Historian, Former Ambassador, Human Rights Activist
Between ten and five years ago, specifically in the light of Brexit, it was not in the least unusual for Scottish Independence supporters to discuss a declaration of Independence as the way forward. Debate more often centred on who should make the declaration the Scottish parliament or some form of national convention or assembly. [ ] The post A Tide in the Affairs of Men appeared first on Craig…
Unlike the USA, where it is obsessively watched, the UK has no political culture of scrutinising the political composition of its Supreme Court. This is a big mistake. The UK Supreme Court has been deliberately and openly, even ostentatiously, packed with hard-right judges selected on the specific criterion that they will not oppose the will [ ] The post The Hard Right Packing of the UK Supreme…
The Scottish Government urgently needs a bold and radical approach to achieving Independence in spite of the firm London veto on a referendum. It is plain that there is no plan at present. The Scottish Parliament has a pro-Independence majority and government. This is how to achieve Independence consistent with international law and practice. [ ] The post Scottish Independence: Set the Date!…
Social media is not conducive to nuance. In the interest of reach, cut and dried positions are more effective and binary moral judgement expected. This leads to over-simplification of complex issues, and to skipping over facts inconvenient to your chosen narrative. There are issues affecting two high-profile people where it is worth considering the detail [ ] The post Narratives of Moral Conflict:…
An advert for the RNLI caught my attention because it indicated that the majority of their income comes from bequests in wills. The pitch was that, after you provide for your loved ones, you should leave money to the RNLI. I have no problem with this, having generations of lifeboatmen in my ancestry, but it [ ] The post Where Are We Going? appeared first on Craig Murray .
Unsurprisingly, today at the Court of Session Lord Young refused to lift his suspension or sist of the Scottish judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action. He did however grant us leave to appeal against this decision. What was surprising was an extreme extension of the UK government s argument. The UK government stated that [ ] The post Extreme Unionism and Res Judicata appeared…
Nigel Farage is the most consequential British politician of the 21st century. Certainly a more important historic figure than any of the last eight Prime Ministers. Tony Blair is the only realistic rival. Without Farage, the UK would never have left the European Union. Farage s role in forcing the issue to the top of the [ ] The post The Ditching of Nigel Farage appeared first on Craig Murray .
I publish below in full the Note we have submitted to Court today to re-establish the separate Scottish judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action. Not only is the state doubling down on prosecution of pro-Palestine activists, a new National Security State Threats Bill is being fast tracked through parliament to extend the attack [ ] The post Palestine Action Proscription: We Fight…
The provisional surrender document signed by Donald Trump appeared to represent a triumph for Iran and indeed for the world; but neither the USA nor Israel has the slightest sense of honour and they cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith. Iran knows this after all, the USA twice attacked Iran actually during [ ] The post The Middle East, Hormuz and the New Mercantilism appeared first on…
I was genuinely surprised by the Starmer regime s refusal to state that the Israeli boarding of the Global Sumud flotilla on the High Seas was illegal. I did not realise it was because the UK was planning to undertake similar illegal seizure itself. The Gaza Flotilla seizure was illegal: while for obvious reasons freedom of [ ] The post The UK Joins the Pirates appeared first on Craig Murray .
Judge Johnson had proved his fascist credentials through rulings much earlier in the Filton trial than his vicious sentencing. Indeed, he had arguably already shown them when he released Tommy Robinson from a prison sentence, or when as a barrister he had chosen to work for the intelligence services and Ministry of Defence. But in [ ] The post Sentencing the Innocent appeared first on Craig Murray…
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 [ ] The post The Joy of Resistance appeared first on Craig Murray .
I went through yesterday s preliminary hearing in the Scottish judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action with a sense of mounting horror. We had the same judge as at the permission hearing, Lord Young. We had exactly the same arguments and the same case law being deployed again by the UK government as at [ ] The post The Power of the UK State Over Scotland appeared first on Craig…
The proscription of Palestine Action was sold to MPs and the media on the basis of a deliberate campaign of lies, fronted by Yvette Cooper, then Home Secretary, and Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan police. Both have deep commitment to Israel. Cooper is owned by the Israel lobby. What is worse, they then attempted [ ] The post Palestine Action Scottish Judicial Review Stitch-Up…
The furore around the election of Dr Manivannan to the Scottish Parliament is deeply troubling. There is no argument whatsoever that they were eligible to stand for election. The law was changed specifically in order for those on temporary visas to be able to stand in Scottish parliamentary elections. I confess I am not sure [ ] The post Dr Manivannan appeared first on Craig Murray .
While the Court of Appeal has now stopped the High Court contempt of court action against Rajiv Menon KC for defending his client, this is purely on procedural grounds. They ruled that Judge Johnson had to go via the Attorney General to the High Court, not direct. It is now referred back to Johnson who [ ] The post URGENT FILTON TRIAL UPDATE appeared first on Craig Murray .
Unquestioning Zionism has for decades been the entry ticket to the British political and media Establishment. Anybody who was not a fully certified and compliant zionist would find their career limited as Jeremy Corbyn, Alan Duncan, Robin Cook and David Mellor all found. Most others, of course, were never allowed to progress that far. [ ] The post Zionism Has Poisoned the UK s Central Nervous…
We get so trapped inside the logic of the UK s crazy electoral systems we often do not see what is really happening. Two thirds of active voters, voted against Starmer s Labour at the last general election. He was always highly unpopular. Just as Starmer s landslide victory in the 2024 general election was based on only [ ] The post The 2026 Scottish Elections appeared first on Craig Murray .
A vast cloying morass of injustice has visibly submerged the British legal systems in anything connected to Palestine. In a quite incredible series of linked and kinked events this week, the senior KC representing one of the Palestine Action activists in the Filton trial was in the Court of Appeal arguing against being found in [ ] The post The Morass of Injustice appeared first on Craig Murray .
In 2018, at the height of the economic crisis in Venezuela through crippling sanctions, Kellogg s announced the overnight closure of their Maracay factory with hundreds of redundancies and massive knock-on effects in the local community. The workers refused to accept the closure and, with government assistance, restarted the factory. It is still running eight [ ] The post An Inspiring Story…