Anne Milton - Guildford MP (and Dipstick)

I drew the line under this blog partly out of goodwill upon Tony Blair's departure, but also because of a growing smear campaign against myself and others by local Conservatives that I feared was getting out of control (i.e. in a way that would risk people other than myself).

But the smear campaign did not stop with this weblog's closure or even with my leaving blogging for a few months, it merely shifted to the anonymous comments of assorted Tory weblogs (including the false claim later repeated by Iain Dale that I had 'stalked' Anne Milton).

Further, it has now been alleged that I've been smeared as a computer criminal within local political circles, and if this is true, I won't stand for it.

Anne Milton, I'm calling you out. Again.

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This micro-blog remains closed, BTW. For all updates and Milton-related action see this category on the main weblog.

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Labels: dennis paul, mike chambers

1. Smears don't always work in politics, and even if they do bring you short term gains, they have a bad habit of coming back and biting you on the arse sooner or later.

2. Don't try to 'play' or manipulate the blogosphere through the use of anonymous accounts, websites and/or sock-puppets... especially if you're an amateur.

3. Never, ever make major updates or changes to your weblog when drunk or angry.

Labels: council elections, dennis paul, mike chambers

Just who in the hell does Dennis Paul thinks he's kidding?

Dennis Paul just published the following on his main website and on his weblog:

I have received an anonymous tip off that a leaflet attacking Lib Dem candidate in Onslow, Chris Ward, is to be circulated across this Ward after dusk this evening on car windscreens. The leaflet is understood to contain a number of points that a disgruntled student(s)? want to bring to the attention of the electorate. If this information is correct then it is a sad day for politics that some independent individual(s) has decided to resort to personal attacks. This is the politics of the gutter and I deplore it entirely. Having been the point of personal attacks myself, this kind of politics has no place in Guildford.

Dennis Paul and Mike Chambers are as thick as thieves.

Mike Chambers has been proved to be behind the anonymous smears published online, and Dennis Paul has played an active role in the promotion of those smears.

This pamphlet (should it exist) comes under the direct remit of the Electoral Commission from the moment it transfers from online to print.

Further, this 'innocent' online promotion of it only serves to lay a trail that will suddenly become a lot more interesting to a lot more people should Dennis somehow ride the Tory train to victory tomorrow... even if he later deletes the entry (which he no doubt will). The same goes for Chambers; he played this same game a few weeks too early on his website before deleting the relevant entry, and I have the records to prove it.

Finally, this smear can only reinforce what people of Guildford have already sensed from their antics this past month... that the local Tories will stop at nothing to gain power at any level.

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UPDATE (3 May) - I figured as much. The text of the original entry has been replaced with the following:

It would appear that talk of leaflets going round Onslow making personal attacks on an election candidate was a hoax. Thankfully, it looks like the electorate will be judging policies rather than personalities.

So character doesn't come into it, then?

Those voting in the wards of Onslow and Worplesdon should be aware - before they vote on the individuals they will be trusting with the proper and impartial management of their funds and resources - that both Dennis Paul and Mike Chambers have been caught playing (very dirty) party politics using time and facilities paid for by the taxpayer.

Heaven knows what Dennis thinks he's achieved with this little stunt. Did he picture Lib Dem activists in a last-minute dash around Onslow? Was he attempting to goad me and others into a last-minute promotion of the smear in the hope that some off his mud would stick?

It doesn't matter. He's just implicated himself... again.

Even if you're not morally outraged by what Dennis Paul and Mike Chambers have been up to (and what Anne Milton and the Guildford Conservative Association have been tolerating) you have to admit that these two chuckle-heads are so confident in themselves and their policies that - when the chips are down - they feel they can't compete without baseless personal attacks.

Worthless. Gutless. The pair of them.

Labels: council elections, dennis paul, mike chambers

BBC - How a six-year-old beat the House of Commons computer system: Now that Brianagh had managed to smuggle her keylogger into the House of Commons, Anne Milton, Guilford's Conservative MP, agreed to help Inside Out put the secure House of Commons computer system to the test. Anne Milton agreed to leave her computer unattended for just 60 seconds. But it took six-year-old Brianagh just 15 seconds to sneak into Anne's room and hide the keylogger on her machine. And, although Brianagh had effectively attached a bug to a sensitive computer, not a single alarm was raised.

There's not a lot I can say about Amme right now, as my hospital is being held hostage... but two things do need to be noted for the record:

1. This turn of events provides Anne & Co. with a potentially plausible excuse for the highly questionable Wikipedia edits and smear-blogs. Dennis Paul is already primed for this, as he loves to scream "Hacker!" when he gets caught doing naughty things with his computer.

2. All producers of factual programmes should be made aware that - if they ever need a publicity-hungry MP who can convincingly say "Gosh, I didn't know that!" - then Anne's their man.

Cheers all.

Labels: dennis paul, ignorance, smear-blogs, wikipedia

There will soon come a day when the Conservative Party will want to be able to deny any knowledge of Anne Milton's antics. But I'm not going to let them get away with it.

Below is just a recent sample of the traffic from Conservative Head Office to this specific area of my website:

The good people who work for the Conservative Party have also been directly informed of a number of developments, and have even been provided with the relevant evidence. Each and every time they have fobbed me off.

Finally, I know for a fact that David Cameron was made aware of these disgraceful personal attacks by Anne Milton's activists, just a few weeks before he maintained a 'dignified silence' while his activists screamed "Personal attack!" on his behalf. That makes him a very special kind of hypocrite.

Conservative Party Peeps, I have two messages for you:

1. Here's something really special for you to look at; one of Anne Milton's cheerleaders has been making deeply personal and libellous claims about me in Wikipedia (while making empty accusations of libel in the process... and accusing anyone who seeks to correct their vandalism of being me acting as some kind of magical sock-puppet):

Take a look at this, this, and *especially* this. Go on, take a good look. Here's a hint for you if you're confused; the bits highlighted in green are the parts that Milton supporters have added; thereby compromising your party and placing Wikipedia at risk of legal action. Oh, and take a few moments to browse through this website before you claim that this could be the work of a well-meaning member of the public; it was established long ago that the bulk of Anne Milton's endorsements came from Conservative councillors, activists and/or family members.

[Oi! I was arrested for hacking in 2005? Funny, I don't remember that. I don't even remember being questioned by the police. Surely something like that would stick in my mind for a long time to come. No? Oh well. Maybe the experience was so traumatic that I blanked it from my memory. Oh, and speaking of memories, I seem to recall that the *only* person who has *ever* accused me of hacking (mainly because he doesn't know the difference between hacking and tracking) is Dennis Paul, who currently claims to be 'a member of the Executive Committee of Guildford Conservatives and an active Branch Member in Worplesdon'.]

When I saw early abuse of the Wikipedia system that was focused primarily on Anne Milton's entry and tracked it back to a Parliamentary IP address, I sent a complaint to Chief Whip Patrick McLoughlin. Surprise, surprise, he fobbed me off... not only with a vague suggestion that perhaps an over-zealous staff member was to blame, but also with the assertion that it was quite an acceptable and valid use of an MP's time to make 'corrections' to their Wikipedia entry. I found this reply to be particularly galling as the bulk of my letter read as follows:

Circumstances would suggest that these edits originated from Anne Milton’s office, but if you require a greater level of certainty before taking action, all you need do is request the HTTP/access logs from the relevant IT department for the times/periods specified above.

Now, I can understand the need for an MP to spend a small amount of time ensuring that their Wikipedia entry does not contain any inappropriate content or factual errors (this strays into a grey area, as part of an MPs duty is to ensure that their constituents are well-informed), but I do not think your average taxpayer would approve of this type of vanity-editing and/or censorship using time and facilities that they pay for.

McLoughlin didn't even acknowledge this section of the letter, and failed to follow the matter up with a simple technical exercise which could easily have confirmed or ruled out Anne Milton's involvement.

The HTTP/access logs I mentioned all those months ago are sure to have been deleted by now in the natural course of server maintenance. So now there's no way of clearing Anne Milton outright.

And since that exchange, the abuse of Wikipedia centring on Anne Milton's entry has escalated. All that these people have learned is (a) how to better cover their tracks and (b) that nobody in authority is going to do a damn thing to stop them.

How often do you find yourself wondering why they call you 'The Nasty Party'?

2. Much shorter this one... but I'm not sure that you'll thank me for it:

You chose her. You backed her. Hell, since all of this happened you even *promoted* her.

Do yourselves a favour... next time you pop by to check what Anne Milton has done recently that compromises you, take a good, long, hard look in the mirror and think about how you have compromised yourselves.

Labels: david cameron, dennis paul, inaction, mike chambers, smear-blogs, wikipedia

If it weren't for this entry on this weblog, Anne Milton and her staff would have remained blissfully unaware of a little thing called Wikipedia, and they certainly wouldn't have known about the vandalism of her entry there. This new level of awareness led to repeated attempts to cleanse the entry of all impurities (most notably from inside Parliament during working hours, showing these people had no idea that this activity would be tracked and recorded).

From this exchange alone we can determine at least three things:

1. Anne Milton and her supporters are completely without a clue
2. Anne Milton and her supporters are very touchy about links/references to this weblog
3. But... Anne Milton and her supporters rely on this weblog for information (see: #1)

There are plenty of past exchanges that set all of the above in concrete, but today, I'm going to bring you a fresh one...

The New Statesman is running a special weblog for conference season. One of the many MPs contributing is Anne Milton.

What immediately caught my eye was this final passage in her first post:

"Also meeting up with a crowd from Guildford for a quick drink - they are such good people (as are all political party activitsts [sic] - such a loyal and supportive crew!)"

This follows recent posts made by Dennis Paul (and recent comments made by Dennis Paul pretending to be other people) after he 'quit' blogging...

1: "A short plug for colleague Mike Chambers website. He is a local campaigner in Onslow whose site can be found at www.ycge.com and is doing tremendous work in Onslow and the University."

2: "I am delighted by the swift action taken by Conservatives to improve safety at Ashenden estate following a brutal attack there. Mike Chambers who promptly set up this campaign has shown local leadership in bringing the key parties together to get improvements in safety."

3: "Local tory troubleshooter Mike Chambers was reported in the press today having got heads together to improve security at Ashenden. This is just the kind of leadership our community needs."

Yes! This is just the kind of leadership our community needs!

Why, it's almost as if a memo has gone out about improving the image of local Tory activists in general and one Tory activist in particular. One can only wonder why.

But... what really had me chuckling yesterday afternoon was the blogroll next to this post (that also appears on every other page of the conference weblog):

Yes, among the links to weblogs by MPs is a link to this weblog about an MP.

Now, it remains to be seen if this is the result of someone at the New Statesman having a laugh or lacking a clue, but one thing is certain:

Anne Milton, and her staff and her supporters all would have seen these pages, but nobody appears to have spotted this... and Milton is so thin-skinned that there is no *way* that she'd contribute to the conference blog if she knew that link was there.

But she sure as hell knows about it now.

Stand by for ACTION!

[PS - Psst! Amme! Going to bed at 2am is a late night. Going to bed at 2pm is a nap. Just thought I should clear that up. Oh, and when you next meet up with your neighbouring MPs, do let them know that I haven't forgotten about them... and please tell Jeremy that he's first cab off the rank.]

[NOTE - Having just checked spelling and links prior to publication I can see... *sigh*... that the Wikipedia 'cleansing' debate has kicked off again this morning. While it's fun to watch Miltonites embarrass themselves with a 'fair and balanced' approach that's on par with FOX News, Wikipedia is not the place for this kind of partisan crap.]

[UPDATE - Anne Milton's new website has just gone live (after spending well over a year 'in development'). I've just added it to the navbar. Oh, and whoever took this picture will want to check their memory cards, as I was standing right behind her at the time. Seriously.]

Labels: dennis paul, ignorance, mike chambers, smear-blogs, wikipedia

Two of Anne Milton's most ardent supporters - local Conservative campaigners Mike Chambers and Dennis Paul - are heavily implicated in an anonymous weblog smear campaign that will turn your stomach:

Click here for the full exposé.

Dennis Paul has since stopped blogging on his official weblog (where further accusations have been made against myself), but the anonymous websites - one of which features a baseless claim that one of their political opponents is a paedophile - are still live.

Anne Milton was informed of the latter site - and the involvement of her former election campaign team member Mike Chambers* - a month ago. Her response was to get a researcher to promise that she would "look into it" only if the victim of this smear came forward.

(*Note - It only became clear in the past week that Dennis Paul was equally involved.)

My view is that - in a case such as this - it doesn't matter what the victim does or does not want to do or say; if a former member of your campaign team and a current local Conservative campaigner is implicated in a smear campaign, it is up to the most senior Conservative representative in the area to investigate it.

When it involves the type of accusation that has in the past led to attacks on innocent people by unbalanced individuals, then it is up to the most senior Conservative representative in the area to investigate it pretty bloody urgently.

Sadly, despite a clear opportunity to deal with this problem, Anne Milton now has to deal with the following facts:

FACT: This involves a criminal act; specifically, a hate crime.

FACT: On Tuesday 18 July 2006 I informed Anne Milton via email that I had proof that Mike Chambers was connected to this criminal act, and she did not even ask to see that proof.

FACT: The relevant smears against myself, many previous attacks on my good name, and this hate crime are all a direct result of my daring to scrutinise the performance of my local MP (which I believe is the right of any constituent). In short; with or without her knowledge, Mike Chambers and Dennis Paul were operating for her benefit and/or for the benefit of other local members of her party.

I am not for a minute suggesting that this is why she is dragging her heels; in fact, I have asserted time and again that she is *constantly* dragging her heels - and once again I'm forced to go public with my findings just to get this woman to Do. Her. Bloody. Job.

Seriously; does she have to be shamed into doing every little thing?

UPDATE (22 Aug) - I now have proof that Mike Chambers is directly involved in the 'paedo' smear... and Anne Milton's office is *still* stalling.

Labels: dennis paul, inaction, mike chambers, smear-blogs

Full report here.

Labels: dennis paul, mike chambers

This weblog is shutting down for a couple of weeks so I can focus on The Political Weblog Project.

Oh, but here is a message for Dennis Paul to tide you over.

PS - Anne Milton appears to have a new website on the way. I'm sure it will be quite wonderful to look at.

Labels: david cameron, dennis paul, housekeeping, mike chambers

Congratulations to Dennis Paul, who - since this post was published - has attracted an added 92 visitors to his website. Well, perhaps not... if you look at his published stats (on the bottom left of the front page) you'll note that all you have to do is click 'refresh' to bump the number up another digit. It counts visits, not visitors. So that's 327 visits to the front page on the 22nd of March and 419 today:



This weblog has been live for just under a month. In that time, it has attracted 4,936 visits from 2,588 unique visitors. 720 of these visitors have returned for more.

This is the bit where I remind you of Guildford's voting history. Nicholas St Aubyn inherited a theoretical majority of 13,404... he then saw it reduced to 4,791 in 1997 and lost the seat by 538 votes in 2001. I'm sensing a pattern here, and by my reckoning Anne will have a bit of a hill to climb this time around.

I mention those stats not as some kind of 'how high can my wee-wee go' competition, but to help Dennis and Anne out with a small problem they seem to share - that of denial (habitual liars tend to start deluding themselves after a while).

The purpose of this weblog is as follows: to focus a microscope on Anne Milton's campaign in an effort to find something - anything - of substance.

And it's here that I need to draw attention to the wider picture.

Blogs usually do not work well as pure campaigning tools, and there's a reason for that. This technology aids networking, but it doesn't create a network out of thin air. You either need an established network to start with or you need to get out there and do stuff and build your network. The more stuff you do, the more familiar people become with your name and/or that of your website. If the result/reception has been largely positive, you'll find people are more likely to promote you or help you do more stuff. (Please note that the last two 'outings' of Dipstick Ringers have resulted from people who have begun to network with this weblog.)

Now, we know this system also works in real life, because it's been in operation since the first tribe was formed.

But if you take a look at Anne Milton and all the stuff she has 'taken action' on in the past, what do you see?

Her March pamphlet proclaimed her to be 'The Talk Of The Town', but she is far from that. The few people I've met in Guildford who have heard of her don't think much of her (but I'll get onto that in a moment).

For all she's done, she cannot find as few as a dozen people willing to thank her by endorsing her publicly. She falls so far short of critical mass that she appears to be completely reliant on Tory activists, councillors, their daughters and their wives.

Posters for Anne are turning up in properties across the constituency, but this - again - is part of the Tory machine, not part of the Anne Milton machine.

Now we get back to those people I've met (not via this weblog) who have become aware of her, but don't think much of her. By and large, their negative opinions result from Anne's cack-handed attempts to paint herself as a popular woman of action when she is nothing of the sort. They think she's full of crap.

In short; Anne's campaign of faking popular support is losing her support.

Have you got that last bit, Anne? Are you paying attention?

Have you realised that I'm one of these people and therefore merely a symptom of a problem that you yourself have created?

I hope so. Because ignoring the problem is not going to make it go away. And on that note, here is a copy of the email I sent last week that you chose to ignore:

----- Original Message -----
From: Tim Ireland
To: Anne Milton
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 9:23 AM
Subject: march and april pamphlets

Dear Anne,

It has been alleged that the 'Katherine' that appears in both of your most recent pamphlets is one Katherine Lyons, and shown on the electoral roll to be at the same address as Richard M Halderthay, who is the promoter behind this same pamphlet.

Given the common address and differing names, I would take a guess that Katherine is the married daughter of Richard.

Would you care to confirm, deny or clarify this?

Tim Ireland

Labels: dennis paul, tory ringers

Following the publication of a scan of the April pamphlet on this weblog, comments by StevieP have led us to yet another Dipstick Ringer.

Here's Dora saying; "Bright, spirited and intelligent, Anne's a winner."



I'll get on to who Dora is in a moment. First I'd like to remind you of Dennis Paul stirring up fear of foreigners and draw your attention to a comment on this post from shalfordian: This is beginning to get SERIOUS (and I don't use upper case lightly.) Last night (12 April) at the Amnesty public meeting with all five Guildford candidates, the subject of racism in local leaflets came up and Dipstick claimed not to know anything about it - until Sue slapped one in front of her (Dennis Paul's) saying "But it's got your face all over it" No response from Dipstick, who rather looked as if she wished the earth would swallow her.

There's more, but I'll get on to Anne's status as nurse, ex-nurse or non-nurse at a later date. What I want to focus on right now is how close Anne Milton is to Dennis Paul. If she wishes to put some distance between herself and Dennis (and/or his grubby little leaflets), she has one major problem... and that's Dora the Supporter.

Dora is Dennis Paul's wife.

You can check this out for yourself in the March pamphlet (PDF). I've included a partial scan of relevant page below:



Or you can see it with your own eyes via Dennis Paul's own website where you will find this (very large) portrait of his family (I've included an enhanced version below).



So there you have it folks. Anne Milton and Dennis Paul. Thick as thieves.

(Cheers to StevieP and shalfordian for their input.)

Labels: dennis paul, tory ringers

A reader just sent me scan of a recent pamphlet/newsletter from Dennis Paul. You can click here to see a JPG, but I've also included the full text below to make your life easier.

Dennis Paul is a local prospective Conservative County Council candidate. He features in Anne Milton's latest pamphlet and appears here with Anne as part of their campaign to reduce noise levels from the A3. You can see a larger version of this photo and others at Dennis Paul's website.

(Please note that I have yet to get in touch with Dennis Paul to authenticate this document. The only reason I suspect it may not be genuine is because it reads like something the BNP would release.)

Transcript follows:

Conservative - Park Barn Edition - February 2005

Asylum Numbers Fuels (sic) Fears About Housing Availability

Local applicants for Council housing have raised concerns with prospective candidate Dennis Paul about uncontrolled immigration.

As one resident in Park Barn we spoke to put it, "I've been on the waiting list for housing for 3 years now. I have 2 small kids and getting a suitable place these days with house prices the way they are at the moment is impossible. It's unfair that locals like me have to wait, while an asylum seeker get's (sic) put up in a nice home within weeks".

Another enraged resident claimed, "I've paid taxes all my life... for what? They are getting state help without paying anything back whatsoever. I've heard the Government is planning to bring in loans too, but whose (sic) going to pay for those who default, and for the administration that goes with it - us, the taxpayer".

(Did You Know? - Between 1997-2003 asylum applications rose by an astonishing 48 per cent. Despite the end of the Cold War and wars in the Balkans, the number of people claiming asylum under the last Conservative Government fell by 43 per cent between 1991-1996.)

Conservatives will offer refuge to people genuinely fleeing persecution and torture, but like you, we see the Government has:

- failed to effectively deal with the thousands of asylum applications;

- failed to process applications quickly;

- failed to ensure that those who disappear or are found bogus, are found an required to leave.

Conservatives would tackle this problem more effectively with better control of immigrations, which would help alleviate concerns about housing availability.

Join Me Online At My Campaign Website www.dennispaul.org

/transcript


1. His use of statistics is selective at best. Especially as this was published in February 2005, and he fails to acknowledge the recent decrease in figures...

BBC - Tue 22 Feb 2005 - Asylum figures continue to fall

2. CRSA - Asylum Seeker Myths - They are being given a high standard of housing while locals are homeless and living in run-down homes: Council taxpayers' money is not used to house asylum seekers therefore local people are not being disadvantaged. We are meeting our obligations under international law to treat asylum seekers fairly and decently.

This is a myth that Dennis Paul is perpetuating by printing something that suggests there is a direct connection between a Park Barn resident's housing problem and the housing of asylum seekers. Why, it's almost as if they gave a this person's house to an asylum seeker. Sure, it happens all the time. Why, I once heard that...

3. Let's stick with that for a moment here. The headline states that "asylum numbers fuel fears about housing availability"... but in this very pamphlet, Dennis Paul uses those same fears to make his case and his own carefully massaged figures to increase the fear!

There is no real problem here that I can see... only the perception of one. Which doesn't really become a big problem unless someone irresponsibly perpetuates myths and stirs up fear (say, for political gain).

In short, Dennis Paul claims he wishes to act mainly to "alleviate concerns".... but these concerns he wishes to alleviate are the same concerns that he works so hard to exacerbate!

In fact, it seems to me that the only problem present in this document would be improved greatly by Dennis Paul's absence.

That's one heck of an ally you've go there, Anne. I can't wait to find out more about your other Tory chums.

Labels: dennis paul, racism