Former Ambassador turned ‘activist’ Craig Murray is a commendable phenomenon for self-publicity. His website now attracts a considerable following, far higher than this modest effort.

But he achieves this in part by rehashing old FCO material, and noisily claiming to gullible readers that it shows all sorts of things (eg ‘complicity with torture’) when it just doesn’t.

For a classic example, see this posting where Craig presents as new material various redacted documents which he has previously published. Craig Spart-style Trot adjectives and adverbs gush forth:

An FCO source warns me this morning that a vicious rearguard action is being fought within the FCO, to ensure that any government inquiry excludes my evidence and does not consider whether there was a policy of complicity with torture…

I have now obtained under the Freedom of Information Act the final documents in the Tashkent series. These show beyond doubt that there was an official policy of obtaining intelligence through torture…

The picture built up by these documents is overwhelming and undeniable evidence of a policy of complicity in torture, even despite the censorship by government.

No, it’s not. As previously pointed out here.

Now, as well as being rude about his former boss Linda Duffield and swiping at the blandly inoffensive Westminster Foundation for Democracy – is nothing sacred? – he wants the taxpayer to spend precious money on a new enquiry into the way his own turbulent case was dealt with by the FCO.

Maybe that would be a good idea, if Craig were to agree to pay back to the taxpayer the very large sum (£350,000+?) he was given by the taxpayer on leaving the FCO were any such enquiry to find that he had been treated fairly and honourably?