"I suppose what I'm asking for is a higher standard of probity and diligence from our side than from theirs -- not much of a high benchmark is it?"

I think that Mark Dorans and indeed my own suspicions are essentially about the way that the Canary has latched onto the idea that any connection with Russia is automatically an acceptable bandwagon to leap onto for popularity and to attack: not from any principled standpoint but merely because the corporate media has declared Russia to be a legitimate target.

Murphy is a mere handmaiden to this kind of thing. He tries to stick within the conventional UK political notions that we have two essential polaric views of Tory and Labour that are actually opposed to each other. That hasn't been the case most of my lifetime and is even less the case presently, but Murphy is an adroit egoist and merely "after the Labour gig" of "advisor" as a friend put it.

He can't really believe what he says: if he does he's either a fraud or an idiot and the Canary likewise show themselves to be likewise for promoting his absurdly naïve views.