I think it is very important that I provide irrefutable proof of the systematic lies behind the boycott campaign with which BECTU, supported by the MSM, destroyed Doune the Rabbit Hole.
The most devastating of these lies was the repeated, and entirely false, claim that the Festival was not just unable to meet its bills in 2022 due to carried debt from two late Covid cancellations in 2020 and 2021, but had not paid artists and suppliers over many festivals.
This is from BECTU’s statement of 23 May, which called for a customer, supplier and artist boycott:
When the organisers contacted our branch in December 2022 they claimed that no one was owed any money from any of the festivals previous to 2022. We already knew that this was not true. When it was pointed out to them that at least one company was owed thousands of pounds from Festival and Beverage (the company now back running this year’s festival) the response was “oh yes – except for them there is no-one else”…. We have also found other companies that are owed from multiple previous festivals.
The total costs of the 2019 festival were approximately £812,000. Of these £806,000 were paid. One single company was indeed owed £6,000 (the last instalment on a £21,000 bill) due to a simple error, compounded by subsequent covid dislocation.
2020 and 2021 were the covid cancellations. We have no idea who are the companies BECTU claim to have found who are owed money from 2019 or earlier. We have had nobody – no artist, no crew, no supplier – contact us with an outstanding invoice from 2019 or before.
Crucially, I have spoken to the liquidator of DTRH Ltd. In seven months of operation, not one person or company has come to the liquidator with any claim arising from the 2019 festival or before.
Yet BECTU say plainly: “We have also found other companies that are owed from multiple previous festivals”.
Who are they? So who are these companies? We don’t know.
We have repeatedly asked BECTU, from December 2022 onwards. I asked them in person at a face to face meeting at their Scottish branch office in March 2023.
BECTU have never given us the name of a single one of the companies they have repeatedly claimed we owe money from 2019 and earlier, even though we have repeatedly asked.
In June, when it became clear this claim was destroying ticket sales, we asked BECTU repeatedly in writing.
BECTU finally told us that they could not tell us who was owed money from before 2019, because that information is confidential. Yes, really, confidential from the people trying to make any payment due.
So to sum up. The Festival was crashed by BECTU chiefly on a claim that people were owed money from the 2019 festival and earlier, but none of the nameless companies they claim are owed that money has ever contacted us or contacted the liquidator.
Furthermore BECTU said they know who these companies are, but refuse to tell us – nor did they assist any such company to contact us.
Plainly BECTU had no interest whatsoever in securing payment for any such companies, but rather were using them as leverage to crash the festival – which means they would never be paid.
The only other explanation, which seems to be the most likely, is that these companies do not exist, that BECTU had no contact with any companies owed money from previous festivals as nobody is owed money.
The whole story is a malicious falsehood concocted to destroy the festival.
Can you make any other sense of why no requests for payment were ever made for this alleged pre 2022 debt?
Other BECTU falsehoods in their statement calling for the festival to be boycotted, concerned broadly health and safety issues.
This one was another major BECTU lie:
There was only one water outlet for much of the build due to the supply being tapped from a Scottish Water outlet without the company’s knowledge or permission.
This is completely, utterly untrue.
This is a picture of the water supply plant for the festival. It was bought by the Cardross Estate with the festival paying for installation and connection. It was installed on the advice of Scottish Water and it was tested and approved by Scottish Water.
Scottish Water tested the quality several times, with the last check just before the 2022 festival. In fact this caused a major problem, as owing to a delay in Scottish Water’s bio-culture laboratory, clearance did not come through as expected, and gate opening was held back by three hours.
There are no Scottish Water outlets on the estate: Scottish Water’s mains piping ends at the gate. We have never tapped in to any Scottish Water outlet.
BECTU at no stage ever asked us about the water supply. They published this utter nonsense without any attempt to discuss with us first. Again, that is absolute proof the intention was to destroy the festival, not to solve another non-existent problem.
Their entire statement is similarly inaccurate. It makes wild claims, including that food was “inedible”. I presume this refers to crew catering.
Catering was inedible and people refused to eat it.
Well, I was on site for four weeks and I ate exactly the same food as everybody else, and I am still here. Approximately 8,000 crew meals were produced from a field kitchen over this period.
Other claims include that somebody saw heavy plant being driven in a public area. But apparently said nothing at the time, and the complaint is first brought up 10 months later.
The festival happened in July 2022. BECTU first published this claim in May 2023, again without asking us first.
One of the SLEN committee was on site with a headline band (who have still not been paid) and saw a number of H&S concerns including heavy plant moving across public areas with no escort while the festival was open.
All heavy plant was driven by expert professionals who were paid £350 per day by the festival. None would have risked their career doing anything unsafe. Plant movements were accompanied by banksmen.
The only plant movement in public areas we are aware of during the festival was to set down stands of bottled water, which had been supplied free by Scottish Water due to the heatwave. This was done safely using banksmen and cordons established by volunteers.
Here is another wild claim from BECTU in their statement, this time on ticket sales by March:
We believe that those 2000 sales will have brought in at least £400,000.
The most expensive ticket sold had been £180 for an adult weekend ticket. A full third of sales were children’s weekend tickets at £10. There were also adult day tickets at £60 or £80. Do the sums yourself on 2,000 tickets.
The claim of £400,000 was not just a lie, it was a very malicious lie which two minutes’ due diligence would have negated.
BECTU’s claim of revenue was fantastically wrong. It was designed to play in to their constant sub-narrative that large sums of money were available but being misappropriated.
I could go on for some time. BECTU, on the basis of this onslaught of malicious fabrication, called for a total boycott of the festival and were enthusiastically echoed in both mainstream and social media, by the entire Establishment.
The festival in 2022 made a large loss because its attempt to make up massive covid cancellation debts from 2020 and 2021 failed. This meant some artists, crew and suppliers are owed money from 2022, even though approximately £1.3 million WAS paid out.
We are deeply sorry for the debt.
We were determined to pay off the debt. We wished to make the festival a success again and work like crazy over these next three years to get all those owed, paid up in full.
Payment had sometimes been late in the past, but before Covid everybody who ever worked at the festival had been paid, (bar a single mistake). If the festival had not been destroyed by the most cynical and vicious campaign of lies, I believe there was a real prospect everybody would get paid off over time.
Now nobody will be paid and this year’s ticket holders have lost out. Congratulations to BECTU on this achievement. When they called for a boycott by artists, suppliers and public, there is no doubt this was the intended consequence.
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Paul McManus – well he’s come along way from the stage hand I knew back in the late 1980s – Militant if I remember rightly and a constant agitator – no interest in the Arts sector.
The same wankers who smeared Salmond, Assange etc etc are the same wankers smearing you, Doune et al. It is very noticeable.
Total neocon shit. By those who have destroyed American hegemony, world peace, you name it.
Sue the fuckers.
That’s horrendous. You must, surely, have a claim against BECTU and the other organisations involved in these smears.
They can’t get away with nasty, malicious falsehoods.
So many lives destroyed by lockdowns during Covid19. So much money transferred from ordinary people to pockets of super rich.
In your case, of course, there is also an orchestrated campaign of smears and falsehoods. The clouds over western democracies from authoritarian vested interests of elite are gathering, and standing against the incoming tide of darkness is incredibly courageous. Romans believed that courage is a foundational virtue without which, no over virtues can flourish in a person. You are one of the few truly courageous people I know. And being Polish, with my family history, I knew of and knew personally quite a selection of people who put principles above their lives, freedom and livelihoods.
Is there any possibility of a defamation claim for losses suffered by the business?
There is a fascinating legal paradox here. If you run a campaign of malicious falsehood to bankrupt a business and succeed, the business cannot then sue you because it is bankrupted.
No, but the administrator possibly could on behalf of the creditors?
Alex,
They could in theory, but in practice it is extremely unlikely that an administrator would want the hassle. Annoyingly, because the administrator can do this in theory, the shareholders cannot do it for personal loss.
But you could buy the right to sue from the administrator, or agree to split any proceeds, probably for a token amount. I have a friend who has done something similar.
Why not work with Administrator to crowdfund?
Is this Scottish law or UK?
Do you have a link to this?
I ask because I am in a similar situation.
It is what out lawyers have told us, I am sorry I don’t know if England is the same.
Yes, but you could sue on your own behalf, as you have clearly been libelled. You mentioned in a comment on your last post that sueing them would require funds (you must be fed up with having to conduct so many fundraisers, though I for one am perfectly happy to go on contributing as necessary), which got me thinking that the best approach might be to hire lawyers on a no-win, no fee basis. Make it clear that you would use the damages to help repay at least some of the debts. Since their case is so hopeless, they will surely be advised to settle out of court, and you and your lawyers will then need to play very hard in the ensuing negotiations?
Rather odd, when you come to think of it, that running a campaign of malicious falsehood to bankrupt a business should not be a criminal offence. Surely it’s not the kind of behaviour any decent and well-regulated society would wish to tolerate. (And of course it must tend to damage the economy).
Doubly odd in a country where telling obvious truths about disease, climate, the justice system, or geopolitics can get you thrown out of forums and employment, or even fined and locked up.
Craig wrote:
– “This is a picture of the water supply plant for the festival. It was bought by the Cardross Estate with the festival paying for installation and connection. It was installed on the advice of Scottish Water and it was tested and approved by Scottish Water. […] …owing to a delay in Scottish Water’s bio-culture laboratory, clearance did not come through as expected, and gate opening was held back by three hours.”
I can confirm this. Craig showed me that water treatment unit in 2022, and told me of Scottish Water’s delay; three days, if I remember correctly.
– “There are no Scottish Water outlets on the estate: Scottish Water’s mains piping ends at the gate. We have never tapped in to any Scottish Water outlet.”
I can confirm this too. I know exactly where that water treatment unit is; it is connected where the Cardross Estate greenhouse/garden tap is, and it is where all the festival’s water comes from, and always has; I have helped to install (and remove) the festival’s piping in previous years. The treatment unit is on private land, in the middle of the estate, nowhere near the public road where Scottish Water’s infrastructure will be.
Bectu claimed:
– “Catering was inedible and people refused to eat it.”
Actually, I lived on festival food for several days, and saw hundreds of other people eating it. Sometimes it was late or we had to wait while more was cooked, which was inconvenient, and it wasn’t always the nicest catering the festival has had, but it was perfectly acceptable.
Craig wrote:
– “All heavy plant was driven by expert professionals who were paid £350 per day by the festival. None would have risked their career doing anything unsafe. Plant movements were accompanied by banksmen.”
I don’t know how much anyone was paid, but I can confirm the rest. Waiting for the appropriate staff delayed certain jobs.
Flakes by Frank Zappa; YouTube, 6 min 41 sec:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INIiz8F2QJw
– “They’re protected by unions, so don’t let it upset you”
Craig, please let me know when you’re next down in London; I’d like to meet up for a chat.
definitely
Thanks Craig. Please phone in advance so I can plan ahead.
Maybe someone could investigate whether the union actually has concern for its members or on balance, like so many other arts organisations at the moment, only contributes to the current across-the-board neoliberal bastardisation of everything in the arts (often in the name of things like inclusion or building a ‘safe’ and ‘respectful’ world, when the reality is probably closer in practice to adding such terms to the Orwellian credo: respect is contempt, creativity is dumbing down, etc…). But we’d need journalists for that.
Maybe this lot are the run-off (polite description) from the EEPTU….
This is utterly appalling. No doubt orchestrated by the Establishment to stop any Scottish independence influence on such a large number of people. But also to smear Craig. Time to rise up to get rid of all this B/S.
What an appalling saga. I would very much like to know who exactly at BECTU decided to engage in a campaign to destroy DTRH and of course damage you in the process. I would also very much like to know their connections to your well known enemies in the Scottish establishment who incidentally had no problem in finding large funds for certain arts organisations during covid, one of which had overt connections to the SNP. I find it inconceivable that this wasn’t deliberately orchestrated because of your involvement, such is the malice involved and the clearly blatant lies. All of your explanations have been transparent, clear and evidenced – a total contrast to their unsupported and false claims. Of course it may be possible that other promoters who have the ear of the SNP have seen an opportunity to destroy competition as well as satisfying the SNP hierarchy who make no secret of their contempt for you. Of course they have, when you threaten their cosy taxpayer funded lifestyles and expose their chicanery.
It is a colossal indictment of the small Scottish social and cultural scene which is apparently politically entwined with the politicians who grant them favours. DTRH was a popular, independent and successful (until covid) festival which could have survived and paid its debtors. The miserable puritans and carpetbaggers in the Scottish establishment clearly had other ideas. See how easily lies are spread across the entire media when you have the ears of the right people in powerful positions. Scots people are ill-served by this bunch of charlatans and freeloaders who profit at our expense.
BECTU should be made to answer for this deliberate sabotage, and the consequences which are that people owed money will never now be paid, but of course who is going to take it up, when they are so clearly part of the corrupt institutions which lord it over us.
Of course their campaign has done two things. Aside from killing the festival’s reputation it has ensured that your reputation is damaged too. This means that any time you speak out in anything the media can quote BECTUs lies as truth and you will be taken much less seriously.
As there is no benefit to BECTU from this action (because the accusations are untrue) there would have to be some other motivation to actively seek to damage a festival that provides employment to its members and prevent it from being able to pay them. I never cease to be amazed at the reach and power available to those who abuse power and democracy.
Dirty lowlife bastards.
Just the sort of thing Private Eye should be all over, if they stand for anything at all anymore.
[email protected]
There’s a lot going on these days, perhaps they should be given the benefit of the doubt. They might be unaware. Let’s make sure that’s not the case, eh?
Private Eye is full on Neo Con these days, unlikely to want to help Craig.
Maybe Private Eye could persuade Messrs. Sue, Grabbitt & Runne to take up Craig’s case on a “pro bono” basis!
They’re still unaware of the Labour AS ‘crisis’ scam, the People’s Vote psyop, Paul Mason and Integrity Initiative, even the antics of their molester columnist Nick Cohen. Give em time!
@ U Watt
Have a look at, ” thegrayzone.com ” article by Kit Klarenberg, June 8th, 2023
British media protected pro-war serial sex pest Nick Cohen for decades….
From what I’ve read on this blog, I’m ashamed to say it but I’m a retired member of Prospect, formerly known as I.P.M.S. (Institution of Professionals,Managers & Specialists) and before that, I.P.C.S. (Institution of Professional Civil Servants). I remember when the name was changed to Prospect, not long before I retired from my not very distinguished career at Ordnance Survey. They changed the name to Prospect around the turn of the century when it was trendy to have supposedly catchy, one-word names (remember when the Post Office decided to call itself “Consignia”). I remember when it Swallowed up BECTU, one of its many non civil-service acquisitions and looking at its very slick website, it’s become very corporate, far from the purely civil service trade union it used to be. I still pay the retired member’s subscription by direct debit, perhaps I should instead re-direct that money and add it to the small monthly remittance that I send to His (former?) Excellency.
You are retired but still pay a union fee?
That’s a new one to me!
Kept up the subscriptions (much less than those paid by working members) because the union can still represent you in case there are problems with pension, work-related illnesses etc. Sort-of cheap legal insurance, I suppose. Trades unions do a lot more than organise industrial action and are undoubtedly a force for good. However, the antics of the BECTU arm of Prospect with relation to Craig’s “little difficulty” has a very heavy-handed, almost corporate nature and is not the sort of behaviour I would expect of a trade union.
You upset a lot of people whenever you draw attention to the long Troughing game. A great many are relying on it continuing just as it has been, growing fat from the Westminster teet while being worshipped at home as rebel freedom fighters. Anybody of significance who attempts to wake the public to what has been going on will be dealt with mercilessly. Their persecution in your case has of course been enthusiastically abetted by their supposed Unionist enemies. That’s because you genuinely support independence and oppose neoliberalism and war.
Having said that, BECTU’s case is so transparently confected, stupid and malicious it can surely be defeated even in a Scottish court?
Craig many of those urging legal action simply don’t understand that any such action would be time-consuming, energy-sapping, and hugely expensive, and would probably end up fruitless.
But there is something quick and easy that you can do – a subject request under the Data Protection Act. BECTU have a legal obligation to release to you any information they hold on you – including emails and other internal communications – that names you or from which you could be identified. There are exclusions but none that would apply to your case. I suggest that you specify in your request that you are asking for the information with a view to taking legal action. That will make their lawyers start to squirm should they try to screw you around.
And bear in mind that all such organisations – especially unions – are riven with petty rivalries and internecine hatred. You might find that unknown allies are willing to take your side for no other reason than to discomfit their “enemies”.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again. You committed the unpardonable sin of making people happy, and the devils will NOT tolerate this.
They will tell any lie, fabricate any story, and invent any and all slanders possible in order to grind you to dust to prevent people in Scotland from ever being truly happy (en masse).
…Any idea what happened to the (quite long) response I posted here at about 1:00 am this morning? It stayed up for about 10 minutes then was disappeared?
Matt,
That’s very strange. I seem to remember seeing it, but it’s not in the dashboard, not in approved, pending, spam or bin. Not was it accidentally put under another post (sometimes happens).
Anyone intrigued or whose suspicion was raised by the strange disappearance of Matt Quinn’s comment should read the comment and reply starting here:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/06/paradise-stolen/comment-page-2/#comment-1040801
…glenn_nl’s link to a copy of Matt Quinn’s missing comment, and Lapsed Agnostic’s reply, which refutes Matt Quinn’s convoluted argument with impressive thoroughness and simplicity:
– “Anyway, Matt, if you happen to read this, I can tell you that there’s no evidence that the Doune the Rabbit Hole Community Interest Company went bust in 2017/18, or was ever put into liquidation at all”…
For those of us not up at that hour, what did it touch on?
I hope Craig at least makes a SAR of BECTU if they are legally obliged to provide such information as it could be quite instructive!
A SAR sounds like a good idea: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-get-copies-of-your-data/ This should make them think about what data they hold on you and will be doing their best to obfuscate or delete it, they should realy have thought twice about making unfounded allegations about the festival and calling for a boycot of DOUNE.
Incredibly annoying, Matt.
Too late now, but may I suggest always copying the text into the buffer (preferably then onto a notepad entry) before submitting.
Second best thing – write it again without delay, while you remember it well. On occasion when I’ve had to do this (with much disgruntlement), I’ve found the second version comes out better than the original, and takes far less time to write.
Well, if I had been a mod, it would have been taken down immediately for “death throws” instead of “death throes” but I’m old-fashioned that way. Maybe it was the caps, YOU and YOUR, that kind of thing, which is shouting really. Maybe because it was a direct character assassination as opposed to a reasonable argument? (I’m not saying that you don’t make any valid criticisms, in amongst the personal attacks.) I’m only guessing though.
I think that anyone could be forgiven for spelling “throes” wrongly, considering that that word survives in only two phrases.
Pah! It’s “wrong” too.
No it isn’t, the adverb is “wrongly”. Just because many people get it wrong, doesn’t make it wrong.
“Spelled it wrong” is correct. “Wrongly” is incorrect usage here, as “wrong” already carries adverbial force (ie without the need for the suffix “ly”). There are plenty more examples of adjectives not needing the “ly” suffix when used adverbially, a good one here being “spelled it right” (and not: “… rightly”).
“Spelled it in/correctly” would, however, be correct, as “in/correct” needs the “ly” suffix when used adverbially.
Rightly or wrongly, this is basically a question of set-phrase usage.
A: ” “Spelled it in/correctly” would, however, be correct… “
I’m not sure that I would agree. To ‘spell’ is one of many strong verbs, in that it has its own irregular rules. The past tense of ‘spell’ is ‘spelt’ (unless you are a lazy American using simplified English, who would have every past tense put a ‘-ed’ at the end of every verb).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_irregular_verbs
Adverbs and adjectives should be avoided, those that were obsolete by the C14th in particular.
Please cite a personal attack I have made Derek… Facts which happen not to feed cognitive bias or skewed narrative are not attacks; and there is nothing I have said that cannot be backed up by referencing the public record.
The ‘AWOL’ post simply dissects the situation with reference to what Companies House records show about the history of DTRH… how its otherwise asset-locked but very valuable IP was wrested from Community interest (i.e.social enterprise) into private hands; and how it has TWICE been bankrupted – the first time circa 2017/18. Not once, but twice.
As for the criticism of the late-night grammar of a dyslexic who, despite that condition has still managed to acquire a Master’s level education, Lecture in TV production (at a legitimate academic institution) for over a dozen years; run a business in the creative industries for over 36 and overall survive in a Creative profession for well over 40 years… Let me tell you about my auntie, whose greatest ‘academic’ achievement is a school certificate for neat handwriting and good spelling. She worked as a shopgirl before marrying (in about 1960) and falling pregnant with my eldest cousin.
She too (to this day) enjoys ‘pulling me up’ on my obvious imbecility; clearly evidenced in my non-command of the English language. She did that to me when I was a child… when I completed secondary education (in a particularly scabby part of Glasgow) with seven ‘O’ levels and five Highers; when I was taken into a rare and good apprenticeship scheme… when I quietly graduated in my 30s after more than a decade of ‘night school’ and ‘day release’ study etc. etc. etc…
To be fair, I’m told she was hot property’ on the Pick-N-Mix and wrote-up a very tidy price label… In the days before those clicky-printy-labelly things with the roll of paper in. …Claquety Claque!
Matt, I’ve looked at the activity log for the last 24 hours, and investigated every entry close to 1am. Unfortunately there is no record of a comment posted by you. (The only deletion in that whole period happened at 00:36, and that was a spam comment on an old thread dated 2nd Oct 2022.)
We’ve noted omissions in the activity log in the past, so it doesn’t contradict or negate your testimony. (Maybe a temporary cache got corrupted or dropped?) The server logs may be more informative. Perhaps the sysadmin can interrogate them to work out what happened.
Incidentally, minor spelling errors are typically corrected as a courtesy on this blog to improve readability. On the evidence of the comment above, I’d say you’re one of the more literate contributors. Many regulars have form for consistently bad spelling and grammar, and one in particular has a chronic dose of fat finger syndrome (or perhaps he’s typing on a mobile phone using his toes).
I read Matt’s eloquent post this morning, I think, so it was here for a while. This comment thread was 2 pages, and now it is 1, so it has definitely shrunk quite a lot.
Thanks for that information, Ian.
Around that time I was reviewing some older threads while periodically monitoring new comments, so it can’t have been up for long. I suppose there must have been some kind of a server blip, which we’ve seen on very rare occasions; usually there’s a telltale gap in the activity log, though.
I’ve opened a ticket on the blog team board, so we’ll see if the sysadmin can figure it out. Cheers.
Eva Smagacz ( above) at 21:50 said:-
“So many lives destroyed by lockdowns during Covid19. So much money transferred from ordinary people to pockets of super rich.
In your case, of course, there is also an orchestrated campaign of smears and falsehoods. The clouds over western democracies from authoritarian vested interests of elite are gathering, and standing against the incoming tide of darkness …”
So, I ask, if quantitative easing is the answer to alleviating a shortage of money in the economy – but itself is inflationary; however the IMF geniuses tell us that interest rates must be raised to combat inflation – which is devasting for the living standard of the populace – is this not a conundrum?
Are there really any viable solutions forthcoming for the present economic woes being posited by officialdom?
To answer your question, apparently there are no such solutions within the current system. As Joseph Stiglitz predicted sometime around 2000, in a stagnant economy the super rich will continue to get richer – at the expense of the rest. So far his formula has been working.
Craig, it looks like, in the past, you annoyed some of the Wokies. A pile-in was inevitable.
Call me an ignorant cynic if you like, but I believe that part of the reason for wanting you shut down can be found in this sentence from the Paul McManus letter….
“I would also be grateful if you can assure me that volunteers will not be used for any safety critical work such as construction, erecting Marquees, building stages, or indeed any other Technical work.”
The idea that you might use large numbers of volunteers to do the work normally assigned to trade union members, has obviously put the wind up the union movement. In other words, if you were going to make money from ticket sales, they want their large cut (in wages to professional stage builders and the like). How dare people do this kind of thing for nothing?
FJ,this would suggest a revival of a theme within Trades Unionism I had thought was extinguished thirty years ago. It runs something like this.
In the General Strike volunteer strikebreakers were mobilised to drive buses (from the super posh University of London) and volunteer scabs to undermine industrial actions thereafter. Most Unions adopted the wholesale view that volunteerism, the free giving of Labour where Unionised staff might possibly be employed was a cunning capitalist plot. Given that working folk could rarely afford to do much at all without the hope of payment, they probably weren’t far off.
The emergence of what was later called the Third Sector (Local Associations for Mental Health, volunteer based Citizens Advice Bureaux, Housing Action Centres Law Centres etc) initially engaged this philosophy on hostile grounds. Even Union Membership seemed challenged by the argument that workers would choose to go to a CAB for employment rights advice rather than a Union.
This (ludicrous) debate dissolved eventually as the old time Stalinists faded away, and most Unions opened branches in the voluntary organisations (T&G were a leader on this alongside ASTMS) and came to understand the need for and benefit of volunteerism in the context of a wider social and political struggle,
It received a new bout of energy when Cameron sought to launch his Small State, Big Society programme in around 2010, mischievously advocating dissolution of unionised public services in favour of unpaid (retired) volunteers.
The people at Trade Union offices are an eclectic bunch, ranging from time servers, through ambitious centrist bureaucrats, to the odd radical promoted by the membership. This tired old line about using volunteers at a festival (who ever woulod have thought!) derives form the first. However, I may be being overgenerous.
What actually catches my eye is the alacrity with which the media took up clubs on their behalf. What was seemingly a routine rather mundane dispute suddenly appears in digital print, to fatal consequence for DTRH. Its that transmission that seems to me distincltly odd.
Reminds me of Guantanamo, where the accused “unlawful combatants” were told that they were terrorists, but because the evidence of their terrorist activities was secret, they won’t be told what this evidence was.
That looks similar to the Kafkaeque Police “enquiry” on the SNP. Nearly three years of “investigation”, high profile arrests but no charges. A ban on discussing it. And no idea so far of what, if anything, any one is actually accused of.
And, it seems no public money involved. But the mud sticks.
I don’t suppose this is the right place to mention that though 🙁
No public money just the hard earned of duped independence supporters. Procuring that under false pretences is not corruption, just standard operating procedure.
It looks like a coordinated attempt to not just destroy the Doune the Rabbit Hole festival but to smear you as well.
This type of attack is becoming more common. I can’t stand Nigel Farage or his political views but his bank has closed his account and another seven banks are refusing to give him an account because of his political views; this is just plain wrong.
I’m reminded of the saying “First they came for — and I did nothing”: it could be US next.
Not to mention that WE bailed out the banks after the 2008 crash with taxpayers cash.
Corbyn – heinous, fallacious smear campaign and lawfare attempt to bankrupt; Salmond – unsuccessfully framed; Murray – successfully jailed; Phillips – assets and accounts frozen (is Galloway too big a fish to fry?); Farage – denied account (just as moves are being made to return us to the, now ludicrous, EU; Murray (again) – smeared and economically attacked. All, possibly with the exception of Farage, fully supported by the MSM of course, and, no doubt, by Starmer’s New New (former) Labour Party.
What a grotty little tinpot country we’re becoming. What happens when we are all only allowed digital bank accounts?
There is a gaping and desperate need for a new political party.
Mick Lynch for PM. He’d get my vote.
“What happens when we are all only allowed digital bank accounts?”
Since all bank accounts are digital these days, i.e. the records are kept on a computer, I suspect you are referring to digital money and the abolition of cash. History shows that, if normal currency is unavailable, people tend to use whatever works best instead. Bank notes are only glorified IOUs, after all.
Bitcoin, Lightning Network (or a GPLv3 alternative) and Robocoin
N.B. No “sh*tcoin” Ponzi schemes like Worldcoin
Bayard,
Yeah, thanks, I was referring to the end of cash.
The point I was making was that once that happens and money is totally digital, everybody’s money will be subject to political control. The government will be able to relieve you of your money for what ever reason it sees fit, or sees fit to make up, with the push of a button.
Graham Phillips had his account and assets frozen without any due legal process whatsoever for, as far as I can see, telling the truth, just as Corbyn was suspended, had the whip withdrawn and was then barred from standing as a Labour candidate in his own constituency – just for telling a simple truth.
As we see the direction of travel in the above examples, the portents are not good.
Peter, June 29 at 23:13 –
– “once that happens and money is totally digital, everybody’s money will be subject to political control. The government will be able to relieve you of your money for what ever reason it sees fit, or sees fit to make up, with the push of a button.”
This is not so for peer-authenticated cryptocurrencies, of which Bitcoin is an example. No bank or central authority is needed or used. Transactions, and thereby funds, are authenticated by the software of many other Bitcoin users.
Conversely, centralised control is already the case for traditional fiat currencies when such funds are held in bank accounts. The bank can deny access to those funds, either of its own accord or if instructed to by a government.
You seem to have got this back to front.
Garbage – sorry, Farage – not fully supported by the MSM? Are you kidding?! The number of times he’s been allowed on prime time politics shows, like Andrew Neil’s, Question Time, BBC Radio 4, LBC…
Not garbage, try brushing up on your reading skills.
Just to clarify, what I wrote was that all those attacks on political figures will be supported by the MSM, possibly with the exception of that on Farage, who, of course, has plenty of friends in the media.
My bad, you’re right I did misread/misunderstand what you wrote – although when I wrote “Garbage”, I was referring to Farage (which autocorrect appropriately likes to change to Garbage!) not to the general content of your comment.
You missed out the peculiar arrests of Sturgeon and Murrell
The working class has been neutralised by the intensified class war of the late-60s to now so eccentric middle class people are the targets. State aggression is immanent to the institution and will always find enemies to kill.
Republic
I don’t think Farage is having his bank account closed because of his politics, though of course that is what he claims. From what I saw, he is allowed a personal account – it is a business account that is banned. Which suggests the bank objects to some financial operations that may have been undertaken.
Which wouldn’t be surprising, given his misappropriation of EU funds for his assistant/mistress whilst an MEP…
“Furthermore BECTU said they know who these companies are, but refuse to tell us – nor did they assist any such company to contact us”.
Strongly reminiscent of Kafka’s stories, in which people are arrested and told they face very serious charges – but cannot be told what the charges are.
Sometimes nowadays it seems that Kafka, Orwell, Joseph Heller and others are being used as how-to manuals rather than satire.
I have previously drawn attention to the similar systematic persecution of Dr Malcolm Kendrick, another splendidly honest and upright Scot.
Perhaps his latest blog article will be of interest. https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2023/06/04/libel-case/ He and an equally distinguished colleague have decided to seek redress against Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, for various alleged libels.
One may hope that they win a crushing victory and are awarded exemplary damages. Something must be done to put a stop to the systematic, cynical defamation of prominent people who annoy the authorities.
O/T.
Twitter not letting me view your tweets, nor Wings, nor any account, Wingers experiencing the same lockout must be just those who don’t do Twitter.
Yep; I’ve found Twitter unviewable without logging into an account as of today. Try Nitter 😉
Thanks Clark.
Thanks for that hint, Clark. Hadn’t heard of Nitter till you mentioned it. I still think Twitter is not worth the huge amount of time it sucks up, but Nitter might help.
It seems that Twitter forcing readers to log in has also caused Nitter to stop working, but the Nitter team are working on it. It has also caused Twitter to break and its ranking to fall, so Twitter is likely to be modified further:
https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/issues/919
More evidence, as if needed, that Starmer is a hypocritical, truly evil person that should never be trusted in any position.
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/06/29/records-destroyed-of-starmer-trips-to-dc-during-assange-case/
He is trusted by all of them to occupy the very highest position, not least because he went those extra miles to deliver Julian Assange.
Starmer was also responsible for letting off/long grassing the SDS stories of allowing the police to start relationships with ‘targets’ they were observing.
might be a good time for a new name, Stasi Starmer fits.
the problem lies with hope that elections change circumstances, they rarely do.
“might be a good time for a new name, Stasi Starmer fits.”
I’ll stick with Stürmer. His brand of socialism is very national.
Personally recently I found it very noticeable that one of the biggest smear merchant wankers I ever witnessed during the Salmond stitch-up years was suddenly posting cryptic wankbag comments on ‘social media’ like “CM should concentrate on paying his bills” long before CM broke the Doune story himself.
With hindsight the campaigns to destroy Assange, Murray, Corbyn and Salmond, to name a few… are all the same.
Ask yourself honestly, are you afraid to speak your mind on these ‘hot’ subjects in public, at work, in case you lose your job, your bank account… I know you are, we all are. This fear controls us.
Mr Murray
End of the month, so have just sent a small donation to show solidarity. Your strength and grace (mostly!) under pressure gives strength to those of us who are not in the firing line