Given that the election court had just found that he told a “Blatant lie”, Alistair Carmichael struck absolutely the wrong note in his statement after the case. He could have said:
“I did tell a lie, and it is something I deeply regret. I apologise to my constituents, to my family and to the people of Scotland for all the trouble my lie has caused. I have learned from it. I am grateful to the court for giving me aother chance, and I have now learned never to indulge in that kind of bad behaviour again.”
Instead, with extraordinary arrogance, Alistair said this:
“I am pleased with the decision of the court.
Although I was always confident of winning the last few months have been a difficult and stressful time for me and my family.
We have been enormously grateful for the tremendous levels of support received from local people, in both Orkney and Shetland, regardless of which political party they normally support…
This case was politically motivated. It was a deliberate attempt by nationalists to remove the last Scottish Liberal voice at Westminster, and is a mark of the unhealthy polarisation of Scottish politics since the referendum.”
Co-ordinated statements were put out by Willie Rennie and “Bomber” Tim Farron saying much the same thing. So the utter lack of any humility must have been deliberate. This is an orchestrated act of arrogance.
You will recall that I predicted that there was no way that Scotland’s deeply conservative and unionist judiciary would find against Carmichael. The reasoning behind their judgement is intellectually risible. They say that Carmichael only lied in denying a specific leak; he was therefore not making a false claim about his general character. If he had specifically stated that he never leaked he would have been making a false claim and disqualified.
Here is the pathetic “reasoning” of the judge Lady Paton:
They explained that if a candidate made a false statement that he would never leak an internal confidential memo, no matter how helpful that might be to his party, as he regarded the practice of leaking confidential information as dishonest and morally reprehensible, and he would not stoop to such tactics, when in fact that candidate had leaked an internal confidential memo containing material which was inaccurate and highly damaging to an opponent, they would be likely to conclude that the candidate had given a false statement “’in relation to [his] personal character or conduct” because he would be falsely holding himself out as being of such a standard of honesty, honour, trustworthiness and integrity that, in contrast with what others in Westminster might do, he would never be involved in such a leaking exercise.
“In the present case, when speaking to the Channel 4 interviewer, the first respondent did not make such an express statement about his personal character or conduct,” Lady Paton continued. “We are not persuaded that the false statement proved to have been made was in relation to anything other than the first respondent’s awareness (or lack of awareness) of a political machination. Accordingly we are not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the words used by the first respondent amounted to a ‘false statement of fact in relation to [his] personal character or conduct’. It follows that we are not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that an essential element of section 106 has been proved.
There are several glaring errors in this reasoning. The first is that if I denied knowledge of a murder I had in fact committed, I would be making a false statement about my general character whether or not I had added a condemnation of the morality of murder.
The second is that Lady Paton ignores the “conduct” in “false statement in relation to his character or conduct.” In denying knowledge of a leak he had in fact made himself. Carmichael was beyond any reasonable doubt making a false statement as to his conduct, even if we accept Paton’s argument it did not go to his character. Note that there is no reference to his “general” or “usual” conduct.
This is the judgement of a woman justifying a pre-determined stitch-up.
Despite al this, I would not be tremendously concerned about the result if Alistair had the decency to be a bit chastened by it. It is only because of our ridiculously undemocratic electoral system that representation is so skewed. You didn’t ought to get over 95% of the seats on 52% of the votes, and I am not sure what is gained by magnifying that other wrong. But any mixed feelings I have on those grounds are dispelled by the utterly inappropriate triumphalism the Lib Dems are displaying, as though to be found a blatant liar by a court is something to be proud of. The brass neck of it all is sickening.
“But i Do Not Forget”
Then why drink?
Ahhh, some drink to remember, some to forget.
BTW, Mark Golding
Yea, I think many of us guess this far from as it’s painted. Didn’t mean to ignore you, sounds spot on to me.
Hasbara:
“To paraphrase our NORAID sympathiser: not an attack, just an observation.”
You’ve been doing propaganda for so long that you’ve forgotten what observations are.
Your remarks about Ireland in the 1930s are extraordinarily crude: the Ireland of Peadar O’Donnell, O’Faolain and the Bell, to cite one small example, was far more vibrant and open than Salazar’s Portugal. As to your statistics regarding Irish support for the Spanish Republic they are incorrect- Irishmen, many enlisted in British, American and Canadian brigades were far more likely to be fighting for Spain than for the fascists.
Decent people might want to listen to this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf__gWT_8PE
You are making a cheap point designed to discredit Irish republicanism. This is not ‘observing’ but ‘attacking.’
It goes without saying that all of us would benefit from knowing more Irish history or history of any kind. But most important is it that we use history not as a source for misrepresentations and propaganda but for informing ourselves. I am very much afraid that that would not fit into your job description which, quite obviously is to disrupt intelligent discussions wherever you find them.
Thank you very much for your kind remarks but my mind is made up. I cannot spend time and energy looking things up, getting the links and typing the comments when they are being wiped so randomly. Many other comments have gone in recent days.
One of my comments last night on this thread was about Carmichael voting for the Syrian bombing. That went. I had listed the other five LDs who did the same (with a link) and praised Norman Lamb and Mark Williams who voted against. How topical and relevant was that comment?
Next I added the lyrics of a Black Sabbath song, War Pigs, from the STWC site. They could not have been more appropriate as comment on what took place in the HoC last week. That contribution was also wiped.
The trolls will be hoisted by their own petards eventually. Why they have been allowed to run amok here for so long has bothered and mystified me.
Cheerio. I will miss you.
Mary please come back, CM will sack the tagiya “sumner redstone” conman who serves as a zio gatekeeper at the blog now.
Mary I’m so sorry that the trolls have won. You’re comments and links were one of the highlights of Craig’s blog. I do understand you can only stand so much of the vitriol that goes on here sometimes. Take care, I will miss you.
Mark Golding:
“Pentagon orders to vitiate the Syrian army”
The topic is establishment power in the case of Carmichael’s lies. The establishment continues to impose a market forces economy on us in spite of the bankrupcy outcome of 2008. Nobody ever thought USUKIS would fail to get its regime change in Syria. Al Qaida backed the stronger side , hoping for political rewards.
That’s not the point, what the stronger side wants. Allah is the stronger side/ Allahu akbar. The point is that the Lib-Dems gave the unelectable Tories a platform for power and it back-fired on them at the election. The Carmichael case will obliterate the Lib Dems for ever Amen.
Al Qaida’s backing the winning side the USUKIS hegemony brigade will have the same effect on Islam. Whoever emerges from the rubble of Syria will ensure that the takfirism or what is wrongly called Wahhabism on this blog will be consigned to the dustbin forever.
They plan, and Allah plans, and Allah is the best of planners.
Jeremy Stocks
“Do any of Craig’s followers have any clue why Saudi is now under pressure regards ISIS? After all, ever since Abdul Aziz turned on the oil spigot at Ras Tanura in the 1930s after uniting the entire peninsula by marrying into the Rashid tribe, the Saudis have been entirely dependent upon the Ikhwan/Qaeda/ISIS for legitimacy. Every time you put petrol in your tank you fund more madrassas. Why is the penny dropping in the West only now?”
This site has a new troll, whose supposed chosen subject is Saudi Arabia and Islam.
Welcome to your new home:
https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://wp.pistolsandpopcorn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/troll-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://wp.pistolsandpopcorn.com/?p%3D987&h=365&w=427&tbnid=CwEUwkq1CTFdRM:&docid=l0bC5gA5e6wvNM&ei=qSNpVq-HOIH7aKqulogG&tbm=isch&ved=0ahUKEwjv_73j3NDJAhWBPRoKHSqXBWEQMwhfKCMwIw
Mary come back
Large number of deletions yesterday evening.
One of my own, appreciating the quality and the informativeness of Mary’s comments, went.
Would it be possible to repost how the Lib-dems voted on attacking Syria, maybe without the song lyrics? It seems to be gone.
That allah wallah is he god’s sock-puppet?
Mary
10 Dec, 2015 – 5:34 am
“Thank you very much for your kind remarks but my mind is made up. I cannot spend time and energy looking things up, getting the links and typing the comments when they are being wiped so randomly. Many other comments have gone in recent days.”
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Mary, perhaps it’s not as random as it would appear. Craig does like to get feedback on his posts. He wants to know specifically what people are thinking about that topic.
I doubt very much if you would face deletions if OT’s were on the penultimate thread or on Page 2 of the current one. With pages having been shortened to 100 comments, that should make it easier.
Please put yourself in the Moderator’s shoes — it truly is a thankless task (but thanks are in order anyway).
I would regret it if you withdraw, sincerely. People making suggestions of ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ or intent of ‘driving you away’ are merely looking at it in an immature way. Differences are part of the dialogue. I am against banning except in obviously extreme circumstances. I am equally against deletions but can fully understand that there is a time and place for everything, including the placing of OT’s and/or banter in penultimate thread or at Page 2, if that is what the House-rule is.
Mary, I totally get it. It’s a hell of a lot of work, and then stuff is simply being deleted. Maybe drop in though just to let people know your still about, ok etc.
I’m myself am looking for a less wasteful way of campaigning. And hope you’d maybe find something to use your aptitude for. I’m reminded what kate Bush said, it’s finding a way to channel the anger into something positive.
I actually can’t imagine myself sticking around much now 🙁 not that I was very dedicated.
And who knows effects of actions done, many must be more aware. You have to do things anyway, not considering success or failure, lust of result, those are the purest actions.
I’m sure it could be made easier, and i’v often thought of systematising just posting links petitions etc. But yea, it’s fitting in to the format of the blog. And it’s like a straight jacket. Yet at least more morally acceptable than contributing to the guardian etc.
As usual, I don’t have much answers. Just trying to do something.
It’s actually funny that on much of social media there is TONS more freedom than here. But many not focused primarily on social justice issues.
” allah wallah ” — nice one! Haven’t heard that before, did you make it up?
Cameron who has caused the biggest crisis in the Middle Esst since the 11WW by supporting illegal wars, tax evasion and banking fraud. Pontificates on leaving the EU, dealing with the crisis he has caused. Leaving the EU will cause another crisis. Cameron/Osbourne hypocritical lars. They should be in jail. Elected to support th NHS and cut the debt. They have done neither. They have created chaos. Fire, flood and famine. Against the majority wishes and the public interest. Two useless repribates.
So we still don’t know who concocted the forged, smearing untruthful FrenchGate memo. Carmicheal saying he’d never seen it, but knew of it and its false provenance, and gave the go-ahead to his aide, who presumably had seen it and knew it was cobblers, to release it to and have it trumpeted all over the biased unionist media, and that the memo had been kicking around since March, waiting for an opportunistic time to release it, that being right after the the TV debate in which Nicola Sturgeon excelled. So not only were those who conspired in this atrocious smear, Ministers, the whole smear conspiracy was put together and kept in readiness, in March, when they were of course very much still MPs as well: Carmicheal – Mundell – Clegg – Cameron, Murphy too.
And with the horse already ‘meat’ pies lining supermarket shelves, the stable-door is bolted and the smoking memo and its origins now an ‘Official Secret’.
Maybe a day for all to step back from the internet and spend precious time with loved-ones. Carmicheal has erred participating wittingly in a nasty affair, can he be re-habilitated – John Profumo is said to have spent the remainder of his life earnestly atoning.
“So we still don’t know who concocted the forged, smearing untruthful FrenchGate memo.”
Nobody did. The memo was genuine.
Mary; “Why they have been allowed to run amok here for so long has bothered and mystified me.”
With this question you are touching upon the realization that all is not as it seems here, also bear in mind that the moderation has always been delibrately arbitrary & partisan; stay well, stay strong, have a break, and perhaps reconsider in due time.
Alcyone 8:45
“Craig does like to get feedback on his posts.”. We post here, that should be enough…
I respect what Craig does, it’s positive in ways, his ‘fetish for stranded issue policy fixations’, it’s a mainstream focus. It befits the blog, as do contrary ideas, and below the line AT LEAST we should all be valued for what we bring to it.
Myself I would not contribute at all if it was just me writing above the line (and i’d not do it anyway, just me, I do visual arts etc) because it’s things working together, often in contrast, that makes something larger than its parts. By themselves, often quite ineffectual .
If you think about it in terms that, Though this is Craig’s blog, everyone is equally important, Well it doesn’t end up feeling like that if your forced to follow a certain track at will, ever.
…I’v never been a ‘Craig follower’ really, and who else here is?…No, we are all equally important. It surprises me that Mary has lasted this long, quite a testament.
“Mary I’m so sorry that the trolls have won. You’re comments and links were one of the highlights of Craig’s blog.”
________________________
If one reads Mary’s recent posts carefully one gets the impression that’s she’s “going” this time (it must be about the seventh time) not because of the presence of dissidents she mistakenly calls trolls but because of what she considers to be unfair moderation (ie, deletions of some of her stuff.
That’s a tad curious given that she has frequently called – implicitly – for the banning of certain commenters (“Why does Ceaig allow the trolls (sic) to post on here?”).
CM’s blog is bigger than any of its contributors – it would be as well to remember that elementary fact.
“have a break”
Yea, certainly do that anyway, whatever you decide.
“CM’s blog is bigger than any of its contributors”
Vile outlook.
Mary goes so does other folk. Collective
Habba can you provide a link to a genuine Talmud site that has searchable English translations.
I refuse to believe that “Jesus is in hell, being boiled in hot excrement.” (Gittin 57a), that some of the fake Muslim translators are trying to foist upon us, especially during this time of year.
Their Sanhedrin and Baba Meza translations are just too awful to quote here.
Who’s Ceaig?
“contributors” ha
Then what, pay tell, should we do with the enemy in our midst. Those working against social justice.
Some clearly have no place on this blog. Craig wants you here that your strange ideas are shown. There is nobody who undermines you more than you.
Bevin
“Your remarks about Ireland in the 1930s are extraordinarily crude”
____________________
I don’t know about them being crude but they were certainly succinct and, more importantly, true.
I think your problem is that you will not hear anything negative about the Irish Republic in the 1930s (and beyond, for that matter) because you cannot bear to hear the truth about someone or something you consider to have have been a hero for having thwarted (as you see it) one of your bugbears – ie, the British state.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~==
“As to your statistics regarding Irish support for the Spanish Republic they are incorrect- Irishmen, many enlisted in British, American and Canadian brigades were far more likely to be fighting for Spain than for the fascists.”
_______________________
Not so – that is incorrect. Twice as many fought for the Spanish Nationalists (ie, the Franco forces).~The “defence of the Church” against the “godless hordes” was an important factor in their thinking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“.. most important is it that we use history not as a source for misrepresentations and propaganda but for informing ourselves”
______________________
I agree. But that is a point you should be addressing in the first place to the Eminences and Old Trolls and perhaps even to yourself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“..that would not fit into your job description which, quite obviously is to disrupt intelligent discussions wherever you find them.”
______________________
A fitting rational and historical ending to your post, which amply demonstrates my points.
++++++++++++++++++
Well, that’s you taken care of once again. Run along, sonny.
Habba can you provide a link to a genuine Talmud site that has searchable English translations.
I refuse to believe that “Jesus is in he11, being boiled in hot excrement.” (Gittin 57a), that some of the fake Muslim translators are trying to foist upon us, especially during this time of year.
Their Sanhedrin and Baba Meza translations are just too awful to quote here.
‘It goes without saying that all of us would benefit from knowing more Irish history or history of any kind.’
That includes Habba, who began this diversion into the byways of Irish history by referring to a state called the ‘Irish Republic’ which in the the 1930s had a ‘President’ in the Salazar mould.
Neither the Irish Republic, nor the office of ‘President’, existed in 1930s Ireland, except in the minds of the diehard IRA, whose Chiefs of Staffs claimed, ex officio, also to be Leaders of the 1916 Republic- in their minds the only legitimate state authority in all the 32 counties.
A substantive, as opposed to an imaginary ‘Irish Republic’, did not emerge until 1949.