How to Refuse an Honour from the Queen – to Her Face 228


Scores of principled people have refused honours from the Queen. Very few have ever been called on to explain why in person. This is discussed along with many less lighthearted episodes from my life, in this long interview with Alex Salmond. Part 2 next week.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=419190051967230

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228 thoughts on “How to Refuse an Honour from the Queen – to Her Face

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    • Reider O'Doom

      You come on here to comment and that is what you dredge up to say? Pathetic, really. Why don’t you pop along to The Hootsmon where these sorts of comment will be welcomed. Higher levels of debate are expected here.

    • Borncynical

      “…because…” ?

      You omitted this elaboration from your comment. I am giving you an invitation to fill it in.

  • Republicofscotland

    Good for you Craig turning down a meaningless gong from the biggest sponger of taxpayers money in Britain.

    Of course plenty of others have greedly grabbed their obedience gongs with both hands.

    I look forward to watching part 2 on the brilliant Alex Salmond show.

    • Courtenay Barnett

      Republic of Scotland,

      ” Of course plenty of others have greedly grabbed their obedience”

      Indeed – and so Barristers of at least 10 years call who are able and have proven themselves to be outstanding advocates are conferred the honorarium – Q.C. Then unbeknown to them:-

      I) The monarchy is endorsed in the very name – Q.C.; and
      ii) They get to charge more lucre for reason of the title Q.C.

      • Republicofscotland

        Indeed, old Lizzie, and future male kings and queens have their title stamped on just about everything with the prefix HM.

        HMP, HMS, HM Tax & Revenue etc. Not forgetting the plethora civil servants jobs where you need to swear an oath to her.

    • John2o2o

      Yes, I agree it was a good interview Reppie, but I don’t begrudge people their money.

      I’d rather the Queen of Scotland had taxpayers money than (for example) Raytheon. I’d say arguably the military are the bigger “spongers”.

  • A C Bruce

    I really enjoyed it and will be watching Part 2.

    It was calm and civilised. The interviewer didn’t jump down the interviewee’s throat – unlike the aggressive technique of Brillo et al.

    • Charles Bostock

      It’s hardly surprising that Salmond din’t jump down Murray’s throat, surely. After all, the two are acquainted and are even what some would call good mates. Murray has defended Salmond against the charges brought against him (cf a recent thread on here) and Salmond, in return, presents a very sympathetic programme about Murray.

      So comparisons with Andrew Neil are pointless and misleading.

      • JOML

        A good interviewer shouldn’t jump down anyone’s throat. Andrew Neil isn’t a serious interviewer anyway, he’s more of a purveyor of Tory lies, as a recent Ofcom investigation concluded.
        From my perspective, there’s very few serious interviewers on our MSM radio/TV – more egos and / or puppets.

      • A C Bruce

        I’ve seen a few of Alex Salmond’s interviews and Brillo’s technique is not his, no matter who he interviews. It’s refreshing and doesn’t make me want to turn off.

        Too many interviewers are aggressive and don’t let people speak.

        • Jo1

          I agree. I do enjoy Salmond’s show but I’m afraid I find Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh absolutely awful.

        • Charles Bostock

          Time is money, John. Anyway, I’m sure all of Craig’s brilliant posts are engraved in his fans’ “minds”.

      • John2o2o

        “Murray has defended Salmond against the charges brought against him”

        And rightly so Charles in my opinion. This is an interview not an interrogation. Mr Neil is often deliberately waspish and probing. That’s not Salmond’s style. You don’t have to watch.

      • pete

        Re “comparisons with Andrew Neil are pointless and misleading”
        This very true. There was no pointless dance off at the end of Craig’s interview, unlike some spectacles in the Brillo Show, nor was their any snide remarks or weird hand gesturing, so, quite refreshing, two civilised people discussing a career in the public service. If only the BBC could do interviews like that.

        • Charles Bostock

          So you agree that A.C.Bruce’s comparison with Andrew Neil (May 10th , 10:18 above) was pointless and misleading. Excellent! But next time, why don’t you point it out yourself rather than leaving it to me ?

  • Sharp Ears

    I received this initially.

    ‘Video unavailable
    Watch this video on YouTube.
    Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner.’

    Why do RT do this?

        • DiggerUK

          This story really is bollocks. False. Made up. Go and check.
          Does anybody not check stories out?
          The author, Karen Kwiatkowski, is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. She should be marched out and put up against a wall for this knife in the back on the credibility of VIPS.

          Why are so many of you asleep on duty, shame on you…_

    • John2o2o

      Yes, it sounds like fake news. I’ve complained to OffG about the piece they published, it doesn’t look right to me.

      Julian should be released immediately.

      • DiggerUK

        This is all very odd. My posts on Consortium News castigating Karen Kwiatkowskis’ performance in this episode are being deleted! ‘Cui bono’…_

        • DiggerUK

          OffGuardian have amended their article. https://off-guardian.org/2019/05/10/chemical-torture-of-julian-assange/

          “Since one of our editors published this piece we have been inundated with caveats that the claims made of ‘chemical torture’ are unsupported and speculative. We have even had it suggested this is fake news. We’ve so far been unable to confirm or deny these claims. We’re leaving this article in place for the present, but please be aware of the unproven nature of the allegations”
          …_

  • Rod

    Not that I’m likely to be offered a gong in any event, but I would want to know why whoever was doing the offering thought that I should be awarded the same status as Jimmy Savile or Sir Philip Green.

    • Squeeth

      I was offered a bribe once but as well as being immoral, it was paltry. Cheap bastards!

      • A C Bruce

        Yeah, bribes are a complete disappointment unless they’re humungously large!

    • Robyn

      I’m afraid I stopped reading Mr Helmer when I got to,

      That case turned on the technical legal issue of “judicial authority”; that was whether the Swedish prosecutors’ warrant of arrest for Assange on sexual molestation and rape charges was lawful in the UK. The court decided it was, but it was a split decision. Two of the seven judges ruled in Assange’s favour.

      I am amazed at the number of seemingly sensible and otherwise informed journalists and analysts who still refer to ‘charges’ when Julian Assange has never been charged with anything to do with his sexual contacts in Sweden (or anywhere else).

  • N_

    Good on anyone who refuses a royal decoration.

    I think the first person to say publicly that he’d refused one was the poet Benjamin Zephaniah. (Other figures such as Dawn French – or their agents – then lost their fear and came forward.) It’s clear from Zephaniah’s work that he is opposed to the monarchy, so either some plonker at the Palace hadn’t read many of his poems but thought it would make the royal family look good to include a black man on the list of British people to be “honoured” that year, or they realised he was left wing but thought he’d blow over like a feather as soon as the embossed letter plopped on his doormat. Think again.

    The BBC have been going overboard on the birth of the latest royal parasite.

    • Chris

      You spoil your point with a gratuitous last line against a small being who is not yet unable to form a view of the world he has been brought into. Stick to abusing the adult spongers please.

    • Sharp Ears

      Remember N_ that the BBC is the state broadcaster.

      I agree about the recent coverage. OTT. Reporters doing outside broadcasts in Windsor. Vox pops with morons about the choice of names. Sickening stuff whilst a truth teller, who informs us about the West’s wars in which millions of little ones have been and still are being shredded and burnt, languishes at ‘Her Majesty’s Pleasure’ in Belmarsh.

      • Charles Bostock

        Vox pops with “morons”, Shar$ie ? Do you means with “members of the public” by any chance ?

        • Sharp Ears

          Why do you call me Shar$ie, Craig as Murray and Tatyana as Tat?

          Have you no manners?

    • Charles Bostock

      That’s right. Anthony Sampson, in a couple of his “Anatomy of Britain” books, points out that it is at least as vain to publicly reject the offer of an honour as it is to accept it.

      • John A

        Not really, Groucho Marx quote “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member” springs to mind.

      • Sharp Ears

        Another one of your barbs. You can never say anything nice about anyone.

        • Charles Bostock

          That’s a bit rich coming from you, Shar$ie 🙂

          Anyway, if it’s a barb it’s Anthony Sampson’s and not mine. Close Reading 101frecommended.

      • Republicofscotland

        “points out that it is at least as vain to publicly reject the offer of an honour as it is to accept it.”

        Not vain, probably more like principled, I mean recognition from your fellow man/woman of your good work by all means. But recognition from state spongers who know absolutely nothing about hard work or striving to help their fellow human being, is it any wonder then that more and more folk see the royals exactly for what they are.

        • Charles Bostock

          RoS

          Sampson said “publicly” – that’s the important word.

          You are obviously unaware of how the process works. Let me explain it and then you’ll have no difficulty agreeing with him.

          The offer of an honour to an individual isn’t something which is published in the media for the potential recipient to publicly accept or reject. The civil service writes to the potential recipient informing him/her that the PM is minded to recommend to Her Majesty that she bestow the honour in question and asking him/her whether that would be agreeable. The recipient is supposed to reply saying yes or no.

          So, you see, the entire process at that stage is private and not in the public domain.

          Hence anyone who breaks cover and tells the world at large he’s been offered an honour but has declined it (whether he gives reasons or not) is simply simply showing vanity – the vanity of a person who wants to show he has the cojones to refuse an offer. He is simply playing to the anti-monarchist gallery. And – if I may say so – showing a certain discourtesy to the Head of State.

          Hope that helps.

          • certa certi

            ‘showing a certain discourtesy to the Head of State’

            As if that’s a bad thing.

            They’re ‘avin sprog at Buckin’am Palace,
            By gum Prince wot ‘as potent phallus,
            Princess droppin’ roy’l sprog,
            ‘Arf Jimmy ‘Endrix ‘arf corgi dog,
            Eeee lad look wot stork drug in,
            Young oppressor minus chin,
            Long o’er taxpay’r to piss and shite,
            Yon selfish gene doth replicate.

      • N_

        @Charles – The honours system is partly – and essentially – about honouring the monarch and the monarchy.

        What “anatomy” of Britain is worth much that doesn’t point that out?

        The statement that “it is at least as vain to publicly reject the offer of an honour as it is to accept it” could only be made by a person who supports the monarchy either because it helps them line their pockets or simply because they are a coward. When the monarch tries to get prestige from a person’s “achievements”, regardless of whether those achievements are really deserving of praise it’s a good thing when they say publicly that they told the monarch and her hangers-on to shove it, when they let people know that they were asked to play the monarchy’s revolting game and they refused.

        Meanwhile Alex Salmond is a declared monarchist.

        • John2o2o

          Alex Salmond a monarchist? Well if that’s his view it is one I share.

          Judging by your post you seem to have some sort of grudge against the monarchy. Do you envy them? I’m not rich, but I don’t envy the Royal family or anyone else for having more money than me.

          I personally prefer to live in a country where we have a neutral and powerless person as Head of State, rather than an elected and power laden figure. And the Queen is neutral and powerless. Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron are elected Heads of State in their countries and they weild immense power. Are these universally popular figures?

          This does not mean that I feel the need to prostrate myself before monarchy. It does not mean that I consider myself beneath them. What it means is that I can be loyal to my state without being loyal to a partisan political figure who represents the state.

          • Herbie

            “I’m not rich, but I don’t envy the Royal family or anyone else for having more money than me.”

            Surely the question is how rich people came about their riches.

            Are you bothered about people who came to their riches through the immiseration of others.

          • SA

            It is not a question of envy but that of democracy and egalitarianism. I will let you do the research.

          • Charles Bostock

            John2o2o

            We’ve crossed swords in the past but I do agree with you on this one. And I’m glad to see that you extend your refusal to envy beyond Her Majesty. The truth is that sour envy – although the envious will of course deny it – is one of the major vectors of the political, economic and social attitudes and acts adopted by many people.

            Funnily enough, I have heard it claimed that the poorest are not the most envious, but perhaps that’s not so funny after all when you realise that the poorest apparently give the most to charity, proportional to income……

        • Charles Bostock

          N_

          You are, unfortunately, on the wrong track because it is not the monarch which tries to get prestige; that is a very twisted way of looking at things. In the real world – I know that you find it difficult to understand the real world – people get the prestige which is conferred by being honoured by the Head of State.

          Would you apply your silly remarks to honours conferred in countries which are republics? Do French Presidents, for example, try to get prestige from a person’s achievements when conferring the Légion d’Honneur?

  • Monster

    The dreadful charade and dressing-up game required to acknowledge the benevolence of the Imperial Parasite is surpassed only by the obligation to kiss the Queen’s ring, which is abhorrent to me even in these multi gender times.

  • Sharp Ears

    This article jogged my memory and the photograph on this link came to mind in which Sir Daniel is shown kneeling before P Anne. Read the article again if you want to know what had transpired in the Foreign Office and their operatives.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/02/the-appalling-sir-daniel-bethlehem/

    Where is he now? No longer at the FCO but apart from other interests, he has a place at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the FCO’s second branch. 😉
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Bethlehem

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Must say I son’t understand refusing honors from a Chief of State who one served in a salaried capacity. Sounds okay until the pay and perks ran out.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    Craig Murray,

    Having carefully reviewed ( or – is that viewed) the evidence, I regret to inform you that you have failed the right Royal test.

    Thus, you shall not be receiving a Knighthood.

    Naughty boy.

  • Garth Carthy

    @Bostock
    “Anthony Sampson, in a couple of his “Anatomy of Britain” books, points out that it is at least as vain to publicly reject the offer of an honour as it is to accept it.”

    Well, that was Antony Sampson’s opinion. I’m sure he was a decent chap but I think he suffered from the influences of a posh boarding school education bubble. I bought ‘”Anatomy of Britain” years ago and was not impressed – it was boring and I just could not see much merit in his analysis.
    I certainly don’t think it is as vain to publicly reject the offer of an honour as it is to accept it.
    I mean, being objective about this, it is surely obsequious to defer to royalty or anyone with aristocratic claims.
    Even if an Honours List is a good concept, why does the Queen or other royal representative have to perform the honour.
    One of Britain’s problems is that we still bow and scrape to royalty. This merely perpetuates the class system and an infantile belief that anyone should rule merely by birthright.
    I’m not advocating getting rid of the monarchy immediately – to me they’re just ordinary human beings – no worse and no better than anyone else in principle – but I do think the monarchy should be phased out as soon as possible.

    • JOML

      Garth, totally agree. However, for maximum effect, it would be hilarious if someone turned it down at the point of presentation – just to highlight the absurdity of ‘Royalty’ in this day and age. For example, the ‘BEM’ (British Empire Medal) was introduced in the 1990s. British Empire in the 1990s! FFS! ?

      • Charles Bostock

        On a point of fact, JOML, the British Empire Medal was created in 1922. In other words, when there was still an Empire.

        • JOML

          True, Charles, but the awarding of the BEM was reviewed in the 90s when it should have been accepted that it was a bit naff to be talking about the ‘British Empire’. Surprisingly, during a recent review of the use of the BEM in 2012, they still didn’t think to rename or decommission this award. Delusions of grandeur, me thinks – bit like building an aircraft carrier when you don’t have any planes.

          • Charles Bostock

            Well, JOML, I accept ypur apology and suggest you phrase your remarks rather more carefully in the future. We don’t want to mislead readers, do we 🙂

    • N_

      I’m not advocating getting rid of the monarchy immediately – to me they’re just ordinary human beings – no worse and no better than anyone else in principle – but I do think the monarchy should be phased out as soon as possible.

      No monarchy has fallen in any country while the monarch stays in good repute.

      The kind of “republicanism” that says “we’ve got nothing against the monarch and the royal family” is no threat to the monarchy. The Australian referendum of 1999 was a classic example, in which the common position on the republican side, yes the republican side, was “we like the queen”. Give me a break! Then look at France, Russia, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain (unfortunately only for a while), Portugal, Greece, Egypt, and other countries.

      The royal family are gangsters – same in Spain, was the same in Italy, Bulgaria, where have you.

      • N_

        The royal family are gangsters

        Those who are curious should check out the associations with Meyer Lansky, the Colony Club (between the two Gaming Acts), John Bindon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Boris Berezovsky, the Barclay brothers, and Sunny Varkey, for starters.

        Unfortunately casualties such as Barry Manakee, George Smith, and Diana Spencer won’t be writing any memoirs.

    • Charles Bostock

      Carthy

      Who else than the Queen do you think should “perform” (do you mean confer??) the honour?

      The PM – or perhaps a committee of party leaders?

      Who other, in reality, than the Head of State?

      Funnily enough, honours in all countries are conferred by the Head of State. Are all those countries wrong?

      • wonky

        What is this? Who cares? Your gaslighting doesn’t appear more clever, just because you keep repeating it.
        First things first, see? And the first thing for Britain to do in order to finally arrive in the age of enlightenment is.. guess what!
        Sapere aude, dude, you’re stuck badly.

  • M.J.

    I look foeward to part 2. But here’s a question: in retrospect, Craig, since you had already made your point about abuse of human rights very publicly, would you have accepted HR’s offer of an ambassadorship in Denmark?

    • craig Post author

      I have often wondered, MJ, and I will never know. If they had not tried to blackmail me, maybe I would have accepted. I was very tired and stressed. But as soon as they tried to blackmail me I was going to fight them to death. I still am.

  • Chemical Britain

    The majority in Scotland and in the SNP, is in favour of the monarchy.

    As far as I know, Alex Salmond is also in favour of the monarchy.

    • JOML

      Eh, “majority in Scotland”? Not in my experience, Chemical Britain, unless drinking cheap beer at closing time in a British Legion in the 1980s, although all tongue in cheek.
      Largely indifferent would be my experience, with a minority at either end of the anti and pro spectrum.
      Pity, perhaps, for the human zoo exhibits. Who would want to be in their bizarre shoes?

      • N_

        Probably a smaller percentage of people in Scotland than in England idolise the royal family. But many follow all the news about “the royals” uncritically and in conversations I’ve never heard a person say they should be got rid of before I say it myself. And in the polling booths in 2017 29% voted for the Tories, not a party known to contain many republicans. (One exception was the Tory minister Alan Clark, of Scottish descent, who admired Adolf Hitler, believed Scots to be racially superior to the English, and was favourable towards independence (source), while not having much time for the SNP, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he admired Lewis Spence, one of the SNP’s predecessors.)

        As for how the majority of SNP members feel, the party itself is pro-monarchist when it comes to writing down documents such as Scotland’s Future (2014). So in the unlikely event that there is a republican majority among its members then first, they can’t have much influence over the leadership and policy, and second, they can’t want it much either.

        • N_

          Having thought about this some more, @JOML, I concede that the view of the monarch as almost divine is less widespread in Scotland than in England. The monarch is the head of the Church of England but she is only a member of the Church of Scotland. The “King and Head” of the Church of Scotland is held to be Jesus.

          In Anglicanism

          1. The monarch is viewed as the head of Christianity. (That’s why she wears white when she meets the Pope.)

          2. She plays “Jesus Christ” each Epiphany, when she is ritually brought gold, frankincense and myrrh in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace (source)

          (She would never be able to get away with that kind of ritual in the Church of Scotland. It would be a case of “Daur ye say Mass in my lug?” And the head of the Church of Scotland can’t be brought gold because he is not a living human being.)

          3. She is prayed for according to one of the spells laid down in the Book of Common Prayer: “O Lord our heavenly Father, high and mighty, King of kings, Lord of lords, the only Ruler of princes, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth; most heartily we beseech thee with thy favour to behold our most gracious Sovereign Lady, Queen Elizabeth; and so replenish her with the grace of thy Holy Spirit.”

          I tried to check how the monarch is referred to in the Church of Scotland’s Ordinal and Service Book, but that document does not seem to be available for free online and I was unwilling to cross the organisation’s palm with silver. They seem to take the line that Jesus may indeed be Jesus but that’s no excuse not to recognise a sound financial proposition.

          To summarise: the monarchist fervour felt by many Scottish monarchists does not have the formally religious character that it does for many English monarchists.

  • mark golding

    Consider the meeting between Craig and former U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem Ambassador and Atlantic council director, John Edward Herbst. While Craig was evolving a tyranny in the US war on terror Herbst was doing his bit of US dirty diplomacy by extolling that Islam in itself is an attack on human rights. Herbst, a seducer for war, later lied about the existence of extraordinary rendition.

    Herbst is of course antithetical to Craig Murray and we can gain a prodigious insight into the many nefarious US foreign policies we witness today and will witness tomorrow. By studying this being, this entity who guides smashed states toward more effective forms of government allied to the US we can grasp how young non-military diplomatic minds are brain-washed in this transition codex that is applied to US post-conflict zones.

    Distract, deceive and destroy is the US Civilian Response Corps mantra.

    The apotheosis of torture, the loss of thousands of young minds in Iraq, the millions of families who fled Syria, the carnage in Libya and Afghanistan drives a need to sever the US/UK special relationship at a time when the US state is demanding UK subservience else isolation.

    Our duty is rebellion. The US/UK schism is real, normal and expected.

    • mark golding

      May I just expand on the aotheosis of torture by the statewhich, somewhat unsurprisingly rarely involves physical pain more being a psychologically/chemically induced psychosis by a small yet potent class of mesmerizing compounds. These drugs condition the brain to accept a certain perception enforced by words, surroundings and images; a carefully constructed son et lumière’ melancholy.

      Dr David Kelly was wise to this form of present-day state-of the- art torture.

    • Charles Bostock

      Golding

      Your use of the English language is really extraordinary. I believe you are the only poster on here who has decided to dispense with the dictionary entirely. Examples :

      “Craig was evolving a tyranny”
      “”by extolling that Islam in itself is an attack on human rights”
      ” we can gain a prodigious insight into”
      ” are brain-washed in this transition codex”
      “the apotheosis of torture….drives a need..”

      I shan’t give any examples from your follow-up post, I have no wish to self-harm 🙂

      • mark golding

        Indeed N_ I was unaware of that article albeit Trump,Turkey, US and other Eastern European members may help NATO implode and disintegrate into it’s own footprint.

  • BrianFujisan

    Very Good show. Alex has a style befitting a real interviewer.. Looking forward to part 2.

    The bit about turning down honors from the Queen, reminded me of a great quote from Alex – to Sky’s Dermot Murnaghan –

    ” Dermot, ‘Rocks would melt with the sun before I’d ever set foot in the House of Lords’

    I searched in Vain for the Video clip.

    • Sharp Ears

      Sky are useless on their video archive Brian.

      There are several quotes:

      The Scotsman!
      ‘ When asked about the prospect in 2014 after resigning as SNP leader, Mr Salmond told Sky News: “The rocks would melt with the sun before I’d ever set foot in the House of Lords.”

      Mr Salmond previously used the phrase, which appears in Robert Burns’ song A Red, Red Rose, to illustrate his opposition to tuition fees for Scottish students.

      His successor as First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, tweeted in response to the comment in 2014: “This is what a principled politician sounds like, Westminister.”’
      https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/alex-salmond-should-join-the-house-of-lords-1-4508717

      Was that Nicola’s attempt at a joke? – Westminister being a take off of Yes Minister?

  • fwl

    Interesting interview – I am not surprised by that.

    What I would like to hear is how you, CM, saw your role in the FO prior to that moment when you fell out with your employers.

    You had started off there and indeed continued there as a republican Scottish nationalist for 20 years at home in the FO in a very successful career. How did you feel that you fitted in there?

    I know that sounds critical, but and maybe it is but I am just wondering if whether when you had started out you felt it was a pluralistic intellectual sort of place in which a wide range of people were accepted and all had a place.

    Maybe I have misunderstood that – I don’t know, but I am at least assuming that in some way you were ok with your place there and with the organisation in general and if so what did you feel was the bottom line common denominator that everyone there adhered to.

    In other words if it was ok to be a republican or left wing or a Scottish nationalist what was it that was the common thread as you saw it before the falling out – before the dossier interview moment which you describe?

    I suspect that maybe you now think that the common thread was everything is sort of ok as long as you don’t put it in writing / you play the game and don’t let the side down, but my question is what did you feel the common FO denominator was before you came to this view i.e. when it was all going swimmingly? What was the side?

  • Baron

    Both enjoyable and informative, Mr. Murray, (Baron had no idea you were born in East Anglia), also comforting, not all is lost if people like you are around.

  • Hatuey

    Great to see Alex back in the frame and looking as sleek as ever. Well done to both of you. Two good eggs.

  • John2o2o

    An enjoyable interview. My mother tells me that my late (Scottish) grandfather was not overly fond of Mr Salmond, but I like what I have seen of him on RT. Always a respectful interviewer.

  • giyane

    I didn’t get where I am today by refusing to serve posh ladies in the millinery department on the grounds of their politics.

  • Mochyn69

    Just happened to switch channel to RT, purely by chance, as the programme was about to start.

    Rarely do but was very glad I did and very impressed with your story, Craig. Also glad that AS still has this platform. I hope he and you are inputting to the indy process, behind the scenes if necessary.

    Also glad to say that Wales’ first AUOB rally will take place in Caerdydd/Cardiff tomorrow.

    Dewch yn llu!

    https://www.yes.cymru/auob

  • Vaughan M

    Was watching RT via satellite down here in New Zealand and caught Part 1 of your interview yesterday. Thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait for Part 2! Seriously, no spoilers please. . .

    Appreciate all your work, an unshakeable force for good on the right side of history – thank you so much.

  • Rich

    The gong system is all about controlling folks.

    Look at the number of Fleet Street editors who receive a gong for not telling the truth.

  • Sharp Ears

    Something (of interest) for the weekend. Afshin Rattansi on Going Underground #744

    ‘On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel who discusses why he is joining the race to pull the debate to the left, the nature of his contenders such as Joe Biden, Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders, US regime change attempts in Venezuela and escalating tension with Iran, Julian Assange’s imprisonment in the UK and the US’ extradition request. Next we speak to Chris Williamson MP, in his first international interview since being suspended by the UK’s Labour Party. He discusses NHS privatisation by stealth with the new GP contracts due to be signed next week, Israeli oppression of Palestinians, Trump’s escalation against Iran and Julian Assange’s on-going imprisonment in Belmarsh Prison.’

    All bases are covered by this programme, the best on the telly.

    https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/459049-mike-gravel-chris-williamson/

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