This entry was posted on
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at
10:03 am and is filed
under The Political Weblog Movement.
All I need Iain Dale to do this morning, even if he is not going to post any form of correction or apology, is acknowledge receipt of a single email.
He played this game the weekend he was busy smearing Tom Watson, and then went on to misrepresent repeated requests for a simple acknowledgement of receipt as a needless “barrage of emails”.
In a similar vein, this morning I find that he has deleted a false accusation of his that I have been complaining about for months… without informing me of that deletion*.
(*He hasn’t posted any kind of correction/retraction to match this action, but that’s for a later post.)
I require acknowledgement of receipt for a number of reasons, but the main one is that Iain Dale has previously explained away some of his past stunts by claiming to have missed, ignored, deleted or otherwise misplaced certain vital information (like my request to be left out of his biased blog poll, and my initial request that he call Patrick Mercer).
I try to call him and (just about) manage to ask him if he has received my email… and he hangs up on me without answering the question or even letting me finish it!
Any further attempt to get a simple acknowledgement of receipt will, I fear, lead to a further instance of him misrepresenting the situation to his readers and a further false accusation of stalking/harassment.
So… I’m all ears if you have ideas.
I’m not comfortable publishing what I have on Iain without making sure that he is clear about the full implications and what his options are, and all he has to do is confirm that he has both received and read** my email sent Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 8:45 with the subject header ‘a deletion does not equal a retraction’.
(**It pays to be clear with Iain, who is a slippery bugger.)
–
UPDATE (3:30pm) – Iain’s a lucky boy. I’ve been informed that Adam Macqueen is away until next Tuesday, so there’s no point chasing Iain today if I can’t address Macqueen tomorrow. For now, instead, you can all watch him sit back and refuse (yet again) to acknowledge receipt of a single email (while berating John Prescott for not engaging like a grown-up).
PS – Some of you may have noticed Dominic Wightman smearing me as a jealous, malicious, partisan, far-left/anti-Tory liar and stalker with mental problems. This attack so closely resembles*** those both initiated and hosted by Iain Dale that I’m sure even that ‘leading’ Conservative blogger can’t help but feel a little embarrassed by it all. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why he’s maintaining his silence; he’s too ashamed to come out and help me fight what his fertiliser feeds.
(***At one stage, Wightman even quotes attacks originally published by by Phil Hendren of ‘Dizzy Thinks’ verbatim. I proved a long time ago that what ‘Dizzy’ authored/published about my maliciously/anonymously editing people’s Wikipedia accounts was untrue. I even found the guy who was doing it (and I’m sure you’ll never guess how he responded to being caught). IIRC, Hendren saw the evidence and reluctantly admitted that he was wrong. But did he alter or remove the original allegation(s)? No. Result: someone with a grudge comes along and repeats it. Ditto for the ‘obsessive stalker’ crap that Iain publishes when he paints himself into a corner, and for Macqueen’s “nutter on a bus” bullshit. And they wonder why I complain about what goes on in the comments of their websites, like it never goes any further.)
By Paul.Ferrari September 16, 2009 - 10:18 am
And he's got the front to complain about John Prescott not contacting him about a Post.
By James September 16, 2009 - 10:18 am
Why don't you push it through his letterbox in the middle of the night? I hear that works.I suppose he might starting labeling you as a "creepy stalker", or something, though, so maybe not.
By balders September 16, 2009 - 10:38 am
Try Royal Mail Special Delivery. Next day guaranteed, signed for. Send it to Total Politics, give me 24 hours to read and respond by email, then publish. The Royal Mail will have a scanned copy of the signature available.At least you'll have proof that he received it. And if he claims not to have received, you've the signature of the relevant staff member to point the finger at.
By Manic September 16, 2009 - 10:59 am
Dale is a master of plausible deniability. As with any automated email confirmation, he will most likely claim (as he has in the past) that he received the message but cast it to one side without reading it.
By balders September 16, 2009 - 11:16 am
"Dale is a master of plausible deniability. As with any automated email confirmation, he will most likely claim (as he has in the past) that he received the message but cast it to one side without reading it."Mark it Urgent and For Immediate Personal Attention of Iain Dale. Take a photo of the front of the envelope with the RMSD stickers on it. If he can't be arsed to read something marked urgent, then that's his problem. At least you've evidence that his office received a letter marked specifically for Iain. Might help if you print the envelope rather than hand-write it as well.
By Manic September 16, 2009 - 12:26 pm
Or, he could just say "Yes, I have read this email.":o)
By balders September 16, 2009 - 11:37 am
"Or, he could just say "Yes, I have read this email.""Yeah, but why would he choose the easy option when he can make you jump through hoops.That's a rhetorical question fwiw.8^)
By tory boys never grow September 17, 2009 - 11:36 am
I think you are forgetting that revenge is a dish best served cold.It is pretty clear that all these right wing bloggers are hunting as a pack – and are well schooled in the theory of plausible deniability.Of course, if anyone on the left does anything wrong, or upsets them, they will hunt them down without remorse using any means at their disposal. And if anyone tries the same to themselves they will try and deflect attention by fair means and foul. However – I'm not sure that it is wise to play their game. Never fight with a chimney sweep if you don't want to get dirty is good advice.By all means use legal means to fight back – and of course they are more than aware that access to such legal resources is not available to us. In such cases perhaps the best response is a simple post pointing out their abuse with an explanation as to why it cannot be taken further.Perhaps the most important thing is to highlight how the right wing bloggers co-ordinate their activity in respect of their cause and their modus operandii – as this is the real disgrace. supect that they are operating from a well documented set of principles developed by the American right (remember Guido has praised OLiver North the ultimate dirty trickster in the past). They will of course deny co-ordination – but the way they all seemed to act together in dealing with those idiots Draper and McBride rather suggest the opposite and there are myriad other examples of their co-ordination with each other and the official Tory Party line (look at their response to the Coulson affiar – and how new Tory Party lines are often trialled on their blogs in advance). Now blowing apart that operation would be real revenge!
By Manic September 17, 2009 - 11:49 am
tory boys never grow up – I hear some of what you're saying, but this is not about revenge:https://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2009/09/the_…