For many years now, whenever I’ve done one of those “Which Political Party Should You Be In?” online quiz things, it always says that I’m a Green, which is weird because I really hate cyclists. Nevertheless, it was still the result when I did one most recently, just last month.
So I decided that for the first time in my life it was finally time to join a political party.
Her Majesty’s Prisoner No. 157095, or Craig Murray as we still prefer to call him, is a fascinating piece of living evidence of the Kafkaesque country Scotland has become under the despotic rule of Nicola Sturgeon.
Craig has a number of serious medical conditions, one of which causes him frequent dizziness and fainting spells. To gauge their severity (because obviously it’s hard for Craig to judge, given that he’s dizzy and/or fainting at the time), his doctor gave him a device called a pulse oximeter. Depending on the readings from it after an attack, Craig’s life could be in danger and an ambulance should be called.
But because presumably even the Scottish prison authorities realise that it would look quite bad if a political prisoner like Craig died in jail, they did offer him an alternative.
An ongoing exception to this site’s retirement is for news relating to the scandalous imprisonment of journalist and former UK ambassador Craig Murray, the only human in the history of the planet Earth ever to be jailed for the barely-defined pseudo-crime of “jigsaw identification”.
We had another phone call from Craig in HMP Edinburgh yesterday, and he continues to be in good spirits and be well treated by both staff and fellow inmates. He expressed great gratitude for the flood of mail sent by Wings readers in response to our appeal a couple of weeks ago – he’s been receiving up to 60 letters, emails and packages a day, which have been very much appreciated in helping him pass the 22.5 hours out of every 24 that he spends locked alone in his cell.
The prison authorities, however, imposed some bizarre restrictions.
Slacky The Holiday Boy is once again on his monthly two-week break, so it falls to us to try to amuse you on a Saturday morning with an image of some sort. Unfortunately very little funny is happening in Scottish politics, so all we’ve got is this.
We had a phonecall this morning from HMP Edinburgh, asking us to briefly relapse our retirement again to put out a request on behalf of Prisoner 157095 – better known to you and us as our friend Craig Murray, the only person on the planet to now or ever have been imprisoned for the undefined and extremely selectively prosecuted pseudo-crime of “jigsaw identification”.
Craig is doing okay a week and a half into his eight-month sentence in Saughton and is being treated well by both staff and inmates, but was recently informed that he is not eligible for early release on an electronic tag (which might have seen him out by the end of next month) because he’s a civil prisoner rather than a criminal one.
Ironically, if he’d murdered, beaten or raped someone he WOULD have been eligible for early liberty under the scheme, but because he’s a frail elderly man in jail for a non-violent quasi-crime and represents no possible earthly menace to anyone, he’ll be locked up for months longer.
What Craig IS finding difficult is being locked up alone in a 12′-by-8′ cell for 22.5 hours a day with very little to do, and he would greatly appreciate if people could take a moment or two to write to him. Letters or cards can be sent by the traditional paper-and-pen method via this address:
Please find the time to do this if you can, readers. Don’t just think about it, actually do it, even if it’s just a card. It’s only a few minutes out of your day, but it would mean a lot to a man for who that time passes much more slowly.
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Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “Would you look at that! Naw e’en haufway thru the day and us liberty lovin Scots seekin oor liberty frae…” Mar 14, 10:59
Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “Oh no doubt Northcode, if the metric is posting repetitive unhinged drivel then your team wins the gold! Obviously it’s…” Mar 14, 10:57
diabloandco on Looking up at the stars: “Thanks Turabdin – that’s a brilliant quote.” Mar 14, 09:39
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