The first record I ever bought, age 11, was Artur Rubinstein playing Chopin Polonaises 1 to 7. For a year I saved up the pocket money my grandfather gave me to get it. I played it on our record player, which was like a sideboard with built in speakers.
I had watched, on our little black and white TV, a biopic of Chopin called “A Song to Remember”. In retrospect, it was almost certainly both cheesy and historically dubious. I have never seen it since, but 56 years later I still remember two scenes.
The first is when Liszt, playing in a palace to an aristocratic audience, puts out all the candles, saying they should listen to his new piece in the dark. When the lights come up again, the audience gasps to find they have in fact been listening to young Chopin, to whom Liszt has just given his first big break.
The second is when Chopin, playing a concert, coughs blood onto the keys, before going on to die of tuberculosis in a suitably decorous manner.
I don’t recall if and how the film treated his romantic relationship with George Sand, whom nowadays we would call non-binary.
I loved the music, and Chopin has stayed with me ever since. So has that first record.
When I went to Dundee University in 1977, every possession I owned in the world fitted into one BOAC flight bag and a small cardboard box.
In that cardboard box were some books and a tiny cassette player with sixteen cassettes in a little case, one of which was Rubinstein playing Chopin, which I had copied from vinyl onto cassette using our neighbour’s stereo system.
I find that many people assume me to have come from a wealthy or upper class background. That is not true at all.
My father was one of thirteen children born in Edinburgh to an Italian mother and a Scottish alcoholic hotel porter who had survived the trenches of the First World War. They lived in deep poverty, first in the Old Town and then slum-cleared to West Pilton.
At 13, my father left school and went to work picking out reusable hemp with a spike from tarred and encrusted old ships’ ropes, at British Rope in Leith Docks. He was so tiny the workers sometimes used to hide him inside a coil of rope to let him get a break.
At 18, National Service in the RAF took him down to Norfolk. He was one of the few for whom conscription was a distinct improvement in living conditions and diet. He met my mother in Norfolk, and stayed.
He was an extremely talented man. He worked his way up to be in charge of all catering and entertainments on the then massive United States Air Force bases in Lakenheath and Mildenhall. He then left and put these skills to work in the private sector.
Between my being born in a grotty council house and my reaching the age of 6, my father had a meteoric rise to wealth and owned a Rolls Royce, two Mercedes and a yacht in the South of France. I never saw the latter but I remember the cars. We lived in Peterlee, County Durham. He also had an apartment immediately behind Selfridges.
Then it all came crashing down. The constabulary did not approve of the way my father had made his money. He had moved into the gambling industry and some of his methods were unorthodox. His business partner, Frank Hoy, was jailed for seven years.
My father was not jailed as he fled the country. I did not see him again for a decade.
We moved back to Norfolk and I grew up in real poverty. Rural poverty is often overlooked.
When I say poverty, I mean I was genuinely malnourished with permanent physical effects. All – and I mean every single item – of my clothing for a decade came from jumble sales, principally what was known as the “Church thrift”.
We were four siblings, aged from 9 to 1 when Dad left. We had a wonderful loving mother but she was somewhat fey, and her grip on reality was never terribly strong. She could not cope. My sister was the eldest and looked after us. In retrospect, we were feral.
It was however an extremely happy childhood. We roamed the cliffs, beaches, woods and fields. Nobody ever asked where we were or what we were doing. I was related, through my mother, to half the small town. I had grandparents nearby and a great extended family.
School was the only traumatic bit. I hated it. I passed my 11 plus and went to an extremely selective grammar school, 15 miles away, by bus every day. It had been a private school and still retained much of that ethos. They quite literally hit you about the head with the wooden-backed blackboard rubber until you spoke and behaved as English gentlemen.
My grandfather was deeply musical – he conducted the local brass band, and could transcribe by ear and arrange for brass band any music he heard. His collection of records was an important retreat for me, as were his books – he was a socialist.
My musical collection and my musical tastes expanded as I got older. Success at university and in the Diplomatic Service meant I could buy music I wanted, on vinyl, cassette or eventually CDs. I served in Nigeria and in Poland – great for Chopin.
Thirty years after I bought Rubinstein playing Chopin, home computers had reached a stage where you could transfer music from cassette to CD, cleaning it of hiss in the process.
I sat in the tiny spare room of my home in Gravesend many evenings transferring vinyl and cassette to CDs. I printed out disc-shaped labels of album art to attach to the CDs. Sometimes you could find that art online. Otherwise I would scan the cassette or LP artwork.
So by 1998 Artur Rubinstein had moved from vinyl to cassette to CD. I had over a hundred of these homemade CDs, soon greatly outnumbered by music CDs bought as I went on to serve in Ghana and then Uzbekistan.
All of my music always went with me.
I have fought against bipolar my entire adult life. It has at times been crippling or dangerous. As you will have gathered by now, I have a deep emotional response to music. I was probably aged about 25 when I realised that this could exacerbate my bipolar. I tended to listen to music which reinforced the mood swing.
Put simply, if I were depressed you might find me in a darkened room listening to Tchaikovsky’s Symphonie Pathétique. If I were manic, you might find me bouncing to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now.
So I started to use the music the opposite way, to try to moderate mood swings. This had limited success. But then I perceived that the kind of music I was listening to could prefigure a manic or depressive episode, when I was apparently still “normal”.
I devised a system where I would only play my music entirely at random, with a closed eyed selection. This seemed actually to work for me as a prophylactic against bipolar.
So I bought an amazing Sony 400-CD rotary jukebox style player, with an external amp and speakers. This enabled me to random shuffle my music automatically, and play not just albums but individual tracks randomly shuffled.
I found this really did work against bipolar. The effect seemed significant. Of course this is self-referential but it did correlate with a significant reduction in attacks. I understand my music therapy may have just been a prop to reinforce control of my own mind, but it worked, so who cares?
By 2001 I had three of these Sony 400-CD players, which you could link in series, and in a slot in one of them sat Artur Rubinstein playing Chopin.
Then it was the turn of CDs to be redundant. In another decade or so, random track selection could be done from a phone, without a metre-high stack of heavy Sony units. Rubinstein moved to a shelf.
Until now. Life goes in circles, and being again rather straitened, I had to save up to buy a Brennan ripper, but now I have it. Artur Rubinstein playing Chopin is now safely digitally encoded inside it, and I am working on all my other CDs.
I presume these units appeal only to nostalgic boomers like me, who want to converse in the musical idiolect of our collection curated over a lifetime, rather than get lost in the universal availability of streaming.
It is a sobering thought that, if I listen to my music, at random, for an average of one hour a day, I am unlikely to live long enough to get through every track.
I have eighty very narrow shelves of CDs, integrated into my bookshelves. I just pulled out a handful from one shelf, appropriately at random, to tell you what is on it, without much detail.
Boccherini – Guitar Quintets 4, 7 and 9
Beethoven – Complete String Quartets (4 Discs)
Tchaikovsky and Arensky – Piano Trios
Fred Astaire – Let’s Face the Music
Rick Wakeman – Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Saint-Saëns – Cello Concerto No 2
R.E.M. – Reveal
The Animals – Greatest Hits
Glenn Miller – Jazz and Blues
Chopin – Mazurkas
Battlefield Band – Threads
I do have recent music, just not in that particular batch. Of course, playing random tracks loses the pleasure of hearing an entire symphony or album straight through, but I occasionally still do that.
It is going to take a long while to load everything on this Brennan. When I finish, before I go into my randomised permanent therapy, I shall listen to Artur Rubinstein play Chopin Polonaises.
You never know which will be the last time.
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Brennan Ripper: Looks like a nice piece of kit but, at £600+, seems to do nothing that an ordinary (Linux, anyway) PC, even a 10 yo one, can’t do when attached to a £10 external DVD drive and a set of speakers (and running open source, free software).
Sorry 🙁
(but maybe useful info to someone saving up and yet to buy)
[edit: it probably IS a Linux box but in fancy black aluminium case]
Yes, although your solution ignores the 1Tb plus of storage you need which you are not likely to have free on a laptop. Cheapest for that would be a £100 SSD card but then your music is there. (Yes, you can make another one and copy).
It would really need a dedicated laptop – wouldn’t want to place such big demands on my working one. But I am really something of a technophobe and for me the advantage of the Brennan is there is only a single button I need to press.
A 1Tb external hard drive could be had for half that price.
People buy Brennan and Sonos devices for the convenience. They’re low-power, compact, and always on.
I’m a technically-minded Linux user, so the Brennan brand isn’t really aimed at me. But I do lean into convenience these days; if I want to listen to music I don’t want to have to reconfigure the soundcard or power-cycle the DAC. I have wondered whether to get one, but what strikes me about the website is how chatty and informal and homemade it is.
That worries me a bit; I don’t want the hardware to feel homemade. If I pair a music source like this with some audiophile headphones, I don’t want it to sound like a hi-fi system bought from Argos. Maybe this is just the curse of mail-order businesses; for something as subjective as audio equipment, one has to try it first.
The mention of the first record you purchased with your own money, sent me straight back to nostalgia-land. Mine was “Just One Look” by The Hollies. I believe it cost me 4/3d which was a lot of money in those days.
I have never really had much enthusiasm for classical music, possibly due to my parents’ over enthusiasm for the subject. Near to Christmas, the BBC Third Programme would broadcast Handel’s Messiah one evening; and I would have a book of sheet music shoved into my hands and was expected to follow the whole thing, while my parents tried to sing the soprano and tenor parts. I must have been about 9 years old. If I ever hear I Know That My Redeemer Liveth again, it will be far too soon.
Craig.
Like you I have mood instability, but I thought that it was not normal bipolar because most of the time I could avoid the highs by keeping myself moderately depressed. However if I let my control slip I would get a high but that high would inevitably be followed by a catastrophic low. During the high I would be energized and get a lot done but during the low I would inevitably destroy all that I accomplished during the high plus smashing things that I value, books torn up, music CDs smashed and other things.
Since you are able to control your moods with music I may have been wrong in thinking that I do not have normal bipolar I just had a different method for suppressing the highs and by avoiding the highs avoiding the lows. Your method sounds much better and there may be others. I will email a link to your post to my psychiatrist as it will certainly interest him.
All this copying of music from disc to cassette to cd …it’s something I never did, and I’m surprised you admit to it. Bob Monkhouse had a similar enthusiasm, in his case for film and cinema and it resulted in a visit from the serious crime squad. I imagine though that unless you’re notorious, on plod’s radar, or have “previous” you be safe enough…
https://filmstories.co.uk/features/bob-monkhouse-his-movie-collection-and-the-bizarre-serious-crime-squad-case
Quite common to people of Craig’s and my vintage. Having bought the LP (vinyl) people baulked at having to buy the cassette version to play in the car or on the Walkman. The pre-recorded cassettes were generally of pretty poor quality, cheap tape which stretched and crinkled, recorded at several times the playback speed to save time/money. A home recorded version on decent quality tape always sounded better and lasted longer.
“Quite common to people of Craig’s and my vintage. Having bought the LP (vinyl) people baulked at having to buy the cassette version to play in the car or on the Walkman. ”
That wasn’t the illegal bit; it was only illegal to sell or give a copy to someone else. Every time you play a record, the music is being copied from physical to electrical format, unless you are playing a 78 on a wind-up gramophone.
Agreed on the lousy quality of PRCs. Many an unhappy hour spent in extracting the tape from the tape player after it had wound itself into the internals.
Agree, except that tape decks that could record high quality (Chromium oxide or “metal”) tapes with Dolby NR were quite expensive.
Bob Monkhouse’s cinema archive included the 1931 film of The Ghost Train – a play by Arnold Ridley (who would later become known as Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army). When the case against Monkhouse was thrown out of court, PC Plod destroyed the evidence.
It was the only known intact copy of the whole film – and it was burned in the police incinerator. The campaign launched by the BFI in 1992 to recover lost examples of British cinema could only locate fragments: the two final reels are mute, and the initial ones are still missing.
You can side with law enforcement if you want … but it might be wise at some stage to ask yourself: “Are we the baddies?”
Some council houses are okay and often with bigger rooms than many private houses on estates which might have e.g. three bedrooms, two of which measure about 5.5 ft by 7ft. You don’t often get that in council houses.
That is certainly true, although this one was very basic. They tended to be in Norfolk I think.
in 1969 when I was born. there were over 90 thousand bairns born in Scotland and over 70% of them in council houses. There was nothing aesthetic about it, but the culture of freedom from fear of eviction and the unity that it gave us persists.
Our ex council house is airy and you can get a kick ng sized bed in it, something problematic in a new built rabbit hutch.
Oh what an enjoyable post you have written. Listening to BFBS every night to get John Peels latests fav.music is probBly responsible ble for my minimal sleeping pattern.
I admit to listening to most classical music when carving stone,; it relaxed me. But certain South American and African music, usually getting ones dancing legs going, also; nduces some endorphine rush encouraging me.
I have learnt a lot from your workshop bg class history
1. You are a thouroughly good person. Emphatic and truthful to your believes. i am glad to call you my friend. Having worked with you and campaiged for you has changed my outlook and priorities in life.
I like exhuberant carneval music as much as ska reggae, punk and or Sufi dancing. It is something deeply entwined in our genetic history to likesounds to distract long winter nights, sounds that cheer up a collective kill of an animal as well as a good harvest in autumn
Thank you Craig, you have succumbed yourself.
I grew up in a couple of council houses and compared to the Barratt boxes some people lived in, they were of much better quality. I’m still astonished to find that the internal walls are plasterboard. Austerity (old style) furniture is also a damn site better than new stuff.
Poignant and restrained.
Thank you Craig.
Who gives a damn about your taste in music – such a narcissist! Nasty little man. Soon you’ll find out what happens after death.
Don’t pull your punches, Emma. Tell Craig what you really think of him.
Perhaps you might elucidate for the benefit of our readers?
People who have been following Craig and his work for many years might well be interested in knowing what makes him tick – I certainly am, and was quite intrigued by this article.
If you’re not, don’t read it. But don’t presume to speak on behalf of anyone else here, and you are entirely free to fuck off and you probably should – I for one would be more than happy never to hear from you and your spiteful bitchiness again.
PS Are you really stupid and arrogant enough to think _anyone_ is aware of what happens after they are dead?
I think you’re in the wrong room?
Do not feed the troll.
Loving the irony
Emma
Had a bad day?
Listen to some music like Craig.
Soothes the savage breast.
I bet your a bloke anyway.
When Craig talks about ‘recent music’ I hope he doesn’t mean The Bay city Rollers?
There is a very good doco on them, as to how they were massive in the US and as usual
got ripped off by their manager.
Music is Universal and appeals to a lot of animals – tone and vibration – frequency.
Emma, What an obnoxious, toxic person you are. I have always found a Craig to be the opposite of a narcissist to the point where his empathy is painful to see. Like many, I disagree with SOME of what Craig writes, but have the highest respect for him as a principled and polite, thoughtful human being. Much of what Craig narrates is the very essence of empathy and I agree with a great deal of the content here. A lot is properly thought provoking in a good way. Then, Emma, I stumble across your vile words. You must be very popular at parties and social events? Emma, are you self aware enough to know what the word “nasty” means? If not, go and look in a picture-dictionary and you will find a photo of your face adjacent to the definition of “nasty.” As for your implied death threat or wish for Craig to be visited by death? Your words have invoked the Online Safety Act 2023… https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50
Well said.
Nothing.
Good lad Craig, ye are deep in ma heart. You will have listened to this music of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxPFg_RckVw&list=RDIxPFg_RckVw&start_radio=1
Gordon..Thank You.That is Stunning..So beautiful
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/09/defiance-grows-uk-ban-palestine-protest-group-action
^ British regime continues to wield its police and judiciary against dissidents on behalf of an ethnic-supremacist killer group.
The holy Guardian newspaper points out that in one case it did not even baulk at oppressing an octagenarian recipient of a monarchist award who raises funds for a choir at a monarchist church.
The term “shitclown state with shitclown media” comes to mind.
Thanks for making this post Craig, as a mental health professional I was very interested by the idea of fluctuating musical taste as a predictor of mood swings rather than just a symptom of them.
I used to work in a high security mental health ward at a big hospital in inner London. One morning someone accidentally switched the day room radio to Radio Three, and for some while the normally very boisterous and often violent patients sat quietly and peacefully listening to the classical music. The most violent patient on the ward commented to me how nice it was. After an hour or so, however, someone got bored with all this peace and harmony and switched the radio back to pop music, whereupon the ward soon reverted to noise and aggression.
Music is a powerful force, and a lot of people accept its healing qualities but are in denial about how toxic it can be.
I’ve not heard the theory that music can be toxic, Pete, but I suppose the term is so flexible as to not mean very much. I am intrigued as to what you’re referring to in particular.
Perhaps people like you who have relevant experience should write to the Health Secretary among others. Good luck with exerting a good influence in this area.
I used to look after people who have learning difficulties. In one place, when I did the noon drug admin during the meal, I switched the telly off first. The noise was reduced by about 2/3rds because no-one had to raise their voice. It took a few weeks before any of the staff noticed and they were the best in the SS department.
Guess we know where our host gets his do-stupid-shit-that’s-against-the-law-and-have-to-flee-the-country genes from now. Anyway, don’t think I’ll be forking out for a Brennan ripper anytime soon – not when, thanks to the miracle of modern technology and the tech giants basically being allowed to ignore copyright laws, my entire remaining CD collection (including fairly obscure B-side, remix etc compilations*) is available on a single free-at-the-point-of-use website.
* As it’s the weekend, from ‘Casino Classics’, here’s the soon-to-be-no-more St Etienne kicking Neil “You don’t want these fags handling your potatoes” Young into proper bo 4/4 time, and then letting the sadly already gone Andrew Weatherall work his magic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GmjXIar4pg
Have a nice evening.
Remixes and sampling are no substitute for actual talent, IMO. Neil Young is a musical genius even though his politics are a bit iffy. But, who has ever given a toss about an ‘artistes’ views ? It’s what they create that’s important.
Thanks for your reply Stevie. Ah the old sampling-isn’t-proper-music-and-requires-no-talent argument. Just one counterpoint for you: ‘Entroducing…’ by DJ Shadow. Its lead single & curtain-raiser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InFbBlpDTfQ
I’m quite fond of some of Neil Young’s tunes, though his whiny delivery tends to ruin a lot of them for me. His homophobic opinions were probably pretty standard among US rockers in the 80’s when he gave the quote, along with much of the population of the Western world at the time. When I first read about it a few years ago, I found it funny more than anything. Who has ever given a toss about artists’ views? Well, I’d imagine one or two people on here might have gone off Radiohead* & Nick Cave a bit after they came out opposing calls to boycott Israel.
* I’d still want ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’ played at my funeral (if I had any intention of having one) – “#Yeah, everybody leaves, if they get the chance…” etc etc – but that’s probably just me.
466 people have been arrested in London for what the London Metropolitan Police called “showing support for Palestine Action”.
I think this is the largest mass arrest of protestors on a single demonstration in Britain since 17 September 1961 when police arrested 1314 participants on a Committee of 100 protest against nuclear weapons in Trafalgar Square.
More people were arrested on today’s demo than during the poll tax riot in 1990.
The rulers (or perhaps “capos” for the Zionists would be a better term) are going to need a f***ing big dock.
Blind people and little old ladies with Parkinsons and Alzheimers doing “”stupid-shit-that’s-against-the-law”, according to the usual dickheads on here.
How big a mass arrest can the British regime cope with in its police system, before it will have to start using a park, stadium, or army camp to confine the arrestees?
There must be an answer to that question.
Probably only a single magnitude higher than 466 will use up all police station “availability”.
I.e. it could be a case of 5000 will break something.
And of course they will have to bring food, guards, toilet facilities etc. to a park, stadium, or army camp.
So it is interesting.
They may also have to set up special courts, and use the army to carry out the detentions in the first place.
The resistance to genocide is doing quite well.
One thing we may see is a step forward in the surveillance technology that the enemy admits they’ve got, as they try to stop people from arriving at the protest point. Perhaps the Shomrim and Community Security Trust and co will help out. The case to compare with here might be Lebanon.
Is there anyone here who can compare in detail with the mass arrest of 1961?
Well…..it seems 532 people were arrested, including 522 under s13 of the Terrorism Act, and all have now been released without charge. Sounds like we can count this demo a success.
This is very different from the September 1961 protest when 1314 were arrested and most were charged, mostly for obstruction AIUI.
In fact it’s very different from most demos.
My mate Hugh Kerr spent the night in jail after the 1961 protest.
Interesting Pat Arrowsmith was jailed at Dunoon for anti-nuclear protest. I am setting off at 6am for Dunoon to support someone arrested for anti-genocide protest.
I did not Know this Or would have been there
While we are on music, and presuming that one cannot “doxx” the dead, let me just say that I believe the “John W” who participated in these comment columns was the late great Wilko Johnson, formerly of the world’s greatest musical band, Doctor Feelgood.
Wilko was an anarchist, which is why his guitar was black and red. (That isn’t a joke.) He was also strongly against Brexit. But when he was posting here, ISTR he was somewhat confused about “socialist Zionism”. (There may possibly be a Canvey Island-related reason in there somewhere.)
RIP Wilko! They threw away the mould, etc.
I wish I had known that. I love Dr Feelgood. A member of Madness is a regular reader I run across from time to time, as well of course as Roger Waters.
I Enjoyed reading this Very personal account of your Hardships and Musical History Craig.. Some friends tell that Back Doune TRH was a great sucess ..I Guess the Sunshine helped..Till Storm Folis had Folk leaving early..
I have been into Mongolian music these last ffew years..@ The HU Band – Throat singing..
And HAYA Band –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE8FmvB6t0c&list=PLFV8bE2oJ8lZI77nCMQR6_Nl4cfU78nJL
👍Hello from another fan of Mongolian music.
As well as the throat singing, some of the stuff where you can hear the horses on the steppe is amazing (and fantastic for motorway driving).
Horses are there in Kazakh music too, but for me it’s the Mongolian stuff that really rocks.
@brianfujisan –
Some of my Mongolian faves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6dRxitCSY4
Especially when driving:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6dRxitCSY4&t=1170s
which also has its own link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5T1uDh9qHo
The musician is called He Xige, an ethnic Mongolian guy from China.
Thank You Brian Nice Greate taste Bro… – Haya
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iglKMvk0lXQ&list=RDiglKMvk0lXQ&start_radio=1&rv=O5T1uDh9qHo
This is the wonderful pianist Martha Argerich playing Chopin “Polonaise N°6 l’heroique”. I remember the late Denis Healey having this on desert Island discs.Enjoy. https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=chopin+heroica+piano+female+solo&&mid=10CDC4928C184BACC55510CDC4928C184BACC555&FORM=VCGVRP
Yes wonderful – or how about a more fiery madman Beethoven and the 3rd movement of his so-called ‘moonlight’ sonata, in complete contrast to the light 1st 2 movements
https://youtu.be/zucBfXpCA6s
Or maybe the final 2 movements of his ‘funeral march’ (I thought it was this one but can’t now find it) – I think the final movement where he uses his famous da-da-da-dah from the 5th symphony in maybe a calling between the lord and the devil at the top and bottom of the octaves spectrum – he’s coming up here, he’s coming down here, then a violent conflagration before a final furry and curtain (my interpretation anyhow). Enough to bring a tear to even a glass eye
Nice piece Craig.
Chopin was a genius. Pure creation. The nocturnes elevate simplicity to spirit. And the Ballade No 1, as featured in The Pianist is perhaps the greatest piano work ever composed.
Also serves as a reminder of the global sympathy and feeling Israel has squandered in its murderous rampage. Film is unwatchable now. Died with all Palestinian culture.
Anyway, on a more positive note, this guy plays piano for elephants. You might like it 😉 https://www.youtube.com/@PaulBartonPiano
A good way to listen to music randomly is to tune in (digitally) to FIP fm. Though a radio station, it has none of the blether, simply one track after another of great variety. Not so much from the classical repertoire but has the advantage of being distinct from the anglosphere repertoire that we are accustomed to. Fip also has several genre streams that are good to flip between.
In response to Brian Red’s request for information on the 1961 mass arrests.
The 1961 September 17 – 18th police action was certainly comparable to that of last Saturday, using old fashioned public disorder laws, no need for all this Terrorism Act hype to carry out a political agenda.
There was a wider context. CND campaigner philosopher Bertrand (then Earl Russell) (89 years old ) and his wife were already in prison for “refusing to be bound over on a charge of “inciting the public to commit a breach of the peace” in connection with a previous demonstration in London. They were released from their 7 day sentence on the 18th September
The doughty Pat Arrowsmith was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment at Dunoon Sheriff Court on the 18th September following anti – Polaris demonstrations at Holy Loch without the option of a fine for “Disorderly Conduct”, having been previously fined for the same offence
The events in London organised by CND and the Committee of 100 on Sunday 17 the September 1961 from late afternoon to after midnight, resulting in a record number of 1,340 arrests were in defiance of a police ban – approved by Rab Butler, the then Tory Home Secretary – on a protest march from Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament and police from all over the country were drafted into stop it.
Demonstrators used a squat down tactic similar to last Saturday and were hauled away by the police. Bail was allowed in most cases of £2 followed by a fine of £1 or £2 for “failing to observe the police order”. 10 Magistrates Courts were set up to deal with the numbers. Amongst the notables arrested were actor Vanessa Redgrave, writers, Shelagh Delaney, John Osborne and John Arden, Canon John Collins, chair of the Committee of 100 and Fenner Brockway MP.
@Crispa – Thanks for this. I didn’t know the same squatdown tactics were used as in ’61.
So magistrates’ courts were set up, and the authorities managed to process all the arrestees through the court system.
This time they have been released without charge, but perhaps only on police bail.
Police bail has always seemed to me a contemptuous way by which the authorities circumvent Magna Carta.
During the 1984-85 miners’ strike there were a few times when miners would have liked to do something like this, but the police had good intelligence and stopped quite a few people when they hadn’t got much further than the end of their street.
The Committee of 100 was extremely well organised, as were particular jobs such as the actions of the Spies for Peace and those who sprang George Blake.
“You never know which will be the last time.”
What is this Craig? Are you expecting to get “Kelly’ed” any time soon?
I sent you a message about sending money to the Gazans. I have a guilty conscience and a big fat pile of dole money and I want to save some lives but I don’t trust any of the big charities and I don’t know whether the aid will get to the Gazans or not. I’m also very keen to assist with individual cases of people in need. I thought that you of all people would be very well placed to give the right advice here.
I gave your website my email and I would really appreciate if we could discuss this briefly.
You take care, OK!
Thanks for sharing, Mr. Murray. Impressive list of favorite music.
Personally, I’m glad to see Pussy Riot missing from it. Their croaking would sound weird in the same playlist as Chopin’s Polonaises, IMHO.
I also see that it’s unnecessary to warn you about Sigma Boy, which has become a trending song and some consider it Putin’s weapon. I’m sure your excellent taste in music keeps you completely safe from that.
This is utterly f*ckin surreal.
“MP claims Surrey Care Home is a “hot bed of terrorist activity” filled with Palestine Action supporters.”
https://nitter.poast.org/RosieisaHolt/status/1953721018205266174#m
Thought it was Some Mongolin Music Lol..
Well half those arrested at the recent protest were over 60…
Rosie Holt does do some clever stuff.
Republicofscotland
Help The Aged?
Into prison for Fourteen years.
This is a government that can not influence anything in the world – instead it bothers its people with petty
and stupid laws.
That’s all it can do.
That and be fearful of the rich and powerful of course.
Rosie Holt comedian, in that sketch she is very good, I can think of many Tory MP’s like her, Yvette Cooper and the Chief Constable come to mind.
The comedian’s hilarious brand of political satire has taken the internet by storm as she cleverly edits videos to make it look as though she is a hapless Tory MP being grilled on breakfast TV.
It’s barely satire, more like satirical realism.
The regime apparatchiks and propagandist, *would* pretty much claim such things straight-faced and without a hint of humour.
So the fact is the YooKay regime is grotesque in ways that almost defies the usual brands of mockery or irony.
Latest edition of Private Eye (1655) has a harrowing first hand account by a British surgeon recently returned from Gaza.
Any thoughts on this?
👇
70 questions the UK government must answer about Gaza
‘Mainstream’ journalists have failed to investigate the UK’s complicity. Here is what every minister should be asked…
https://www.declassifieduk.org/70-questions-the-uk-government-must-answer-about-gaza/
“70 questions the UK government must answer about Gaza”
but they won’t because they don’t have to.
1. Trump has given the green light to Netanyahu’s intended conquest of Gaza City. “That’s going to be pretty much up to Israel,” Trump said earlier this week when asked about Netanyahu’s plan.”
2. The British “king”, who takes millions of quid in bags from Qatar, plans to host Trump in Britain on 17-19 September.
The term is “special relationship”, right?
1. Netanyahu is invading Gaza against the advice of his own military Chief of Staff, that (as Jon Elmer’s reports on the Electronic Intifada indicate) Israel hasn’t the resources to do this. Judging from those reports, I can see IDF soldiers and even officers being taken hostage in the future, further complicating the Israeli government’s position.
2. The UK’s policy with Trump appears to be to plaster it on with a trowel, and it seems to help, as also the CEO of Apple has demonstrated with his tribute gift made of gold and glass. The King is only doing his duty. The article indicates that money from Qatar was handed over straight to his charitable fund as Prince of Wales.
Any thoughts on this?
👇
70 questions the UK government must answer about Gaza
‘Mainstream’ journalists have failed to investigate the UK’s complicity.
Here is what every minister should be asked…
https://www.declassifieduk.org/70-questions-the-uk-government-must-answer-about-gaza/
Well the article would say that – it was in the British press. Mandy Rice-Davies applies.
If you want to donate millions of quid to charity, what’s the problem with using the banking system?
Since when did syphilitic oligarchs who sit on expensive chairs [*] and wear hats encrusted with stolen jewels have a “duty”? Who is the duty to? The guy isn’t even spending his own money when he assists Netanyahu’s little helper Trump with his PR and his ego.
This state visit = genocidalists’ carnival.
Note
*) Unfortunately the suffragettes didn’t use enough explosives in 1914.
Unfortunately the suffragettes didn’t use enough explosives in 1914.
Unfortunately Hitler didn’t …… in WW2.
PS. I amused myself estimating the value of the gift Apple gave Trump. My guess is that the volume of the gold base is of the order of 10cmx5cmx2cm=100 cc, so between 2 and 3 kg. The price of gold is of the order of 100 usd per gram, so the value, just as bullion, is between 200,000 and 300,000 usd.
It’s probably either plated tungsten or hollow.
Re. 1. Hostages. Israel doesn’t give a fig about hostages, hence the Hannibal directive.
“Damning new testimony from an IDF soldier stationed at the Gaza border on 7 October has backed up growing evidence that Israel deliberately allowed the Al Aqsa Flood operation to happen.”
https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2025/08/08/idf-soldier-knesset-testimony
“Netanyahu is invading Gaza against the advice of his own military Chief of Staff, that (as Jon Elmer’s reports on the Electronic Intifada indicate) Israel hasn’t the resources to do this.”
Have you got a link to Elmer’s article? How recent is it, and does he consider the effect of starvation on a besieged population’s morale, the control over the water supply, and the availability of chemicals for use by the attacker? Gaza City is hardly a well-stocked fortress.
Here’s the report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgAkWMZtlCk
“The King is only doing his duty.”
The man is responsible for his actions just like every other adult human being.
An elderly blind man in a wheel chair was arrested at the Palestinian protest under the terrorist legislation. Obviously the worst of the worst. In my opinion the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and PM Starmer should be sectioned, put in strait jackets and left in a rubber room, for OUR safety. As for Coopers husband Ed Balls a bigger piece of filth has yet to walk the earth.
https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/blind-man-among-532-arrested-under-terrorism-act-at-london-protest-for-proscribed-palestine-action-group/news-story/e49eb5a17ce0c714d58a1ee4c19755cc
The UN (Volker Turk) and Amnesty International have criticised the proscription of PA as over-reaction, and a surprising number of older and eminent people have defied the government by carrying placards juxtaposing opposition to genocide and support for PA. Even if the police find enough room in their cells (I suspect they will give ‘police bail’ to as many people as possible), and even if judges hand down much lighter sentences than they did to the rioters of last summer (weeks rather than months at most for older people, I suspect), the major parties could lose a lot of votes over this to newer and smaller parties. If they want to avoid that, they’d better amend their legislation fast, to avoid criminalising protestors who are not terrorists in any meaningful sense.
It could be good if people who lost family members and friends in actual real terrorist attacks such as in London 2005 and Manchester 2017 could speak out and say the government are insulting their lost ones’ memories by saying that direct action against genocide is support for terrorism.
That the state of “Israel” was established by terrorists and has conducted terrorism throughout its existence…perhaps these will soon be banned observations too.
Incidentally the story about Rothschild at the London stock exchange after the battle of Waterloo is now verboten. (It’s a verifiable fact that the Rothschilds had an amazingly good communication system from the English Channel up through Kent to London, far faster than the government’s. But I digress.)
One to keep an eye on:
“Airdrops kill starving people with rotten food”
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/airdrops-kill-starving-people-rotten-food
Or two things, because as also mentioned in this article the Zionist soldiers have begun using silencers when murdering people at “aid” points.
The Aldermaston peaceniks always displayed signs saying, ‘bread not bombs’. I guess they and the rest of us never guessed that the genociders actually would use food as a weapon. There is no limit to the evil of Israel and its enablers,
Sturgeon the female equivalent of Tony Blair, an egotistical sociopath is on tv right now spewing lies out ten a penny – of course this lying treacherous b&stard is really on tv to promote her memoirs in an interview that has a dig at Salmond.
Female impersonater.
The Home Secretary’s line appears to be that Palestine Action IS a terrorist organisation, this being based on things the govt (but not the public) knows about PA.
One must suppose that the govt’s “knowledge” – if there is any – comes courtesy of the security services.
Would the govt’s determination not be more convincing if it shared what it has on PA with the poor bloody public? Why is no one – for instance, in the msm – asking for that “knowledge” to be shared?
“comes courtesy of the security services”, probably comes courtesy of their paymasters, the Jewish lobbies.
They aren’t Jewish and they aren’t lobbies….
That’s the ‘dossier too sensitive to be published’ fraud that was first used in the Dreyfus case.
” George Sand, whom nowadays we would call non-binary.”
Who’s the “we”, you and Nicola Sturgeon?
What I would have said had I not been snottered the other night was – As you are on the theme of music take listen to this tune written in tribute to Scotland’s leader, Alec Salmond.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IxPFg_RckVw
Thank you Craig 🙂