Just a quick note to say that I am very aware that lately I have been rather bitter, which is not good for anybody, especially me. The disappointments and state outrages have been no worse than usual; my frustration at my poor health, and the subsequent constraint of my ability to fight back, has rather soured my mood.
My twitter posts have been unpleasantly acerbic. Last Sunday on the Crispin Flintoff Show I gave a rant aimed at the soft zionist English Palestine Solidarity Committee, which I immediately regretted as over the top – not wrong in substance, but lacking kindness and tolerance.
The good news is I am aware of this and think I can overcome it.
It has been a very embittering time. The Genocide in Gaza is entering a new phase, and despite the radical shift in international public opinion, those in charge of states – and not only Western states – still show no genuine intention to stop it. The Palestinians have been written off already by those in power over us, erased as a factor. Israel is now simply repeating the Gaza playbook in South Lebanon. I know the villages and towns they are destroying and in many cases have been a guest of the people there. The killing and the destruction of a profound and ancient civilisation is heartbreaking.
I am deeply shocked by the cancellation of the Scottish judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action. Until I entered the courtroom on Wednesday 27th, I was not worried.
Well, that is not quite true – I started to worry two days earlier when I found that although the permission hearing had been in Court No 1 and livestreamed, this much more substantive hearing would be tucked in Court No 6 and would not be livestreamed. Why was it being hidden?
I still find it hard to accept that the judge Lord Young who, in January, ruled in ringing terms that a Scot resident in Scotland, whose liberties were infringed in Scotland, was entitled to the jurisdiction of a Scottish court, has now ruled starkly that Scotland must accept the decision of the English Court of Appeal in the interests of “comity”.
It would be interesting if there were a clue somewhere that Scottish judges are subject to England. Here is a picture of Lord Young Scott (who is modelling the standard issue uniform):
Interestingly this costume is subject to one of those beloved British lies, which is a straightforward fabrication but which you will find in every publication on the subject.
The lie is that the St George’s crosses, adopted in these Scottish legal robes in Victorian times, were a stylised representation of previous fastenings or rosettes in those positions, and are not St George’s crosses at all.
The problem is there exist many dozens of portraits of Scottish judges in robes before this costume was adopted, and not one portrait, anywhere, shows anything that remotely could be fastenings or rosettes in these positions which later became stylised St George’s crosses.
The official explanation of why senior Scottish judges wear the English flag is simply and completely untrue.
A previous Lord Young in the 1890’s refused to wear the costume with St George’s crosses, which was a scandal at the time.
Let us return to our current Palestine Action case. In January Lord Young ruled this:
I am satisfied that it is appropriate to grant permission for this judicial review to proceed in Scotland notwithstanding the existence of English proceedings which are at a more advanced stage. As a matter of principle, a petitioner who has standing and whose petition sets out arguments of sufficient merit to satisfy s27B(2)(b) of the 1988 Act should not be refused permission because of the existence of parallel proceedings in another UK jurisdiction. The petitioner claims that his legal rights have been illegally circumscribed by the 2025 Order.
He is entitled to look to the courts of his place of residence for a determination of that complaint. The cases of Cherry v Advocate General 2020 SC 37 and R (Miller) v Prime Minister [2019] EWHC 2381 support the petitioner’s argument that there is nothing inherently objectionable with proceedings on the same issue progressing through different jurisdictions within the UK at the same time.
How can the same judge in the same case four months later then rule this, which is the precise opposite?:
In the current proceedings, the legal costs which will be incurred from now until the substantive hearing towards the end of June will increase exponentially. We know that a decision of the [English] Court of Appeal will have been issued prior to the substantive hearing. While that judgment may, or may not, be the final word on this issue, the judgments handed down by the Court of Appeal will be highly significant. It is
almost inevitable that the final decision on the legality of the 2025 Order will be made either by the English Court of Appeal, or by the Supreme Court on a further appeal in Ammori. The petitioner’s challenge to the 2025 Order in these proceedings is likely to be resolved, one way or the other, by the final decision in Ammori. It is said that a sist brings the petitioner’s right to have his claim determined to a practical end. But Ammori will resolve the issue he wants determined
The judge’s volte face was obvious in the courtroom literally in the first five minutes. His mind was not changed in the courtroom; it had been changed for him before we ever got to say a word.
His decision is to “sist” or postpone our case until after the English Court of Appeal case (and any appeal to the Supreme Court) – which means to close down our case permanently. I was informed by our advocates that because this is a “procedural” decision to kill our case administratively – thus avoiding an actual decision on whether the proscription of Palestine Action was legal – there is no chance of appeal.
I am really not happy to let the sleekit Lord Young get away with this and I have instructed the legal team to appeal against the sist. Even if leave to appeal is denied, I think we have to register protest and at least try to resist – the decision takes Scotland backward from the Cherry/Miller case where separate judicial reviews did proceed in Scotland and England over the prorogation of Parliament.
Cherry/Miller was a breakthrough against centuries of Scotland accepting the decision of English courts which have no jurisdiction here.
What is particularly unjust is that Lord Young stated that the reason for his ruling is that the Scottish judicial review had not started yet, whereas the decision of the English Court of Appeal is imminent.
This is infuriating because the Scottish judicial review was scheduled for March. It has been repeatedly – and deliberately – postponed by the Starmer regime by the repeated introduction of “secret intelligence” which has resulted in a number of “closed sessions” with the judge and the security services. We have no access to those sessions, we are never told what “intelligence” was given to the judge, and our interests are “represented” by government-approved barristers who are strictly banned from communicating with us.
It is this UK security service ploy which Lord Young allowed to delay the Scottish judicial review for months. Then something still more suspicious happened.
Last week’s hearing was originally scheduled for early May. It was then postponed for three weeks at the request of the Advocate General, a minister in the Starmer regime, who stated she wished to attend in person and that 27 May was her earliest available date. We protested, but Lord Young postponed the hearing to accommodate her.
During that postponement, the English Court of Appeal announced 15 June as the date they will give their decision in the Ammori case. The existence of that fixed date is now the peg on which Lord Young hung his ending of our case.
But here is the thing: it was really unusual of the Court of Appeal to announce a month in advance the date on which they will give their decision in Ammori. Why would they do that? If they have completed their work, why not give the judgement now? If they have not completed their work, why tie themselves to an entirely artificial deadline?
The English Court of Appeal actually asked the lawyers in Ammori about progress in the Scottish case during that appeal in England. They were very well aware of where we stood.
Was their date for judgement announced so far in advance in order to give Lord Young ammunition to torpedo the Scottish case? That seems to me extremely likely.
We need money to prepare an appeal, and in any event we need money because costs were awarded against us last week (pegged at 50% of the government’s costs). As lawfare is the government’s preferred method, I expect these costs will be substantial.
If we fail to appeal the sist, we may have a route to intervene when the English case gets to the Supreme Court. But unless that gives us a right to be heard (as opposed to just put in a written submission which will be ignored) I am not very attracted by this.
Given the major constitutional implications of Young’s rulings for the operation of the devolution settlement and the autonomy of Scottish legal system, the lack of any interest in the case by the Scottish government or by the SNP as a party – or the Greens or any other political party – has been a further deep disappointment to me.
The potential result of Lord Young’s ruling is that all the work we put into preparation for the Scottish judicial review which had been granted – hundreds of hours of work and tens of thousands of pounds of cost – is wasted. I am very conscious that this is your money from donations. It weighs on me.
One point we wished to raise at judicial review was the fact that the Home Office consulted nobody in Scotland about the proscription – they did not consult the Scottish Government, Police Scotland or the Scottish Counter Terrorism Strategy Board (CONTEST), let alone anybody in Scottish civil society. But they did consult the Israeli Embassy in London.
When I was taken so ill in Venezuela, family was of course uppermost in my mind, but something else was bothering me a great deal. If anything happened to me, the Scottish judicial review would fall. I am the petitioner and the legal team tell me I can neither be replaced nor can a judicial review case be run by my estate. No new petition can be raised by anyone else as it is now time-barred.
So I have to keep going.
Another thing that has greatly disappointed me at the moment is NHS Scotland. I did not have a routine pacemaker implant in Venezuela; it was undertaken as a part of an emergency procedure. I was kept in hospital for a week, and under close observation for another, before I was passed fit to fly. The Venezuelan cardiologist told me that it was essential I see a Scottish cardiologist immediately on return, and that my pacemaker be checked for attachment and function after six weeks.
Arriving home, my GP was excellent and saw me immediately. He sent an URGENT referral to cardiology at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
For a fortnight I was in daily expectation of being called in. Nothing happened. On a Friday I then phoned the Royal Infirmary and was put through to “cardiology waiting list”. After listening to music for 25 minutes, someone answered the phone. He was in a different department, and said the phone had been diverted to his extension. The person who did cardiology appointments was off work till Tuesday. He could not help me.
I called on that Tuesday but nobody answered the extension at all. I tried again the following Friday. After one half-hour wait listening to music, I hung up, dialled the switchboard and said this was not acceptable. The lady told me that the person who did cardiology waiting lists was off work until 1 June.
I found and phoned an NHS Lothian complaints number, and explained the situation. They logged a complaint and said somebody would phone me within 24 hours.
Nobody did.
On 1 June I called again and listened to music. After 20 minutes I took a screenshot to start documenting this.
Then after 35 minutes somebody actually answered. They again stated the person who did cardiology appointments was still off work and the phone had been diverted to them. I said that it was crazy that the entire system was failing because one non-medical member of staff was off work.
They agreed with me but said it was not their fault and they had to handle hundreds of calls. I commiserated.
While I was having that conversation, a letter arrived digitally from NHS Lothian on my phone. It said my referral would be assessed by clinicians, and I would then be added to the waiting list (I already waited almost a month). The letter included a link to see the current waiting times. If it was deemed urgent, waiting time would be another eight weeks. If not urgent, it would be fifteen weeks. 
After a month of trying I have not had so much as an ECG. I am getting odd pangs and twinges, sometimes in series, from the pacemaker but have no idea if this is normal or not. I am continually exhausted and find concentration very difficult. The function-and-attachment test after six weeks is now overdue.
I therefore felt obliged, against my principles, to book a private cardiologist appointment. This is deeply disappointing politically, and also very expensive. Seeing the consultant is £250 – an ECG, ultrasound, X Ray and pacemaker monitoring (all of which the Venezuelan cardiologist says should be done) is each charged as extra. So north of £1,000 in all.
I must confess, I had not understood how dysfunctional the NHS had become. I am told if you actually have a heart attack it is still good; but I would hope we could provide healthcare before the point of death. It is being hollowed out, piecemeal-privatised and viewed as an asset to be stripped for profit.
The frustration of ill health has only grown. My health issues are right now preventing me from attending the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, an event I had been looking forward to. I had also planned to visit Iran in July. I want to get to Cuba. And I long to get back to Lebanon. It is essential to see realities on the ground, speak directly with people shaping events, and report the truth to you in ways that I cannot do from a house in Edinburgh. My body is not currently up to supporting the intellectual fight, and that’s a real downer.
In going through all the things that are getting me down, I would add the Murrell/Sturgeon saga. When Murrell first went off to Saughton jail on remand, I was gleeful. Murrell was at the centre of Sturgeon’s plot to organise her close associates to make false complaints against Alex Salmond. Sturgeon and Murrell’s corrupt influence over the Lord Advocate and the Crown Office were central to having both Alex and me prosecuted and having me jailed.
Having tried at the time to warn everybody of Sturgeon and Murrell’s highly criminal machinations to have Alex Salmond framed, obviously I feel in part vindicated by the public acceptance that Murrell is indeed a criminal. But one of the ways I realised I had become unpleasantly embittered, is that I found I was posting tweets rejoicing at Murrell being sent to jail, and hoping he had my old cell in Saughton.
I don’t really think that.
Scotland’s antiquated jail system is a disgrace to any modern society. The conditions are inhumane and some aspects are positively Victorian – I still have backache from sleeping on a steel slab mitigated only by a slither of ancient foam rubber “mattress” which had completely lost all resistance. I don’t believe anyone should be subjected to deliberate physical suffering.
I should be better than crowing at Murrell’s imprisonment.
On the other hand, it is deeply frustrating to see Sturgeon getting away with it entirely and even playing the victim card, reaching effortlessly for the gender politics in which she has always wrapped her grasping psychopathy. It is precisely the same corrupt hold over the Crown Office, which got me jailed, that enabled Sturgeon to escape prosecution.
Still more troubling to me is the incredible cult following which still worships Sturgeon and refuses to believe she did anything wrong. I am not terribly worried that they cannot see she is implicated in embezzling funds to boost her lifestyle. I am worried they cannot acknowledge her systematically having blocked proper scrutiny of the SNP’s accounts.
But what really fills me with despair is that Sturgeon’s followers cannot acknowledge that she betrayed Scottish Independence; she never did anything to further it nor had the slightest intention of doing anything to further it.
The Union was close to toppling when Brexit was implemented against the wishes of a very large majority of Scots (my opinion on the EU is immaterial here). Sturgeon simply ignored that opportunity for action. She also went to the Supreme Court in London and argued a case on Scotland’s right to a referendum on Independence which was certain to fail, because it was grounded in UK constitutional law and not in international law. The UK Supreme Court would always rule in favour of the supremacy of the Westminster Parliament.
Sturgeon piled obstacles in the way of Independence and never once articulated a coherent plan to achieve it.
John Swinney adopts precisely the same stance. We now have sustained majorities in public opinion for Independence, but a Scottish government not prepared to take any risk to reach for it. Meanwhile, blind loyalty to the governing party in Scotland prevents any radical action. The frustration is that loyalty is caused by an urgent desire for Independence and the deluded belief that the SNP intends to achieve it.
The hero worship of Sturgeon that is so much in evidence is a large part of the problem: Scottish Independence has been driven into a cul de sac. The infuriating thing is that these cult members ought to be those with whom I am most politically aligned: but they hate me because I do not join in their idolisation of She Who Must Be Obeyed.
So this has been, and is, a difficult period for me personally. The political outlook is grim, and I am increasingly worried about my own condition. Also from the Crispin Flintoff Show, this extract of me talking about Sturgeon reinforces my concern. Something is wrong cognitively. My natural fluency is gone in this interview and I appear unable to finish a sentence or maintain a coherent line of thought.
This is all very depressing. The world is dominated by bad people who control advanced mechanisms of power. But there is no fulfilment in resignation, no honour in standing down in a battle against institutionalised evil. The only joy lies in resistance.
Please contribute if you can to the costs of the Palestine Action legal case, but do not contribute if it causes you difficulty. If you know people who are able to afford to help and likely to be sympathetic, please do contact them and ask their assistance. We are trying to keep a lot of very good people out of prison.
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Dear Craig, Dinnae fash yerseel. Burns shows the way…..
Ye hypocrites! are these your pranks?
To murder men, and gi’e God thanks!
Well, first off, please prioritise your own health, my friend; granted, as you articulate with your usual cogency, our once reliable Health/Emergency safety net – NHS – is a ( deliberately run-down ) shadow of it’s former and envisioned * self * – more concerned with robotically following imposed DEI directives than it’s raison d’etre and in the process of being enfeebled further in order that public discontent will make the terminal stages of total Privatisation easier to achieve: so it really compels us to take as much care of our own health as we are able. * hint * Mr M…..maybe follow the advice of those good ol’ Country Rock Cocaine Cowboys – The Eagles – and ” Take It Easy ” 🙂
You have every reason to feel as crestfallen as you appear to be; and not only because of your physical condition. What we’re witnessing/ being subjected to is not only Gramsci’s ” Time of monsters ” but possibly the most perilous time for humanity EVER – a large part of the peril emanating from those aforementioned monsters.
The Shit List seems to grow daily, but some of stinkiest shit comes from ……
A.I in the hands of oligarchic Socio/Psychopaths
A Political Class lacking even the memory/ notion of Public Service rather than Self Service
A MSM absolutely incapable/ unwilling to ever be truthful about anything of importance, y’know like WAR WITH A NUCLEAR ARMED country
A Public psychologically numbed-to-catatonia by the combined evils of Orwell’s Big Brother Authoritarian absolute control of Information and need for Permanent War/Conflict & Huxley’s enervation of collective will induced by the domination of soporific Entertainment ( I’ve previously joked that the only way a Revolution might occur in the UK is if the State banned football, even for a few weeks! )
You/We have many ‘ reasons NOT to be cheerful ‘ ; please don’t give us another one by making yourself even more unwell.
Not sure if ” the darkest hour ” is REALLY ” just before Dawn ” – what about 2 hours before dawn, is that not just as dark? 🙂 or if the ” light at the end of the tunnel ” isn’t an AI- guided missile ( * ironically * acronym’d LAWS, ie Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems ) hurtling towards us ……BUT…..we ( Humankind ) are not defeated yet and there is some reason/s to believe the tide may be turning in favour of not-yet-erased idea/ls of Compassion; Justice; identity of shared * common * interests, eg survival of the Species: as well as * simple * qualities like kindness and sympathy.
Keep on keeping on brothermen & sisterwomen
Looks like Lord Scott in the photo not Lord Young?
—
[ Mod: Yes, thank you. That correction has been posted on X/Twitter several times already, with Craig responding that “They all look the same to me”. A slight amendment has made to the article to avoid further confusion.]
Bitterness also comes with age – I’m experiencing that now as well.
As you say it is something to be guarded against and overcome.
To sum up the Sturgeon/Murrell thing as simply as possible.
The whole aim of the thing has been to obfuscate the fraudulent misappropriation of the ring fenced £670k with a lurid tale of petty theft of ridiculous flashy trinkets.
This is being done to protect British State assets.
Murrell is the fall guy but will be compensated with a relatively light outcome as he will pay up in full from his “own” funds.
Who the State assets are one can only speculate.
The Health Service is indeed under siege, and dedicated professionals are underpaid, in debt for their training and working to the limits of their endurance. I am glad to hear your concerns have been alleviated to a degree by a private provider. This is the legacy of Tory policies as we all know, and our current government does not see a priority in addressing the deficit in provision of essential services in particular to rural areas.
I am also happy that you have not been able to attend the economic forum since I read that a bus carrying international delegates was destroyed by drones on its way to the Conference. Stay safe.
Good people are facing unparalleled threats to their lawful rights. The appeasement of our NATO leadership in its breaches of international law puts the whole alliance on shaky ground due to the debanking punishment being meted out to UN officials trying to carry out their UN duties. And a Bill goes before Congress to vote for the Israeli military command to take over US military forces. Palantir is embedded in our NHS and it is also used by ICE and the IDF to identify civilian targets. Parliament has received a petition of over 100,000 signatures requesting that parliament debate Israeli influence in British politics. Unfortunately the response to that petition will be decided by a cross party committee of MPs and they will issue a single sentence response, as usual, no doubt, and it will go no further.
Appeasement of tyranny doesn’t tend to end well….
Before trying to save the world and/or countries, let’s save our own countries first. Once we get rid of the warmongering parasites in Western countries, then we can solve the problems in Palestine and elsewhere.
I believe that we will not win our battles and fights in courts or in elections, because the system is rigged. No matter who we elect in UK (Labour or Tories), US (Rep. or Dem.), Italy (left, right, new parties/movements like the “5 Stars”, who then allies first with the left, then with the right, then it’s replaced by technocrats, etc.) and other countries, the warmongering elites will still stay in power. We need to step up the resistance against the extractive oligarchies and fight them in a different way (I will let you find out what I mean, because, last time I was more explicit, my comment was removed).
In ‘ The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.’ by Edward Gibbon , there is a few paragraphs on George the Cappadocian who became a bishop and was slain for , apparently, being venal and corrupt. Once dead he became a martyr.
Gibbons writes:” The odious stranger, disguising every circumstance of time and place, assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint and a Christian hero, and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned St.George of England, the patron of arms, of chivalry and of the garter.”
Seems to describe the UK state apparatus to some degree.
Perhaps the Cross of St. George was brought over to Scotland by the Knights Templar
The English chose it as it was a flag of the port of Genoa, and flying it made trade easier
Hi Craig
1. Much respect to you for your self-awareness and readiness to self-criticise, which is vanishingly rare among journalists and politicians.
2. Your brain obviously won’t function optimally if your circulation is impaired, nor if you’re permanently anxious. It will shut down the higher functions and switch to over-simplified black and white thinking. Emotions don’t shut down in the same degree, they become less nuanced and harder to control.
3. You need to prioritise your own health right now. You’re not the only person on the planet who can speak intelligently about about Scotland, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, or Cuba.
4. You can take a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. You have no power to prevent stupid people from believing nonsense..
We are living in an age of intense Israelification, with the best people being demonized as the worst, and vice versa. They are trying to shrink political choice to liberal and conservative variants of zionist warmonger. Monsters like Sturgeon and Burnham on one hand, Hegseth and Yaxley-Lennon on the other.
Your principled, multifaceted resistance and articulacy are a great inspiration to many in this time. A powerful incentive to keep going.
“Meanwhile, blind loyalty to the governing party in Scotland prevents any radical action. …The hero worship of Sturgeon that is so much in evidence is a large part of the problem: ”
I think that is more of a given that has to be worked around than a problem that can be fought against and solved. People want a team and/or a cause they can support and a leader they can hero-worship and not to have to think too hard about either, having, on the whole, neither the time nor the energy. This is something that goes back to prehistory and the division of labour that underpins the formation of the state and religion as organisations.
Looked at as it appears now, things are bad and likely to get worse, at least for the 90% who do not routinely profit from war and corruption. British justice, long the gold standard internationally, is now another failure of Separation of Powers. We are actively engaged in war on two foreign fronts for explicitly foreign interests with no public support. We have a cost of living crisis thanks to privatised greed and foreign policy mismanagement. Public health and health care are an invitation to disease. We are expected to sell our birthright to foreign companies to buy into AI, a scam more egregious than the South Sea bubble.
This looks abnormal but I suspect it is cyclic. There is no rebirth without what Jung called “Nigredo”, the dark night of the soul. International law collapses into “Rules based Order” which decays into rank barbarity. “Everything is legitimate” says the IDF. In Buddhism, this is a “kalpa of decrease” in which greed, arrogance and stupidity inevitably bring famine, war and pestilence. Augustine said evil is “division, absence and falling away”.
But what to do about it? The answer is always the same: awareness, understanding, action. Without the visible sacrifice of the Palestinian – and now Lebanese – people, we would continue comfortably unaware of genocidal nationalism and the complicity of our own government. Without Julian Assange and the Filton defence, we would not be aware of how degraded and unreliable British “justice” has become. The British ‘deep state’ hates you because you take the hard steps necessary to spread awareness. Without that, nothing meaningful can be achieved.. We do not know what justice should look like without seeing it fail. We emerge from Nigredo by finding our own standards, our moral imperatives. Then we can determine what strategy to adopt to make recreation unavoidable. There is no failure, except to chose complacency. We are blocked only by our own negativity. Islam calls this “true Jihad”. Change starts here.
Thank you for inspiring it. at real personal cost. Donation coming.
Every fighter needs to take a breather between rounds. So must you Craig. It’s not standing down, it’s catching your breath. Your health must be paramount so if it means you need to take a few weeks or months to recuperate then so be it. Sharing your observations and opinions here in writing is effort enough until the bell rings for the next round.
+1
If that’s our host’s idea of a ‘quick note’, I’m not sure I’ll have time to read any of his in-depth analyses. Anyway, sorry to hear about his current mental and physical health struggles. I’ll have to see whether I can drop him a line sometime in the next couple weeks – that should cheer him up.
Things could always be worse of course. For example, I see that the former boss of MI6, Sir Alex Younger, died at the age of 62 of pancreatic cancer a few days ago, which is a fairly horrible way to go. Looks like the avenging angel* of Dawn Sturgess might still be keeping busy. I’ve recently found out that Younger lost his middle child at the age of just 22 in a motor vehicle accident in Stirlingshire, nine months *to the day* after Dawn applied the fatal dose of Novichok in Amesbury (nine months being the typical human gestation period). If that’s what she’ll do to those who just signed off on the absurd goat-**** that led to her death, I don’t want to speculate about what she’ll do to those who actually put the Novichok in the bottle and/or the bottle in the charity shop bin, but I’d imagine it will make poor Gareth Williams’ protracted hold-all demise look like a typical day at the Dignitas clinic.
Enjoy the weekend.
* Speaking as I scientist, I can tell you that reality is probably multi-dimensional: in short, there are things seen – and there are things unseen.
With regards to health one thing that can be done, usually, is breathing in through one’s nose always. The microscopic nose hairs are very good at stopping infection.
Craig, I hope you eventually get the attention you deserve from the NHS and are able to spend more time doing what you do best i.e. tackling injustice and sharing stuff which the state doesn’t what us to know. Your “Yes Minister” parody a few years ago stands out as out in my mind as one of the best things I’ve ever read on any political website. I hope it wasn’t that which landed you in jail. I’ve been a follower for many years but have never contributed financially simply because I don’t want my hard-earned cash ending up in the bank accounts of fancy lawyers and barristers who never seem to achieve anything on our behalf in any event. Sorry about that but, rest assured, I’ve applied this rule consistently even where there’s been a chance I might win a legal case myself. My parting question to you is a simple one: what on earth motivates you to keep banging your head against a brick wall?
From afar there is no reason for bitterness at all.
Lets just ponder for a moment how far the discussion over Israel´s criminal conduct today has come compared to 20 years ago.
Just the mere fact that even on a major German national evening TV panel which usually belongs to the indeed mostly freakish propaganda outlets earlier this week a historian described Israel in terms which essentially amount to a fascist government.
While establishment media carry on with their lies everywhere else the consciousness of what truly is happening can be felt.
The image of Israel and the question of Palestine has experienced a historical shift in the public European mind.
And not just there.
If conservative US journos argue that the new generation of e.g. US GOP will be different, that future personnel in the Pentagon will be different – those are developments that one way or the other have lasting influence.
If ordinary protesters in Germany of all places have learned to distinguish between Zionist Jews, Non-Zionist Jews, Judaism, Zionism and so on, that must be praised. Unthinkable a couple of years ago.
Of course the elites are pushing back and putting people into prison under embarrassingly dumb and deceitful pretext.
But it doesn´t happen in the dark. People learn of it. They share the info. They resist.
Even though there is fear to talk freely in the open that won´t fool the minds. Won´t betray what man and womand and child may think in private.
None of that would be possible without work such as Craig´s.
This much should be beyond any doubt.
That´s no relief re: health issues, naturally.
But the sea change palpable in the popular intellectual fabric of the West cannot be overestimated.
It is a historic achievement. What more can one ask for in political activism.
Just because it´s not acknowledged or reported on the frontpage of the FINANCIAL TIMES is doesn´t mean it wouldn´t be real.
In fact, I would worry did the FT praise Craig´s work and that of all the other fine and formidable souls out there.
There’s nothing wrong with feeling bitter – as long as you don’t let it cloud your judgement too much – the NHS in Scotland is in a right old state – thanks to Sturgeon and the SNP – who sold Scotland out, and with more than a million + folk moving from England to Scotland and ,any other foreign settlers coming North of the Border – its not just the NHS that’s on its knees – nearly all public services are struggling with major cites declaring housing emergencies.
Lord Young’s compliance with the English court’s approach shouldn’t come as a surprise to us – the co-opted colonised almost always obey their colonisers orders.
Its a pity you didn’t stay in the hospital in Venezuela – or even in stayed near the hospital for a while – you’ll be very lucky indeed to be treated in the Scottish colony sooner than later.
Hello Craig. It is indeed a horrible time. Prioritise your health; rest and recover. All Best wishes.
Thank you for this blog Craig – I always enjoy reading it, get well soon!
NHS staff don’t answer ‘phones; it just means more work.
My GF’s neighbour had a pacemaker fitted and as soon as he got home his wife was complaining about all the extra energy he had. The fact, Craig, that you’re feeling fatigued and unwell suggests that something may have gone wrong. You need to have that ECG.
Other than going private you could game the system and call an ambulance, that way you’ll get taken to A&E and get the ECG there.
Paramedics can usually carry out an ECG (Call 111), as will a ‘walk in clinic’. Don’t need a hospital or GP to get checked. However, if a pacemaker is not working all they can do is replace it – day surgery. IMO.
Your health and family must come first. You’re no good to anyone dead, take some time off and recharge.
And, don’t start me on the NHS, it’s like the government and judiciary, broken and corrupt, they’ll take your money, your dignity and your life if you’re not careful.
I don’t think you have any reason to reproach yourself for in your response to the news that Mr Murrell was to face a term in prison. Given his offense it seems a fair trial decision and any momentary delight you may have felt at the news is totally understandable. You are not responsible for the parlous state of the UK prison system, it is a result of the mean and vicious policies of generations of parliamentarians determined to punish rather than reform.
Aside for the encouraging hopes for change that you mention, there are other reasons to be optimistic even at this stage. For example this report in Middle East Eye: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/legal-experts-accuse-palestine-action-judge-bias-lawyers-demand-recusal
“Legal experts are among thousands who have signed a formal complaint accusing the presiding judge in a Palestine Action case of bias and discriminatory conduct.” … “The complaint, which has garnered over 3,000 signatures, including by lawyers, law professors, retired police officers and magistrates, alleges that throughout the two trials, Johnson “betrayed a loss of objectivity and a personal animosity towards the defendants and the Palestinian cause, incompatible with the role of a judge”. It alleges that Johnson’s bias was evident from the outset of the trial, when he decided to treat the defendants’ conscientious motivations for breaking into the factory – to destroy weapons that would be used by Israel to kill Palestinians – as an aggravating factor in their sentencing.
In a preparatory ruling in March 2025, Johnson ruled that there appeared to be a “terrorist connection” in the case because the activists were attempting to influence the Israeli government by restricting their access to weapons. DOJ emphasised that this would be the first time in British legal history that protestors face sentencing as terrorists, without being convicted of terror offences or found guilty of intentional violence. The terrorism connection was kept secret from the jury and will be decided by Johnson at sentencing. The complaint said that the move puts the defendants’ actions on a par with Ahmed Hassan, the “Parsons Green bomber”, who is the only other person to be sentenced on the basis of a terrorism connection, without being charged with a terrorist offence.”
It is true that Mrs Sturgeon was allowed to present herself as an totally innocent victim of her husbands behavior in the mainstream media, the tedious interview on the BBC or her with an uncritical female reporter is a case in point. I am hoping that Mr Murrell might try to gain some lenience in his sentence by offering to share what he knows about the stitch up against Alex Salmon to prove she may have had a conspiratorial or prejudicial role in his prosecution, but this is probably a vain hope.
Thank you for that hope.
Sounds like Judge Jeffries has been reincarnated in Judge Johnson. I wonder if they are related.
I would also suggest either calling an ambulance or taking yourself to A&E and telling them you are having chest pain (which is true, pangs and twitches are pain).
Please, look after yourself. Yes, the world is going to hell in a handcart, but your health has to come first. Don’t underestimate how much energy the healing process is going to take both physically and mentally. The fight isn’t going away, get yourself fit again first.
Just to add, if you had been in the UK when you ended up in hospital having an emergency pacemaker, you’d have been ‘in the system’ that way, but I’d guess that ‘the system’ is struggling with you trying to enter it from ‘unknown route’. Going to A&E is just putting yourself where you would’ve been, and would get you past ‘computer says no’ to someone medical.
Hi Craig,
Thank you for this highly moving post. I have admired your work and the sacrifices you have made for years now. These have not been in vain. You have had an impact.
The acknowledgement that your tone has been overly critical lately demonstrates maturity rarely seen on the internet. It reminded me of a time in 2005 when the leader of my buddhist community observed that he was hearing many scathing personal criticisms of George W. Bush, and that students might send some compassion Bush’s way as well. It is true that both Donald Trump and Lord Young have buddha nature. Not to put words into your mouth.
I send you much appreciation. Very best wishes for your health, for your legal battle, and for your ongoing fight for justice for the oppressed.
Craig, I agree with above suggestions to phone 111, attend A&E or call an ambulance. Such an approach has become necessary these days, and your symptoms and the directions you were given but have been prevented from fulfilling demand it. Get past the bureaucratic layer and get seen by the medical staff.
Please Craig focus on your health first. You are not yourself, because we all are depressed by the relentless march of Zionism in this so-called union/country.
I detest how the Scottish court, justice and collaborating police jailed you for speaking the truth in the AS trial.
Murrell and Sturgeon never had the brevity you command and they both should be held responsible for their indy wrecking and plundering.
I applaud and support your angry face; it’s a grimace of us all, and the psychopath must recognise they can’t win.
Love you lots, take care, I shall continue to support you as best as I can.
How much did the English colonialist Zionists and the security service know/direct the s..t show they unleashed on Craig.
Craig, I am so sorry you are going through this. I hope you get the medical help you need, and experience a good recovery.
Yes, our ruler’s plan has been repeated over and over: get out in front of any movement to disturb or dislodge them, and lead it off a cliff, or into a cul-de-sac as you describe. They’ve gotten very good at it, especially since they control the media, and get to tell us what we all think about everything.
Not sure how we will win, but we will. Despite set-backs, the tectonic plates of humanity migrate ever left-ward. It’s unstoppable. The frustration is, that it is so very slow. But the children who are in schools and not working in the mines or the factories, the women who have their own money and can no longer be committed to asylums and lobotomized on the word of their husbands, people who are no longer enslaved, are living those victories. And universal voting, however they attempt to restrict it, has arrived. Despite the many great fights underway, we are winning in very, very slow motion.
And in part to you. Thank you.
Craig
As a mining engineer I became very concerned about the safety of the mine I was working in, in fact rocks were falling from the roof, a clear and present danger for a serious accident. I went up to the mine manager and said that the area must be abandoned and made safe. The I basically threatened by saying the “If you like I will put it in writing.” In mining law the mine manager can be prosicuted if there is a fatality. I was allows to seal off the area and start filling if 2 months later the area collapsed and the surface dropped 0.9 metres and no one was injured.
Serious, bad, decisions should have serious consequences.
Someone I know was rushed to hospital on Thursday and was sorted out in Casualty then was told that she’d wait in a corridor like so many others. Luckily a transfer to a ward arrived and off she went. She wants to go home but is having to wait for a doctor who keeps changing his mind. Some people sit in armchairs waiting to be seen…. It’s like Thatchler’s Britain in the 80s. Mustn’t grumble though, there’s overpriced Costa coffee and overpriced W. H. Smug papers and crisps on sale in the foyer.
Usually there are loads of staff sitting around interacting with computers too, and often an inner area where people who’ve just come in can’t see that you’ve been waiting for four hours. Sometimes they also sell bottles of water at high prices saying it’s for charity, and they give out leaflets with big adverts for solicitors on, solicitors who have “donated” the cost of “printing” in return for telling the hospital if anyone comes to them talking about wanting to sue the hospital. The NHS would be an absolute stinking pile of cack and lies and corruption even if it didn’t in some places ban the word “mother” and claim men can get pregnant. I don’t blame you for wanting to go to Cuba, @Craig – you’ll get better treatment there than in the British state system.
Regards PA I think you were set-up Craig, and the fascist scumbags had it all worked out from the start. Psychopaths are inherently sadistic, and they just lurve playing with people’s emotions….. With the end result being bitterness on your part, after investing so much of your time and energy and hope in the campaign. And once you’re in THAT zone, everything else gets you down as well. I’ve been there!
You are quite likely emotionally and mentally exhausted, so my advice is try to switch off for a while, and get into listening to your favourite music and/or read a good novel or two etc, etc, etc.
Take care (three times a day!)
Not all psychopaths are sadistic. Even those who get high scores on psychopathy and the other two of the “dark triad” (Machiavellianism and narcissism) don’t necessarily suffer from sadism either in the strict sense of getting a sexual kick out of being cruel or even just in the sense of being deliberately cruel. Psychopaths are typically callous, often extremely so, but this doesn’t necessarily come with deliberately causing suffering. Typically they don’t give a damn whether those around them suffer or not. And of course almost everyone who has that attitude does cause suffering unless they are a self-sufficient hermit. This said, of course it’s up to someone how they want to use words, and it would be stupid to quote medics and say this or that is the correct usage. Psychopathy should be talked about more, given how much it has increased with smartphone usage as phones become the centres of many people’s lives and other people get perceived mostly as stuff that happens on phones rather than as fellow humans with feelings.
Well every single psychopath I’ve encountered during the past 40 years – and I’m talking about dozens and dozens of people – have ALL been sadists. And they just absolutely love fucking you up. They are all mind-fuckers.
Okay. I will think about what you say. (In fact I’d like to hear more.) Most of my personal experience with psychopaths has been with one person in particular. This person ticks all the boxes for the dark triad, most of all on Machiavellianism where they are practically off the scale, less so on psychopathy because they are highly skilled at hiding their thoughts and aims – and the impulsiveness that sometimes features with psychopaths would get in their way. They are cruel to one person and quite possibly to one or two more, which might fit your definition of sadism (with no sexual element), but they are not cruel to everyone, and most of their friends and acquaintances think they’re nice and have no idea about their underlying personality problems.
Not sure how you have come to meet so many psychopaths – is it through professional work? They are certainly mindf*ckers and callous. Do you think much of the “dark triad” framing? Or maybe the dark tetrad? We can take this to a discussion on the forum here if you like. Seems we agree on the utility of the notion of psychopathy, which unfortunately many of our contemporaries don’t.
That extract from Young’s recent decision hardly reads like serious work by a lawyer at all. It contains errors and mealymouthed obfuscation from start to finish.
He doesn’t appear to know what “exponentially” means. He writes as if he knows the future. He argues that an English court’s decision will be “highly significant”, a term he doesn’t define. He says the judgment may or not be the final word – a totally empty observation on which nothing serious can be built. He reckons something is “almost” inevitable. (Huh? This is a reason not to allow a person in Scotland the protection of the laws of Scotland?) He seems to ignore the fact that an appeal can go to the Supreme Court either from an English or a Scottish court. And so on. Was this maybe written by a 25 year old Zionist partisan who is not very bright but who has been raised super-cocky including where host countries’ laws are concerned and who is used to relying on a strong criminal support network? Just wondering.
Not sure those are English flags, though, although it’s an amusing idea. They’re equal-armed and the arms are too thick. They may be a reference to the Knights Templar, perhaps coming from freemasonry. One would have to know who proposed them…
“Was this maybe written by a 25 year old Zionist partisan who is not very bright but who has been raised super-cocky including where host countries’ laws are concerned and who is used to relying on a strong criminal support network? Just wondering.”
Nah, probably ChatGPT.
‘Last fall, the Israeli government hired a company to help it “train ChatGPT” to be more “pro-Israel,” Responsible Statecraft reported, citing a contract with a US conservative-linked firm, Clock Tower X LLC.’
https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-training-soldiers-in-tactics-to-manipulate-public-opinion-at-home-and-abroad-report
“Zionists just take it as a given that the only way to improve public perception of Israel is to ramp up efforts to manipulate the thoughts people think about it. They never give serious attention to the possibility that Israel would have a lot more public approval if it stopped fucking murdering innocent civilians all the time and fucking torturing people and raping captives with trained rape dogs. Israel can’t possibly be wrong; only our thoughts about Israel can be wrong.”
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-could-solve-its-pr-problem