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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We of Concience Hate What is Going on.. Hope you get The Proper attention Craig.. Last time I was in Hospital I had Words with a Nurse.. Then she Refused to give me painkillers.. Still thinking of making a complaint….Take it easy FFsk
Split into 3 excellent standalone articles would have helped.
Except then it would not have been an essay on cumulative despair, which is what it is.
You’re in at the sharp end, which is why it is a good idea to take a break and get away from all the crap. Don’t worry it’ll still be here when you return, but with recharged batteries you might see things differently.
Take time off, do some reading, drink some whisky, enjoy your family. That’s an order !
Dear Craig, indeed one’s physical state affects how one sees the world. Your death would not help any good cause so your priority has to be your own health for now even if other important work for justice is neglected. We don’t win every battle in the war. Creating despair is a weapon of the Empire that we are up against. The big red crosses on the judge’s robe look ridiculous, with the irony that St George was Palestinian. The Marx / Engels “All that is solid melts into air” still fits our condition. Keep well, keep going, you may still be the first President of an independent Scotland.
Have a break, have a KitKat (or a Tunnock’s Caramel Log if you prefer). And a good strong cup of tea.
Changing the world can wait till you’re better!
Craig, I very much appreciate your post. Having recently carefully read Oborne’s “Complicit”, one of the most important books I have ever read, I am very aware that fighting one’s own bitterness is an important part of life today for anyone who is paying attention. I am also particularly glad you have brought attention to the Sturgeon situation.
Most of all as a survivor of recent major heart surgery I empathise with your health issues. I confess to being glad you have chosen to access private health care because people like me depend on people like you to draw aside the curtains of neglect in the information world.
Of course I don’t understand the details of your condition but I hope you find soon one or two clinicians you feel able to trust as my experience has been the right advice and treatment are critical.
Thanks again.
Hi Craig
The three crucial components of staying fit and well into senior years are :
1) An abiding and absorbing interest
2) A healthy diet
3) Maintaining body strength
You have the first in abundance and may have the third.
But, by the evidence of your selfies, you are massively over weight.
Start a healthy fibre filled diet immediately and walk or cycle everywhere. A folding Brompton electric bike is perfect round Edinburgh and can be slung into a car or luggage rack of any train.
Your heart problem and risk of diabetes will substantially mitigate meaning less NHS dependency.
Go easy on the Lagavulin. And, for reasons too obvious to mention, never accept a tot other than from your own bottle, sealed when purchased.
With sincere best wishes for many more years of enjoyable resistance……
Bright idea: How about baking something like Apple strudel or some Uzbeki snacks or homemade pasta. When we cook it has a beginning, middle and end, a sense of completion, while your advocacy work, due to its nature, has no perceivable end. In the kitchen with the good lady and the children making a meal , enjoying it together might take a little stress off.
Craig, as a man of integrity, your expressed discomfort at frustration with the apparent turn of events is admirable, though regret at same imv uncalled for. Behaviour of the spooks and the acquiescence of Lord Young are genuinely infuriating, but the fightback is in progress – the government has taken a hit with your winning permission to petition. Young has revealed himself a stuffed shawl, while the shadowy off-stage manoeuvres required to stall proceedings only spotlight corruptible jurisdiction in public relief. Selection of 15 June for handing down the judgment from the JR appeal might for some motive be linked to the sentencing of the Filton 6 on June 12, though not rationally evident for why. Resistance continues …*
Palestine Solidarity Campaign ? Necessary PR work, yet there is sthg unsavoury about their intransigent commitment to a discredited politics making a career lifestyle of protest. As for Murrell, scathing bragging rights are entirely onside. Your having been personally targeted and fitted up for a stretch makes the Schadenfreude wholly justifiable – glee at such an outturn simply manifests a natural corrective for karmic imbalance in the world. Possibly the challenge with embitterment is to remain pleasantly embittered, for which setting the tale to a ballad might prove recuperative. And fun. Poor fellow, the ridicule in his improbity – a luxury camping car, with half a dozen-or-so miles on the clock, parked on his mother’s driveway … was he expecting to return home one day to find the keys no longer worked his front door ?
Anyhow, paramount is paying attention to your health, especially for your quality of life and those close to you – appealing the sist can provide a bonus thereafter. Annoyingly, the NHS has not been a Service as such for a good while now (not unique to UK neither). Do take time for repose & equilibrity!
* For those with reasonable French btw, I’d recommend searching out online video interviews with barrister Elsa Marcel promoting publication of her book “«État du droit», ordre bourgeois – Renouer avec la défense politique” [La fabrique éditions]. Deals with structural challenges for administration of justice when political executives instrumentalise the law to brand social control.
It’s the weekend. Have a wee laugh to cheer you up.
https://www.youtube.com/@TheCrewkerneGazette
Craig – I am sorry to read all of this. Rather than your being self critical, perhaps you should reflect on the trauma that has visited you in the past few years. From having administrative doors slammed in your face, being thrown in jail for no good reason whatsoever, suffering ill health (of a life-threatening degree), and having every last shred of belief that even a modicum of decency exists in the state we live in (and which you yourself served)…. all this is deeply disturbing, not to say damaging, to one’s psyche.
You can be assured that you have done everything possible, against an implacable foe with almost unlimited resources. I’m not trying to patronise you with “well, you did your best” – but seriously, what more could and can you do? Other than drive yourself to an early demise.
A couple of people surprised me by volunteering, just in the past month, that we’ve done all we can now – it has to fall to the next generations to pick up and work things out the best they can. With some guidance, if they’ll accept it.
I don’t suppose for a moment you’ll actually quit, but do slow down for a while. The system doesn’t care about rules or fairness or truth – unless it can be employed usefully against its opponents. It’s almost a relief to finally realise there is no God, and there is no justice… this is when one gets an almost Zen-like appreciation that the world moves on, and we must observe and let go. At least partially, and at least at some times. Allow yourself some peace.
All the best.
Hi Craig, love reading all your posts.
your humanity and humility and ability to recognise your own mistakes and weaknesses are an example to us all.
So many people are outraged, depressed, frustrated by what is going on… At keast you are trying to do something about, often at at great personal cost. One day you’ll kick the bucket like us all, but you’ll know you did all you could..
Keep going
It will be very interesting if the Court of Appeal makes a judgment on 15th June that annoys the government, the sort of annoyance that is seen in John 18:30. Let’s wait and see.
Dear Craig,
Thanks for this article. I well recognize from my current experience as an NHS patient the dawning shock and astonishment as you realise a two-tier health system has already arrived in the UK. My condition is disabling but not not life-threatening so I’m going to remain in the NHS queue for the operation and not go private. But OF COURSE if it’s a heart condition, there’s no choice if you can afford it. It is natural to feel bitter and twisted at being put in this position. It’s awful to think of the thousands of people in the UK who can no longer access treatment when they need it.
Re. the Crispin interview, I watched it live and thought it succeeded perfectly well as an answer to the broad “what do you take from all this” question – summarising the sequence of events with the SNP Treasurer blocked from seeing accounts, etc. – the fabrication of complaints against Alex Salmond, ministers pressurising the police, the weakness of the prosecution case. Sometimes when people speak very fluently it’s impressive but goes too fast and people listening can miss important points. Anyway, all best wishes for health, legal success and a balanced state of mind!
Craig, I am very troubled by your health concerns and the lack of urgency applied by the NHS. It is very sad that it may take another heart attack to get the urgent attention you deserve. I have always read and admired your work greatly, your insider knowledge and the fluency and vocabulary of your writing is always a pleasure to read as well as being very informative. I share your opinion of the Murrells but, like yourself, I cannot for the life of me understand the continuing blind loyalty of the Nicola gang. She has shown herself to be nothing short of a traitor to the Indy cause and a bare-faced liar to-boot! The sheer frustration of watching her manipulate her way out of trouble is getting to many of us, our Lord Advocate and most of the Judiciary are a disgrace. As for regretting your modicum of pleasure at Mr Murrell’s new living arrangements, well, I think you are entitled to enjoy the small victories Craig, the bigger more important fights seem to be increasingly stacked against us. Take care of yourself as best you can brother.
Swinneys refusal to agree to a public inquiery speaks volumes.
Past estmates of the Indy account was said to be 650.000, so were is the rest not accounted for?
Have others had their fingers in the till, how come nobody in the SNP has a desire to cleanse their colonial administration of their self servers, their abysmal energy policies, their failure to provide safe modern ferries to the many islands which feel cut off from many services others find easy to access in the rest of Scotland.
The traitor administration is acting like a threatened hedgehog, warm and comfy inside while showing their thorny outside, inaccesible and incommunicado.
Maybe Gordon Ramsay could sort these hucksters and show the door.
A procedure known as “turning kings evidence” aka ” witness socius criminis” under Scottish legal procedures, allows a guilty party to receive a reduced sentence if they cooperate in allowing the court to bring other wrongdoers to justice.
As Mr. Murrell is likely to receive a substantial sentence, could he negotiate such a favour from the courts in Scotland by giving evidence against any other offender/s in this criminal enterprise.
Here’s hoping I’ve cheered you up Mr.Murray.
Wes Streeting could not have demonstrated his antipathy toward an NHS free at the point of service any more clearly if he had invited his Zionist paymasters to bomb hospitals in Britain as they have in Gaza and Lebanon.
For him to have lately voiced opposition to Israel’s late systematic war crimes is beyond hypocrisy and shows him fearing that a Green party candidate will force his snout out of the trough at the next election
Craig currently trending on twitter X after kicking Hasbarist hornets nest.
https://x.com/i/trending/2063944755914875266
I agree with what you say but am reminded that some years back I was thinking about the prospects of a second referendum and came to the realisation that none will take place until support is EMBARRASSINGLY high (75% plus) That being the case we need to make sure we actually campaign for public opinion NOW rather than wait for a referendum.
This circles round to the £600k donations that were for the purposes of furthering independence (I genuinely don’t know how it was worded or what was actually agreed) Back before I knew Murrell had made off with £400k I had thought that the funds had been misused rather than stolen. IIRC there was a period when SNP had to mount THREE major campaigns within two years for Westminster, Holyrood and then Westminster again when, I think, Theresa May called a snap election. This, I thought, would explain where the funds went to. Of course now it appears that BOTH are true. Murrell has taken £400k and Swinney is trying to tell us that ANY money spent on SNP is money spent promoting independence. I’m sure he doesn’t believe this but, legally, it’s something he can try to use to prevent the party being sued for the return of the money. Aside from the scandalous nature of these issues it’s leaving the party, potentially, £1million down when they can likely least afford it. Time will tell as to whether Sean Clerkin will sue on behalf of the donors for a return of misused funds.
As all this plays out the SNP would do well to remember that ALL votes are tactical votes. This is precisely how they got into power – Labour were the ‘only’ party people could vote for if they were working class or had a conscience right up until SNP reached a tipping point. There’s nothing to stop another party coming along and doing the same. Alba and Your Party were contenders for this as they appealed broadly – Alba with anti-trans and Your Party with genuinely progressive policies. And now we’re worried about the racist among the working class being persuaded to vote Reform,many already have and they have put the lie to the thought that Scotland isn’t a racist country.
Again, issues surrounding the party in power have been amplified in such a way that they are not when it’s Westminster (remember Peter Bone?) We don’t need marches (just marches) as they are for reinforcing those we’ve already persuaded. There needs to be a newspaper and billboard campaign across the country to reach people who either don’t think about it or, better still, actively disagree with it. Will this happen? Doubtful..
” And now we’re worried about the racist among the working class being persuaded to vote Reform….”
I’m afraid that perception, ie that only ” Racists ” vote/will vote Reform is part of the reason why increasing numbers of people are turning away from the legacy Political Parties or choosing not to vote at all.
I detest Reform and everything they stand for – Greed; ( even more ) Corporate Power/Control; a cynical faux-patriotism/Little England-as-Britain+daft Jocks-that-think-Britannia-is-actually-*cool* ( bahaha)- exceptionalism. But that party is the only one at least addressing the issue that is of genuine concern to an awful lot of people: whatever our own thoughts on the issue – Immigration.
Calling people who have such concerns * Racist * is doing nothing except driving them to entities like Reform/Reform/Remorse ( I made that last one up, but it might be good name for a future party after the current ones and * new * ones have wreaked their savagery on the populace ).
re Immigration……I’d recommend a stop to all of it until a proper, ie honest, accurate, assessment is made of numbers, countries of origin and impact/effect, eg on housing, NHS, social relations etc. I’d also like to see a more stringent vetting procedure – as previously rhetorically asked….would anyone let complete strangers, often from radically different cultures, move into their home? No, obviously, yet that is what is happening vis-a-vis our countries/communities.
There may be practical reasons why Immigration is massively dominated by young single males, eg they’re the ones most able to endure the rigours of getting to host nations and not as vulnerable as young single women. But this fact doesn’t make the situation any less fraught. Groups of young men, frustrated in all kinds of ways, lacking money and – often – work opportunities and more often than not obliged to hang around idly on the street is a recipe for conflict; virtually guaranteed.
What about swaying the intake towards young families: which might help to reduce tendencies to criminality and provide stability for the immigrant people themselves.
Yes, and I find it funny how statements by detestable people like JD Vance and Hegseth have sent the likes of Lammy and Starmer into fits of ‘how very dare they !’. Vance mentioned the impact of immigration on the UK and Hegseth contrasted the sacrifices made to protect Europe from invasion on D Day with the situation today with immigration. All things that Joe public in the UK is well aware of but is banned from saying by the likes of Starmer and Lammy !
Immigration is a real problem for the UK, it affects housing, it affects health services, it affects policing but we’re told we’re racists if we raise these issues and instead have to rely on racists and morons to state the bleeding obvious.
If reform get into power you can thank Starmer, Lammy and the rest of the main stream politicians.
Here’s the Green Party’s policy on immigration. It seems to be trying the opposite of stoking anger :
https://greenparty.org.uk/about/our-manifesto/a-fairer-greener-welcome/
My own twopence worth is: the last line could be applied to ‘shortage areas’. We can all sympathise with young people who are citizens who are finding it difficult to find ‘good’ career opportunities in over-subscribed areas, but there may remain many jobs that citizens don’t want to do, such as fruit picking or caring for the elderly, clearing rubbish (some of it illegally dumped) or even teaching. Refugees could be permitted to work in such ‘shortage areas’, and (perhaps like French foreign legionnaires) after a period of ‘qualifying service’, their passage to residence or citizenship could be expedited.
“but there may remain many jobs that citizens don’t want to do, such as fruit picking or caring for the elderly, clearing rubbish”.
The common problem with all these jobs is not that people don’t want to do them, it’s that they are low paid and as such it is impossible to build a ‘career’ or live a practical life on the slave labour wages. The costs of food, fuel and rents mean that ordinary people have a choice of exploitation or unemployment and benefits. The solution is not exploiting immigrants but paying a fair wage for an honest days work. The capitalist system ensures that profit comes before fairness and it appears that the minimum wage was a trap that has increased inequality. The whole system is corrupted, tinkering around the edges won’t make a bit of difference. I despair for the indigenous younger generation.
“The solution is not exploiting immigrants but paying a fair wage for an honest days work. ”
The problem comes when the “honest day’s work” doesn’t add enough value to allow a “fair wage” to be paid. If the added value of a task is less than its cost, there is no point in doing it. The problem then lies elsewhere. Take fruit picking for example. If the grower gets so little for their produce that, once the pickers have been paid the cost of picking is less than the value of the picked fruit, then there is no point in picking the fruit in the first place. Better to leave it to rot, which does happen. The solution is to pay more for the finished product, but then, in the case of food, either the supermarkets won’t be able to make the profits to which they have become accustomed or everyone will have to pay more for their food. Cheap food is a mirage anyway: every penny saved on food goes in additional rent or mortgage payments.
MJ, Fen farmers have tried to employ British workers, but the experiment failed. Inexperience, lateness and sheer inability to follow and carry out simple fast hard work, to the same wage of £9/hrs. did not fare well.
When crops are ripe, they cant wait to be harvested and migrants, who are still exploited, are the better option for farmers.
Gang masters are the real problem as they scoop up the workers in the morning and charge them for every journey they make.
https://medium.com/when-farmers-speak/why-british-farmers-experiment-in-hiring-local-workers-instead-of-foreign-workers-failed-miserably-76057c2b816a
Sounds like someone’s been reading the Daily Mail.
Go on, attack the man not the ball …
Anger is an energy according to Johny Rotten
Present at an AnE if the twinges persist, Lothian NHS boasts about having the best cardio care in the UK, you’re getting the runaround from the drones.
Give Lord Scott the benefit of the doubt, if it turns out he’s fucking you over you can write about it and destroy his posthumous legacy – look at Denning, his name is mud outside of a shrinking circle.
Just came across the following article in the Jewish Chronicle, posted on June 5th, which seems relatively impartial:
Convicted Palestine Action activists apply to have judge thrown off case before sentencing
Campaign group Defend Our Juries, which has supported the group’s legal campaigns, accused Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson of ‘manifest bias and discrimination’
A campaign group backing the legal campaigns of four convicted Palestine Action activists has applied to have the judge thrown off their case before they can be sentenced.
Defend Our Juries has submitted a complaint to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) accusing Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson of exhibiting “manifest bias and discrimination” against the defendants….
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/convicted-palestine-action-activists-judge-bias-pqyi7okq
Somehow I thought this could fit here:
Clare Daly in a nice podcast episode of THE DITCH about our war era from Ireland´s perspective.
Despite all the difficulties – including her narrow loss for reelection for the EP – it brims with resistance.
A good hint, she compared the historic situation of Poland vis-a-vis Russia as the inferior nation to Ireland and England.
It sounds rather obvious – but only after she made the point! Apparently MEPs from Poland used to be surprised about the comparison too.
A new perspective is always helpful. Also to know we are not alone.
50 min.
“Former MEP Clare Daly talks about politics, corruption, Europe, and the future of the Left.
The Party Line is a podcast from The Ditch, ontheditch.com, with Niamh Ní Bhriain, Harry Browne and Eoghan McNeill of The Ditch.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIzzX-es-Cc
Frankly comparing Poland’s fears over Russia with Daly’s belief that Britain harbours intentions to re-occupy Ireland is farcical, we no longer have the forces for one thing, and I’m not surprised it left Polish delegates bewildered.
Daly does appear to be a little confused, having denounced Putin; Quote:- “the decision by Russia to abandon diplomacy and invade Ukraine is contrary to international law. The sole responsibility for this is borne by President Vladimir Putin” she voted against each and every censure or countermeasure.
Pears Morgaine
June 9, 2026 at 05:06
Pears, I expect that Daly is trying to move away from the (accurate) public perception of her as a Russophile loon.
Poland was divided and devoured by Stalin’s USSR and by Hitler’s Großgermanisches Reich
Ireland was “fortunate” to have only one expansionist power as a neighbour.
Daly isn’t very bright.
“Poland was divided and devoured by Stalin’s USSR and by Hitler’s Großgermanisches Reich”
Do try to do a minimum of research before putting finger to keyboard. Neither Hitler nor Stalin were born when Poland was divided between Germany and Russia. I recommend a perusal of a pre-WWI atlas looking for a state called Poland (hint: you won’t find it).
Go back further and you’ll find that Poland existed as a sovereign state as far back as the 11th century. Post WW1 the Republic of Poland was reconstituted only to be divided up between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia in 1939 under the Molotov/Ribbentrop pact. Post war Poland endured 45 years of Russian oppression before regaining its independence in the 1990s.
All that is true, but it’s still irrelevant to what Clare Daly was talking about.
Robot malfunction or is she away with the fairies? Back in the distant past Poland in the Russian empire was comparable to Ireland under the “UK”. Got to go much further back for Ireland being under England.
“Got to go much further back for Ireland being under England.”
Nope, throughout the C19th, eastern Poland was part of Russia and all of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. Poland got its statehood back after WWI and Ireland got independence a few years later. Part of Poland ended up in Ukraine and part of Ireland stayed in the UK. Looks pretty similar to me.
“Frankly comparing Poland’s fears over Russia with Daly’s belief that Britain harbours intentions to re-occupy Ireland is farcical, ”
Almost as farcical as commenting on something you have neither read properly, nor listened to. The clue is the word “historic” in AG’s comment. Clare Daly is not suggesting that the UK is about to occupy Ireland, nor is she suggesting that Russia is about to attack Poland (although I appreciate that that is an article of faith for you), she is comparing the Polish experience of being occupied by Russia in the C19th with the Irish experience of the same happening to them at the same time, except with England.
She’s dismissive of Poland’s concerns about Putin’s Russia and makes a rather strange comparison to Ireland’s occupation by Britain. From the transcript:-
I remember when we were in the European Parliament at the start a big row developing and this big huge Polish fell sitting beside me going on about the Russian threat now this would have been before the war on Ukraine like you know and I was kind of going excuse me sorry now I don’t think the Russians are any threat to us and he nearly got apoplelectic like that it’s all right for you over on the other side. You don’t know what it’s like, you know. And I said, “Excuse me, sorry.” And we actually do. We also have a big aggressive neighbour who occupied us on our doorstep. But our solution wasn’t to rearm the IRA. It was a peace process.
It’s not 100% clear what she’s going on about I grant you.
re: Gaza – stand-up comedy
I don´t want to overstate it but another item that would show things are changing (even if very slowly) is this new interview with Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef by the Israel-apologetic German left daily TAZ – which has become extremely imperialistic in many aspects and symbolizes the disintegration of the German left. Of course the criticism doesn´t cut deep. But at least matters cannot be ignored.
machine-translation
https://archive.is/Qoz6h
Clare should keep it simple for the warmongers in her own country and beyond: Britain does occupy Ireland; Russia doesn’t occupy Poland.
Here is a piece on the widespread use of rape by the occupying terrorists in Palestine, including their frequent use of dogs for maximum degradation of prisoners:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/9/they-were-laughing-israels-use-of-rape-and-sexual-abuse-in-prisons
Sounds as though the soldiers playing what they call “God” to the local population in this way are having a lot of fun doing it too.
Are any British, USA, or German parliamentarians reading this? Here’s your cue. Stand up straight, raise your empty wallets, chant that the occupying entity has “the right to defend itself”, and your wallets will be filled. Same procedure as every time.
It’s difficult not to feel angry and let that out in an occasional rant.
Yesterday, Starmer’s government announced is trying to force Apple and Google to deploy client-side scanning(CSS) for all, under the guise of protecting children. Tbh, it’d be better to deny under 16s access to smartphones altogether than this; more basic phones – that just do SMS text messaging (limited to 160 characters and calls – do exist. If Apple and Google comply, it will end the right to any and all privacy in communications, for the vast majority, as the UK govt has powers, it can exercise in secret, that virtually guarantee the point below about the ‘Risk of Mission Creep and Abuse’ would come to pass. Apple(iOS) and Google(Android) can be found on 70% of the world’s mobile and tablet devices. Apple previously faced a huge consumer backlash when they themselves mooted deploying(CSS). The simple fact is this: around just ~1% of a given western adult population are paedophiles, thus, this, like the EU’s Chat Control, is a huge sledgehammer approach to crack a very small, albeit admittedly odious nut. And it’s been shown than in 70% of actual abuse cases the abuser is known to the child, i.e. a relative or guardian. So these proposals will do little to stop that abuse.
Client-side scanning (CSS) of private communications is widely condemned by human rights organizations, legal experts, and internet governance bodies as a violation of fundamental rights due to its inherent incompatibility with end-to-end encryption (E2EE) and its potential for mass surveillance. The following is an AI summary of the many issues with CSS:
Key Human Rights Violations and Concerns:
• Erosion of Privacy and Confidentiality: CSS requires scanning content on devices before encryption or after decryption, effectively breaking the privacy promise of E2EE. This allows third parties, including state actors, to access personal, financial, and health data, violating the right to privacy and data protection guaranteed by frameworks like the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.
• Chilling Effect on Free Expression: The knowledge that all communications are subject to indiscriminate scanning creates a chilling effect, discouraging open dialogue among journalists, whistleblowers, activists, lawyers, and marginalized groups. This undermines freedom of expression and freedom of opinion, as users self-censor to avoid potential flagging or surveillance.
• Risk of Mission Creep and Abuse: Critics argue that once scanning infrastructure is in place, it can be easily repurposed beyond its initial stated goal (e.g., detecting child sexual abuse material) to target political dissent, LGBTQ+ content, or other lawful speech. This poses a significant risk to democratic liberties and human rights defenders, especially in authoritarian regimes where such technology could facilitate repression.
• Disproportionate and Indiscriminate Nature: CSS operates without individual suspicion or warrant, treating all users as potential suspects. Legal services, including the Council of the EU’s Legal Service, have highlighted that this constitutes indiscriminate mass surveillance, failing the tests of necessity and proportionality required under international human rights law.
• Security Vulnerabilities and False Positives: The technology introduces new security risks, such as database manipulation to hide illegal content or frame innocent users. False positives from automated scanning can lead to unjustified reporting to law enforcement, causing harm to innocent individuals, including children and victims of abuse who need secure channels to seek help. Organizations like Access Now, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and the Child Rights International Network (CRIN) consistently argue that CSS is a lose-lose proposition that undermines cybersecurity, weakens trust in the internet, and fails to effectively address complex social harms while severely infringing on human rights.
How stupid does the Government think we are? The moment a measure like this is implemented, all but a small minority of those who have something to hide will stop using any form of communication compromised by CSS, including paedophiles. Meanwhile, those who are ill-disposed towards the government will have been handed a channel to feed misinformation into snooping ears. Something like this will only work if it is done in secret, but since it is impossible to keep it a secret, it is not worth doing it at all.
Bayard
Despite Starmer’s ultimatum, the UK government cannot force Apple to build client-side scanning without severe operational, legal, and international pushback. As the deployment of client-side scanning fundamentally breaks end-to-end encryption.
Given the fact Apple have seen that huge consumer backlash themselves, when the UK previously pushed for client-side scanning, they may even flatly reject and dare the Govt to try to compel them, risking Apple turning services off and tariffs from the U.S. govt. They may also take into account the fact that Starmer is likely to be replaced as PM around conference season, which typically starts at the end of September.
The U.S. Embassy has issued a statement : https://uk.usembassy.gov/u-s-government-response-to-the-uk-consultation-growing-up-in-the-online-world/ which seems far better informed from a technical perspective than Starmer and his clueless ministers, who don’t understand the technical complexities and risks to privacy.
Does anyone really trust the state with communications by letter, phone or electronic devices? I haven’t got anything to hide and I make sure that I don’t put that in writing. ;O)
I very much doubt the spooks bother with monitoring the mail any more and steaming open countless birthday cards.
Maybe if the government is really concerned with protecting children they should look into ensuring responsible parenting !
However, as most people know children are just a convenient excuse for screwing everyone’s privacy.
Yep, parenting is something that everyone is just supposed to know how to do without being shown how, like management.
I’m no expert on smartphones, Goose, but surely it’s a tall order to expect engineers at Apple & Google to be able to design software that detects when under-18’s are about to use their phone camera take a nude selfie (with *existing* phones, as well as new ones) and stops them from being able to do that, all within three months.
However, let’s assume it can be done. What’s to stop enterprising light & dark dealers selling entry-level smartphones & SIM-only deals with pre-paid debit cards, registered to various smackheads who don’t give a ****, to kids outside the school gates, for say £500 a pop (which is still a lot cheaper than the latest phones)? Then they can send as many dick pics to girls in their class as they want – until they get a knock on the door from the bizzies.
I didn’t have to go through what you went through Craig but I too hope that Murrell ends up in the same cell. This is perfectly normal thinking.
Is the Zionist knife out for Donald Trump? The Financial Times have published a piece saying he’s Jimmy Carter and he’s handing over the controls to Iran. A strange combo, one would have thought, but Edward Luce manages to argue for it, linking Trump to both the Zionist-hated Carter and the Zionist-hated Iran:
https://archive.is/1Ifzf
If Trump kicks up a fuss about the Zionist onslaught in Lebanon, perhaps next he’ll be linked to Haman…as the grassy knoll approaches? Or of course he could wheel around in a mega-TACO and cease all this “I tell Netanyahu what to do” stuff. Those who believe the Zionist entity takes its orders ftom the USA (disregarding Chomsky’s being on Epstein’s payroll) should pay close attention.
Ignore what the media tell you and look at the reality on the ground, all these supposed disagreements are manufactured PR for the gullible. USrael has no interest in peace with Iran, they intend to destroy the country and steal it’s assets – just like in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, etc.
Same with Russia, the Ukraine war could end tomorrow if the USA wanted it to, but they don’t.
It reminds me of Jackie Pallo’s expose of professional wrestling in his autobiography, “You Grunt, I’ll Groan”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Pallo
However it is entirely possible that the Donald doesn’t realise he is in a real-life version of The Truman Show.
Stevie Boy
June 10, 2026 at 07:44
The “Ukraine war could end tomorrow if [Russia] wanted it to, but they don’t”.
Your relationship with reality appears tenuous, keep drinking the kool aid.
Stevie Boy
June 10, 2026 at 09:45
You don’t believe that the Ukraine war would end tomorrow if Russia announced a ceasefire and a schedule for the withdrawal of their troops from Ukraine?
Why not?
JK redux
For Ukraine is not driving the agenda against Russia – its merely a pawn in the West’s unending game – (Great Game if you taken in Westminster) to overcome Russia. The Wests MIC’s need boogeymen, to keep profits high, and Russia is one of them.
“Why not?”
Because when Russia offered to do that at the start of the war, the offer was rejected.
Because when Russia offered to do that at the start of the war, the offer was rejected.
Still pedalling that creaky old myth Bayard.
https://euvsdisinfo.eu/report/us-and-boris-johnson-forced-ukraine-not-to-sign-the-peace-deal-in-istanbul/
You make me laugh: “It’s a myth, and here’s a propaganda site as proof”.
re: Boris Johnson vs. peace negotiations
1) Ukrainian Pravda on May 5th, 2022:
„(…)As soon as Ukrainian negotiators and Abramovich/Medinsky had broadly agreed on the structure of a possible future agreement following the Istanbul summit, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared in Kyiv almost without warning .
“Johnson brought two simple messages to Kyiv: Putin is a war criminal, he needs to be pressured, not negotiated with. And secondly, if you are ready to sign any guarantee agreements with him, then we are not. We can with you, but not with him, he will abandon everyone anyway ,” one of Zelensky’s close associates summarizes the essence of Johnson’s visit.(…)“
https://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2022/05/05/7344096/
2) “Peoples Dispatch” picked up this story for English speaking audiences shortly after:
„(…)
According to the report, Johnson came to Kiev on a surprise visit apparently to “express solidarity” and announce financial and military aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. However, during his meeting with Zelensky, Johnson asked him not to continue with the talks which were going on in Turkey, asserting that Putin needs to be defeated.
Zelensky’s public position on talks with Russia shifted dramatically following this visit. Only a few days prior to the visit, Zelensky had proclaimed that there is no alternative to talks with Russia.
(…)“
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/05/09/ukrainian-news-outlet-suggests-uk-and-us-governments-are-primary-obstacles-to-peace/
3) On April 8th after visiting Bucha Josep Borrell published a TWEET:
“(…)
This war will be won on the battlefield. An additional €500 million in EU aid is underway. Arms deliveries will be tailored to Ukraine’s needs,” Mr. Borrell wrote on Twitter.
(…)”
As first reported by KOMMERSANT
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5304121
4) Interestingly Zelensky AFTER Bucha still suggested peace talks.
5) John Mearsheimer in an interview with German magazine CICERO on June 29, 2022, suggested that unlike Scholz and Macron:
“(…) The Americans see things quite differently; they do not want a negotiated solution. Rather, the Americans have an interest in defeating Russia militarily on Ukrainian soil.(…)”
https://www.cicero.de/aussenpolitik/john-mearsheimer-ukraine-krieg-eu-russland-ende-nato-schuld
6) This view was also shared e.g. by Connor Echols in RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/09/02/diplomacy-watch-why-did-the-west-stop-a-peace-deal-in-ukraine/
7) And Branko Marcetic via TWITTER on Aug 30 2022:
„(…)Remember it was a Ukrainian pro-Western paper that reported Johnson’s scuttling of the talks. Now, thanks to Hill, we know those talks actually bore fruit. The Western press, btw, continues to simply pretend this reporting doesn’t exist.(…)“
https://x.com/BMarchetich/status/1564663210204172288
8) Jeffrey Sachs stressed this issue in his latest letter to German chancellor Merz, again, on May 28th:
“(…)the April 2022 Istanbul agreement that was within reach. Just weeks after Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators converged in Istanbul on the terms of a peace agreement: Ukrainian neutrality outside NATO, multilateral security guarantees, agreed troop limits, and the political resolution of the Donbas and Crimea questions over time. The agreement was within days of signature. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, one of the mediators, has confirmed publicly that the deal was close and that the West — the United States and the United Kingdom in particular — moved to block it. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s mission to Kyiv in April 2022 to instruct Ukraine not to sign is a matter of public record. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian lives, and the wider European order, have paid the price for that US–UK intervention. Germany has not raised its voice on this — even though Germany, more than any other European state has borne the economic consequences.(…)”
https://www.jeffsachs.org/newspaper-articles/sj32jtl6876pd8aaeb23y7pzxbyrrp
Were it not true Sachs would not repeat this in a letter in the court of public opinion.
9) German NACHDENKSEITEN did a “fact-check” on Sachs´s point:
Bennett was quoted by German evening News then:
“(…)When asked by the journalist whether the West had blocked the potential ceasefire, Bennett replied: “Basically, yes.”(…)”
Swiss paper WELTWOCHE quoted Turkish SoS Cavusoglu:
“(…)Some NATO states wanted the war in Ukraine to continue in order to weaken Russia.(…)”
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in an interview for BERLINER ZEITUNG daily (I then posted in the forum):
“(…)
“During the peace negotiations in Istanbul in March 2022 with Rustem Umerov [then Zelenskyy’s security advisor, now Ukraine’s Defense Minister], the Ukrainians did not agree to peace because they were not permitted to do so. They had to consult the Americans regarding everything they discussed. (…) Yet in the end [of the peace negotiations], nothing happened. My impression: Nothing *could* happen, because all further decisions were made in Washington. That was disastrous.”
(…)”
10) Victoria Nuland btw never claimed that Russia was not willing to negotiate. She wiggled out of the qustion by pointing to the appendix of the settlement which had addressed “advanced weapons” stationed in Ukraine which the Russians naturally did not agree to. She spins it in a way that without question that was equal to opposing any serious settlement. Totally muting the fact that the issue of missiles was one of the main reasons why Russian military leadership was so worried about Ukraine´s proximity to NATO. Where “advanced weapons” is printed, WMDs are included.
p.s. It´s funny: The same dude, Boris Johnson, who throughout his time in office was criticized by British media to be a playboy, not serious, sef-promoting, and not the most honest of PMs – by the same media all of a sudden was elevated to the rank of impeccable source of integrity and responsibility when it came to denounce Russia and promote jingoist views.
JK Redux
Always this platitude “If Russia only lay down their weapons..”, the fact is that Russia have no reason to lay down it’s arms, what started as a war between Russia and Ukraine became a Western lead war against Russia. The war could have been over first weeks into the war, instead the West pitted Ukraine to continue to fight. Besides, the West has offered no deal or reason for Russia to stop fighting.
Maybe of interest a small item of evidence as to why Russia feels (and is) militarily superior: This analysis of the desastrous NATO Kursk offensive of 2023.
“The Collapse of Citadel 2.0: Why Kyiv’s Counteroffensive Failed”
Febr. 2024
https://archive.is/zG2u5
A Russian officer in matter of fact tone breaks down the attack and how the failure unfolded.
He also puts it into historic context with the 1943 attack in Kursk:
It was originally published by one of the major Russian military academic magazines MILITARY THOUGHT and then republished by TASS.
+++
Ukrainian and NATO forces are using drones in high numbers against civilian targets and increasingly launched from covert civilian trucks (which technically is a war crime) for the simple reason that they have no other means left.
The attempt is apparently to “terrorize” the Russian population.
The Ukrainian leadership either wants to provoke unrest in Russia over this as stated by Zelensky publicly (which however is delusional and I personally think Ukrainians in fact know this) or to provoke the Russian leadership into attacking NATO so that NATO finally can take part in the war officially and without any restraints.
Both goals cruel as they may seem make military sense from the POV of Ukraine if they whish to perpetuate the war. And this is only possible with dragging NATO in.
This method of “terror” by the military of a nation-state was as British know too well practiced by Germany during the Blitz. Realizing that losses of bombers were too high to sustain against serious targets Hitler ordered a different strategy – attack soft targets that would be less defended.
Allied Command countered this stategy later with their own carpet bombing of German cities. That too did not meet any serious military longterm goal but was supposed to wear out the population. However Germans did not stop supporting the government either.
I guess satisfying a public´s thirst for revenge plays in too with some of these decisions. That at least does serve a political end.
It was originally published by one of the major Russian military academic magazines MILITARY THOUGHT and then republished by TASS.
So totally unbiased then….
I’ve noticed that pro-Russian bloggers are increasingly whining about Ukraine allegedly targeting Russian civilians, conveniently ignoring Russia’s prolonged attacks on Ukraine’s civilians, the daily missile and drone attacks on Kyiv, attempts to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and district heating every winter in an attempt to starve and freeze the population into submission. Over 16,000 civilians have been killed including 800 children. some 1,500 schools have been destroyed, 1,700 hospitals and medical care facilities destroyed or damaged.
Some might argue it’s no bad thing for Russians to experience what’s being done in their name, personally I think it would be a waste of effort. Bombing civilians into submission simply doesn’t work. Otherwise attacks on Russian oil refineries have led to output being cut by 40% for what the Russians are coyly referring to as ‘unplanned maintenance’.
Apart from the banal truism that zero dead during a war would be preferable and with that no war at all – if the ONHCR numbers are not corrupted – around 8,500 I believe, of the 16,000 killed Ukrainian civilians, were killed in the first year of the war. And of those 8,500 around 5000 were killed in the first 6 weeks of the war.
Also I assume the majority of killed are still people from the Donbas. So the Ukrainian government is in part abusing the death of those of whom many wished to have an independent status from rightwing nationalist Kiev government.
We know since that many casualties (I wonder if we will ever be told in the West how many) were caused by debris of Ukrainian AD positioned among civilian buildings knowing full well that would probably be causing civilian deaths.
Same is true for military targets hidden among civilian structures. Targets Ukrainian authorities knew would be hit by Russian missiles.
The numbers of shools and hospitals destroyed or hit I would very much doubt as they come from Ukrainian sources who are lying a lot. They can do so since anything that they report is taken wholesome by Western media and spit out in a sickly jingoist fashion.
Considering the scale of the war and killed soldiers the number of killed civilians is remarkably low. Which goes back to Russian conduct of the war.
With increasing desperation and decreasing means on the Ukrainian side the likelihood of Russians attacking dual-use facilities is growing however. Not least due to the fact that Ukrainians are hiding arms in civilian vehicles. So Russians are now targetting every civilian truck. Of course they do not always know if that truck is loaded with precious food or arms. So both get destroyed.
By our Western PR this has not yet been reported but eventually they will and then picture it as if Hilterite Putin is deliberately destroying Ukrainians food supply to starve Ukrainians to death.
The moment there is a serious ceasefire NATO would immediately push as many arms and men into West Ukraine as possible and prepare for new hostilities.
The US does not want an end to this war. Nor do the Ukrainian Neonazis and nationalists.
Understandably so as they have been homing for this to happen for so many decades. Every single US think tank and government agency strategy paper after the Cold War has been calling for the destruction of Russian economic and military power.
It would be totally insane by those same US elites to suddenly do something that would oppose this grand scheme.
And to them it matters not the slightest if 160 civilians get killed by whatever drone or debris or brick, or 16,000 or 160,000.
As the nauseous Paula Dobriansky stated proudly and without a shred of doubt on her face in April 2024 in a debate with John Mearsheimer and Daniel Davis at the COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, argueing in favor of more military aid to Ukraine:
“(…)
aid that we provide is less than 4% of our defense budget.
We don’t do the fighting we just give the aid and here the fact is that that’s not a high price
(…)
did you know that of the 68 billion dollars of military and other assistance that we
have given in fact to Ukraine 90% supports the American
workers and also American factories.
That’s phenomenal.
(…)”
That sick cynism is the real scandal which appears to be completely lost to the Western public.
p.s. MILITARY THOUGHT – “unbiased then”?
Maybe read the item first. The same level of realism would be true of certain US articles. Articles which don´t get any coverage in the public of course. Articles that have been complaining about the demise of US military skill etc.
And considering that Russia is in this war with its people not the US it is logical to assume that the Russian military needs truthful and realistic assessments.
But: let us know when NATO and AFU have reached Moscow.
As somebody once said Craig, “Kick back, and relax”!!!
Most importantly recuperate your health \(^0^)/
As for myself, the usual eejit I am, ……. I will be sat sitting with my sign outside of both courts on the 12th and 15th. Those with conscience will prevail and the undeniable evil manifesting in these times will be conquered.
All the best.
Have responded to Mr Murray’s post and subsequent comment by citing a poem by Meng Chiao (751- 814): This is in the forum thread- contemporary poetry (!)
I’m happy to make another contribution towards the legal costs of appealing the ‘sist’ decision. But I really don’t understand why there seems to be a persistent belief that the legal system, be it Scottish or English, is going to magically dispense justice. The judiciary, like the executive and the legislature is corrupt and acts only in the interests of the ruling class.
Occasional Pyrrhic victories only give lie to the notion that justice is blind. It’s rigged and playing within the system will get us nowhere. Sorry if this seems too cynical but years working in the English legal system has taught me this.
An old joke goes as follows:
Young solicitor gets off the train at Kings Cross and asks a cabby to take him to the Royal Courts of Justice. Cabby replies “sorry guv, don’t know about any courts of justice but there are some Royal courts up on the Strand…”
In case you missed it, you should know that:
UK in most dangerous period I’ve known, military chief says
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1m2mryg0k7o
Russia threats to UK at highest level since the Cold War, military chief warns
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/russia-threat-uk-putin-military-attacks-cold-war-b2990970.html
UK has entered the ‘most dangerous period’ in decades, the head of military warns
https://metro.co.uk/2026/06/05/uk-entered-most-dangerous-period-decades-head-military-warns-28657351/
This complete and utter bollox was being carried and spouted by the whole of the MSM (4/5 days ago), and the war-mongering psychopathic scum have been dissembling such B/S on a regular basis since shortly after they provoked Russia into invading Ukraine. Also came across this by CND, posted today:
Britain overtakes Russia to become third largest nuclear weapons spender
Collectively, the nine nuclear weapons states spent a record $119 billion in 2025 on maintaining, modernisation, and expanding their nuclear arsenals, an increase of 19% ($16.8 billion) on their 2024 bill.
Britain overtook Russia as the world’s third biggest spender, spending $12.6 billion (£9.6 billion), an increase of 17%.
This spending includes:
operating costs of Britain’s current four Vanguard nuclear-armed submarines
building the replacement to Vanguard – the Dreadnought submarine
maintenance of Britain’s nuclear weapons stockpile
development of a new nuclear warhead, Project Astraea
It does not include the costs of the 12 F-35A nuclear-capable fighter jets that the government announced it was purchasing in June 2025…..
https://cnduk.org/britain-overtakes-russia-to-become-third-largest-nuclear-weapons-spender/
Every element of the UK’s so called independent nuclear deterrent is 100% dependent on the USA. So, along with the joke non stealth F35s the UK’s capability in fact is just a tax we pay to sustain the American MIC.
Meanwhile,
– Only two out of the six advanced Type 45 destroyers are currently operational;
– Britain’s entire available fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines is stuck in port awaiting maintenance and repairs;
– Britain’s £3.5 billion flagship HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier has broken down once again and was forced into port in Norway for repairs.
Keep poking the bear you f*ckin morons.
Funny how Russia can threaten Europe without comment but any mention of improving western defences is ‘poking the bear’. If you hadn’t noticed the bear has been subject to some vigorous poking for the past four years and shown itself unable to do much in response.
“Funny how Russia can threaten Europe without comment…”
Without comment? Did you not read Allan Howard’s comment above about the “Russian threat”? The MSM is stuffed with comment.
Or did you mean that the people who realise that the “Russian threat” (apart from the threat of retaliation if attacked) is a complete fabrication are bored of pointing it out to people like you who have it as an article of blind faith that it is true because the MSM-which-has-never-lied-to-us has told you so?
Russian (and Iranian) state actors are responsible for the loyalist pogroms in Belfast according to Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley.
” bear has been subject to some vigorous poking for the past four years and shown itself unable to do much in response.”
If it is unable to do much in response it is not a threat.
If the people in power succeed in getting it to respond, who benefits?I
If the bear has been subject to vigorous poking who has been doing the threatening?
PM: “Funny how Russia can threaten Europe without comment”
First, Russia has not been threatening Europe. Although some of its leaders pretend that it has.
Second, “without comment” – have you not read any official news in the past few years (BBC, newspapers etc.)?
Several Moscow controlled commentators have raised the threat that Russia will strike NATO targets within Europe as well as factories making weapons for Ukraine, that the UK will be drowned by a radioactive tsunami and so on.
Disregarding the exaggerated capabilities of the weapons the intent is clear.
https://www.ibtimes.com/russia-claims-europe-defenseless-against-oreshnik-missiles-ww3-fears-mount-3796394#goog_rewarded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45CEza79Dj0
Indeed the situation is very bleak on all fronts. Sadly there is no resistance to the US and their western puppet regimes. It seems that Iran is the only one with some type of backbone and integrity. Forget about nations like Russia and China that gladly throw Iran under the bus in return for some alleged favor they believe will come further down the road for them by Trump. Their naivety is striking.
The lying by Trump is just absurd too, systematically he claim that a peace deal is near ….only to escalate the situation tenfold the next day.
It is almost comical how Trump just happen to threat Iran with the most of severe of attacks on the very same day, perhaps even by the minute, that the Football World Cup is to start as some classic diversion tactic.
Remember when Russia was the host of the World cup in 2018, oh so much criticism and call for boycott by the Western media and politicians, today, the same Western nations are dead silent or even supportive when the current host threat to level another state, occupying their soil and take their oil/gas. Disgusting pack of people.
Alternatively, a lot of Trump’s utterances make sense if you consider them in the light of potential market manipulations.
Crash, Buy, TACO, Sell.
Indeed. Just look at that soulless entity Kushner aka Damien Thorn 2; one of the main beneficiaries of Trump’s Gangster Cartel Admin; to the extent of now aspiring to Epstein Class Supremacy, eg” oh look, we just * discovered * this beautiful island, let’s buy it. Residents? What, you mean people already living there? Oh we’ll buy them too; use them as decoration ”
I mean, after the – relative – hassle of clearing Gaza for Prime Development purposes, dealing with a few Albanian malcontents will be a breeze ( ps we’ve already bought their P.M * wink * )
” Forget about nations like Russia and China that gladly throw Iran under the bus in return for some alleged favor they believe will come further down the road for them by Trump ” : hmmmm not sure what you expect those two countries to do, beyond what they are already doing in terms of aiding Iran. They are almost certainly helping them with eg, Intel, arms/ materiel but are hesitant about becoming directly involved and risking escalation to outright Iran/Russia/China v The West war.
Unlike the unhinged Zelly-Huggers, these countries are fully aware of the catastrophic consequences of increasing escalation-to-WW3.
Compare highly experienced/intelligent people like S Lavrov & pitifully inadequate ” Europe Has No Talent ” wannabes like Kaja Truss-Kallas and you have the perfect illustration of what the * game * comprises
I believe China is preparing to throw Russia under the proverbial bus.
Thanks for all your brilliant work, so far, please now take a break from it.