak for him. It’s not surprising nobody is engaging with you.

    J

1 2

Comments are closed.