What is it about Norfolk and rubbish election videos? Last week Scrapbook blogged on Iain Dale’s wearisome effort for North Norfolk in 2005 but may have stumbled across something even worse.
Former British diplomat turned “everyone is against me” conspiracy theorist Craig Murray stood as a spoiler candidate in the recent Norwich North by-election. His Put an Honest Man into Parliament campaign despatched a DVD to every single voter in the constituency. Scrapbook supposes that the amount of money spent to garner 953 votes and lose a deposit will elicit more than a titter in some quarters.
His website’s banner link pleads to “Invite Craig to Speak”. You can then click through to a page which proclaims that:
“Craig is much in demand as a hilarious after dinner speaker”
Shall we have a look at our witty raconteur in action?
That’s nine minutes. There’s more here, here and (yawn) here, which brings the total to half an hour of video sent to every household in Norwich North. Some will thank him – it’s got to be more effective than counting sheep, eh?
So. Following his rider, you’ve booked the en-suite hotel room and “in the interests of the environment”(!) you’ve booked his non-budget flight (plus £30 for incidentals). Just don’t expect him to actually turn up:
Do keep reminding us as the date approaches. We are often under a lot of deadline pressure, and there is a danger of an appointment being overlooked, so do not worry about nagging!
Apparently you can book Craig by emailing craigmurray AT mail DOT ru
One at a time, please!
5 Comments
A political broadcast is not an after-dinner speech. I stayed with Craig for a week during the by-election and he has a great sense of humour and is very funny.
I’m not aware of him ever saying everyone was against him. There was certainly a campaign against him in the foreign office when he opposed going along with the torture of people in Uzbekistan and sent a memo opposing war on Iraq – a campaign of a kind which could justifiably make anyone a bit paranoid for a while afterwards.
To clarify, that quote is Scrapbook’s projection of his general outlook rather than something he said verbatim.
Without getting into his experience at the FCO, the point is that Murray is too quick to point to an establishment conspiracy against him, whether from the government, the Labour Party, or latterly the BBC. Along with the shrill nature of his blog, this may have damaged his prospects at being seen as a truly authoritative and independent commentator on human rights.
A case in point: libelling a local authority chief executive by describing him as a “New Labour chief executive”. This severely impugned his target’s professionalism and alleged that the council boss concerned had broken the laws relating to politically restricted posts.
Now, which blogger was throwing around accusations of libel this week? Oh, yes:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/07/libeler_iain_da.html
So the trolls really are setting up their own blogs! I thought of leaving a considered comment, but what’s the point? Scrapbook is more interested in power than honesty. I see you get very few comments. I suppose you’re rying to drum up visitors by posting on Craig’s blog…
That doesn’t make any sense. How can a blog be “interested in power”?
PS agrees with you on the comments though. It’s odd that blogs less than two weeks old get so few. This clearly points to an establishment conspiracy against this blog(!)
Sorry PS, didn’t know you were so young. I suppose I could have scrolled back to find out when your first article was, but I didn’t bother.
To clarify: “Whoever is behind Scrapbook…” Now does it make sense? And “rying” should read “trying” – please pardon my typo.
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Norwich North candidate Craig Murray discovers cure for insomnia http://is.gd/1R932