Undeterred by doing worse than the British National Party in the 2005 election result in Blackburn, former Ambassador Craig Murray is back on the campaign trail.

He is running as a local lad independent candidate in the North Norwich by-election, under the slogan "honest people can fight back".

And he is going hard for the local Polish vote:

Do I think 30% of Poles have seriously racist attitudes? Absolutely.

This is Craig’s argument supporting his ambitious claim about Poland’s Law and Justice Party:

I was First Secretary at the British Embassy in Warsaw heading the Embassy’s political and economic sections. I speak Polish. I can tell you definitively that the Kaczynski’s Law and Justice Party – the British Conservative’s now main ally in the EU parliament – consists of a large number of anti-semitic and ultra-conservative Catholic crazies of the worst kind. I actually know these people, and they are miles to the right of the BNP.

I offered a thought:

What do you mean by saying that PiS is ‘miles to the right of the BNP’? Drivel…

You’re right to say that there are racist instincts and tendencies out there in former communist Europe as in Western Europe. It is a long slow job weaning societies away from such things, as we have seen in this country.

One unambiguous (and NB intended) success of the Kaczynskis has been to marginalise politically the former lumpen populist parties in Poland, and so create a much more ‘mainstream’ political space there with fewer, bigger and more stable pro-European parties. Hence Poland’s relatively strong position now – a huge gain for the EU.

And on it goes from a Craig fan replying to me:

It is self evident that you are an insufferable boor but your comments on the PiS are really taking the P**S. The Kaczynskis are ultra Catholic ideologues of the Old School; homophobic and antisemitic. No-one is fooled by their pro-Jewish posturing as they try to buddy up to the US. Except you, of course: so the fact that you rose through the ranks to become HM Ambassador to Warsaw just goes to prove the Peter Principle: ‘In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence’.

Sigh.

Craig previously linked to the Political Compass survey which posits two axes:

  • Economic: State – Market
  • Social:  Authoritarian – Libertarian

The evident problem with the Political Compass methodology is that the two axes are in fact too similar in what they cover, which is why almost all Western politicians end up huddled together in the Market/Libertarian box.

A much better way to look at these things which gives a spread of views for Poland at least is to have two different axes:

  • Economic:  State – Market
  • Belief:  Religion – Atheist

Looked at this way much more articulated differences appear between the parties.

Civic Platform occupy a blob mainly on the Market side but dipping down into the Atheist camp. Law and Justice occupy a blob which overlaps significantly with Civic Platform but which is also notably more Religious/State. The former communists rebooted as social democrats are a blob with both Market and State but notably more Atheism.

As Poland is, yes, a Catholic country it is not surprising that the two parties (Civic Platform and Law and Justice) which now express in different ways a not too extreme combination of State and Market but with more Religion than Atheism occupy nearly 75% of the popular vote.

The EU is zealous in its hunt for ‘right-wing extremists’ and duly did so when it tried to freeze out Jörg Haider, an Austrian populist who made overt anti-immigrant and xenophobic noises.

The reaction of the EU when the Law and Justice party won a surprise election victory in 2005 in which they had been widely expected to come second behind Civic Platform but then form a coalition with them?

Nil, other than some eyebrows being raised and bemusement over which twin is which.

Why?

Because EU governments rightly saw Law and Justice as nothing like the Haider people or eg the BNP, but rather a sui generis Polish party of rather stuffy middle-class Euro-sceptic etatists playing up Polish patriotism to drive a hard and very irritating bargain on EU issues.

So once again Craig is talking rot.

Or is he claiming that his beady eye spotted something which every EU government which for over three years negotiated politely with a Law and Justice-led government in Warsaw failed to spot: deranged racist homophobic foam-flecked Polish extremists sitting across the table? 

As for the Law and Justice supposed ultra Catholic anti-semitism, the Israelis are pretty good at spotting anti-semitic lunatics – and people who are take a genuine interest in Jewish issues. Hence this.

Of course the emerging reality in the UK and maybe elsewhere in Europe is that the two most significant axes are:

  • Economic:  State – Market
  • Europe:  More Brussels – More Member State

Which (unlike Craig’s blathering) explains why the UK Conservatives are talking to Law and Justice about a new European Parliament grouping. The two parties are very different, with Conservatives a lot more pro-Market and socially ‘liberal’ than the Kaczynskis. But where they overlap strongly is opposing a ‘federal Europe’ with ever more powers ceded from national capitals to Brussels.

This core position happens to be popular with most populations round Europe, although it expresses itself in different ways. Hence the dilemma for the Conservatives and indeed L and J. Is it better to articulate that popular position in a new small but determined EP grouping at the price of losing ‘influence’ in the European Parliament?

Anyway, any Norfolk media folk or bloggers wanting a fair-minded account of honest candidate Craig Murray’s doomed mission to Uzbekistan – and some insight into his professional judgement and fitness to lead them at Westminster – need not look too far.