When the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts died last month, the first of their songs that popped into my head, for no particular reason, was “Under My Thumb”, a mildly controversial 1966 album track the band never released as a single in the West.
Its most infamous place in history, though, is this.
Until Watts’ death I was only very broadly aware of the events at Altamont Speedway in 1969, a free festival at a racetrack near San Francisco at which four people died in scenes of malevolent chaos and which is widely regarded as the grim headstone of the hippy era.
But on seeing the extraordinary footage above for the first time on the day of Watts’ death – taken from “Gimme Shelter”, notionally the official movie of the show, although the first two-thirds of it are actually a mundane travelogue of the preceding tour dates – I did some proper reading up on it.
And as I did, a horribly familiar feeling started to unfold.
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.
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Don’t be a Dumbo. Everyone going into a polling station doesn’t go there to vote for a candidate they dislike…” May 4, 14:37
Mark Beggan on Seven Days Too Long: “As the BBC always like to say; ‘This is what we know so far’ People on Wings with fake names…” May 4, 14:29
Cynicus on Seven Days Too Long: “agentx 4 May, 2026 at 12:07 pm “Unlike a lot of people on here I have never voted SNP and…” May 4, 14:21
Mark Beggan on Seven Days Too Long: “The Tit Whisperer. Pay attention.” May 4, 14:20
Mark Beggan on Seven Days Too Long: “As I said before. You have no choice but to vote for the Drag Queens. Your arrogance and ignorance won’t…” May 4, 14:08
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Agent, Good for you. We’re all out of lollipops today tho. Try again in another five years.” May 4, 13:42
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Aye Dan. It’s all they’ve got. The same outdated, debunked, regurgitated bs on repeat. Thanks for the link. AI Dan…” May 4, 13:40
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Labour evolved into a lot more than that. They’re more sly & devious than the Tories. At least the Tories…” May 4, 13:34
agentx on Seven Days Too Long: “Unlike a lot of people on here I have never voted SNP and never will do.” May 4, 12:07
Cynicus on Seven Days Too Long: ““Hope some folk read this so that they can see ‘both votes SNP’ are utterly wasteful. “ ========== Like the…” May 4, 11:42
Dan on Seven Days Too Long: “@ Geri Johnny-come-lately Aidan’s is just the latest of a long series of agitators to rock up btl. He’s no…” May 4, 10:30
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Well Scots withdrew them from Westminster. This will be SNPs first real test at Holyrood. The last Holyrood election was…” May 4, 10:12
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “See AI Dan, this is why yer thick as shit. GERS figures are based on CURRENT spending habits of being…” May 4, 09:44
James Che on Seven Days Too Long: “It would not take many Scottish elections to reduce and eventual delete Colonialism , faster than the mandates given to…” May 4, 09:18
James Che on Seven Days Too Long: “Scotland simply removes the Colonial political parties from Scotland wether they are english registered and at the same time remove…” May 4, 09:02
diabloandco on Seven Days Too Long: “1. ote Counting: Each party’s total votes are counted. 2. Initial Quotient: For the first seat, each party’s quotient is…” May 4, 08:57
James Che on Seven Days Too Long: “The Farage Fear Factors, What about the batshit crazy green goblins,” May 4, 08:51
James Che on Seven Days Too Long: “Curious to see how how the vote count for SNP could hold a majority successful outcome if people in Scotland…” May 4, 08:46
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “Feel free Geri, to post a link to the high quality and detailed analysis which shows that an independent Scotland…” May 4, 08:01
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “What a pleasure it is to wake up to yet another rabies-induced psychotic rant from Geri. Quite frankly how her/it…” May 4, 07:53
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Who is saying we’ll be billions in debt after independence? What do we owe? Zero. Who do we owe it…” May 4, 02:39
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Just a suggestion but I wonder if AtLS has ever reached out to Phantom Power to work together? They used…” May 4, 00:50
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “To lock out other independent parties. Sturgeon boasted herself, live on telly, she’d rather work with yoons than with Alex…” May 3, 22:35
Mark Beggan on Seven Days Too Long: “The Farage Fear Factor, Trump Derangement Syndrome. The Tit Whisperer, Dirty Filthy Labour and Queers for Terrorists. Yes indeed. The…” May 3, 22:12
sarah on Seven Days Too Long: “2016 SNP list vote gained NIL seats. 2021 SNP list vote [over 1 million of them] gained 2 seats. If…” May 3, 21:58
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “They’re as thick as shit. No wonder the Eppy class shafts them. Dumb doff capping serfs only have the attention…” May 3, 20:53
