Gordon Brown the Big Feartie. By craig on November 26, 2014 5:09 pm in Uncategorized I do not claim any direct link between my declaration in Kirkcaldy that I was seeking nomination as a SNP Westminster candidate and fancied taking on Gordon Brown, and his subsequent decision to let the media know he intends to stand down and not fight!
But it is an act of remarkable political cowardice from a man who so spectacularly promised No voters massive devolution of powers to the Scottish parliament. That Brown promise was given more publicity by the mainstream media than any other event in the entire referendum campaign. The Way Forward. As I told The Way Forward conference in Kirkcaldy today, I am submitting my application to the SNP to join their list of approved candidates.
They may not want me, and then I have to find a constituency that wishes to adopt me. An Ugly Mood. By craig on October 10, 2014 9:08 am in Uncategorized In Heywood and Middleton, a classic Labour northern English seat, UKIP and the Tories combined got 51% of the vote.
When the push polling has to stop. By craig on September 8, 2014 12:39 am in Uncategorized YouGov stood to have its reputation shattered if it continued to put out polls showing ten point leads for No, when Yes is very obviously headed for a majority.
Those massive YouGov leads for No were all part of the Unionist tactic of making independence appear both uniquely impossible to Scotland, as opposed to any other small nation state you can name, and an unattainable dream. Too poor, too wee, too stupid and politically isolated. YouGov are known in the trade as “You Can Have Any Result You Pay For Gov”. For months, James Kelly on the Scot Goes Pop blog has brilliantly analysed the methodologies they employed to give those large No leads – asking prior leading questions, a large preponderance of Labour voters in their panel, and the “Kellner Correction” – an assumption that lies or faulty memory about how people last voted, would penalise Labour unless corrected for statistically. Astonishing Coincidence. By craig on August 8, 2014 12:23 pm in Uncategorized By an amazing accident of timing, the Westminster Select Committee on British Affairs has today published a report saying Scotland will have no currency at independence and may have to barter.
The Committee consists of Conservative, New Labour and Lib Dem MPs. The Scottish Sun has run the currency scare on the front page for the last three days. Labour, Lib Dem and Tory leaders all asked nothing else at First Minister’s questions yesterday. Ice Cold on Alex. The debate format seemed modelled on the Jeremy Kyle show, and pitched to the same intellectual level.
Stripping out pollsters’ unionist weighting, Yes just went from ahead to further ahead. Poll before debate 58 – 42. Who won poll after debate 56-44. Yet media claim Yes went backwards! The True Meaning of Being Scottish. By craig on August 6, 2014 8:41 am in Uncategorized.
Scotland’s First State Visit. Who should an independent Scotland invite to pay the first State Visit to the country after independence?
I intend to do a series of posts at intervals over the next few weeks on some of the diplomatic needs of an independent Scotland. Before tackling some of the weightier questions, I thought today I might look at the exhilarating question of who Scotland should invite to pay the first State Visit after independence. A State Visit is made by the Head of State to another Head of State, as opposed to just the Head of Government (so monarch or President as opposed to Prime Minister). Two-Faced Flags. In my 55 years of life, I had never until yesterday seen a flag which was a saltire on one side and a union jack on the other.
Yet last night thousands of them were distributed free at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. I have been told they are being given out at the swimming today, and possibly at other venues too. They Really Do Hate Scotland. This blog exclusively broke the news that Juncker was much more friendly to Scottish independence, and that was a major reason for Cameron’s bitter opposition.
Craig Murray: A secret history of the kilt - Commentators. I have worn my kilt when presenting my diplomatic credentials to President Karimov of Uzbekistan, and in private audience with the Queen. I have also worn it at official functions, and in private parties, bars and nightclubs, on every continent. I would like to tell you that it immediately marks me out as Scottish, and unlocks the floodgates of international affection, but sadly that is not always true.
When I entered the Ragu Bar in Tashkent after a reception for Kofi Annan, the barmaids phoned the owner and told him a man had just come in wearing a skirt – should they have him arrested? On a similar note, a kindly police commander took me aside at a wedding in Ghana and told me that homosexuality was illegal in the country, and I really should be more discreet. Scots Self-Hating Myths. By craig on July 13, 2014 10:15 am in Uncategorized This is Lord George Murray, painted in 1745. He is wearing a kilt. This is the piper of Clan Grant in 1714. Motes. By craig on June 9, 2014 7:54 am in Uncategorized The nation that supplied Baroness Ashton to head EU foreign policy describes Juncker as a non-entity. Lord Byron, Terrorist. The brief wave of Islamic terrorism in the UK followed our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and effectively stopped when those occupations ended. In every case of actual terrorist attack, the terrorists involved cited those invasions as a key part of their motive.
There may yet be another residual attack, but as a campaign it is over, and historical perspective will show it related purely to our invasion of Islamic lands. BBC Lawbreaking. By craig on June 8, 2014 10:46 am in Uncategorized I despair sometimes that society as a whole has lost all sense of how a democracy ought to operate. State abuse has become the norm. I am astonished that there is not greater reaction to the BBC role in Obama’s statement against Scottish independence. Euro Values. The Acanchi Effect. BBC Propaganda Hits New All-Time Low. Six More Years of Tory Rule. By craig on March 20, 2014 11:45 am in Uncategorized. BBC the New Hammer of the Scots. Propaganda against Scotland. Scotland/England Maritime Boundaries. Edinburgh Festival vs Olympics. By craig on September 9, 2012 6:54 pm in Uncategorized 19,000 athletes took part in the Olympics and Paralympics. 25,000 artists, performers and speakers participate – every August, in the Edinburgh Festivals. Total audience numbers for all Olympic venues across the UK were 8 million.
Total audience numbers for the Edinburgh Festivals, every August, are 4.2 million. Crammed into an area not substantially bigger the the Olympic Park. Craig Murray.