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Craig Murray selected to stand for Workers Party in Blackburn

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92 Comments on Craig Murray selected to stand for Workers Party in Blackburn

Left-wing former ambassador will stand at next general election

Former UK ambassador Craig Murray has been selected by the Workers’ Party GB to stand as its candidate in Blackburn at the next general election.

Murray, who has been targeted by UK security services for standing up for human rights in Palestine and against corruption in the UK and was removed by the government from his ambassador role for objecting to the use of intelligence obtained by torture, runs a well-known left-wing news site. Like party leader George Galloway, he is a Scot.

He was jailed for eight months in 2021, serving half the sentence before release, after a farcical conviction in a Scottish court for supposed ‘jigsaw identification’, even though so-called ‘mainstream’ media had actually identified the person involved and Murray had not. Alba Party MP Kenny MacAskill called Murray’s sentencing:

vindictive and a sad day for Scottish justice.

The Blackburn seat is currently held by Labour. The seat has a similar demographic to nearby Rochdale, which was won last month in a landslide by Galloway.

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92 comments

  1. Blackburn – the former seat of that Blairite stalwart, Jack Straw. No friend of vocal octogenarian Jewish left-wingers.

    Although, it had, previously, been held by Barbara Castle. The woman Michael Foot called ‘the best Socialist minister we’ve ever had’.

    Now’s your chance to take Blackburn back to its Socialist roots, Craig. Best wishes.

    Reply

      1. Doesn’t seem to have done George Galloway any harm.

      2. George – Come the next General Election will George Galloway be standing for re-election in Rochdale or will he be off to pastures anew.

      4. Not the done-to-death, hubristic lost deposit guff then. 😏

      5. Toffee – You’re the one who is raising the spectre of lost deposits. Although it was a close shave Craig Murray did actually manage to hang on to his deposit way back in 2005. Whether he’ll manage to repeat this minor victory in 2024/25 is anybodies guess.
        However given that Labour currently have a majority of over 18,000 (>40%) in Blackburn then holding onto his deposit is probably the best he can hope for.

      6. An 18,000 majority won under JC’s Leadership.

        Do you suppose that will increase or decrease under Starmer’s leadership?

        Personally, I’d go for a decrease, although Starmer, himself, will be more concerned about his own majority, in Holborn & St Pancras – if he manages to retain a majority.

      7. George – The latest MRP polling is predicting that she will win with a reduced majority of 31.8% but this is largely down to boundary changes.
        The same poll is predicting that nationwide Labour will increase their vote share by 9% and will win 452 seats in the next GE.

      8. Ah, I see you’re still obsessed with polls. Good luck with that. Times have changed.

      9. George – I’m not the one who is relying on a combination of self delusion and crossing my fingers.

      10. Toffee – You’re the one who is raising the spectre of lost deposits.

        Oh, boo-‘kin-hoo.

        No longer are you so confode t that Murray will lose the deposit that you’ve changed tack to gamble on the current incumbent’s majority.

        …And already gettng in the excuse early, one that the lower the vote share next time about will be due solely to boundary changes, rather than electorate getting wise to smarmerite labour and the nothing it has to offer.

        Seeing that you knew that Ian Byrne was a good constituency MP (Without any qualification to support your assertion, but indeed questioned his trigger ballot on the basis that his constituents obviously thought otherwise, rather than point the blame where it squarely belonged – the shithousery of the smarmerite machine), I expect you to tell us what the satisfaction rate with the current blackburn mp stands at.

        Whole you’re at it, you can also tell us what she’s achieved for the people of blackburn.

        Because you think you’re the one in the know.

      11. Toffee – I have looked at the figures and based my opinion on them.
        I’m not making excuses, I’m just relaying the available information
        Whether Craig manages to retain his deposit or not is of little interest to me and whether you agree with my conclusions or not is of considerably less consequence to me or anyone else.

        “Seeing that you knew that Ian Byrne was a good constituency MP (Without any qualification to support your assertion, but indeed questioned his trigger ballot on the basis that his constituents obviously thought otherwise, rather than point the blame where it squarely belonged – the shithousery of the smarmerite machine),”
        I never claimed to have any particular insight I was just expressing my impression of Byrne, unless you disagree with what I said at the time its difficult to see the point you are trying to make. During the trigger process Ian lost all his Branch votes and nearly half of his members voted against him in the full ballot so it is obvious that a good proportion of his constituency members for whatever reason disagree with my initial impression of him. Zara Sultana faced a similar situation but (unlike Ian) Zara won all her Branch votes.

        “No longer are you so [confident] that Murray will lose the deposit “
        Although the left have a history of losing their deposits I don’t recall saying that Murray would

        I expect you to tell us what the satisfaction rate with the current blackburn mp stands at.
        [While] you’re at it, you can also tell us what she’s achieved for the people of blackburn.
        I don’t know the answer to those questions but given that the MRP polls are predicting a 98% probability that Labour will win the seat I guess she must be doing something right.

      12. There you go again, trying to sew doubt by questioning whether an elected lefty will stand again at the next election. Why wouldn’t he? You tried this with Corbyn not so long ago and there’s still no hint of him not standing.

        And like a good liberal you deploy the word Populist like it’s a bad thing. As Nigel Tufnell in Spinal Tap would say, “what’s wrong with being popular?”, but that reference will no doubt have gone waaaay over your head!

      13. timfrom – “There you go again, trying to [sow] doubt by questioning whether an elected lefty will stand again at the next election. Why wouldn’t he? You tried this with Corbyn not so long ago and there’s still no hint of him not standing.”
        Not at all, there has been speculation for several days that Galloway intended to run for Manchester Mayor. Galloway added fuel to the fire when he told the Guardian that he was considering running against Burnham. Are there many other pretend lefties like Galloway who support corrupt fascist dictators like Putin and Assad.
        On Monday afternoon Galloway made a further statement (which I’ve only just seen) saying that he would definitely be running against Burnham but now it was not until 2028.
        As for Corbyn there is also no indication that he is going to run, is his house still on the market?

        And like a good liberal you deploy the word Populist like it’s a bad thing. As Nigel Tufnell in Spinal Tap would say, “what’s wrong with being popular?”, but that reference will no doubt have gone waaaay over your head!
        If you haven’t managed to work out the difference between popular and populist then you have a problem.

      14. I hope the left parties can form an alliance for proportional representation, preferably STV, as the key demand at next GE, given Starmer’s hijacking of Labour, hence the keys to No 10, via our undemocratic FPTP electoral system.

      15. Brian – How many independent MPs were elected at the 2019 General Election?😔

    2. When I was a Union Rep. @ Blackburn College, I had the dubious pleasure of being described by Jack Straw as “the troublesome scouser from Bristol”. Thank You Comrade!

      Reply

    3. I see that yet again, as he’s done on hundreds of occasions, SteveH sets off a chain of reaction by posting something provocative in a ‘reply’ to the first poster, and does so for the purpose of disrupting the comments section.. Out of 47 comments (at the time of posting) he has posted 18 of them. But then THAT’s what he gets paid to do!

      Reply

      1. Allan – I’m simply expressing my honest opinion. It is entirely in the hands of others whether they choose to respond or not.
        Are you a Galloway fan.

      2. You nailed it Allan Howard….. He does indeed get paid to do that.

      3. So I thought I’d just work my way back through the articles prior to this one (which you can do at the very bottom of the page) to find the last time SteveH disrupted the comments section, and I didn’t have to go back very far to do so. Most of the articles didn’t have a comments section, but about three of them did, and it was the third one (with a comments section) prior to this thread where SteveH is off again, and out of 57 comments, he posted 23 of them. Admittedly, in this particular instance, Toffee directed a comment at him to start with, but did so in respect of a comment MrH posted in a thread a day or two earlier, which Toffee linked to.

        So Toffee’s post is the third one down, and posted at 1.16am, and SteveH responds to him at 1.55am:

        https://skwawkbox.org/2024/03/13/hoyles-excuse-for-ignoring-abbott-amounts-to-no-time-after-the-white-folks-had-their-say/

        NB Going back a couple of years or so SteveH used to regularly reply to posters within five/ten minutes of them posting their comment, sometimes just two or three minutes, but after I drew attention to the fact that he was doing so, he started leaving it for between 30 to 60 minutes before he posted his replies, and THAT is what he still does most of the time (bearing in mind that he presumably has to sleep…… but no doubt more-or-less the first thing he does when he wakes up is check the comments section of any current threads and, as such, start posting replies. The point I’m making is that he sees each post more-or-less as soon as it’s posted, but now he leaves it for a while before posting a reply.

      4. Allan – Have you been reading Franz Kafka’s work again?

      5. Oh, I only just thought to look and see how long it was after I posted my initial comment that SteveH posted a response to it, and it was twenty-two minutes! Twenty of which he waited before posting it no doubt!

    4. George, she held several can’t positions. Must have meant Prime.

      Reply

  2. This is not new ground for Craig. He stood against Jack Straw in Blackburn in 2005 in protest at his support for extraordinary rendition. He picked up 5% of the vote. I suspect he’ll do considerably better at the next election.

    Reply

    1. Yeah, Barbara Castle proceeded Jack Straw as Blackburn MP. Craig will surely get more votes than he did in 2005.

      Even if he doesn’t though, I doubt that arch-centrist, Owen-Smith-supporting Kate Hollern will manage to hold the seat for Starmer’s genocide-excusing WEFLabor.

      Good luck Craig Murray. May you end Labour’s grip on the Blackburn parliamentary seat.

      Reply

      2. Herr Flick
        The Fuhrer needs to keep an eye on anti Tory parties colluding on a single
        candidate standing against them
        The electorate is screaming out for a clear choice

    2. He picked up 5% of the vote. I suspect he’ll do considerably better at the next election.

      5%?? So, no lost deposit/I>, then?

      I suppose that’ll be due to boundary changes too.

      (Good to see you back, by the way 👍)

      Reply

      1. I suppose that’ll be due to boundary changes too

        Murray doing better this time around, that is.

      2. Toffee – Beyond the minority who actually vote for him will anyone care?

  3. Unequivocal support for Genocide cuts across politics, its unites people from all parties, question is when added to the two Cheeks of the same arse debate, it begs the question why anyone would vote for anyone other than the independent

    Reply

    1. Doug – If you and your fellow ‘lefties’ had for once got your act together over the last few years then you might have had something positive and tangible to offer the electorate.

      Reply

      2. Doug – Sometimes the truth hurts. 😔
        The question is, will you learn from your past errors and get yourselves organised or will your various factions go back to insisting that they all have their own ‘one true way’.

      3. Doug – JC might, but it will probably work out better for him if he doesn’t.

      1. Doug – Aww come on, we both know that is a load of bollocks.

  5. I never claimed to have any particular insight I was just expressing my impression of Byrne, unless you disagree with what I said at the time its difficult to see the point you are trying to make

    Your impression of Byrne…Yeah. of course, because you have ALL DAY for politicians who show the least modicum of socialist tendency. You have ALL DAY for those who won’t allow children to go hungry.

    Do yourself a favour and just desist with your complete BOLLOCKS, sonny. Your (fabricated) impression of Byrne is based ONLY on the fact that he beat the smarmerite shithousery to supplant him.

    You begrudgingly had to find something to try to deceive everyone with to support your charade that you didn’t want keef’s scheming to succeed and Byrne gone. You never once voiced your open support for Byrne during the whole episode, nor did you condemn the shithousery shown by your fellow centrist gobshites.

    Nobody’s in any doubt that you’d be blowing a much different tune had the plot worked.

    You had no clue back then, just as you have none now, as to how good a constituency MP Byrne is or isn’t.

    For clarity, your appraisal of Byrne has only been stated AFTER the fact.

    Now, you can prove me wrong by highlighting a single post where you have said Byrne is a good constituency MP either before or during the fraudulently obtained and failed trigger ballot.

    Failure or refusal to do so only lends credence to what I’ve said and means you really cannot have any complaints about attacks upon your character when you insist on insulting others’ far superior intelligence.

    Your move.

    Reply

    1. Toffee – ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯
      Is there a reason that I should care one way or t’other what you think?
      Please feel free to continue your long winded rant when you’ve worked out the next step of your manufactured argument.

      Reply

      1. As expected. The predicted, infantile, snivelling, evasive, default response. Vacuous and boring as f**k, too.

        And most have keef down as a dullard.

      2. Toffee – What is infantile, snivelling, or evasive about me making it clear to you that I don’t give a toss about you or your childish made up arguments?

      3. What part is made up wee gobshite?

        You’ve been requested to provide evidence of ANY show of solidarity with Ian Byrne during his trigger ballot farce, and failed to do so.

        You have no alibi, no corroboration, and no contrary argument. But for you it’s nothing out of the ordinary.

        PS. You are aware that a favourite defence of noncecases is that their victims “made it all up” ?? 😙🎶

  6. Moaning of others’ ‘long winded responses’, without any trace of self-awareness

    https://skwawkbox.org/2024/03/18/craig-murray-selected-to-stand-for-workers-party-in-blackburn/#comment-253493

    Let’s recap on what else you replied about Ian Byrne, shall we?

    I never claimed to have any particular insight I was just expressing my impression of Byrne, unless you disagree with what I said at the time its difficult to see the point you are trying to make.

    It’s quite easy to see the point I was making.

    AT THE TIME you said piss all to support Byrne. Nor did you utter a peep about the shithousery used by keef to attempt (and FAIL) to oust him.

    But as soon as the shithousery was defeated, Byrne begrudgingly became a good constituency MP

    You godawful, backsliding noncecase. Go away and expire.

    Reply

    1. Toffee – Is there a reason why I should have waxed lyrically about Byrne, did you?

      Reply

    2. Toffee – ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ does anyone care apart from maybe you, and even that is in doubt?

      Reply

  8. Rochdale and Blackburn can pool resources, strategy and boots on the ground
    Red Tories will over commit resources to these battles

    Reply

      1. It’s a good chance to keep banging against Starvers wall of Zuonism and how it’s the most important thing in his toolbox. Use the kids brilliance at social media, anti Zionist Trade Unionist, JVL to keep his support for psychopathic murder in Palestine. His support for civilian dehydration, starvation etc must be loud, truthful and constant. If he thinks that it is just Muslim voters that will give him cause for concern then now is the time to show him that he couldn’t be more wrong.

  9. SteveH “Ms Hollern currently has a majority of >40%🤔and is expected to win the ‘new Blackburn’ seat with a reduced majority of 31.8% due to boundary changes.”

    Blackburn and Rochdale are remarkably similar. I wouldn’t bank on anything like a 30% majority, SteveH.

    FWIW, you think that she’s one of 35 supposedly-Labour (v right-wing) MPs petitioning to set up a “Ukraine style Homes for Palestine’ scheme” in Blackburn doesn’t alarm the local voters of Blackburn?

    Reply

    1. qwertboi – Do you oppose the setting up of a Ukraine style Homes for Palestine Scheme, if so why?

      Reply

      1. Herr Flick
        We oppose unequivocal support for Jews committing Genocide
        On what planet would anyone support another Nakba

      2. steveh: if so why?

        Because Ukrainian migrants should not be here. They are welcomed by the Establishment because they are ipso-facto ‘economic migrants’ – bus-loaded into the UK simply to depress wages, use-up benefits, sop-up affordable housing, further stress our underfunded NHS and generally make the ordinary overtaxed lives or working people even less pleasant.

      3. qwertboi – Thank you for this insight into your character.😔

  11. “Corrupt fascist dictators like Putin or Assad? What about Netanyahu, does he qualify on your list, he’s a fascist, SteveH or what about Genocide Joe, he was elected but………? In GB we have Fishy Rishy, an unelected PM & Bojo who closed down parliament. Today No more protest nor Freedom of Speech allowed as Michael Gove constructs a British version of HUAC in a return to the McCarthy era. Mass expulsions from the Labour Party “Are you or have you ever been…………?” Our equivalent of Ed Murrow is in Belmarsh. It seems Fascism is pretty close to home.

    Reply

  12. Steve Richards – a small quibble in that Netanyahu cares ONLY for
    himself. He knows that his corrupt practices would put him in
    prison if he were not in power.

    However there are fascists in Netanyahu’s govt – viz the Kahanists
    who are now being rehabilitated by his supporters.

    Meir Kahane was a US born Israeli who managed to get himself
    elected to the Israeli Parliament and who cleared the place each time
    he spoke as he was thought so obnoxious in his racism. He himself
    had been convicted of terrorist acts and his political party was subsequently
    declared terrorist by Israel.

    Reply

  13. Good luck craig, I hope you can damage this neo-con so called Labour party.

    Reply

      1. Herr Flick
        A hung parliament, PR and a Ceasefire
        Unseat the Fuhrer would be cherry on cake

  14. b – kudos for a this authoritative blog but why do we have to suffer toffee and sieve h rowing – is personal argument an acceptable contribution.

    Reply

    1. Ray, I freely confess that I find wee steve h’s passive/aggressive posts (by his own admittance, he’s described going out of his way to get a rise from people ‘entertaining’) a personal affront to the intelligence of others, as well as my own.

      As long as as he’s allowed to spout his deliberately provocative and evasive/obfuscative/deflective drivel, I will call him out on it. And I’ll make no apology for it.

      You’re not forced to read it.

      Reply

      1. Well said Toffee. At least you don’t let the Goat Chaser get away with it. If Steve doesn’t nip the Goat Chaser’s completely degenerate and pointless trolling in the bud then I predict it will eventually kill this superb Blog. As it is now what is the point of reading or even commenting on topics when a certain person dominates and tries to divert away from the subject in hand.

        Pointless.

      2. baz2001 – Can you explain how your rather weird obsession with goats adds to the political discourse on this site? 🤔

  15. SH is a troll, it’s piontless reading his comments. I only glance at his comments as I scroll past.

    Reply

    1. Chris – SH is a troll doesn’t slavishly agree with my political dogma so I only glance at his comments as I scroll past

      Reply

      1. Nobody, but NOBODY, has asked you to agree – slavishly or otherwise – with their political dogma.

        However, your constant sneering, your constant contrarianism, your refusal to answer a simple question directly and your fucking infuriating infantile responses when called out, are the reasons you are universally despised and derided.

        You don’t reside in the UK (so you say) but you delude yourself (and nobody else ) you know what’s best for us who do.

        This is a socialist site, but you’re not socialist. If you don’t like the responses you provoke, then I suggest you go and bore the grauniadistas to death.

        Or die. Either way the site will be better off for it.

      2. Toffee – “Nobody, but NOBODY, has asked you to agree – slavishly or otherwise – with their political dogma. “

        I agree but I’ve never claimed that they did.

      3. I agree but I’ve never claimed that they did.

        Ok, so they didn’t ASK for your agreement….I suppose that means your agreement has been coerced then, has it?

        You know exactly what I was saying. Yet ANOTHER example of your gobshitery right there.

        But hey-ho.

        For someone who doesn’t slavishly agree with the political dogma of the overwhelming majority on here, you most certainly DO slavishly agree with the not-so-imitation tory dogma of smarmerism.

        Nobody else on this site does. Very few ever will. Or else what would the purpose of The Skwawkbox?

        Just sod off. Permanently. There’s a good tory-cum-smarmerite.

      5. Toffee – “Yet ANOTHER example of your gobshitery right there.”

        Yet another example of you disingenuously making stuff up to suite your duplicitous purpose.

      7. And to directly quote you:

        SteveH18/03/2024 AT 8:43 PM
        Sometimes the truth hurts. 😔

        But as you’re not being forced to read it, there’s no forcing you to reply.

        So don’t bother, gobshite 😏

    2. Agreed Chris Mooney. It/he/she contributes nothing to this blog, and quite often destroys the flow of discourse. Which of course is the intention.

      Reply

    1. Toffee – Did you fail the Comprehension Paper of your English Language O-Level?

      Reply

      1. No.

        No desist from you usual shite attempt at obfuscation and answer the question.

        Who said you were asked/coerced/cajoled into agreeing with them?

        Because I didn’t.

        And while you correctly claim you were never asked to agree, your other trick of abusing goats the semantics just isn’t gonna wash here.
        .

        See, I’ve already used it on you by suggesting you felt you must’ve been coerced into agreement if you never claimed to have been asked. But you’re far too imbecilic to cotton on.

        That’s because you’re not anywhere near savvy enough.

      2. Toffee – What’s with this weird obsession that you and your fellow numpties have with goats.

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