Bloggerheads

I may have mentioned before that I’m not a big fan of cats; by and large, they’re selfish, mean little buggers and they have a bad habit of jumping over my fence, crapping in my yard, and then running off.

Most of Iain’s and Paul’s bullies act like this (and the worst offender so far has been Jackie, who was kind enough to publish libel on other people’s weblogs before running away).

Last night, Iain took a step beyond his usual trick of allowing (or creating) anonymous comments to smear me. Now, instead of just letting what he knows to be outright lies stand without challenge, he is deleting my challenges to them!

A screengrab of just such a comment, a fair and concise response that never saw the light of day, is here (as you may have guessed, the related link points readers to the comment exchange under this post).

I could point to many examples of anonymous bullies on Iain Dale’s website making claims that simply don’t stand up, but (paranoia warning) currently, permalinks to individual comments on Iain’s site don’t work; they are broken (another of life’s happy little accidents).

Funnily enough, Iain Dale uses similar dirty tricks on his pissy little television show; he will often cut guests off and insist that they back up or qualify one statement or another, but he himself is allowed to make claims with no foundation, and he rarely gets called on these because he’s the host. (On the rare occasions he *does* get called on these, look for the sudden appearance of the words; “Moving on…”)

Iain Dale, abuser of power and wannabe MP, does this a *lot*. Dig though the video archives, watch, learn… and think twice before entering his den.

One baseless claim he made (and got away with) on his show was that I am a ‘nihilist’. He then denied saying it, and has made no comment since being called on the baseless smear, and the outright lie.

And he’s *still* at it today, playing the victim, playing the expert/upstanding blogger, and publishing (and not challenging) a series of anonymous comments about me being the smearer and the abuser of power (speaking of such things, I can’t *wait* to see the 18 Tory Street appearance that Caroline speaks of here… apparently I’m a ‘blogging fascist’).

This, ladies and gentlemen, is where we finally stray into the personal.

I’m well and truly ticked off… but some people have difficulty in understanding what it is that I’m most ticked off about:

This ‘blogging expert’ is a disgrace to blogging and his influence on up-and-coming bloggers (especially Tories) is clear. The more people who follow his example and that of Paul Staines, the more crap there is going to be in my back yard… and yours.

To help make this point, and to make clear that I’ve made this point to Iain Dale, I’m going to publish in full* the email I sent to Iain in the early hours of this morning.

(*An unrelated ‘PS’ has been removed; you’d need to read two or three other emails to understand its meaning anyway.)

—– Original Message —–
From: Tim Ireland
To: Iain Dale
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 1:47 AM
Subject: For the human being that lurks somewhere inside of you

While you’re busy playing the victim (i.e. while you’re ‘in the zone’), just imagine for a second what it would be like to be a gay candidate and have this gang of fuck-heads messing with you:
https://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2006/08/guildford_tories.asp

They’re one of your lot, too…. approved by Head Office:
https://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2007/01/indulgences.asp

Take a look at how close their techniques are to Paul’s…
https://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2007/01/briefing_astro-turfers.asp

and yours*:
https://www.bloggerheads.com/guido_fawkes/2007/02/manics-tips-for-becoming-successful_02.html

*This still applies even if you don’t write the defences/trolls yourself. You hide behind them and/or use them as weapons on a regular basis. And if you don’t reign the bullies in, they’re your bullies. You own them. Here’s a small example for you to follow (best I could find at short notice)… see comments:
https://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2007/01/onmarks.asp

The longer you keep this shit up and ponce about as a very poor example, the more damage you do and the more common this kind of thing becomes.

Now, perhaps, you will understand why you have finally managed to make me angry… especially when you insist that you are the victim of a smear/attack.

You, Iain, are the potential father of countless smears and attacks.

Wake the fuck up.

Tim

I think it goes without saying that there’s been no reply. Iain Dale either doesn’t get it, or doesn’t care.

UPDATE – Well said. Thank you.: Paul, I don’t think it is a row about nothing. Iain insulted Tim on 18 Tory Street and then point-blank lied about it when challenged. And there’s been no apology and no withdrawal of the spurious accusation. Tim has an online reputation and Iain has attempted to damage it with an unjustifiable smear. He’s been caught bang to rights but he refuses to even acknowledge it, never mind offer an apology. Instead, he’s doing everything he can to hide the truth of what he’s done from his readers. This ties into the wider point. I’m all for the free flow of information and ideas. It’s another reasons why I started blogging. I’m not all for the right to gratuitously smear/insult/rubbish people who ask awkward questions. The latter, it seems to me, damages the ability of the blo****ere to do the former.

UPDATE – I just tripped over this. Read the post and the comment. Try to act surprised.

No formal reply from Iain Dale after I outed him as a liar, but I think – give the content of this fresh post and this one – that the message is pretty clear.

Also, after weeks of being called every name under the sun by a series of mostly anonymous right-wing ratbags, today – via comments and email – I suddenly find myself blessed with constructive input from a number of ‘first-time’ Tory contributors who have the temerity to suggest that it is time for me to start playing nice.

Sorry, but I’m not having it.

An apology, Iain. Today, please.

And one for Justin too, if you’d be so kind.

(Psst! An illuminating exchange starting here for you folks to enjoy. The main point raised is much the same as this one.)

UPDATE – Oh, you’re going to *love* this… check out the comments. The man has no shame.

(Psst! Yes, this entry is about Iain and this entry is about Iain. The proof – if you feel you need it – is here. Hey, I tried to be nice.)

Two days ago I highlighted the fact that Nick Boles has been caught using Policy Exchange as an administrative base for a personal website with a clear party-political purpose and asked you lot to get in touch with him about that… and since then, nobody has heard a damn thing back from the man.

One would think that if the defence that has so far only been made anonymously (quite likely by someone using the Policy Exchange web server) is solid – i.e. that Nick Boles is only guilty of “(using) his office computer to register a website” – then Nick Boles would have responded with this defence himself… but he hasn’t.

There are three possible reasons for this lack of response (and any that do apply may overlap):

1. Nick Boles does not regard this particular use of Policy Exchange facilities (to pursue a personal and party-political objective) to be relevant.

2. Nick Boles does not regard the appearance of the related evidence on a website to be damaging (i.e. like his uppers in the Conservative Party, he doesn’t see the point in addressing any given matter until there’s a significant level of noise in the mainstream media).

3. Nick Boles has used the resources of Policy Exchange to do more than just register a few domain names.

Now, dear reader, I want you for a moment to imagine that you are the Mayor of London:

You are in charge of a great deal of public money, and can direct, influence or develop many resources that are paid for out of the public purse.

Your job description is pretty straightforward; acting in the public interest, you have to manage said money and resources in an effective/efficient manner for the duration of your term.

The ‘for the duration of your term’ bit is far more important than it looks; you not only have to act properly, you must fastidiously avoid any appearance of impropriety… as the latter could be your undoing at the hands of one rival or another, thereby stuffing up the management side of things (while you scramble to keep your job and/or valuable time and money is wasted finding a permanent replacement).

That is why, if you were running for Mayor, and you were ‘only’ guilty of using your office computer to register a domain name for a personal website with a clear party-political purpose, you would no longer enjoy my support.

Now, enough about you… let’s get back to Nicholas “Call me Nick!” Boles.

I’d much rather be out playing in the snow, but I think that now is a good time for me to finally write my email to Nick, which appears in full below:

From: Tim Ireland
To: Nick Boles
CC: Iain Dale; Jeffrey Archer; David Cameron

Dear Nick,

I’m concerned that your silence on the matter of using Policy Exchange as an administrative base for a few domain names may signal that this is not the first, and not the worst, of such ‘oversights’.

This concern is twofold:

– If this matter is not indicative of your general conduct, then – in my opinion – your remaining silent on the matter does you more harm than good.

– If this matter *is* indicative of your general conduct, then I should warn you that I’m a curious little dickens and I will quite likely be digging for more, and I won’t be alone… especially after about 8pm last night, when results like this started going live:
https://www.bloggerheads.com/images/nb.gif

In the highly unlikely event that the latter is the case, I wish to offer you some advice, using a hypothetical situation for purposes of education and illumination:

If, for example, you have been using Policy Exchange staff, premises and/or facilities to arrange and/or conduct meetings purely for the purposes of research for your intended candidacy, I advise that you:

1. Stop now.

2. Erase any record of related correspondence and/or meetings before a formal investigation begins:

a) For email, you will first need to sweeten your IT team with an afternoon jolly or a similar incentive; only well-motivated individuals with great technical expertise (and perhaps the occasional unfortunate ‘first day’ intern) have the rare ability to erase data so completely that no trace remains.

b) Appointment diaries may be slightly trickier; if you feel you need to create a new set of diaries to replace the old ones, I suggest that you approach Jeffrey Archer for some thoughts on pitfalls to avoid. Jeffrey may also have some advice on the level of scrutiny one can expect when running for Mayor of London.

c) Of course, this would still leave you with the small problem of correspondence that has left your network, and the possibly-quite-inconvenient recollections of individuals who have received such correspondence. If this looks like it might become an issue, you may want to contact the Russian embassy in London for further assistance.

Cheers

Tim Ireland
www.bloggerheads.com

I’ll let you know if anyone gets back to me. If you like, you can chip in yourself by clicking here. Cheers all.

UPDATE (21 Feb) – Bloggerheads – Nick Boles steps down! (Nothin’ to do with me, Guv’nor…)

New Statesman – Justin McKeating: Not Bright’s Blog III – Guido j’accuse!: Self-styled blogging guru and Tory A-lister, Iain Dale, described Tim as a ‘nihilist’ on his 18 Doughty Street webTV show. Now, at this point it’s necessary for me to declare my interest (this is how it’s done Mr Dale). Tim Ireland is a personal friend of mine. That might make me biased, but taking a look at the various campaigns that Tim has run over the past few years in order to foster positive political engagement – building blogs for MPs, organising tactical voting campaigns and protesting against the Parliament Square protest ban – and ‘nihilist’ is the last word you would use to describe him.

I’ve highlighted this passage in particular for two reasons:

1. Iain Dale could use a little coaching in declaration of interests.

2. Iain Dale has denied describing me as a nihilist (and I think we can expect him to repeat that denial now this article exists).

—– Original Message —–
From: Tim Ireland
Sent: 16 January 2007 18:25
To: Iain Dale
Subject: Re: “The power of blogging flows from directly connecting with the readers…
>
> This just in: “Iain Dale said you were a ‘nihilist’ on 18DS last night”
>
> So you see fit to rubbish/dismiss me on your show, but not mention the issue on
> your weblog where your hypocrisy can be highlighted.
>
> Figures; all mouth and no trousers.
>
> Tim

—– Original Message —–
From: Iain Dale
To: ‘Tim Ireland’
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 6:44 PM
Subject: RE: “The power of blogging flows from directly connecting with the readers…
>
> I never said anything of the sort. Seeing as until I just looked it up I hadn’t got a
> fucking clue what a nihilist is, I’m hardly likely to call you one, am I?
>
> You fight your own battles with Mr Fawkes. I’m really not interested in participating.

Tch. Such language from a man who objects to use of ‘the C-word’.

I am now about to prove that Iain Dale is a liar… a big, fat liar. A liar, liar, liar with his lying pants on fire.

And I can say that he is a liar as often as I like… because he lied to me!

He’s a liar!

(Heh. This is fun.)

If you wish, you can access the relevant discussion via the Fox News Lite link below:

Blogger TV (15/01/2007): Iain Dale discusses the issues of the week that has got the blogging world excited. Iain Dale is joined by Devil’s Kitchen, Labour MP Nick Palmer, Mark Pack of libdemvoice.org, blogging MP Richard Spring and James Oates of cicerossongs.blogspot.com. Originally aired on 15/01/2007.

The 18DoughtyStreet website currently forces many web users to sit through videos from start to finish, so if you have the patience for it, you can sit through the whole programme and gawp in wonder as the pretentious twat gasps that Tom Watson has been blogging for a long time… “even longer than me!”

Or, you can take a short-cut straight to the this audio file of the relevant exchange.

Here, much to Iain’s annoyance, James Oates names my “comprehensive demolition” of Guido Fawkes as his blog of the week. James then goes on to say:

“(Guido) is a nihilist, effectively… and I really think that’s what Tim Ireland is pointing out…”

Then Iain Dale interjects with this:

“Well isn’t Tim Ireland one as well?”

Now technically, it could be argued that Iain was merely asking if I was a nihilist; not stating a fact, merely asking a question… but let’s pop back to Iain’s denial, less than 24 hours later:

“I never said anything of the sort. Seeing as until I just looked it up I hadn’t got a fucking clue what a nihilist is, I’m hardly likely to call you one, am I?”

But Iain did say something of that exact sort, and any reference to the dictionary would have been completely surplus to requirements because he threw the same word back in a guest’s face just the night before!

Iain Dale, you lied to me.

Get to it. Liar.

UPDATE (6:36pm) – Hey, kids! Be the first on your block to have an ‘Iain Dale is a liar’ button on your weblog!

UPDATE (8:30pm) – Over 3 hours later and not a word from Iain Dale. And he’s got the night off, too. I’m still dumbstruck that the lie was such a bold one. If he’d pulled up short at denying that he’d said it, he could simply have claimed that he forgot saying it… but most people don’t forget the meaning of a word overnight without a major head injury.

PS – I think it goes without saying that if he tries to squirm his way out of it and insult me (again) at the same time, I’m going to be just a little bit upset.

New Statesman – Justin McKeating: Not Bright’s Blog III – Guido j’accuse!

[snip]

More on this soon… first, I need to direct your attention to the Guido 2.0 weblog, and this entry in particular, before working on some extras for later this afternoon.

… but I’m not the one who’ll end up eating worms:

Ministry of Truth – Opening cans of worms: I think now is an opportune time for the Electoral Commission to take a look at these new developments and take a view as to whether and to what extent their activities should be subject to regulation, particularly in key campaign periods leading in to elections. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always considered prevention to be better than a cure, and in the case of Fox News Lite it seems better that the Electoral Commission take a good close look into the loopholes that it may be exploiting in existing regulations and decide whether there are any stable doors that need to be shut before the horses get a change to bolt. Blogging may, therefore, be a touch light for a few days while these and other questions are properly framed and forwarded to the relevant regulators for consideration…

Heh. If you’re the type who should worry when *I* go quiet, find someplace safe to hide. Now.

Iain Dale – Comment moderation is now on: Since I switched off comment moderation two weeks ago I had only had to delete three posts until yesterday. But a concerted campaign of anonymous posting has been launched – I’ll leave you to speculate who by – and I’m not prepared to be the focus of nasty smears by people who hide in anonymity.

I’m sorry, Iain, but the anonymous posts have turned out to be far more useful to you than to me, so you can take your speculation and stick it in your cake-hole.

As for nasty smears by people who hide in anonymity, I wish to remind Iain that he happily endorsed Paul ‘Guido Fawkes’ Staines as the UK’s leading ‘open and honest’ political blogger, even though ‘Guido’ relies heavily on… nasty smears delivered by those who hide in anonymity (who then typically cry like little girls when they get the outing they deserve):

Bloggerheads – Guido’s bluffs, toughs and fluffers
Bloggerheads – The De-Briefing (Guido and his political astro-turfers)

For the record, I called Iain Dale a query-undermining distraction-seeking motherfucker on this website, but I do not recall using ‘the C-word’ on his, not matter what he might be inferring.

I’ve also had to deal with far worse from the gang of thugs that hang out at his website and Paul’s…. and I don’t have the luxury of defending myself via anonymous comments on my own damn website.

Even worse; though moderation was switched on prior to 11:41am (when Iain made his announcement), he still approved this comment for publication after it was submitted at 11:44am:

Anonymous said…

Iain, I fear Mr Maniac or whatever he is called is getting more and more deluded. His tedious spam is increasing in volume. His bizarre conspiracy theories are getting ever more bizarre. Apparently posting new items to your blog, something you do every day, is ‘burying’ something, rather than the more rational explanation of posting new content, something you seem to do rather regularly. And what is he burying? Ah yes, some crackpot theory that a Tory moaning about Red Ken must be a big conspiracy.

What a loon. Can someone call in the mental nurses.
11:44 AM

That, children, is what is known as a nasty smear by a person who hides in anonymity. There’s a fair bit of astro-turfing in this that just happens to follow Iain’s unique version of reality.

So why has Iain introduced comment moderation all of a sudden if he’s still letting this crap through? Well, I’ll leave you to speculate, shall I?

Surely the ideal solution would be to change his current Blogger settings that allow other web users (and Iain) to post comments anonymously?

(Hint: don’t hold your breath!)

The simple fact is that Iain is less concerned about ‘anonymous smears’, and far more concerned about awkward questions from people who are not afraid to have their identities known.

Finally, he has quite cheekily lumped such pertinent questions with ‘smears’ that he most likely posted himself.

When it comes to honest debate, Iain Dale is a duplicitous coward… and a mean and nasty one at that.

PS – Frank Burns eats worms.

I’ve published a post dedicated to the WHOIS discovery that first featured in this post.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that it’s unlikely that anybody will get a straight answer out of Iain Dale about this specific matter. You’ll also be aware that Dale has already suggested getting directly in touch with Nicholas “Call me ‘Nick'” Boles about this matter in general.

So let’s all take Iain’s advice and see what happens.

In fact, why don’t I sit back for a while and enjoy a well-earned nap while you take Iain’s advice and see what happens?

Nick Boles has been caught using Policy Exchange as an administrative base for a personal website with a clear party-political purpose…. when Policy Exchange is forbidden from participating in any party-political activity!

Will he resign as the Director of Policy Exchange and/or withdraw as a potential candidate for London mayor as a result?

First person to come back with a quality response (“no comment” doesn’t count) will win a used but largely untainted copy of The Mask Strikes Back.

This page helpfully informs us that Nick Boles can be contacted by phone on 020 7340 2650 or via email at nicholas.boles@policyexchange.org.uk

Go to it. I suggest you use email rather than the telephone; that will give you a more reliable response…. but please do Nick the courtesy of informing him that any reply is likely to be published.

Good luck!

UPDATE – If you’re not of a mind to pull Nick’s chain, why not instead politely ask Ellee Seymour why she’s so quiet this morning? Contact details here.

UPDATE (12pm) – Iain Dale has just switched comment moderation on, but he’s still allowing those very-useful trolls through. Funny that. (Note to self: you promised yourself a nap. Get on with it.)

UPDATE (1:15pm) – Well, they can’t pretend that they’re unware of this:

Incidentally, these visits just happen to bracket the period in which this comment was submitted. I’ll leave you to speculate, shall I?

UPDATE (21 Feb) – Bloggerheads – Nick Boles steps down! (Nothin’ to do with me, Guv’nor…)

I guess this means that I get to keep the prize for myself. Is that one of those conflict of interest thingies…?

The 18ToryStreet plan to produce “a gloves-off attack ad” on London Mayor Ken Livingston raises many serious questions, but right now what I’d like to focus on is the polite and straighforward questions that CuriousHamster tried to put to Iain Dale this evening.

(Psst! There are surprises later. And cake…. maybe. Hang in there.)

If you’re not yet aware of the clever techniques Iain Dale uses to avoid pointed questions submitted to his weblog, you can see a recent example here and a full study of techniques here.

First, Iain’s post:

Iain Dale – (Don’t) Vote for Ken: The next campaign advert which 18 Doughty Street is making concerns Ken Livingstone. If you’d like to vote for one of the three idea click HERE.

Now, onto the exchange. I’d like to look purely at the discussion between Iain Dale and CuriousHamster, but I also need to include the handy distractions, as Iain insists on making them central to his ‘answer’…

CuriousHamster said…

Interesting stuff. Any ideas as to why people have started calling that TV channel 18 Tory Street?

Iain, as a trustee of Policy Exchange and a director of the TV channel, I have a question on this attack ad against the current Labour incumbent of the office of Mayor of London.

Is Nicholas Boles, the director of Policy Exchange, still the front runner to be the Conservative candidate for Major of London in 2008? Is he still in the running?

I can’t imagine that he is because you would have surely declared such an interest in an open and transparent manner. Can you confirm that he has withdrawn from the selection process?
8:06 PM

What CuriousHamster is referring to oh-so-politely here is Iain Dale’s recent failure refusal to declare an interest when filing a report for 18ToryStreet on the left-of-centre think-tank The Smith Institute… and I’m detecting some sarcasm here, but he is quite generous in his assumption that Iain would not be so bold as to pull the same stunt twice in one week.

But he has… and that’s not the only repeated stunt this week:

Iain Dale said…

Curious Hamster, go and play with your friend Richard Gere.
8:15 PM

Please excuse my French, but how fucking rude can you get?

I must admit that – upon reading this – I felt the need to check that this was a genuine comment from Iain dale. It was.

And did he answer any of CuriousHamster’s questions? No.

CuriousHamster said…

Touche Iain. I see my wits are no match etc etc…

It’s a simple enough question. Is Mr Boles still in the running? That’s all I want to know.

You can call me Garry Smith (my actual name) if that’ll help you concentrate on the question. Yes or no would do it.
8:22 PM

CuriousHamster responds with admirable restraint, repeats the core question, and gives Iain the opportunity to give a simple answer and move on. Bravo.

Iain Dale said…

You know Gary, bizarrely I don’t speak to Nicholas every day, In fact I don’t think I have spoken to him since before Christmas. I assume he is still intending to run as I have heard nothing to the contrary. If you are soooo desperate to know why don’t you email him? I’ll even be helpful and give you the email address info@policyexchange.org.uk
8:27 PM

One of Iain’s more annoying habits; an attempt to ridicule the question and/or the person posing it while delivering a guarded response (i.e. to impress us with a ‘hit’ in the hope that we don’t notice that his answer isn’t much of an answer).

For the record, I find it very hard to believe that Iain Dale, a trustee for Policy Exchange, was not in touch with Nicholas ‘Nick’ Boyles, the Director of Policy Exchange, either immediately before or after this report and its aftermath.

I could also bang on about Iain and ‘Nick’ both being gay here and ‘innocently’/jokingly assume that they both attend the regular meetings us breeders suspect they always have in our absence, but I’m not a query-undermining distraction-seeking motherfucker like Dale.

Speaking of distractions, here comes one now!

Anonymous said…

Note the severe limits to posting here – the “Dale democracy” is actually just another spin factory. I think we can all see what’s coming in the election – the CIA-controlled Dale running lies and smears from Doughty St, appealing to the lowest-common-denominator of what they perceive to be Moron Britain – hit the gays, call Livingstone a terrorist, etc, etc, ad nauseum.
8:40 PM

I’ll reserve comment on this until after CuriousHamster’s response… and Iain’s:

CuriousHamster said…

Now there’s a politician’s answer if ever I heard one. Not like that last one. It was just rude.

Just to clarify, you’re saying you’re not sure so you didn’t feel the need to declare an interest?

I’m not comfortable using that general email address for an independent charity to find out whether Mr Boles is still in the running to be Conservative candidate for major. That seems like more of a party political issue and not the sort of enquiry he should be dealing with during his time working for charity.

But that’s just my opinion.

Is there any other way I can find out? I must say, I’m slightly surprised that you don’t know. I heard that you were generally very well informed.
8:50 PM

CuriousHamster said…

Strange how the anonygoons have come out again. The allegations made by the anonymous idiot above, for example, are very easy to ridicule and very distracting.
8:54 PM

Given the rather vague response Iain gave and the extremely discourteous way in which he gave it, CuriousHamster cannot be blamed for further pressing the point and wanting to (finally) get to the guts of the matter. Also, his identification of a rather useful troll is worth noting.

Finally, CuriousHamster is right to point out that ‘Nick’ Boles should not be using Policy Exchange facilities to pursue a party-political objective, but I’ll expand on that and provide some other extras later*.

For now, it needs to be noted that this was the last we heard from Iain Dale for a while. Not that he was unavailable for comment. You can see him here after 10pm batting down handily-flawed accusations from anonymous web users in another thread and, as CuriousHamster notes, interventions such as this are “very easy to ridicule and very distracting”.

And here comes a whopper right after an arse-related detour…

PJ said…

On a point of order, Mr Dale I believe the Gere preference is for gerbils.
By all accounts hamsters may be the new newt………….
10:21 PM

Anonymous said…

Anon 8:40 you are right – Dale is playing the role that the Monday Club and CIA-funded arms dealers did to get Thatcher elected and to illegally run the national police forces during the minders strike, from a suite in the Ritz. Dale is financed from abroad, but from where exactly? Who is behind the Tory dirty war to come? I expect the aim is to make Cameron look clean whilst Dale and his neocon pals roll in the gutter. It was a technique perfected in the first Bush/Gore election and so I suspect it comes in from the US. We should therefore look to the connections between Dale and the Neocon-faschists in the New American Century movement, etc. The next General Election will be fought with knives and pistols.
11:00 PM

Note how this troll builds on the material provided by the earlier troll. Note also how Iain Dale responds:

Iain Dale said…

ROFL. 1. I am not a NeoCon. 2. I receive no income apart from my earnings from 18DS and my writing and political punditry. 3. 18DS receives no money from anyone apart from Stephan Shakespeare.
11:04 PM

Yep. He leaves CuriousHamster’s highly relevant question hanging and instead responds to the troll.

I’ve watched Iain Dale do this before… and the trolls that allow him to do this seem to turn up like magic. Even if Iain isn’t writing/submitting such comments himself, it’s one hell of a cheat.

And do you know what? I’m sick of watching him get away with it.

–

*Now, onto some of those promised extras:

1. 18ToryStret promised “a gloves-off attack ad on London’s Mayor and his record” (my emphasis)…. but the script that was chosen begins with bendy-buses and council tax (only part of London council tax is set by the mayor, BTW) and then goes on to associate Ken Livingston with various communists, terrorists, onanists, etc. etc. etc. Nice one.

2. Nick Boles appears to have learned his spamming generic email techniques from a master. Note also the ‘public consultation’ aspect of this email; like many candidates preparing to parachute into action, ‘Nick’ seems keen to find out what locals are concerned about before deciding that he too is concerned about exactly the same things.

3. Also note that the first of these went out on 18 Jan and the second on 22 Jan. No, Iain may not have spoken to ‘Nick’ Boles since before Christmas, but how likely do you think it is that he’s unaware of these emails… or the associated website… or the obvious implications?

4. CuriousHamster wanted to know if Nick Boles is still in the running to be the Conservative candidate for Major of London in 2008. One look at his website tells you that he obviously is, as it’s very London-focused and the only content of any note is the continuation of the aforementioned ‘public consultation’ exercise. And, while we’re on the subject of the website…

5. CuriousHamster is right to point out that ‘Nick’ Boles should not be using Policy Exchange time/facilities to pursue a party-political objective… so what are we humble mortals to make of ‘Nick’ Boles registering the domain names for his political prep-site (nickboles.com, nickboles.net, nickboles.org and nickboles.co.uk) using his Policy Exchange email address *and* the Policy Exchange mailing address *and* the main phone number for Policy Exchange?

(Direct link to screengrab composite here, if you need it.)

SPECIAL UPDATE – There is now a post over at Guido 2.0 focusing entirely on this discoveryand the possible implications. You may wish to include a link to that if this is the meat you find tastiest of all.)

6. Who’s a naughty boy, then? There’s also the not-entirely unrelated matter of the panel discussion described here, where ‘Nick’ Boles potential London mayoral hopeful and Director of Policy Exchange (at an event part-sponsored by Policy Exchange); “was keen to draw a distinction between the approach of a Conservative London mayor and Ken Livingstone’s micro-management of many London issues.”

Any more for any more?

[Note to Iain – I probably wouldn’t have been up late writing this post and doing the relevant poking around if you had simply seen fit to give CuriousHamster a direct answer to a pertinent question. Just something to keep in mind.]

UPDATE (21 Feb) – Bloggerheads – Nick Boles steps down! (Nothin’ to do with me, Guv’nor…)