There has been an unprecedented rush of people canceling their subscriptions to this blog the last five days. Not one person has given any reason, and where there have been messages, they have been of this unfriendly but uninformative nature. This is a real example:
I wish to cancel my payments of £2 per month with immediate effect. Please ensure this happens. Thank you.
Of course, all the people canceling had previously provided invaluable support, and I am grateful to each of them. There is always a daily churn of cancellation and subscription. But cancellations are running at about thirty times their normal level, starting very suddenly, and I just cannot think what has caused it. There has been no obvious controversy and I have not expressed any views I had not expressed before.
The obvious concern is that some information is circulating about me and being given credence by people who have supported me, in a manner invisible to me, and I have no way of knowing if it may be untrue or unfair.
If anybody has any ideas on what is happening, I should be grateful to know.
Could be people are struggling with providing for themselves at the moment; could also be a hacker. Is there any way you can check this?
Will continue subscription
Could this be anything to do with people cancelling PayPal in protest at its censorship? That’s quite a thing at the moment. In other news: I sent your URL to an old friend the other day and she’s just written to thank me, so it can’t be universal affront.
Will continue subscription.
Hi Craig
Could it be because you appear to be posting less often than you used to?
Normally people that pay money have a set view in their own head of what they are getting? A thought to consider anyway along with monarchy, cost of living, and PayPal issues.
Given the week it occurred how could these cancelling subscribers be anything other than furious monarchists? Yours were among the only articles in the public sphere last week not praising the Queen, Charles and the Queue and they obviously enraged a few.
I was certain all the grieving was fake and performative, being done to fit in, comply with establishment mandated thinking and appear uber-British. The fact it evidently wasn’t with these former subscribers of yours I find hilarious. They’ll all probably resubscribe at some point for the very same reasons they subscribed in the first place.
It seems the only way to subscribe to this blog is via PayPal which is currently out of favour because of its censorship of free-speech organisations. I’m surprised they haven’t got round to cutting off this site.
My guess is a combination of belt tightening by people, in the face of rising non-discretionary costs, and the PayPal thing. The only reason I haven’t cancelled my PayPal account over their demonetising of the FSU (and other voices that don’t align with “approved” narratives) is because I currently use it to support you. Unfortunately, one obvious alternative – Patreon – also has a track record of closing the accounts of ‘undesirables’ without warning or appeal. I’ll be in touch by email about setting up a monthly standing order direct to your account.
Account details to set up a standing order are given under most articles. It is much the most efficient way (no charges), but a bit more work for people.
You will not become wealthy on my monthly donation and I do not understand all the ramifications of every issue you highlight on your blog but it is sufficient for me to continue supporting it. Through your blog I have learned that government administrations and main stream media are not to be trusted as to the narratives they put out and the censorship of alternate viewpoints (covid injections, the Skripal affair and the attempted Salmond frame-up, etc.). Being English, I have no dog in the fight for Scottish Independence believing it to be a matter for the Scottish people alone. I believe the Scottish people, if they so choose, will not make the catastrophe the Brexiteers have made for the rest of the UK in the event Scotland votes to leave the Union. Please try your utmost to continue posting your thoughts and while I’m not a prolific contributor myself, I do find the comments from those who do enlightening.
Why don’t you try e-mailing these people to see what the problem is, that way you’ll know what’s happening. No point in trying to second guess what’s happening.
The example you give is curious: they ask *you* to cancel their subscription, whereas they could simply cancel it themselves. This suggests that these are fake cancellation-requests, generated by hacking your subscription list – v.cheap to do, and v.effective. Might be worth checking out say a ten percent sample of the cancellation requests.
Craig – have you tried writing to the individuals, to check whether they’re really doing this?
It’s a ruse. People are responsible for their own transactions. If you attempted to cancel someone’s direct debit you would need their bank details. So what these people are suggesting would be illegal. I’m sure your bank manager will tell you exactly the same thing.
It’s not that easy actually.
I had maybe accounts in 4 different banks, none of them gave me any control of subscriptions and direct debits.
Usually the account’s owner cannot see or cancel them at all and they will keep happening as long as the company that was once paid and approved wants to (the initial payment happens mostly by putting your credit card number, expiration date and the 3 digits on the back that are used as something similar to pin number, but some sites for a reason unknown to me like Amazon, don’t even need the 3 digits at all).
So the only way to cancel these subscriptions or direct debits is to cancel the card that was used for the initial payment.
The cost of living crisis. The cold weather has arrived and people’s disposable income is rapidly shrinking. THis is the most likely cause.
Your support of (a) men entering female safe spaces as hiis human right and (b) it being a woman’s enlightened duty to surrender to men private & safe spaces. If women and girls don’t have safe public spaces they have to stay home. You represent the unconscious Taliban. You have never lived as a woman and never can. No man can, being men. No man lives with women’s fears. I suspect most subscribers will be male. You do, unconsciously, project an entitled male persona, which may jar with women. Like most emtitled men, you will be unaware of this & women see it so often. Yours is the commonplace male response, they simply sigh and move on being too polite to point it out.
Your dismissal of ERII/CharlesIII flimflammery. Completely with you on that one.
Your nuanced views on Putin pings over most heids, conditioned to BBC’s black-and-white dogma and Britpress dog whistling, which can basically be distilled down to, ‘If yer no wi’ us, ye’re agin us’, mentality.
Deep state hacking another possibility.
If it is any comfort, at least your enemies are no laughing at ye anymore. I will always appreciate what you have done and what you continue to do. You are brave and very human and unfailingly polite. Rare qualities.
Bibbit, I totally agree with you on all the points you have made, particularly the ones about the “gender wars” and the monarchy. No matter how people try to identify, they can never change sex and no man knows what it is like to “live as a woman”.
The sheer propaganda and blanket reporting on the funeral and the lead up to the day was insane. To put things into perspective, around 32 million in the UK watched the funeral on TV, less than for Diana’s funeral and considerably less than the 1966 World Cup final. Only 3.4 million out of 26 million Australians watched it. The supposed Worldwide viewing figures of around 4 billion have IMHO been grossly overestimated, probably in an attempt to raise the late Queen to deity level.
All these reports are nothing more than propaganda to create an illusion that people actually give a shit about monarchy and people saying random numbers without any evidence.
That reminds of some dumb journalists who blindly repeated the ridiculous estimates made by Drama Alert on YouTube that streamers on YouTube and Twitch made over 200 million dollars covering the Depp vs Heard trials.
Did he or these retarded journos show any evidence of to back up their claims?
NO
Sorry to hear it.
Do tweet to say whether you have been hacked. I am willing to bet that you have.
We, who are voicing our worries about ‘the authorities’, are in the process of being cancelled by them.
The lowering of the coffin with the live voice-raiser strapped into it comfortably, being slowly murdered, is an imperceptible process. Disappearing a revolutionary, or potential revolutionary, from memory is a very subtle art, performed gently.
This may be the subject of an exposé sometime soon, hopefully.
Thank you
Gulam
PS
My activist website or newsletter isn’t up yet.
Perhaps tightening of belts. Perhaps some did not like your comments about diplomacy to end conflict in Ukraine or about the monarchy. Your blog is excellent and thought provoking although I don’t always completely agree! But that is life and we don’t have to agree with absolutely everything others say. You always provide interesting and well informed content and that is of enormous value. Hope the trend does not continue and that you get new subscribers.
*This* ^^^ Furious monarchists
I have friends sharing that meme video of the queen looking at cows entering an arena, mouthing the word “cows”, with tear emojis at the end of their post. That nice lady was the figurehead for a genocidal nation. You can argue the point on her autonomy to behave differently, but that is a fact.
Most people don’t want to think about that, as it would involve a radical change in their world view concerning the role and status of Britain in the world.
Mine was a Paypal account closure, I finally had enough of seeing them withdraw service from people and organisations who’s viewpoints or actions they dislike.
I’ll set up a bank transfer in a day or two to replace Paypal.
I would like to begin by thanking you for your able and courageous defence of Julian.
I now forget the piece that finally triggered the withdrawal of my support but frustration at your failure to seriously question the big narratives being pounded into us daily by those you know to be liars and deceivers.
Should you wish an insight into one of the big lies then I recommend you read –
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The author, yes one of those Kennedys, is a lawyer at the top of his field who has successfully sued large pharmaceutical corporations for billions.
David – you’ll find this interesting/illuminating.
https://renz-law.com/wp-content/uploads/Senator-Johnson-Final.pdf
Cancelled? Not I .
I stand with Craig Murray.
Even if I tend to be subjected to moderation?
I state my point.
I don’t expect to agree on many things or anyone to agree with me,
But I will state my point and have the argument when necessary.
It’s your site you must do what you think is best.
There are plenty of other spaces for other issues.
You can’t be all things to all folks.
My monthly sub will continue until there is nothing left.
I will also happily top with a pony for the great legal battles you are unnecessarily involved in.
I will plan to do so at the end of the month to help towards this sudden drop.
Standing Order direct to bank is easiest and dare I say most transparent.
I recall you had a spate of cancellations some time ago?
Is it about building dependence and then trying to pull the rug?
Some reasons why that could be happening now:
Is it about the success of the ECHR appeal process?
Or the CIA on trial about Assange? Roger Waters has had to cancel some tours in Poland and other such rabid natzo gimp countries?
Maybe the Indy case is cutting through?
Maybe some idiots who were supporting were too dumb to have noticed your snubbing not just the racist gongs of the Empire but the whole crass escapade of domination and torture through the fake WMD WOT?
Some may be getting social media direct messaging as they did in BrexShit and against Corbyn?
I don’t do social media so don’t know if that is happening to you.
My feeling is that it is more to do with the first and perhaps not a coincidence that you mentioned something about sharing the resources you had amongst the needs of keeping the site operational.
Just a guess but it does seem a odd coincidence.
I have noticed on various other Indy sites a sudden drop of troll posts in the last few days I don’t know whether they too have seen cancelled subs. I’ll see if anything is mentioned.
Onivar!
——— —————————
Ps
Anyway I too am suffering a cash flow crunch. I’ll be cancelling my Direct Debit to the energy suppliers I have been with for 25 years – though they probably have changed hands many times – on the 1st October, in solidarity with the majority of the ordinary folks who really can’t afford the rises and the effort to reduce the population to penury within the next few months – the collapse of the massive leveraged positions of the financial service big shitters which rest on the cheap energy flows is about to get a heart attack. It’s been coming for years and only artificially sustained through QE asset pumping. Now the black swan is a whole flock!
Dear Craig, I am sorry you are losing subscribers. I am not one but I did give a significant donation to your prison fund last year, which I hope you received. I visit your site intermittently, and probably end up reading most of your posts. While I do not agree with everything your write I do value your insight, courage and balanced and rational opinions. Perhaps it is the latter which is the problem. We are living in emotional times and if I still lived downwind from Faslane, as the majority of Scots do, I would be more worried as to whether the lady in charge in Edinburgh can keep the one in London under control than the niceties of political and press freedom and accuracy in the UK.
You have probably lost the Russiaphiles you attracted from your Skirpal posts to the Telegram sites they now have to support to find out what is really going on over there. Nothing personal, but they are more interested in actual news than opinion right now. Also, they would not be too impressed with your recent post. How can you write an article called ‘Diplomacy is always an Option’ without mentioning the Minsk Agreements? These were the diplomatic solution; which Russia, China and theoretically Germany and France tried to implement for 8 years until Kiev finally declared they had no intention of implementing, once they felt militarily strong enough to take back the Donbass.
Craig,
A friend recently shared this with me:-
African American man refused handshake by King Charles III – YouTube
So, I guess that your truth telling about the monarchy must have upset a few people.
This looks very suspicious to me. It’s up to your subscribers, not you, to take action if they want to cancel/amend/increase/decrease their subscription. My guess is that someone has hacked your subscriber list (are they all paypal or all Standing Order?) I’d suggest e-mailing all of them, asking them to confirm, and if true, explain why. Or at least a sample to begin with.
I first encountered Caitlin Johnstone through her brilliant, and very thorough, work on Assange (see the link from my user name). My views on the Ukraine propaganda barrage are mostly in line with Caitlin’s, and I recommend her to your readers.
I value your blog because you’re honest, and you tell the truth, even if you suffer for doing so. You make mistakes sometimes, but so what? We all make mistakes.
And yes, I’m beginning to feel the impact of the increased cost of living, which is only going to get worse – much, much worse. My first action, before I cut back on any subscriptions, will be to finally start my State Pension, which I decided to defer several years ago (I will get a larger State Pension in return for deferring it).
Keep up the good work.
I appreciate all the nuances this author provides [ free to me ]. Also his writing stimulates thinking, his use of language treats the reader as intelligent. How he puts up with snide comments, insults, trolls I know not.
I have to say diplomacy [ the article could have annoyed some of the ex-subscribers ] is the way to go. The longer the war continues the greater will be the civilian casualities and deaths by friendly fire.
I pay by credit card, automatic and on a monthly basis. The September payment left OK, but I will keep an eye out next month to check. I would not cancel my payment just because I don’t agree with some of the opinions voiced by Craig.
I understand that we can’t all agree on everything all of the time. I just like to support those who are a thorn in the side of the establishment and their toadies.
I am not aware of any online messages urging cancellations.
It would help to find out the situation of others who rely on donations to keep going. Contact them. If it’s a similar picture then I would say it’s because finances are tight.
Even the Guardian holds out it’s hand for donations, perhaps they are suffering the same. Stop smirking you lot…_
With the increasing cost of energy and food plus possible cost of mortgage with increased interest most people will be cutting any possible expenditure. This will include people in work worried that due to a recession could lose their employment. I have done this and am now cutting back on heating; I rely on heating oil and so no help for me from the government.
More ritual defamation?
To me it is completely clear and obvious that this blog has deteriorated tremendously in quality and quantity in the past year, so I am not at all surprised that people would stop supporting it monetarily, if for no other reason. The amount of entries, the topics being discussed, the positions taken, all have become to me more and more disappointing and I assume many others feel the same way I do. I am actually surprised by your surprise that this is happening.
What topics should he be discussing and what are the correct positions to take?
I couldn’t disagree more. Might not always agree with Craig, but his writing has been great over the last year.
Nonsense
What do you view to be the “completely clear and obvious that this blog has deteriorated tremendously in quality and quantity in the past year,” which certainly isn’t “clear and obvious” to me. You say that regarding quality, the problem is “the topics being discussed, the positions taken,” but would you please be specific, and state which “topics” and which “positions,” because I don’t see any change at all regarding either.
“There has been no obvious controversy”
For two weeks our media and politicians made it illegitimate to question royalty. You clearly offended the sensibilities of a certain type.
I have a simple explanation for the loss of my contribution. I forgot that I had put a 2 year direct debit, which automatically terminated the donation without my knowledge. Shall sort it out tomorrow, sorry.
My auld subscription shall happily continue. I suppose everyone has their red lines, but I rather like seeing the odd view I disagree with! I love the long-form and big-picture analysis, especially in relation to geographies I barely know. I also enjoy the quality of the prose, which I think has improved through years of practice.
Hope you’re well Craig.
Re dropping subscriptions; perhaps it is the the effect of the sanctions on peoples’ pockets. We’ve cut back on dog walkers, car cleaners, window cleaners, Netflix, health insurance, reduced car insurance to third party and cancelled pizza deliveries.
I don’t want any jokes about the domino effect.
I cancelled a direct debit about a fortnight ago because I was reassessing my priorities in the light of the financial situation and the other causes, charitable and otherwise, that I support. I did however then make a point of making a one-off donation double the amount of my previous monthly donation and I will from time to time as circumstances allow. I have no objection to anything that Craig has written; as usual I am generally in agreement with him but not always.
Can not afford to subscribe but will still follow your incisive and enlightening views even when I do not always agree with your view or stance.
It’s probably because you expressed opinions about the war in Ukraine that are at odds with NATO (i.e. US) propaganda.
As Glenn Greenwald wrote in April:
This war has ushered in a level, and magnitude, and intensity of a censorship regime unprecedented in the West.
The censorship has been enforced by Google (including youtube comments), Facebook, etc and by Paypal, which has cut off income for sites that consistently present news or comment contrary to NATO propaganda.
When people see only one set of “facts” in the media they learned to trust, they believe it. You have challenged their deeply-held beliefs. That makes them dislike you. It’s frightening that the ceaseless torrent of NATO propaganda has been so effective.
I’m retired on a rather meagre pension and can’t commit to a recurring contribution but I’ll transfer a one-off to your bank account.