This entry was posted on
Monday, March 7th, 2011 at
10:54 am and is filed
under Tories! Tories! Tories!.

Previously (for those who came in late):
Jonathan Lord (MP for Woking): Smears
Jonathan Lord turned a blind eye

The following is some correspondence shared with me by someone who was a student at the University of Surrey in 2006/2007 when some local Tories who ran for council started smearing an opponent as a paedophile.

I have removed their name, mainly because of the likelihood of still-active Tory smear merchants having a go at this person. Any edits are a direct result of this measure, and clearly marked.

I have no doubt Simon Hill, Anne Milton and Jonathan Lord will know who this person is, but I doubt any of them will be so stupid as to ‘out’ them or leak their name, as this would take them well beyond the point of mere complicity, and rob them of their remaining shreds of deniability.

Do note the following:

1. This portion of the correspondence begins with Simon Hill from Anne Milton’s office, clearly referring the matter to Jonathan Lord (who was then Chairman of the Guildford Conservative Association)… and yet Anne Milton still refuses to comment on the matter now she cannot deny knowing that Jonathan Lord failed to act (and why).

2. This correspondence also shows Milton keeping a safe distance between herself and this scandal, despite the correspondent specifically requesting that she take an interest and (at least) refer the matter to Lord personally. If this ever happened, there is no known record of it.

3. I suspect that by this stage Simon Hill had been briefed by Jonathan Lord about demands for written correspondence. I further suspect this was an initial stalling* tactic, designed to keep the matter at bay just long enough for the relevant election to run its course, but Lord persisted with the tactic long after the election, and continued to make nonsensical demands for “evidence in writing”.

(*It put me right off because of the reported behaviour of local Tories; i.e. turning up unannounced on people’s doorsteps to ‘discuss’ letters of complaint to the local paper. I don’t think I was alone in my concerns, especially after what the Tory activists Mike Chambers and Dennis Paul published/broadcast, including personal phone numbers of targets.)

4. There is some further email correspondence that preceded these exchanges with Simon Hill and Jonathan Lord. I plan to publish it tomorrow; it reveals the name of another senior Tory who was made aware of this scandal and its implications, but did nothing.

5. None of the local Conservatives acknowledged this person’s complaint until 5 days after the relevant election (this section of correspondence begins with Simon Hill “finally” replying on May 10, 2007, when the council elections took place on May 3, 2007). This is entirely in keeping with Jonathan Lord’s ‘off the record’ confession that he did not act more stringently/appropriately at the time because he was concerned about the potential impact on the election campaign he was directing at the time. Only a fool would think Simon HIll and Anne Milton responded to these emails without prior discussion with Jonathan Lord, but every scrap of supporting evidence is welcome.

6. Jonathan Lord seems to imply in his emails that the person complaining about the conduct of his activists is using a false identity, which would be a bit rich considering what he must have known his activists were up to by this stage… but perhaps he is merely making the classic mistake of judging others by his own standards.

————-
From: HILL, Simon
Sent: Thu 5/10/2007 6:19 PM
To: Xxxxxxx XXXXXXXX
Cc: XXXXXXX Xxxxx, XXXXXXX Xxxx
Subject: RE: University of Surrey

Dear Xx Xxxxxxxxx,

Thank you for your email to Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx, copied to Rt Hon David Cameron MP and Anne Milton MP. I suggest that you contact the chairman of Guildford Conservative Association, Jonathan Lord, in writing as he is the individual responsible for the conduct of Guildford Conservative Association members. Mr Lord’s contact details are as follows:

Jonathan Lord
Chairman, Guildford Conservative Association
Unit 17a, Loseley Park
Guildford
Surrey
GU3 1HS

Yours sincerely,

Simon Hill

Simon Hill
Office of Anne Milton
Member of Parliament for Guildford and
Shadow Minister for Gambling, Licensing and Tourism
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Tel: +44 (0)20 7219 0017
Fax: +44 (0)20 7219 5239
E-mail: hillsa@parliament.uk

————-

From: Xxxxxxx XXXXXXXX
Sent: 10 May 2007 19:18
To: HILL, Simon
Subject: RE: University of Surrey

Thank you for finally acknowledging my emails.

Unfortunately contacting Jonathan Lord would be a futile pursuit and one that I’m not prepared to embark upon; he’s already aware and has been for a considerable amount of time. Equally, you seem to be suggesting that the local MP has absolutely no sway over her own local party where she is the Member of Parliament. I find that hard to believe.

If Jonathan Lord is technically responsible for this member’s behaviour, how about Anne Milton shows her principled side and contacts him instead of me? I’m sure she would rightly disassociate herself from such behaviour so why not be pro-active and take responsibility herself? What’s more, the voice of an upstanding Member of Parliament from the same party will undoubtedly carry more weight with Mr Lord than that of some uppity student.

Regards,

Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx

————-

From: HILL, Simon [HILLSA@parliament.uk]
Sent: Tue 5/15/2007 2:19 PM
To: Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: University of Surrey

Dear Xx Xxxxxxxxx,

Thank you for your e-mail. I can only reiterate what I have already.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Hill

Simon Hill
Office of Anne Milton
Member of Parliament for Guildford and
Shadow Minister for Gambling, Licensing and Tourism
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Tel: +44 (0)20 7219 0017
Fax: +44 (0)20 7219 5239
E-mail: hillsa@parliament.uk

————-

From: Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx
Sent: 15 May 2007 14:29
To: HILL, Simon
Subject: RE: University of Surrey

Thanks for your reply again.

If that’s the case, would you have an email address for Mr Lord? The reason is that I’m leaving Guildford soon and I’m unsure as to where I’ll be living next. I wouldn’t want to send written correspondence giving a return address that I might not be at in a week’s time.

Regards,

Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx

————-

From: HILL, Simon [HILLSA@parliament.uk]
Sent: Thu 5/17/2007 6:38 PM
To: Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: University of Surrey

Dear Xx Xxxxxxxxx,

Thank you for your e-mail. I suggest that you use the Guildford Conservatives’ e-mail address which is on their website ( info@guildfordconservatives.com) marking the e-mail for the attention of Mr Lord.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Hill

Simon Hill
Office of Anne Milton
Member of Parliament for Guildford and
Shadow Minister for Gambling, Licensing and Tourism
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Tel: +44 (0)20 7219 0017
Fax: +44 (0)20 7219 5239
E-mail: hillsa@parliament.uk

————-

From: Xxxxxx XXXXXXXXXX
Date: Mon, May 21, 2007 at 1:14 PM
Subject: FAO Jonathan Lord
To: info@guildfordconservatives.com

Dear Mr Lord,

Please see below an email exchange that I have had with some Conservative MPs over a relatively extended period. You should read from the bottom upwards.

Regards,

Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx

————-

[NOTE – ‘from the bottom upwards.’ refers to all correspondence above this email; I have rearranged these emails so they are in sequential order]

————-

On 5/24/07, Guildford CA wrote:

Dear Xx Xxxxxxxxx,

Thank you for your email and email thread.

I had some (amicable) dealings with the Chairman of the local Liberal Democrats during the course of the election campaign. An inappropriate link was brought to my attention which was then removed from the blog section of a candidate’s personal website.

If you have allegations to make against any member of this Association, I would ask you to put them in writing (with all supporting evidence) and send them to the following address:

Jonathan Lord
Chairman, Guildford Conservative Association
Unit 17a, Loseley Park
Guildford
Surrey
GU3 1HS

Thank you again for your email.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Lord
Chairman, GCA

————-

On 5/24/07, Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Mr Lord,

As far as I can tell the evidence is included in my first email; it’s quite clear.

Finally, as I mentioned in my email to Simon Hill which you can see below, I don’t want to send written correspondence because I’m moving out of Guildford soon and I don’t know where I’m going to be living. I therefore can’t indicate a return address and so prefer to communicate via email.

Regards,

Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx

————-

From: Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx
To: Guildford CA
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2007 5:03 PM
Subject: Re: FAO Jonathan Lord

Mr Lord,

Do you have any further information with regards to our recent correspondence?

Regards,

Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx

————-

From: Guildford CA
Date: Thu, Jun 14, 2007 at 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: FAO Jonathan Lord
To: Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx

Dear Xx Xxxxxxxxx,

I have double-checked your first email.

You call Anne Milton MP “profoundly dishonest”, and you refer us to a blog that is antagonistic to Anne Milton MP and Guildford Conservatives.

If you have a complaint that you wish to be taken seriously then I require it in writing, and with any supporting evidence in writing. I therefore refer you to my previous email.

I am sure that there is a return address (of your parents, of a friend, of your place of study or your workplace) to which any reply of our Association could be directed.

Our email correspondence on this matter is now at an end.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Lord
Chairman, G.C.A.

————-

That “first email” will be published tomorrow. The blog he refers to is mine; Jonathan Lord implies that issues of partisanship cause him to distrust the evidence presented by me (and others). He has also repeatedly pretended that he was never seen any of the relevant evidence, and he does so again to a considerable degree here.

The evidence in question was live on websites other than mine, and far more convincing in its live state than any written version might be.

Further, in this exchange, Jonathan Lord also gives what I suspect is at least a one-sided take on his correspondence with local Lib Dems (looking into it, folks) in which he reveals he was fully aware of a key point of evidence; one of his activists clearly published an “inappropriate link” on a political blog published in his own name.

It is clear from my discussion with Mr Lord that this is a reference to a link published on Dennis Paul’s weblog, and he would only have known it was inappropriate if he had followed the hyperlink.

By this stage, the site this “inappropriate link” led to had not only maintained the accusation of paedophilia for almost a year, it also featured a photo of the target and details of where they might be found, and had also published a personal phone number as part of its ‘investigation’.

The discovery that Dennis Paul had knowingly linked to a site of this nature should have led to the immediate termination of his candidacy and his expulsion from the Conservatives. It didn’t.

The removal of this link should not have been the end of the matter, but rather the beginning of a full investigation into his conduct and that of fellow Tory candidate Mike Chambers. It wasn’t.

Jonathan Lord turned a blind eye to the matter, before and after the relevant election, for entirely selfish/political reasons.

Tomorrow, I plan to name and shame another senior Tory (other than David Cameron) who was made fully aware of this dangerous smear campaign and yet took no discernable action.

(In fact, they later had the audacity to describe the dispute that arose from it as a “personal disagreement”.)