This entry was posted on
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at
11:02 am and is filed
under Christ…, Tories! Tories! Tories!.
Some of you may have noticed Nadine Dorries finally following the ’20 Weeks’ campaign with her difficult second album, Right to Know (more). Just to be clear, what we are looking at here is series of cheap American pop covers (compare righttoknow.org.uk to righttoknow.org), with the only original material being a cheap re-hash of crowd-pleasing highlights including dubious arrangement of statistics into unconvincing power chords and the delightfully unconvincing disguises worn by Nadine’s fundamentalist backing group.
Last time it was the registration of the20weekscampaign.org that gave them away. This time, Dorries is pushing righttoknow.org.uk, which has been registered using the generic description ‘Web Officer’ instead of a real name, and opts to disguise further detail by incorrectly classifying the domain/site as the work of a private individual.
Nominet have confirmed that both measures put this user in breach of their agreed Terms, and it will be interesting to see how the mystery registrant responds to a subsequent request by Nominet that they comply with the agreed rules.
One assumes the same team that maintains this site also has some role to play in the official/associated Twitter feed and YouTube channel. Requests have been sent through both of these communication channels requesting that they be clearer about who is funding/coordinating their efforts, but so far the only response has been the deletion of any such questions from the YouTube channel, and the refusal to allow any further comments.
Here I will remind you that Nadine’s latest attempt to reduce the number of abortions hinges on a demand for transparency; she contends that women have a right to know about the shadowy forces that seek to influence them without declaring an interest… while not thinking for a moment that the same might apply to her.
This is typical of Nadine Dorries, as is her distaste for the pesky little rules that she thinks only apply to little people. She is, after all, on a mission from God (more).
On 30 March 2010, I submitted an information request to the office of Nadine Dorries. It is now exactly one year later and Dorries and her staff haven’t even got around to acknowledging receipt yet. I suspect they intend to defy the request, and a complaint is with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Since receiving the request for information her office holds on me, Dorries has made a claim that I have sent her and her staff ‘numerous offensive emails’ and other ‘vile’ and ‘abusive’ and ‘explicit’ messages. My information request should at least compel her to reveal all emails/messages sent to her office in my name, but instead she continues to pretend that no such request has been made.
I expect she will cry ‘stalker’ when the ICO case officer gets in touch; this means that she will be refusing to honour an information request on the basis of evidence she is refusing to release under that same information request.
Transparency is wonderful, isn’t it?
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(Psst! Odds are good that the testimony of ‘Tanya’ comes to us via Forsaken, but Dorries will be keen to avoid any such admission, especially after her disastrous attempt to pass that group off as an established ‘pro woman’ charity. Meanwhile, apropos of nothing, I bring you shocking news of a lack of transparency in the abortion industry overseas.)
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UPDATE – I’ve made a video that attempts to explain Dorries’ position a little better.
Nadine Dorries: Right to Know from Tim Ireland on Vimeo.
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UPDATE (11 April) – Take a look at what turned up when Nominet revealed the address used to register this domain name.
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By nullifidian March 30, 2011 - 11:22 am
Letter of complaint sent to Nominet [https://secure.nominet.org.uk/account/whois-complaint.html]:
Sir,
I belief the above domain [righttoknow.org.uk], the owners of which are currently exercising their power to opt-out from the WHOIS database, which as a political-action entity supported by two Members of Parliament, should be subject to the principles of openness and accountability to the public interest that we, as UK citizens, now require for our political representatives.
As this web site's purpose is to call for support of political action, notwithstanding the controversial nature of the topic, I believe that it is essential for the purposes of accountability that this domain can be audited and tracked back to its sponsors.
If you decide that opting-out is reasonable for such purposes, I would ask that you clarify the rules as to when the opt-out from the WHOIS database is appropriate concerning such political entities.
Yours faithfully,
<my name>
By @scotchtwit March 30, 2011 - 1:46 pm
I'll happily add my name to that.
By @scotchtwit March 30, 2011 - 1:52 pm
Nadine does make it clear in the vid that she's talking about "pregnant women who've had abortions".
Just in case we were confused there.
By @scotchtwit March 30, 2011 - 1:56 pm
Frank Field the ventriloquist is clearly working Nadine in that vid.
By Zoot Cadillac March 31, 2011 - 4:23 pm
Pleased to have added my complaint to nominet regarding this issue today.
By Zoot Cadillac April 1, 2011 - 12:50 pm
Update: reply from nominet.
Dear Mr *******
Thank you for your email regarding the domain name righttoknow.org.uk
The Head of our Customer Services Department, Jonathan Watkins, is looking into the situation and will be in contact with you shortly.
If you have any further questions regarding this please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best Regards,
Louise Maishman
PA to Director of Operations & Director of Finance
By David Boothroyd April 1, 2011 - 11:08 pm
Given that the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons are not a well known place for April Fools, this is evidently genuine. See http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011… and scroll down to the last page for a nasty surprise.
(The Panel of Chairs are MPs designated to preside over Committees and sittings of the House in Westminster Hall. It is apparently the Speaker's personal choice so possibly a peace offering from John Bercow)
By Zoot Cadillac April 4, 2011 - 12:00 pm
last mail received ( and I guess I can go no further with it unless they start selling tee-shirts from the site but you never know, Forsaken like to peddle books)
Dear Mr *******
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The domain name righttoknow.org.uk is currently registered to “Web Officer”. As it is not clear exactly who this domain name is registered for we have contacted the registrant to update the details to those of the correct legal entity.
With regards to the political views of the web site, these are not taken into account when displaying the registrant’s contact details, however we will update accounts to display their address details if the registrant is anything other than a non-trading individual. We will assess this status for the domain name righttoknow.org.uk once the registrant details have been updated. Changes to the domain name registration details will be reflected on the Whois.
If you would like to discuss this further or have any other questions around this matter please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best regards,
Jonathan Watkins
Head of Customer Services
Nominet UK