March 26, 2010
Class Does Matter - And Should
The media and political classes like to tell us that we are now a classless society. Class should no longer be a factor in politics. Measures aimed at fairness are a sign of "the politics of envy". Everybody should realise that fatcat bankers stashing away their £100 million pa incomes in tax havens magically benefit everybody.
Yet of course class does exist and really does matter. For a lesson in class in Britain I only have to walk out of leaf lined Whitehall Gardens, down the hill and into the South Acton estate. Four hundred yards but an entirely different world. With entirely different voting patterns, too. Class remains an important factor in the election. The working class - much of which has no prospect of work - still clings to New Labour.
Not only does class matter, it is more rigid than ever. The UK has the lowest social mobility of any developed country.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/07705fb8-2fd3-11df-9153-00144feabdc0.html
It also has the biggest gap between rich and poor of any developed country except the United States. The gap between wealth and poor grew larger under New Labour at an accelerating rate. In fact we are catching the US up, and the wealth gap under New Labour grew much faster than under Thatcher, indeed at the fastest rate since it has been possible to measure it. When Mandelson said he was "Extremely relaxed about the filthy rich" he really meant it. The government's enslavement to the city, deregulation and worship of Mammon has had spectacular ill results.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/mar/10/is-social-mobility-dead
This lack of social mobility is a product of social attitude as much as structure. Anybody who has moved around the higher echelons of the City and of government will know that there is a nexus of family, school, and Oxbridge college relationships that greases the path of commercial and political transaction. Similar systems work in every country, but it is stronger here. To get the finance for my African project, I used the services of a man whose entire value was that he was at Oxford, a minor aristocrat, dines at the Wolseley and knows everybody. He could get me in the door of the merchant banks and seen at decision making level. He had no other qualification and had never done any succesful business himself. He lives off introduction fees. Others are able to make better use of their opportunities but I tell the story to illustrate a simple truth about this country. It is who you know that counts.
With such a huge wealth gap and with almost no social mobility, class resentment in the UK is not just natural, it is needed. The irony is that it is the Conservatives who are set to suffer and New Labour to benefit. The only desire of the New Labour leadership was to insert themselves into the gilded circle - into which Blair was anyway born - and get troughing. But New Labour voters still do not see that, not least because they are kept in such a pit of poorly schooled, reality TV-fed ignorance.
Cameron has made the crucial mistake of surrounding himself with fellow toffs. Thatcher was not one and had Tebbit as her self evidently non upper class attack dog. Major was not one either and was backed up by blokey Ken Clarke. I can only imagine that Cameron surrounded himself by an entire front bench of public school yaahs because that is the company in which he feels comfortable. But most people like their subservience to a ruling class they cannot join not to be rubbed in their faces quite so obviously.
Huge puzzlement is being expressed all over the media and blogosphere about how the Tory lead can have narrowed so much. There is your answer.
Posted by craig on 8:43 AM 26/03/10 under The Election | Comments (34)
March 25, 2010
Hoon Kicked Out of NATO
Not only were MPs lining up to sell their parliamentary influence to the highest bidder on the recent Dispatches programme. Geoff Hoon offered to sell to defence companies inside knowledge of future defence trends from his insider position as a member of a NATO advisory committee - and to help US defence companies take over European ones.
It is modestly comforting to see that Hoon has now been unceremoniously kicked out by NATO.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hbSoweJML42lG5k-cL6cJYd8r2PQ
The problem of course is that this kind of corrupt influence peddling goes on all the time, and will in general be neither delayed nor dented. Our politics are deeply sick - Hoon is but a particularly repulsive symptom.
Posted by craig on 9:24 AM 25/03/10 under sleaze | Comments (43)
Newsnight Spoiler: Islam Channel Islamic Propagandists Shock Horror!!
With support for the ludicrous occupation of Afghanistan flagging, government efforts to ramp up Islamophobia become ncreasingly febrile. Now we have the deeply unlovely taxpayer funded Quilliam Foundation
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/11/quilliam_founda.html
being paid by Newsnight to produce a piece exposing the Islam Channel as a biased and unbalanced source of Islamic propaganda. It will be hitting our screens sometime in the next week.
I am really glad the government funds the Quilliam Foundation. Without their sterling work, we might all have been taken in - I am sure that I for one thought the Islam Channel was Movies for Men plus one hour.
Just as with Andrew Gilligan's execrable piece on the East London Mosque,
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/03/muslims_found_i.html#comments
I have no doubt that we will learn that the Islam Channel contains people who are homophobic, have regressive views about women, want to impose sharia law on the UK, etc.
Nobody deplores theocratic government more than I do. Faith may motivate individuals but religious dogma should not be imposed on society. But many good Muslims believe that, for the proper order of society, the laws established by Mohammed to govern Medina 1500 years ago should be imposed universally now.
They are quite entitled to believe that, just as I am quite entitled to disagree. Probably a majority of British Muslims would agree with Quilliam that precise laws need to be updated for modern times and maybe it is unrealistic anyway to want to impose Islamic law in a country with 3% Muslims. But some deeply religious Muslims want to proselytise and impose, just as Livingstone wanted to impart Christianity and Christian values on an Africa where Christians were at the time a tiny minority. We are more than entitled to think they are wrong, but the proponents of sharia law are in their own eyes trying to save us from our sins.
What we have seen in the "War on Terror" is a growing intolerance of this Islamic proselytising, and increasing efforts to ban groups or outlaw activity which seeks to campaign for fundamentalist Islam. Yet at the same time we are urging young Muslims to eschew political violence and engage in the political process. If we forbid the outlet of political organisation and activity such as campaigning and broadcasting to the tiny groups of extreme Muslims, we grant them more publicity than they merit (as Newsnight is about to) and appear to justify those among them who argue that there is no freedom in the West and the way forward is violence.
Still there's good money in it for the Quilliam Foundation and hacks like Gilligan. And it all feeds in to the ridiculous line that killing Afghan civilians keeps us safe in the UK.
Posted by craig on 8:44 AM 25/03/10 under Rendition | Comments (45)
March 24, 2010
The Budget
That was such a damp squib it is hard to find the energy to discuss it. The usual New Labour con, built on wildly optimistic growth forecasts. Their budget growth forecast for 2009 proved in fact an astonishig 1.9% too optimistic.
Yes, we should be tackiling the budget deficit now.
The budget in fact did very little, and was much more notable for what it did not do. Nothing at all to split high street from casino banking, nothing to stop banks paying over 70% of their profits to their fatcats in good years and then expecting the taxpayer to fund them in bad years.
Tax information agreements with tax havens are a good thing, but would not normally merit a mention in the budget statement. The fact that the big government benches cheer came from an irrelevant attack on Lord Ashcroft - in what is meant to be the national budget, for God's sake - reflected just how tawdry this government is and how cheap our politics have become.
What elese was tawdry? Announcement of £270 million to universities to fund "20,000 more students" when the universities were told a couple of weeks ago their budgets were cut £250 million for "efficiency savings". Net result - universities are supposed somehow to educate 20,000 more students for nothing.
More tawdry gimmicks - announcement of £60 million to fund loans for renewable energy industry infrastructure development, especially wind turbines, when the government had just let the actual Vestas wind turbine plant go bust for lack of £20 million. Most tawdry of all? The plan to raise money and boost the government's banker mates by selling the student loan portfolio to the private sector.
I could go on, but I can't be bothered. Sickening.
Posted by craig on 2:06 PM 24/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (35)
March 23, 2010
Netanyahu's Lies About Jerusalem's History
Netanyahu's speech to a frenzied mob of crazed American Zionists was quite appalling to behold. Juan Cole dissects with a steely brilliance Netanyahu's wildly unhistorical claims. This should be compulsory reading for all people interested in politics anywhere:
Netanyahu mixed together Romantic-nationalist cliches with a series of historically false assertions. But even more important was everything he left out of the history, and his citation of his warped and inaccurate history instead of considering laws, rights or common human decency toward others not of his ethnic group.So here are the reasons that Netanyahu is profoundly wrong, and East Jerusalem does not belong to him.
http://www.juancole.com/2010/03/top-ten-reasons-east-jerusalem-does-not.html#comments
What modern Israel most closely resembles is apartheid South Africa. Those who deny that Israel is a racist state should read this - just one of hundreds of thousands of such personal stories:
http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/12903-israels-no-renting-to-arabs-policy-jewish-couple-lose-court-battle-to-help-bedouin-friends.html
Posted by craig on 11:06 PM 23/03/10 under Palestine | Comments (54)
Mossad Murder Forgery Statement
Miliband did his level best today, in his parliamentary statement on the expulsion of the Israeli "diplomat" over forged British passports, to avoid mentioning the murder in Dubai at all. For those who criticised my decision to rejoin the Lib-Dems as "Zionist", I point out that it was Lib Dem spokesman Ed Davey who first introduced the oppression of the Palestinians of Gaza into the debate.
William Hague also deserves congratulations for pointing out that formal assurances given by Israel in 1987 that such document forgery would never happen again, had been broken. He failed to press home the obvious point that it was therefore otiose of Miliband to ask for a further such assurance now. But in general the Tories have been less blindly pro-Zionist than Labour. I still recall the passion of David Mellor when an FCO minister, on seeing the suffering of Palestinians at first hand. There was a man with the same approach diplomatic as me!
Which brings me back on a stream of consciousness to the moment a few weeks ago that started me towards rejoining the Lib Dems.
Nick Clegg was speaking at Prime Minister's questions in disgust that Kraft's takeover of Cadbury was financed by a massive loan from the British taxpayer owned Royal Bank of Scotland. Clegg was visibly moved by real passion on the issue - a feeling I share. The sight of an MP moved by real emotion about the national interest, as opposed to how to make money for himself from expenses and consultancies, was viewed as so risible by both Tory and Labour MPs that they sought to drown him out with catcalls and gusts of forced laughter.
Posted by craig on 5:40 PM 23/03/10 under Palestine | Comments (34)
Civil War Certain as "Afghan National Army" Now Over 60% Tajik
There are any number of "Big lies" put forward by the USA in Afghanistan and slavishly repeated by our politicians and media. Here are a few of the "Big lies":
- The Karzai government is democratically elected
- The Afghan anti-occupation fighters are all Taliban supporters
- Most opium is produced in Taliban controlled areas
- Women's rights are now respected in Afghanistan
But I want today to tackle this particular "Big lie":
- The Afghan National Army is ethnically balanced.
There has been a consistent parroting by the Western media of the line that NATO troops operate "in support of" the Afghan National Army, and that this is a genuine force reflecting the whole nation. This propaganda has gone as far as releasing falsified figures of the ethnic composition of the Afghan National Army. These false figures have reflected the "Eikenberry Rule" set out by the Americans.
Under General Karl Eikenberry's rule, the Afghan army should be 38 percent Pashtun, 25 percent Tajik, 19 percent Hazara and eight percent Uzbek. That would bring it much closer to reflecting the nation's ethnic composition.
But a very concerned serving British officer of some seniority has just leaked to me that the truth is that the Afghan National Army is now over 60% Tajik, and that figure is increasing. The Pashtun figure is hovering below 20% and may have been overtaken by the Uzbeks.
In other words the "Afghan National Army" is just the Northern Alliance in very expensive NATO provided uniforms.
By carrying the northern alliance with our troops into the solid Pashtun tribal areas as an alien occupying force, we are stoking still further the ferocity of a future civil war. Karzai of course will be safe in Switzerland counting his looted cash by then.
Don't expect to see this in the mainstream media any time soon. Instead you will hear the "Eikenberry rule" figures repeated as if they were reality rather than a spectacularly failed target.
Posted by craig on 8:11 AM 23/03/10 under Afghanistan | Comments (30)
March 22, 2010
On Being A Liberal Democrat
In my week without blogging, sorting out much personal detritus, I have been taking stock of the past and contemplating the future.
I have decided to rejoin the Liberal Democrats. I know that will disappoint some readers, but as I said after Norwich North, I was forced to conclude that it was impossible to make any worthwhile impact as an independent in British politics. No matter how good a candidate you are, and no matter how hard you and your supporters campaign, the combination of voter party loyalties and media exclusion are killing. Indeed, I find I get much more media exposure when I am not a candidate.
Politics is about the governance of society, and that entails people working together and collaborating their views. It is by definition a social pursuit, so to attempt to pursue it entirely alone to avoid compromising any of your opinions is not politics but futility. Why should I ever expect anybody to agree with me on absolutely every point? Probably nobody genuinely agrees with absolutely every word of the programme of any political party.
I was a member of the National Council of the Liberal Party when I was just sixteen years old. I was in student politics as a Liberal then a Lib Dem, and remained a party member right up until I stood against Jack Straw as an indpendent in Blackburn. I wanted to stand against Straw to highlight hs role in rendition and torture, and would have stood against him as a Lib Dem given the chance.
I am very sad that under Clegg the Lib Dems have not come out more strongly against the Afghan War and against replacing Trident. There is a disconnect here between the party leadership and the members. I spoke to a fringe meeting at the Scottish Lib Dem conference in Dunfermline in November. We took a straw poll after my talk, and out of forty five only two were against immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan - which was less that the number of MPs and MSPs present.
I have never made any bones about my strong support for Scottish independence, and on this issue as well as on Trident and on Afghanistan it is my intention to try to influence Lib Dem policy. I am very attracted by the Lib Dem proposal of a £10,000 tax allowance, to be paid for by a tax on houses worth over £2 million and by raising the rate of Capital Gains Tax to equal the rate of income tax paid by the individual benefiting.
That is a far more radical and egalitarian proposal than anything New Labour have on offer, and would enormously benefit the less well off, make work more attractive against benefits and stimulate the domestic economy through consumer demand.
So I shall not be standing in the general election, but will be actively campaigning for the Lib Dems. That does not indicate any hostility at all towards the Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru or Respect, all of whom I hope do well.
Posted by craig on 11:06 AM 22/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (102)
New Labour Bastards
I shall watch Dispatches tonight to see yet more evidence that New Labour epitomise the takeover of British politics by those simply seeking personal financial gain through promoting corporate interests.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7068820.ece
But none of it compares in horror to Blair's multi millions, made especially from those whose interests he forwarded in Iraq by the horrible deaths of hundreds of thousands.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259030/Tony-Blairs-secret-dealings-South-Korean-oil-firm-UI-Energy-Corp.html
If anything can have been more sickening that that, it was Brown's thwarting of government controls over hedge funds and prtivate equity bubbles that cost ordinary taxpayers billions, put thosands out of work and make a small number in the City of London mega-rich.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/21/gordon-brown-hedge-funds
I cannot for the life of me conceive how anybody in their right mind, other than their corporate backers, can even consider voting New Labour, let alone the working people whose hopes they have betrayed.
Posted by craig on 10:52 AM 22/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (44)
March 21, 2010
Greetings
Happy Navruz, everybody!
Posted by craig on 11:51 AM 21/03/10 under Uzbekistan | Comments (15)
March 20, 2010
Nadira
I am still not up to blogging speed yet. While you are waiting, you might like to look at Nadira's showreel.
http://www.nadiramurray.com/showreel.html
Posted by craig on 10:34 AM 20/03/10 under Life | Comments (17)
A Life Saved
The good news is that Alisher Khakimjanov was granted asylum by a judge yesterday after being refused by the Home Office and scheduled for deportation to Uzbekistan.
http://shahidayakub.livejournal.com/4279.html
One interesting facet of the original Home Office decision was that they explicitly stated that they would not accept evidence from opponents of the Uzbek regime - including me - as it is not "Objective".
http://shahidayakub.livejournal.com/4279.html
Whereas evidence from the Uzbek regime itself and its supporters is objective, according to the Home Office.
I am involved in another case which has been refused by both Home Office and judge and which is now going to the European Court of Human Rights. In that case the Home Office states that the British Embassy has consulted a Tashkent law firm who say there is no human rights problem in Uzbekistan.
This is the equivalent of "We have taken advice from a Berlin law firm who say that there is no danger to individuals from Herr Hitler and his government". I am genuinely stupefied by the refusal of the Home Office to accept what the entire world knows is the nature of the Uzbek regime. I actually have sympathy for the argument that many asylum seekers from many countries are economic migrants with weak claims. But the tiny number - less than 50 - of Uzbek asylum seekers who have escaped (Uzbekistan still has exit visas) and made it here, are victims of blind unreasoned Home Office hostility.
The policy is so unreasonable I can only believe it is conditioned by our desire to butter up Karimov to maintain the military alliance with him over Afghanistan. This is yet another terrible shame on this British government, which has betrayed in so many ways the many good people who built up the Labour Party.
Posted by craig on 8:11 AM 20/03/10 under Uzbekistan | Comments (29)
March 18, 2010
A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu
I haven't been taken ill, or shut down by unfriendly fire from governments or lawyers.
In 2003 my life collapsed around my ears; I was hopitalised several times and I had neither time nor capacity for personal administration. Over the next couple of years I lost job, income, home and marriage. I was simply unable to face the mountain of correspondence those crises generated. Unless the address was handwritten, I didn't open it, and sometimes not then. Being bipolar, one of my problems in depressive periods has always been a terror - and I use the word carefully - of opening mail. Then I moved into a tiny flat with nowhere anyway to file anything.
The upshot is that 90% of seven years of correspondence lay in almost thirty cardboard boxes, perhaps a third of it unopened. Much of it is indeed very unpleasant. To give just the example of life insurance policies, 27 different letters saying direct debit payments were missed, and subsequent letters detailing the cancellation of these policies. Plus matching letters from the bank detailing payments not made and fines imposed for "administration". 17 letters from British Gas threatening disconnection, 11 from Thames Water. 54 letters from debt collection agencies threatening court action. 62 letters from the Inland Revenue, who pursue me with a zeal they never display about Lord Ashcroft or David Mills.
Then there are the 48 solicitors' letters about the divorce, the letters from the Foreign Office about my sacking, the letters from the Treasury solicitors trying to stop publication of Murder in Samarkand...
You will have gathered that, my life being very much together again, and finally having some filing cabinets and somewhere to put them, I have spent the last week ploughing through the whole lot, sorting it and chucking or filing it as appropriate. I shut myself off from the world and got down to it. It has been tough, as of course it evokes starkly some very, very hard times and difficult emotions.
There is of course also stuff which brings a warm glow. Memories of Nadira's support in times of despair, little bits and pieces belonging to my children. The loving emotions are the most disabling of all.
Anyway, good news is I am almost finished. It will be a huge weight off my mind.
Most cheering of all were the over 400 letters of support, mostly from complete strangers, many of whom outlined their own experience of injustice and persecution. Many real apologies to the large majority, to whom I did not reply. They have all now been read.
Back to blogging by the weekend, I hope.
Posted by craig on 8:46 AM 18/03/10 under Life | Comments (107)
March 12, 2010
CIA Attacked French Civilians with LSD
For all those nutters who cry "Conspiracy theory" whenever it is stated that the CIA have ever done anything wrong, here is a story from that impeccably conservative source, the Daily Telegraph:
A 50-year mystery over the 'cursed bread' of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7415082/French-bread-spiked-with-LSD-in-CIA-experiment.html
Posted by craig on 10:56 AM 12/03/10 under Other | Comments (523)
March 11, 2010
Camberley Mosque
As someone who devotes much energy to battling Islamophobia, it is important equally to oppose false cries of Islamophobia whenever any Muslim group is thwarted. Otherwise "Islamophobic" will become a meaningless pejorative just as "Anti-semitic" is thrown at any rational critic of Israel.
Having looked at the dispute over Camberley Mosque, I feel that it is the Bengali community which is acting with gross insensitivity. They wish to pull down a listed Victorian building to build a mosque. I would oppose that were the proposed replacement a mosque, synagogue, church or Tesco.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/8561342.stm
The old scholl has in fact been in use for many years as an Islamic centre. There is no threat to that. It is demolition of the building which is objected to.
It strikes me that the very large and sturdy building looks ideal for sympathetic internal conversion to make it a better mosque. Failing that, the community can do what anybody else has to do whose needs have outgrown a listed building, and move the mosque elsewhere.
I encountered a similar arrogance and insensitivity from some members of the Muslim community while campaigning on Whalley Range in Blackburn, when I was faced with a demand that a pub close to a mosque be closed down. I replied that the pub had been there for over a hundred years before the mosque.
The deliberate spread of fear and hatred of Muslims by politicians, media and security services is a real problem. But what we must insist is that Muslims are treated both no worse and no better than anybody else.
Posted by craig on 9:38 AM 11/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (268)
March 10, 2010
Guardian on Manningham Buller
There is a good article in the Guardian by Vikram Dodd on Eliza Manningham Buller's professed ignorance. Some kind people in the comments thread have pointed out that my testimony and documentary evidence directly contradicts Manningham Buller.
Some commenters then bemoaned the fact that the Guardian no longer invites me to write on these issues, which provoked a response from Matt Seaton of the Guardian that it is I who refuses to write for them. That is untrue and I have posted this comment, which I repeat here as the dreaded moderators will probably get it.
It is certainly true that I formally warned in a diplomatic telegram as early as November 2002 that we were receiving intelligence from torture from the CIA, and this was illegal. I was called back to a meeting in March 2003 to be told it was legal and policy, as decided by Jack Straw. Documents on my webiste.Matt, for the record I should be delighted to write for Guardian cif. Sadly the Michael White Jack Straw fan club at the Guardian have blackballed me - as I am sure you know.
I remain attracted to the idea - which I believe genuinely ought to work - of taking the trustees of the C P Scott trust to court for acting ultra vires. The trust stipulates that the Guardian must support liberal values. But New Labour have been the most illiberal government since Castlereagh, and the Guardian has cheerled for them. It would be a wonderful opportunity for a discussion in a court of law of New Labour's attacks on civil liberties and the legality of New Labour's wars.
Posted by craig on 6:46 PM 10/03/10 under Rendition | Comments (40)
E-liar Manningham Buller
Eliza Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5, is engaged in an outrageous attempt to rewrite history, by claiming we were unaware that the CIA was getting intelligence from torture.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/exmi5-head-us-hid-torture-tactics-from-uk-1918945.html
The government knew the CIA was sending us intelligence from torture from at least November 2002, when I sent a diplomatic telegram to Jack Straw and others - including MI5 - informing them so. I repeated it in February 2003, and was called back to a meeting on March 7 2003 where I was told that, as a matter of policy in the War on Terror, we were using intelligence from torture. Sir Michael Wood said at the meeting that in his opinion this policy was not contrary to international law.
I have made available indisputable documentary evidence of this, and that the policy of using intelligence from torture was sanctioned by Jack Straw:
Download file">Download file
The redactions were made by the government.
I am astounded that, having obtained the first two documents under the Freedom of Information Act last November, no mainstream media outlet will mention them and refer to them, despite acres of reporting on whether Ministers had an intelligence from torture policy.
Plainly these documents disprove entirely the Eliza Mannigham Buller claims that we did not know. But don't expect to see them referred to in the media.
Posted by craig on 8:39 AM 10/03/10 under Rendition | Comments (56)
March 8, 2010
The Election - What's The Point?
Now that politics have focused down on the election, I find myself thoroughly demotivated.
There is a substantial percentage of the population who wish to see a very early withdrawal from the occupation of Afghanistan, who want genuinely firm measures against the casino banking economy, who are very sceptical about the direction the European Union has gone, and who do not want to waste many scores of billions of dollars on a nuclear submarine system which can wipe out half the world's population instantaneously and the rest shortly thereafter.
Yet the great "leader's debate" will be between three people who all follow the same pro-bank bailout, pro-Afghan war, pro-EU and pro-Trident consensus. The political differences between them are insignificant - they are engaged in a Mr Smarm contest. They are not even good at that - Brown is an aggressive churl, Cameron is comfortable only working alongside his team of fellow toffs, Nick Clegg seeks to avoid offending the establishment consensus at all costs.
Only in Wales and Scotland do any significant number of people have a hope of electing anybody who stands outside the cosy Westmnister consensus on key issues.
To work, democracy must present the electorate with real choices.
Our democracy does not work.
Posted by craig on 10:42 AM 08/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (169)
March 5, 2010
Brown at Chilcot
I can't be bothered watching Brown at Chilcot any more. Mildly interesting but unsurprising that Blair kept him out of the loop on dealings with Bush,
Brown's primary concern is to deny that Treasury constraints cost British soldiers' lives. He has therefore said six times in the first half hour that, as far as the Treasury were concerned, cost was never an issue.
It bloody well should have been. To all those unemployed and steeped in debt, does this feel like a country that had £100 billion to throw away on a totally needless aggressive war?
Gordon Brown. Unquestioning writer of cheques for a psychotic warmongerer.
What a tosser.
Posted by craig on 10:46 AM 05/03/10 under War in Iraq | Comments (150)
March 4, 2010
African Corruption: Tony Baldry MP Unleashes the Libel Lawyers
Tony Baldry MP has set libel lawyers Olswang on British bloggers who have had the temerity to refer to this extremely interesting article from Sahara Reporters
Olswang state that Baldry has been hired as a QC to defend the truly horrible James Ibori on charges of money laundering. Ibori was Governor of Delta State in Nigeria, scene of appalling environmental devastation, dreadful human rights abuse, and massive corruption from the oil industry. Ibori chose to launder millions of pounds of his looted wealth through London. The Nigerian government refused to extradite him to the UK, but family and associates of his in London face money laundering charges.
There are two important points here. Olswang state that Baldry was not acting as an MP, but as a QC. That would certainly be true if he were on his hind legs arguing to a jury in court (though why any jury might be swayed by Baldry is beyond me).
But to write to a Minister saying that as a matter of policy, it is not in the public interest to prosecute corrupt foreign officials who launder their money through London, particularly Mr Ibori, is quite a different thing. How can the roles of MP and QC be separated in such policy lobbying of a Minister on behalf of a paying client - and remember Mr Ibori was in a position to pay extremely well?
The separation of Baldry's MP and QC hats in carrying out this special pleading to Ministers is a vulgar fiction. Not to mention the moral vacuity of the argument: "We can't turn up our noses at money looted from the African people, old boy. Think of the effect on the City."
This case raises, yet again, serious questions about the compatibility of MPs highly paid outside interests with what is supposed to be their main job, as impartial legislators on behalf of the British people.
Which leads me to my second point. Did Baldry or his companies have any connection with James Ibori before he was hired as his QC? The Sahara Reporters article lists extensive business interests of Baldry in West Africa, including in oil and gas.
The Nigerian Liberty Forum knows that Mr Baldry, who was the Chairman of the House of Commons International Development Select Committee from January 2001 to May 2005, has extensive interests in the extractive industries of several emerging economies especially in West Africa. For example, he is the Chairman of Westminster Oil Limited (a British Virgin Islands registered company involved in the development of oil licences and exploration) and the Deputy Chairman of Woburn Energy plc (a UK AIM listed company specialising in oil exploration and recovery). He is also a director of West African Investments Ltd (a company that invests in “infrastructure and natural resource projects in Sierra Leone and elsewhere in West Africa”) and a shareholder in Target Resources plc (a company involved in gold and diamond mining in Sierra Leone). Mr Baldry is also the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of Curve Capital Ventures Ltd (“a sector neutral investment company that predominantly invests in India; China and Africa and advises companies on strategic growth and global expansion”).
I know of Westminster Oil Ltd, who are particularly dodgy. More revelations will follow.
UPDATE
I have got hold of a copy of Olswang's threatening letter, amusingly headed "Not for publication".
Download file">Download file
Posted by craig on 10:12 AM 04/03/10 under Other | Comments (34)
March 3, 2010
Michael Foot - An Appreciation
I wrote this appreciation of Michael Foot last year. The media ridicule of this good man was a key waymark in this nation's journey to despising integrity and honesty in politicians, and instead worshipping only slick media presentation.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/05/michael_foot.html
Posted by craig on 1:25 PM 03/03/10 under Life | Comments (34)
Rare TV Appearance
Even the coincidence of the broadcast of Murder in Samarkand with renewed national debate on our collusion with torture, did not break through the UK media's blacklisting of me and my eye witness and documentary evidence that the policy of intelligence from torture had direct ministerial direction from Jack Straw.
Here is Russia Today showing what the UK media will not allow you to see:
http://rt.com/Politics/2010-03-03/uk-torture-citixens-guantanamo.html
Posted by craig on 11:11 AM 03/03/10 under Rendition | Comments (28)
March 2, 2010
Fast Tracked To Death?
At 2pm today Alisher Khakimjanov faces a fast track asylum hearing and possible immediate deportation to Uzbekistan. Alisher's father was arrested by police following the Andijan massacre by Uzbek troops of anti-regime demonstrators. The family's home was confiscated by the State and militia have been looking for Alisher, who was a student in the UK.
Under the "Fast track" system there is no right of appeal. When the government introduced "fast track" it was represented as a way of dealing with vexatious applicants from "safe" countries where there was unlikely to be a need for asylum.
Uzbekistan is most certainly not a safe country. That Uzbeks are now being put into the fast track system is a disgrace, and yet further evidence of the government's willingness to be complcit with human rights abuse by the Karimov regime.
Posted by craig on 11:25 AM 02/03/10 under Uzbekistan | Comments (23)
Billions of Dollars in Cash Leave Afghanistan
Plainly our occupation of Afghanistan is so succesful in promoting the country's economy that there is too much money around. As the Washington Post reports, in a two month period 180 million dollars in cash was declared as it was carried out through Kabul airport, mostly to Dubai.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022404914.html
What is strange is the Washington Post's estimate of the outflow as "Over 1 billion dollars per year". 180 milion dollars in two months is already a rate of over 2 billion dollars per year. As the Washington Post report does acknowledge, that is the tip of the iceberg. Much exported cash is undeclared or under-declared, and the regime insiders send out their cash unchecked and undeclared through the VIP lounge. The real figure is certainly much higher than 2 billion dollars.
That is not including money sent out through swiss banks or by wire transfer.
Nice to know that our soldiers are dying, and our taxes being spent, to protect such a thriving and active government.
UPDATE
A sensible comment from Strategist leads me to explain something. Very little of this money will be drug money. The idea that Afghanistan is awash in drugs money is a myth. The large drugs warlords - mostly Karzai government members or affiliates - export the heroin and are paid OFFSHORE.
Very little of the narcotics money ever enters Afghanistan - only the cash which is needed to pay local farmers and meet costs of conversion to heroin. I would estimate that only some 2 billion dollars per year from the heroin trade actually enters the Afghan economy, and that is widely dispersed.
If, as the American official quoted comments, they don't really know what is going on, it is because they don't want to know what is going on.
That is true in two senses - The USA is more than ever sheltering behind the figleaf of the puppet Karzai regime, so the extent of that regime's looting must be kept quiet. Karzai won't wait for the last US helicopter before leaving to spend more time with his money. But also the absence of any exchange controls is part of the neo-liberal economic policies inappropriately imposed on Afghanistan by the invading West.
Posted by craig on 9:05 AM 02/03/10 under Afghanistan | Comments (21)
March 1, 2010
Muslims Found In Mosque Shock
Channel 4 Dispatches used to be a haven of serious documentary, but has degenerated into a stream of Islamophobia. It touched rock bottom today with a truly pathetic effort by Andrew Gilligan which found - shock horror - Muslims in the East London mosque!
These Muslims actually wanted society to be ordered in an Islamic way on Islamic principles. To try to achieve this they were - shock horror - undertaking political activity and joining political parties!
Gilligan's piece turned on the Daily Express trick of attempting to inculcate fear that suddenly you and I will wake up under sharia law. The fact is of course that no matter how much devout Muslims may want to campaign to ban alcohol and push-up bras in the UK, they have not a hope in hell of succeeding.
But surely they have a right to their beliefs and ideology and a right to espouse it? Surely we should be delighted that these Muslims are seeking to advance their views through participation in the democratic process and not through violence? In fact, is this not the sort of activity we should be encouraging?
Apparently not. Apparently you only should be allowed to participate in politics if the ideology you are offering to the electorate is broadly the same as Andrew Gilligan's. We were apparently supposed especially to be shocked by Gilligan's revelation that Muslim activists campaigned for George Galloway because of his opposition to the Iraq war and support for the Palestinians. Wow! Whatever next?
Gilligan went on to introduce a number of neo-conservative nutters from wild eyed groups such as the Centre for Social Cohesion, to condemn all this "extremist" activity, without giving any context to explain where his "Independent" commentators were dredged up from.
Gilligan's only useful point was about the waste of taxpayers' money being pumped in to various Muslim groupings. Sadly he confined his criticism on this point only to financial support for those Muslim groups who did not wholeheartedly support the Bush/Blair foreign policy, when in fact twenty times more public money has been wasted on tiny but grasping Muslim groups who proselytise Blairism.
All in all, the most risible piece of half-baked Islamophobia I can recall. Gilligan - a man for whom I have had respect - should be ashamed of himself.
Posted by craig on 10:33 PM 01/03/10 under | Comments (107)
Or I Might Have a Huge Penis, Persephone
Or be a hypnotist. Or be able to "talk away my face" like the great John Wilkes.
I was much amused by the comments on this entry in the always interesting einekleinenachtmusik blog.
http://einekleinenichtmusik.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-kind-of-world-are-we-creating.html
If Persephone were to read Murder in Samarkand, she would find I do in fact consider and answer her question.
UPDATE
Oops, I forgot the link, without which this post seemed even weirder. No, Arsalan, I haven't gone nuts, just was tickled by Persephone's coments and feeling the need for some light relief. And no, technicolour, I was not seriously positing that possession of a huge penis or hypnosis is the way to attract women. Nor was I actually claiming to have one. I just thought charm, money and alcohol was an unimaginative list, and could be added to.
Posted by craig on 5:19 PM 01/03/10 under Life | Comments (17)
The Cancer of Corruption: What $150million Gets You In Ghana.
This is the Zakhem power station site at Kpone. The particularly distincitive feature is the lack of any power station.
I am grateful to CitiFM in Accra. Having been misled into publishing photos of a completely different power station, they have had the grace to apologise and publish a corrected story.
http://www.citifmonline.com/site/news/news/view/3556/1
Unfortunately their original photos of a completely different site, nothing to do with Zakhem, were seized on and re-used by almost the entire Ghanaian media as evidence that I was talking nonsense.
My favourite recent news headline was "Craig Murray is Not In His Right State of Mind".
http://elections.peacefmonline.com/politics/201002/38966.php
Zakhem are loudly threatening to sue me. They make the following key points:
- Zakhem Construction Ghana is a separate company from Zakhem International Construction Ltd of London
- They have received only 39.5 million dollars to date towards the turbine installation
- They have carried out a good deal of work including engineering design, land clearance, construction of perimeter wall, and 40% of the procurement of balance of plant
- Work was delayed by a change of site
My information on some of these points differs. But none of that alters the fundamentals. The Government of Ghana bought the turbines direct from Alsthom. Zakhem were to install them and provide the balance of plant. They have been paid tens of millions of dollars upfront, starting over three years ago, but have never even started digging the foundations, nor supplied the key components they were paid to procure, including transformers and fuel tanks.
Ordinary people, some of them struggling below the poverty line, pay taxes in Ghana, particularly through VAT. Over a hundred million dollars of their tax has already gone forever into the power station pictured above. There is no sign of them getting any benefit for their money. Meanwhile Zakhem and former government functionary Paul Afoko have pocketed millions.
Posted by craig on 2:37 PM 01/03/10 under Ghana | Comments (8)
Control Orders
Control Orders remain a cruel act of degradation of people who have never been convicted of anything, utterly incompatible with human rights. Parliament will today vote to renew them again - expect the parties to compete in their gravitas as they underline the threat to our very existence and way of life (sic) from terrorism.
In fact, as has been so roundly denounced by our most senior judges recently, the real threat to our way of life comes from politicians and the security services.
The arguments in this letter are extremely strong:
Open letter to Home Secretary Alan Johnson MP
Dear Home Secretary,We write to urge you not to renew the control order provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, introduced in haste in March 2005 following the House of Lords Judicial Committee’s condemnation of indefinite detention of foreign terrorist suspects. In the five years of their operation, control orders have attracted criticism from national bodies including the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Justice, Liberty and Amnesty International UK, and eminent international bodies including the International Commission of Jurists, the UN Human Rights Committee and Human Rights Watch. This has focussed on the inherent unfairness of the orders, their reliance on secret evidence, and the devastating impact they have on those subject to them.
Impact
You will be aware (through reports presented during litigation and press coverage) of the severe impact of the orders on family and private life, and on the mental health of those subjected to them. This is acknowledged by Lord Carlile in his fifth annual review of control orders [PDF]. Partial house arrest, confinement to a restricted geographical area, wearing a tag, and the constant need to report, to seek permission, to have visitors (even medical visitors) vetted, and the stigma associated with being targeted in this way, takes a severe toll not only on controlled persons but on their families. Children’s school performance is badly affected by denial of internet access (making homework very difficult), by restriction of visitors, by fathers being unable to take their children out freely, by the disruption and fear caused by frequent house searches, and by children witnessing the humiliation and despair caused to their parents by these measures. The detrimental impact of the orders is even worse since, although in theory time-limited to a year, in reality, renewal of orders means that subjection to these draconian restrictions is endless.
The fact that there have been so few control orders in the five years of their operation — 44 in total according to Lord Carlile — gives the misleading impression that those controlled must be truly dangerous. But the small number of orders does not necessarily mean that the intelligence behind them is accurate. Not many people were hanged for murder when the UK had capital punishment — but a significant proportion turn out to have been innocent.
Unfairness
Major sources of unfairness are the use of secret evidence and the lack of real advance judicial scrutiny. Permission to make a non-derogating order can only be denied by a High Court judge if the decision to make the order, or the grounds for making it, are ‘obviously flawed’. This, and the lack of input from the proposed subject of the order, would not be such a problem if the review process was not subject to such delays, but at present the full review hearing rarely takes place within 12 months. During all this time, of course, the controlled person is subject to the full rigours of the control order.
The judge may quash the order at the full review stage, but only if there is no reasonable suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities. It is a very low threshold for the Home Office, and is frequently satisfied by evidence that neither the controlled person nor his advocate has had an opportunity to test in cross-examination. This remains the case despite the Judicial Committee’s ruling in June 2009 (in AF and another v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] UKHL 28) that the controlled person is entitled to enough disclosure to be able to answer allegations [this is the Law Lords' ruling from June 2008, referred to above]; the Committee was referring to the amount of detail in the allegation, and not to the evidential foundation for the allegations, which generally remains closed. As Human Rights Watch has observed, the control order regime undermines the right to an effective defence, the principle of equality of arms, and the presumption of innocence.
Cost
Although it would be inappropriate to judge the control order regime by its cost-effectiveness as a principal criterion, it is reasonable to note that implementation of the orders has cost a fortune in litigation; the Joint Committee on Human Rights has calculated that total legal costs from 2006 to date are likely to exceed £20 million (taking into account the costs of legal aid and judicial sitting time), which is almost half a million pounds for each controlled person. Litigation has also seriously diminished the utility of the orders as a tool for controlling and disrupting terrorist activity, to the point where there must be very serious doubts as to their cost-effectiveness (compared with more targeted surveillance and effective use of the criminal justice system).
Reputation
The fact that British citizens and residents can be subjected indefinitely to such extraordinary measures, with no effective means of challenge, contravening in important respects common-law guarantees of fairness as well as Article 6 of the ECHR, has damaged the reputation of the United Kingdom and done irreparable harm to the fabric of justice in this country. In addition, public trust in the security services and the government is eroded, and communities whose co-operation is vital in the fight against terrorism are intimidated and alienated. In the words of solicitor Gareth Peirce, ‘This may affect only a small group of people but in terms of its contribution to what one might call the folklore of injustice it is colossal.’
For these reasons we urge you not to renew this legislation.
Yours sincerely
Mike Mansfield QC, criminal defence barrister, Tooks Chambers
Craig Murray, writer, broadcaster, human rights activist, former British Ambassador
Sir Geoffrey Bindman, solicitor
Lord Rea
Clare Short MP
John McDonnell MP
Victoria Brittain, writer and journalist
Dafydd Iwan, LL.D., President of Plaid Cymru, Party of Wales
Bruce Kent, Vice-President, Pax Christi
Louise Christian, human rights lawyer
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP
Caroline Lucas MEP
Jean Lambert MEP
Frances Webber, human rights lawyer
Liz Fekete, Institute of Race Relation (IRR)
Carla Ferstman, Director, Redress
Ben Hayes, Statewatch
Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
Prof. Chris Frost, Head of Journalism, Liverpool John Moores University
Hilary Wainright, Co-editor, Red Pepper
Cori Crider, Legal Director, Reprieve
Paddy Hillyard, Emeritus Professor, QUB
Bob Jeffrey, University of Salford
Amrit Wilson, writer
Dr Richard Wild, University of Greenwich
Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Executive Director, Institute of Public Policy Research.
Andy Worthington, journalist and author of The Guantánamo Files
Lord Gifford QC, barrister and Vice-President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Liz Davies, barrister and Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Anna Morris, barrister and Vice-Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Professor Bill Bowring, barrister and International Secretary, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Dr Victoria Sentas, School of Law, King’s College London
Margaret Owen, Director WPD, international human rights lawyer
Phil Shiner, Public Interest Lawyers
Sam Jacobs, Public Interest Lawyers
Daniel Carey, Public Interest Lawyers
Tessa Gregory, Public Interest Lawyers
Moazzam Begg, Director, Cageprisoners
Massoud Shadjareh, Chair, Islamic Human Rights Commission
Aamer Anwar, human rights lawyer
Nick Hildyard, Sarah Sexton, Larry Lohmann, The Corner House
Desmond Fernandes, policy analyst and author
Dinah Livingstone, writer, translator, editor
Tim Gopsill, journalist, Editor of Free Press
Paul Donovan, journalist
Estelle du Boulay, The Newham Monitoring Project
Suresh Grover, Director of The Monitoring Group
George Binette, UNISON Camden
Arzu Pesmen, Kurdish Federation UK
David Morgan, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
Alex Fitch, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
Matt Foot, solicitor
Hugo Charlton, barrister
Dr Kalpana Wilson, London School of Economics
Jonathan Bloch, Lib Dem Councillor and author
Michael Seifert, solicitor and Vice-President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Kat Craig, solicitor and Vice-Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Khatchatur I. Pilikian, Professor of Music & Art
Dr Alana Lentin, Senior Lecturer, Sociology, University of Sussex
Dr Christina Pantazis, University of Bristol
Professor Steve Tombs, Liverpool John Moore University
Claire Hamilton, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin
Professor Phil Scraton, School of Law, Queen’s University, Belfast
Dr Theodore Gabriel, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham
Dr Jan Gordon, University of Lincoln, Exeter
Dr Tina Patel, University of Salford
Professor Penny Green, Kings College, London
John Moore, University of West of England, Bristol
Professor Joe Sim, Liverpool John Moore University
Dr David Whyte, University of Liverpool
Dr Stephanie Petrie, University of Liverpool
Dr Dianne Frost, University of Liverpool
Martin Ralph, (UCU Committee), University of Liverpool
Dr Anandi Ramamurthy, University of Central Lancashire
Professor Jawed Siddiqui, Sheffield Hallam University
Dr Silvia Posocco, Birkbeck College, University of London
Dr Muzammil Quraishi, University of Salford
Dr Adi Kuntsman, University of Manchester
Professor Lynne Segal, Birkbeck College, University of London
Dr Joanne Milner, University of Salford
Dr Yasmeen Narayan, Birkbeck College, University of London
Professor Scott Poynting, Manchester Metropolitan University
Dr Liam McCann, University of Lincoln
Dr Pritam Singh, Oxford Brookes University
Sophie Khan, solicitor
Simon Behrman
Owen Greenhall
Martha Jean Baker
Russell Fraser
Ripon Ray
Stephen Marsh, barrister
Declan Owens
Rheian Davies, solicitor
Richard Harvey barrister
Deborah Smith, solicitor
Alastair Lyons, solicitor, Birnberg Peirce
Hossain Zahir , barrister
Chantal Refahi , barrister
Anna Mazzola, solicitor
Zareena Mustafa, solicitor
Lochlinn Parker, solicitor
Anne Gray, CAMPACC
Saleh Mamon, CAMPACC
Estella Schmid, CAMPACC
Dr Saleyha Ahsan, No More Secrets-Respect Article 5, film maker
Mohamed Nur, Kentish Town Community Organisation
Abshir Mohamed, Kentish Town Community Organisation
Samarendra Das, filmmaker and writer
Rebecca Oliner, artist
Rebekah Carrier, solicitor
Dr Smarajit Roy, PPC Green Party Candidate for Mitcham and Morden
PM Forbes, The Green Party, Sandhurst, Berkshire
Jayne Forbes, Chair, Green Party
Adrian Cruden, Green Party PPC Newsbury
Lesley Hedges, Green Party PPC Colne Valley
Sarah Cope, Green Party PPC Stroud Green
A Bragga, Green Party PPC for Stroud Green
Graham Wroe, lecturer, Sheffield Green Parry
Ånthony Agius, Hounslow Green Party PPC
Roy Vickery, Green Party PPC for Jostag
More here from the excellent Andy Worthington
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/02/28/dont-renew-control-orders-campacc-justice-and-the-joint-committee-on-human-rights-tell-mps/
Posted by craig on 9:58 AM 01/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (20)
February 26, 2010
Child Slavery In Uzbekistan
More invaluable work from the Environmental Justice Foundation, in collaboration with Anti-Slavery International. Their latest thoroughly researched report estimates that one million children were subjected to slave labout during the 2009 cotton harvest in Uzbekistan.
This is essential work because it gives the lie to false UK, US and EU claims that the human rights situation under the Karimov regime is "improving", thus "justifying" their continued alliance with Uzbekistan as a logistics base and route for operations in Afghanistan.
Here is a selection of key facts from the report:
Children as young as 10 years old can be dispatched to the cotton fields for two months each year, missing out on their education and jeopardizing their future prospects.
Uzbekistan is the world’s 3rd largest cotton exporter and earns around US$1 billion
annually from the sale of its cotton to clothing factories primarily in Asia, which in turn
export garments to the west; and to cotton traders, many of which are based in Europe.
Reports in November 2009 estimated one million children working in the last harvest.
Cotton picking is arduous labour, with each child ascribed a daily cotton quota of several
kilos that they must fulfil.
Children may be compelled to stay in barrack-like accommodation during the harvest.
Living conditions are often squalid. In those places where food is provided to children, it is
inadequate, often lacking in basic nutrition and children can often only access water
from irrigation pipes, which carries health risks.
Children can be left in poor physical condition following the harvest; illnesses including hepatitis, injuries and even deaths are all reported. The harvest begins in the late summer, when temperatures in the fields remain high and can continue until the onset of the Uzbek winter. Children are not provided with any protective clothing whilst they work.
Children receive little or no reimbursement for their labour, perhaps a few US cents per kilo of cotton picked. However, payments are deducted to cover their travel to the fields and the food they are provided with during the cotton picking season, which can leave them in debt.
The full report can be downloaded from here:
http://www.ejfoundation.org/page93.html
Every year young children die during forced labour in the Uzbek cotton fields. Millions of adults are also conscripted into slave labour. Islam Karimov and Gulnara Karimova get ever wealthier.
It is a stunning fact that Wal-Mart, Tesco, Asda and C&A have been so sickened by Uzbek child slavery that they have voluntarily banned Uzbek cotton and set up, at their own expense, audit systems to ensure there is not Uzbek cotton in products they sell.
Yet no government has used available anti-slavery provisions in international trade agreements to ban Uzbek cotton. The EU has never even discussed the matter while, thanks to the influence of Western governments, UNICEF has never made any statement or taken any position on child slavery in Uzbekistan.
This is arguably the World's most depraved single act of inter-governmental complicity.
Posted by craig on 4:20 PM 26/02/10 under Uzbekistan | Comments (38)
February 24, 2010
Refreshed
Sorry didn't blog yeaterday as you'll understand it had been a particularly exhausting time, I haven't referenced this brilliant review in the Guardian:
But in Hare's taut lines, and especially David Tennant's gripping performance as the not-always-likable Murray, this was the sort of radio you just had to sit and listen to until it was over. Right from the start, it all felt entirely credible, especially its dark heart: the British and American governments using torture to source information supporting their legally dubious actions.http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/feb/22/saturday-play-murder-in-samarkand
Which is the kind of cheering up I need. Cameron loves the book - he finds it both tasty and chewy.
Now David Hare is looking at the possibility of a stage play, as he said on Front Row, but that depends on getting the stage rights back from Paramount. I have a meeting with Julien Temple on Thursday to look at progress on the film.
Someone told me that David Tennant's fun G&S rendition from the play was on youtube. In looking for it I found this from the Norwich hustings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SFXQyi5SVs
Which explains why I will never stand for parliament again - no matter how good you are as an independent, any clueless idiot with a party rosette will beat you. I think I am right in saying that independents in living memory have only won when at least one major party stood down in their favour - in effect giving them some of the support of a party candidate.
Posted by craig on 11:42 AM 24/02/10 under The Book | Comments (55)
February 22, 2010
Disappearing Murder
I sometimes have to seriously query the competence of my publisher. They had a couple of months notice of the radio play of Murder in Samarkand, but Amazon were out of stock before the broadcast even started and now are showing 5 to 9 days dispatch, while I can't find the book at all on Waterstone's website.
There would be a good chance that some of the 2 million people who heard the play, casually coming across the book in a bookshop, might buy a copy. But a lady just contacted me having been to five different London bookshops - before she found a copy in Foyles.
Craig
Posted by craig on 2:04 PM 22/02/10 under UK Policy | Comments (34)
Gladstone Was Right
My MA thesis was entitled "Midlothian and Gladstone". Here is an extract from one of Gladstone's Midlothian campaign speeches, in Dalkeith, while the Second Afghan War was raging.
Those hill tribes had committed no real offence against us. We, in the pursuit of our political objects, chose to establish military positions in their country. If they resisted, would not you have done the same? ... The meaning of the burning of the village is, that the women and the children were driven forth to perish in the snows of winter ... Is that not a fact – for such, I fear, it must be reckoned to be – which does appeal to your hearts as women ... which does rouse in you a sentiment of horror and grief, to think that the name of England, under no political necessity, but for a war as frivolous as ever was waged in the history of man, should be associated with consequences such as these?
There could be no clearer indication of how far we have diminished as a nation. Remember, Gladstone was campaigning in opposition to become PM again, for a third time. No senior politician would ever dare today to say:
If they resisted, would not you have done the same?
Anyone who suggested today that the Afghans have a right to resist foreign occupation would be drowned out in screams of "Wooton Basset" and the false, flatulent patriotism of newspaper proprietors and editors sat on their well-padded arses in comfortable offices,
Gladstone won both Midlothian and the general election. But there are no politicians of anything approaching his stature today. Charlie Kennedy actually understood what Liberalism is; Nick Clegg has neither courage nor prinicple.
Posted by craig on 9:39 AM 22/02/10 under Afghanistan | Comments (65)
