Bloggerheads

OK, here’s how it works around here:

Everybody who visits my site will enjoy the usual level of privacy they would expect from any other site. BUT if you are the type of person who owes me an answer and pretends not to be aware of certain facts so you might hide behind the illusion of plausible deniability, then I am quite likely going to track your visit(s) to the posts on my site that you pretend you haven’t seen, then I am quite likely going to call you on that, even if it means embarrassing you in the process. In fact, if you really piss me off, I am probably going to go out of my way to embarrass you (not least because you deserve a spotlight all to yourself so we can finally see you and hear what you have to say for yourself).

Yesterday, the staff of Conservative Party Chairman Baroness Warsi refused to acknowledge that Nadine Dorries had lied about a criminal investigation that never took place (that she claims took place in response to a report she never made).

In doing so, they attempted to leave me, and my complaint, in limbo. In this way, they could pretend to be unaware of the full facts (as Iain Dale and Nadine Dorries have repeatedly done) and thereby avoid any position that might compel them to take action… or at least a position.

The bad news for them is I gave them a very specific URL in the email I sent, which allowed me to identify/isolate their IP address (194.203.158.97)…

… and verify that staff at Conservative Central Office had seen and read my post and all the details they would like to deny seeing yesterday at 2:02pm, 2:31pm, 2:53pm, 3:45pm and 4:43pm, and again today at 10:48am. Some visitors even took the time to read other Dorries-related posts, including some on the Nadine Dorries Project.

Baroness Warsi may later be able to claim that she was unaware of all of this, but she will no longer be able to pretend it was the fault of a single, under-enthusiastic staff member (as Patrick Mercer did).

So now the good people at CCHQ have seen the detail, and can’t deny seeing the detail, just what in the hell are they going to do about it? My guess is ‘still nothing’ until some negative publicity kicks in.

Speaking of which, I was curious enough to look up edits to Wikipedia made by people using this Conservative Central Office IP address, and the removal of this little nugget (in red) amused me:

I’m sure there’s more to find. Have a browse for yourself.

Recently, I published a segment of a discussion held under the Chatham House rule. This rule was first violated by Iain Dale and Phil Hendren through their misrepresentation of its contents and the nature of the discussion. They continue to misrepresent its contents and the nature of the discussion, so here we are at another point where I have to reveal the actual contents so you might decide for yourselves what really went on. The close of the discussion makes the conditions under which I breach a pledge of confidence crystal clear.

To be equally clear on two major points:

– Iain Dale did not agree to take part in this discussion when he found out my children were being targeted; he agreed to take part in this discussion in reaction to the negative publicity that followed the revelation that my children were being targeted. Because that’s the kind of guy he is. Total bastard. Oh, and thanks to everybody on Twitter who helped with that. You’re all champs.

– Iain Dale ‘cooperated’ in much the same way that he ‘called Patrick Mercer’ (he didn’t) and ‘reported me to police for harassment’ (he didn’t), and the following conversation is being published to clear this up and address other aspects of his and Hendren’s continuing misrepresentations.

(Next time, Hendren/Dale, don’t be calling me a liar when you know you can’t back it up, and when you know how it complicates an ongoing campaign of harassment. The Chatham House rule is not enforceable by law, I don’t expect to ever engage with you or anyone like you under that banner ever again, and when the safety of my family is at stake, all bets are off.)

Dale’s ‘kind’ offer of ‘cooperation’ – and the wider conversation – collapsed into nothing soon after Dale’s employee at Total Politics (Shane Greer) turned up. It was soon after this that it became clear I was being railroaded (with a smile), despite the risks to my family. Worse, I was being berated for not sitting back and taking it. Surely if I cared about my family, I’d let Iain have his way…

From here, I’ll let the conversation speak for itself. As it culminates with a link that is crucial to context that heavily references Dominic Wightman (the person who is the main subject of the most recent police investigation), I’ve decided against avoiding mention of his name as I have in many recent posts, but I would remind Dale and Hendren (and Greer) that there is far more sensitive information in our conversation that could interfere with this ongoing police investigation and/or put my family at risk, and I urge them to use caution in their inevitable attempt to counter this with further publication(s) of carefully selected nuggets that ‘prove’ this or that.

I’m happy to stand by every statement of fact and back up every speculation with supporting evidence, but there is a lot they could release at this stage that would immediately undermine the efforts to address an ongoing campaign of harassment through the criminal justice system (i.e instead of merely pretending that to have filed a report with police and lying about police investigations that never took place).

This final segment of the group conversation is entirely unedited, with the exception of the email addresses (which have been removed) and some notes in [brackets].

From: Shane Greer
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 2:29 PM
To: Tim Ireland
Cc: Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Iain Dale, Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating

Hi Everyone,

Until now I haven’t involved myself in this email exchange as the issues involved don’t directly relate to or affect me. Moreover, I don’t have anything like the relationship history the rest of you do. However, I would still like to do what I can and, if nothing else, I thought I might at least be able to act as a voice of encouragement.

I must admit, when I saw Dizzy’s first email I thought nothing was ultimately going to be achieved. How wrong I was. The willingness shown on all sides to move things forward has been tremendous, and the fact that a relatively civilised exchange is taking place between Iain/Dizzy and Tim is an achievement in itself. Well done to Sunny for acting as the de facto mediator in all of this, and to Richard for providing additional context.

I don’t see that there’s anything I can really add to the proceedings, and with that in mind I’ll simply wish you all the best of luck.

Best,
Shane

–

From: Tim Ireland
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 5:21 PM
To: Shane Greer
Cc: Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Iain Dale , Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating

Shane,

Keeping in mind the matter of context and hyperbole, early in 2009, I sought to contact you to ask you about the posts you and another staff member of Total Politics (Gavin Whenman) made accusing me of being an “obviously unbalanced” bully; i.e. on what grounds you defended the claim today or if you were actually only trolling as you claimed at the time:
http://www.shanegreer.com/2008/01/30/feeding-the-trolls/

Yours was one of the few sites carrying anything like what Dale was claiming and Glen Jenvey was repeating at the time.

Iain saw (or sought to portray) this attempt to contact you as an attempt to harass him, so I did not get very far with it, but as you’re here now, I would ask; do you stand by your assertions or were you only trolling?

Further, given the fallout from your claim and others like it and how these were eventually used against me in the worst possible way, do you agree with Gavin Whenman’s judgement that I was an “obsessive bully… intent on blowing minor attacks against him out of all proportion”?
http://www.gavinwhenman.com/2008/02/06/tim-ireland-an-internet-bully/

Tim

–

From: Shane Greer
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 5:30 PM
To: Tim Ireland
Cc: Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Iain Dale , Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating
Hi Tim,

I understood the aim of this thread to find ways to help you and your family to avoid being harassed by Wightman Flowers et al. Others have urged you not to revisit issues from the past and concentrate on what can now be done in the future. I do not intend to do revisit this, apart from pointing out that Gavin Whenman’s blog – and indeed my own (now dormant) blog – are unrelated to Total Politics. Again, I wish you all the very best and good luck in resolving the issues you face.

Shane

–

From: Tim Ireland
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 6:09 PM
To: Shane Greer
Cc: Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Iain Dale , Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating

How is it unrelated? It clearly influenced Iain’s thinking when he accused me of stalking him; a position he continues to defend and I have the letter to prove it. It is one of the few instances of the type of accusation that Wightman relies on today in order to protect himself, and it’s certainly worth noting that you all think (or appear to think) the same way and work for the same organisation under the same publisher.

You also defended it at the time in a way suggesting that you didn’t really mean it, but only said it to stir the pot. Given that I am now facing accusations very similar to what you defended as troll-bait, I will dare to press you on the matter.

I do not regard it to be irrelevant at all. You could withdraw it now and it would still be relevant to the matter at hand.

Tim

–

From: Iain Dale
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 6:33 PM
To: Tim Ireland , Shane Greer
Cc: Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Iain Dale , Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating

This is now going round in circles. I have now asked at least four times for the details of the police in Guildford which I thought you wished me to contact. Sunny has also asked exactly what it is you want me to do to take this further, and yet all you seem to want to do is go off on tangents. Shane sent a perfectly proper and conciliatory email, expressing empathy and all you do is throw it back it in his face and try to reopen old wounds. That is not in the spirit of this conversation.

I am beginning to think we are now not getting as far as we thought we were if this is an indicator of what lies ahead.

If the threats you face were clear and present, and you felt the police was the only way of stopping them surely the first thing you would do is help put me in touch with whichever officer is dealing with it. And please don’t return to Nadine. She is irrelevant. I answered your nine point request for evidence in what I thought was a helpful and constructive way.

I fail to see what else now I can do.

Iain

–

From: Tim Ireland
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 6:46 PM
To: iain.dale@totalpolitics.com
Cc: Shane Greer, Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Iain Dale , Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating

To be clear: I do not regard this repeated offer of yours to be in any way reasonable, but I do agree we are talking in circles.

You base your repeated accusations of stalking on evidence you can’t produce or won’t discuss. You do recall citing my attempt to contact Shane Greer as evidence of my harassing you, yes?

Unless you’d care to admit that your accusation had no foundation, I am going to address the justifications you use to prop them up, and that includes what you said and did about Dorries, Mercer and Milton, because it is these accusations that Wightman is hiding behind.

If you still don’t understand that, I hope to explain myself better in a further email, and will explain carefully what I expect and need from you or others.

Please do not risk any repeat of the implication that this is not an urgent matter, and/or not being treated by me as an urgent matter; I am wary of wasting what may well be my final chance to address this through the criminal justice system, and there’s stuff going on that’s none of your business and eating up a lot of my time.

Tim

–

From: Shane Greer
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 6:56 PM
To: Tim Ireland , Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Iain Dale , Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating
Dear all,

My email earlier was intended to encourage you in what I felt at the time was a reasonably productive engagement between the individuals in this thread. For what it’s worth, I still wish you all the best of luck.

However, given Tim’s aggressive reaction to my email, I see no reason for my continued involvement.

I will not be reading any future emails in this thread.

Best,
Shane

–

From: Iain Dale
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 7:49 PM
To: Tim Ireland
Cc: Shane Greer, Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating

Well that’s me told. I too have little time at the moment (for reasons which will soon become clear) and feel I have gone out of my way to be conciliatory. If you continually write in this aggressive way do you really expect anyone to cooperate? Perhaps your friends might impress on you the fact that if you continue in this confrontational manner you will get precisely nowhere.

From Thursday I am abroad for 5 days and won’t be responding to emails. Especially ones like the ones below.

From: Tim Ireland
Sent: 14 September 2010 18:47
To: Iain Dale
Cc: Shane Greer; Sunny Hundal; Dizzy Thinks; Iain Dale; Richard Bartholomew; Justin McKeating
Subject: Re: [evidence request for Iain and any related discussion]

To be clear: I do not regard this repeated offer of yours to be in any way reasonable, but I do agree we are talking in circles.

You base your repeated accusations of stalking on evidence you can’t produce or won’t discuss. You do recall citing my attempt to contact Shane Greer as evidence of my harassing you, yes?

Unless you’d care to admit that your accusation had no foundation, I am going to address the justifications you use to prop them up, and that includes what you said and did about Dorries, Mercer and Milton, because it is these accusations that Wightman is hiding behind.

If you still don;t understand that, I hope to explain myself better in a further email, and will explain carefully what I expect and need from you or others.

Please do not risk any repeat of the implication that this is not an urgent matter, and/or not being treated by me as an urgent matter; I am wary of wasting what may well be my final chance to address this through the criminal justice system, and there’s stuff going on that’s none of your business and eating up a lot of my time.

Tim

–

From: Tim Ireland
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 9:18 PM
To: Iain Dale
Cc: Shane Greer, Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating

Iain, I do not think you are cooperating, and I tire of being berated for being aggressive etc. when it the repeated accusations published by some on this list that had contributed so much to this threat, especially when they have nothing to support it and no wish to talk about the circumstances that led to the opinion they know is being passed off as fact.

What I originally wanted from you was your contribution to a statement; you claim to be unaware of this and want to call police (or – at a stretch – have them call you) and wing it when you have already shown a complete refusal to back down in any way on your assertion that I stalked you and three MPs (Further, you expect me to trust you on this after what you did after agreeing to call Mercer?)

You also berate me for wasting time when it has taken you a year and a half to even explain yourself.

If you are not even willing to take a position on Milton, Mercer and Dorries, where does that leave us? YOU published the accusations yourself and/or contributed to their accusations.

Tim

–

From: Iain Dale
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 9:27 PM
To: Tim Ireland
Cc: Shane Greer, Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating

I’m going to leave it to everyone else to decide who has been co-operating and who has been aggressive. What a pity the olive branch has been picked up and slapped in all our faces. Perhaps I shouldn’t have expected anything else, but you know, I did.

If you really can write “Further, you expect me to trust you on this after what you did after agreeing to call Mercer?” after the lengths I have gone to to explain in great detail what happened on that in previous emails here, then I despair. I don’t think there is anything now I could ever say to you that you would either accept or believe. If that is the case, we might as well call it a day now and not waste any further time.

Everyone else on this thread has gone silent recently. It might be helpful to have some interventions from others, because clearly we are now at an impasse, wholly, I would suggest of Tim’s making.

I won’t be contributing any further at this stage.

Iain

–

From: Tim Ireland
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 9:34 PM
To: Iain Dale
Cc: Shane Greer, Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating

Well, I was going to run the next part by the list but I fail to see the point now.

Rest assured that, although I am forced to go public again from this point, the Chatham House Rule will be respected…. all that [has] been shared in confidence will be kept in confidence.

But I will not tolerate any description of my demeanour outside this list that I cannot challenge because of any agreed need for private discussion; that itself would be a major violation of trust.

Tim

–

From: Tim Ireland
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 10:43 PM
To: Iain Dale
Cc: Shane Greer, Sunny Hundal, Dizzy Thinks [Phil Hendren], Richard Bartholomew, Justin McKeating

As I said, I was going to run much of the ‘state of play’ content in this account by the list, but there was little point:
https://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2010/09/house-of-cards/

Regrettable, but here we are.

I’m greatly disappointed that these measures are required, and that so much time and effort has been wasted, but perhaps some of you can take comfort that you’ve only wasted some of your week; Wightman and those who continue to provide him with cover have robbed me of well over a year.

Tim

Well, there you have it. Iain Dale and Shane Greer were confronted with material that Wightman was relying on in his attacks on me (i.e. material that is presently the subject of a police investigation), but they refused to discuss this material, never mind substantiate or retract it, despite their knowledge that my family were at risk. Then, and today, their highest priority was saving their reputations, and that of Dale’s junk mail magazine Total Politics.

As a final note, for those who are new to all of this, here is what Iain Dale describes as ‘calling Mercer’.

Iain Dale deliberately exposed me to danger, abuse and ridicule knowing he couldn’t back up any of what he had said, done or published, and he continues to do so today. The same applies to his dirtbag mates Shane Greer and Phil Hendren, and a small crowd of lesser Tory limpets.

[NOTE – Please see the close of this post for an important update.]

The results of my information request to Bedfordshire police are in, and it doesn’t look at all good for Nadine Dorries, who has repeatedly claimed that she reported me to police for harassment in both London and Bedfordshire, and further claimed that this resulted in a police investigation into my activities.

I can now prove that Nadine Dorries made these claims without EVER making a valid complaint/report to police about my conduct, and this development changes matters significantly.

Dorries’ repeated accusations and implications that I stalked/harassed her (and was recognised by police as a danger to her) are highly damaging and downright dangerous, and now she can’t even claim that she was merely mistaken or confused on a couple of points; her entire account was an invention.

Nadine Dorries, a lawmaker still endorsed by the Conservative party, told lies about a police investigation that never took place and made repeated misrepresentations in the name of two police forces, and did so when she knew she had not even made a complaint about me (or that the police had rejected her claims to such an extent that it didn’t even generate a preliminary reference number).

Worse; she did this repeatedly for personal/political gain while knowing that she has been contributing to an actual campaign of harassment (the subject of a series of genuine reports to police and actual police investigations), and knowing that the people targeting me claim to do so on her behalf, often in direct response to her allegations. Dorries has even linked to the site of one of the main ringleaders (where he reveals the exact location of my home) and sought to make contact with this person.

There’ll be more than a few new readers as a result of this latest revelation, so it’s time for a long-overdue summary of events/circumstances before I get to the meat of this sandwich. Please bear with me.

Background and recent developments

Nadine Dorries is the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire. In the past week or so, it was revealed that she was in a “romantic” (see: sexual) relationship with another woman’s husband. To defend her position, Dorries published claims that the wife of her boyfriend was a violent/abusive alcoholic who had an affair with an Australian riverboat captain. No, I’m not kidding.

Shocked to find herself still under fire, she went on to claim that her husband* also had an affair. As with many of the claims she has been making recently, this one is based on her version of events that took place a decade ago. Dorries claims she never mentioned it before now for the sake of her children.

(*It is unclear at this stage if she and Paul Dorries are still married, divorced, or if they were never married in the first place. Perhaps someone would care to ask her a direct and specific question about it.)

Dorries now finds herself repeatedly branded a liar in the Daily Mail, the same newspaper that previously supported this far-right MP, her ‘controversial’ views on abortion, and many of her attacks on political enemies… but still she continues to defend her position and attack her detractors with all-too-personal revelations, shocking distortions and wholly unsupported allegations.

This approach is entirely typical of Dorries; she plays ruthlessly with the reputations of those she perceives as enemies, mostly with deeply personal attacks containing untruths ranging from distortions to outright lies.

I know this from bitter experience; after I observed this behaviour and had the audacity to report on it, Dories accused me of stalking/harassing her, two other Conservative MPs, and her friend Iain Dale.

Anne Milton, Patrick Mercer, and Iain Dale

I want to deal with the latter series of accusations first, if I may, just to remove any doubts new readers may have, then we’ll crack on. Promise.

Dorries claimed that I stalked numerous MPs, repeatedly naming Conservative MPs Anne Milton and Patrick Mercer. She specifically claimed that I had “harangued the MP for Croydon*, Anne Milton, to the point where she had to involve the police.”

(*Anne Milton is the MP for Guildford, not Croydon.)

There was (and is) no complaint against me involving either of these MPs. The truth is that activists/associates connected to both of these MPs harassed me or others to such an extent that I had to involve the police. On four separate occasions.

Anne Milton’s lot published a series of anonymous sites/comments smearing a Lib Dem opponent as a paedophile and me as a hacker and computer criminal; as part of the latter effort they named the company I worked for (along with a list of clients), claimed I had been dismissed for downloading porn at work and made a series of entirely untrue claims about my personal life, including my wife and my children specifically. When she became aware of this, Anne Milton conducted a full internal investigation then referred the matter to police. Just kidding; she did nothing to stop it, and went on to endorse both men as candidates for local council.

Patrick Mercer’s lot published a series of anonymous comments/sites smearing me as a paedophile, then as an associate of religious extremists and a traitor to this country, then as a stalker of women who sends death threats to MPs. The latter group of – get this – amateur anti-terrorism activists (all of whom previously worked for/with Mercer) have been the subject of three investigations relating to harassment targeting not only me, but my wife and my children. The investigation into the latter events is ongoing at the time of writing. More on this soon.

Neither Anne Milton or Patrick Mercer are willing to speak up and contradict Dorries for reasons that should be obvious (they would subsequently have to face the consequences of their actions and those of their associates/activists), so they leave me exposed to these accusations for entirely political reasons, but they cannot and will not support Dorries with evidence of my stalking/harassing them, because there is none.

The same applies to wannabe-MP and friend of Dorries, Iain Dale, who was recently forced to admit that he hasn’t reported me to police for harassment either, despite repeated claims of this action that he has used to assure others of my guilt. (Dale’s position on ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is entirely flexible depending mainly on if he is talking about his political enemies or his political allies.)

Dale has also repeatedly been in a position where he could prevent the harassment targeting me and has repeatedly sought to worsen the problem rather than resolve it, even to the extent of refusing to cooperate with a series of police investigations.

Iain Dale refused cooperation when I was being smeared as a paedophile, he refused cooperation when one of the people targeting was confirmed by police as a suicide risk and greatly agitated by claims published on Dale’s blog that Dale knew to be false, and he refused cooperation when others targeting me were threatening to come to my home and start a fist fight. He even initially refused cooperation when he was informed that the campaign had extended to targeting my children, and only consented to a carefully limited discussion in the face of the overwhelming negative publicity that followed my going public with this. He now pretends that a single useless offer he made between police investigations amounts to cooperation during all of them, and that he was unaware of the people targeting me prior to this offer of ‘cooperation’. This too amounts to nothing more than yet another bunch of lies from one of the most petty and deceitful bastards I have ever known.

Iain Dale is also the main public source of the earliest accusations that I stalked Anne Milton and Nadine Dorries. He continues to publish this on his site as a statement of fact while privately defending it as opinion based on evidence he refuses to discuss, never mind produce. Further, the accusation of “electronic stalking” made by Patrick Mercer appears to be based mainly on Dale’s claims, and not his own personal experience. Dale is also more than likely to have influenced Dorries’ decision to rely on this smear in the face of mounting evidence that she lied about her expenses claims.

Iain Dale has the audacity to present all of this as a ‘no smoke without fire’ situation when he knows damn well that he is the primary source of the smoke.

Now, getting back to Dorries, as promised:

Dorries did not tell anything near the truth when she made these accusations; if anything it is near the opposite of the truth. The same applies to her accusations about my stalking/harassing her; in accusing me of stalking/harassing her, Dorries has provided ammunition for the people harassing me.

This is not a matter of her word against mine or my opinion differing from hers; I can produce evidence and crime reference numbers in support of everything I put to you here and in earlier posts; Dorries, by contrast, will only answer questions about her accusations by repeating the accusations and hiding behind them; i.e. she will often claim he cannot discuss the evidence of my stalking her because I am stalking her.

Here is a perfect example:

“I have had to report him to the Met police on two occasions, and one of them is under investigation, and I’m really sorry, but this is a case.” – Nadine Dorries

But none of what Dorries has claimed about this is true. It is a calculated, damaging and highly dangerous smear that she has repeatedly broadcast to hide her lies and corruption from the public. Most of these lies have to do with some difficult questions about her expenses.

Dorries lying about her expenses and/or living arrangements

During the 2010 General Election, Nadine Dorries was under investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Authority for her expenses claims. To avoid damaging admissions at events where she faced questions from the public, Dorries would tell the electorate things that were technically true but wholly misleading. (An example; she would say she did not have a mortgage and therefore could not have ‘flipped’ homes… when the matter being investigated in her case was rental payments and the suspected switching of ‘main’ homes for immoral/illegal monetary gain.)

It was in these circumstances that I was invited by constituents to attend the final Mid Beds hustings event before polling day and record/broadcast the event on video.

I later discovered that Dorries had made a series of demands of the organisers of this event that would result in her arriving late and leaving early, without facing any direct questions from the public, and without having to face a write-up of the event in local papers before the election. This alone was extraordinary behaviour in relation to an event designed to accommodate more than one self-important candidate, but when Dorries discovered that it was me operating the camera equipment she went ballistic, instructed her staff to call police and demanded that I be thrown out.

When this didn’t happen, Dorries interrupted the meeting (twice) to claim that I was guilty of stalking other MPs and under investigation by police for stalking her, before storming out.

To this day, the only evidence Dorries has presented to support this accusation was my presence at the same event where she claimed a police investigation was already underway.

Please keep this attempted distortion of time in mind, because it is a favourite tactic of Dorries. In fact, what follows is a clear example:

Dorries closed her site and Twitter account almost immediately after winning her seat in the subsequent election. When confronted about the Flitwick event by the local press, she said she had been forced to close her online presence on the advice of police, and sought to portray me not only as a stalker, but as a person with a violent, criminal character; she claimed to have received advice specifically about me and the danger I presented to her, but only decided to close her web accounts after the stabbing of the MP Stephen Timms. It was soon established that Dorries closed her web accounts a week before Timms was stabbed; it could not have been part of her decision-making process, and was clearly included to damage me further and make her sob-story more compelling.

Months passed, and it turned out that Nadine Dorries was indeed being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for potential expenses fraud. The main issue raised by the Commissioner was her blog; entries on it repeatedly gave the impression that Dorries resided mainly in the constituency, when she had made substantial claims on the basis that her constituency home was her second home.

Dorries explained this discrepancy to the Commissioner by claiming that 70% of her blog was fiction, and that she had given a false impression to her constituents (and her local association) about her living arrangements for entirely political reasons; i.e. to give the impression she lived in her constituency and spent a great deal of time there.

Crucially, Nadine Dorries made no mention of stalking in this decision-making process when presenting evidence to the Commissioner. The only mention of anything approaching harassment involved some unpublished claims about her neighbours who dared to testify that she stayed in her ‘second’ home most nights, and a moan about a Telegraph reporter paying her ‘undue’ attention.

But when the Commissioner’s report was published, Dorries was surprised (!) by the backlash in response to her self-confessed deception of the electorate. She then claimed that she meant “30% fiction” all along, and then back-pedalled to the point where everything on her blog was true, with the exception of some minor changes for the sake of security. It was at this stage that she relied heavily on a story distributed widely in the media about an ongoing problem with stalkers that necessitated little white lies about where she was exactly and what she was doing specifically. As part of this story, Dorries claimed to be the target of four stalkers and named me as the primary stalker.

Here we return to the tactic of time distortion; the entries that Dorries claims were edited to throw stalkers of the scent were published BEFORE any concern she claimed to have about stalking. Further, Dorries sought to make much of a single visit to her constituency by myself and another critic, but there is no evidence of Dorries facing anything like the pursuit that would necessitate the kind of tactical deceit she describes. (Though she had earlier implied that the late Frank Branston, then the Mayor of Bedford, was lurking inappropriately outside her constituency home.)

Also, much if not all of the information queried by the Commissioner would be entirely useless to anyone wanting to physically pursue Dorries, not least because so much of it was published after the fact.

Further, prior to this claim and many times after this claim, Dorries has been woefully indiscreet about her comings and goings, often giving advance notice of her movements. She has also spoken mockingly and gleefully of my concerns about this being dismissed by the Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association chairman as the work of a ‘nutter’. These are not the acts of someone who is genuinely concerned about someone wanting to do them a damage and operating according to specific police advice; police do not often advise that you poke such people with a stick.

But there is more damning evidence to do with the claims she has made about this supposed police advice, and the last segment of it arrived in the mail recently.

Dorries lying about police involvement/investigations

Nadine Dorries claimed she reported me repeatedly to the London Metropolitan Police for harassment. Dorries also claimed that she reported me to Bedfordshire Police for harassment, and even made an entirely nonsensical claim on behalf of their Chief Constable (see; “triggering section 5 of the Public Disorder Act”).

I made FOI/DPA request to both forces so I might see what they had on file about me. Last year, I blogged about the response from the London Met, who showed NO record of ANY complaint/report against me.

The result from Bedfordshire police is in… and they too show NO record of ANY complaint/report against me. [see: UPDATE]

The one, single, solitary scrap of data that Bedfordshire Police revealed was exactly what I expected to see; the information I volunteered when I approached the police officer who attended the hustings event at Flitwick (i.e. where Dorries claimed I was already under investigation by police for harassing her).

In fact, the only evidence Dorries offers today that I stalked her is my presence at the event where she claimed I was already under police investigation.

(BTW, it was a public event, I was invited by locals, I had the permission of organisers, and I have plenty of witnesses to support this. So even if she can establish that I have a functioning time machine, she’s got nothing to go on.)

Dorries has repeatedly failed to produce any of the reference numbers that would have resulted from a valid report/complaint, and now I know why… she NEVER made one.

This is the final piece of the puzzle, and it makes everything Dorries has said and done about this look a thousand times worse.

Dorries has not only repeatedly lied about reporting me to police for harassment; when she claimed there was a police investigation as a result of one of her complaints, she knew this to be a calculated, deliberate lie. There is no room for confusion on this front (unless we are to accept that Dorries is so delusional as to be unfit for office).

Worse still; I am the target of actual harassment that is at present the subject of an actual police investigation, and Dorries knows this and knowingly contributes to the problem with her lies.

Dorries contributing to actual harassment

One of the subjects of this investigation has repeated the claim that I stalk/stalked Nadine Dorries and others alongside details of where I live. There have been further publications related to this same campaign of harassment making false claims designed to disrupt my marriage and my family life, and others accusing my children of criminal damage. One of the most alarming publications involves an account where the main ringleader targeting me describes giving locals a guided tour of my street so they might see the front door of the stalker living in their midst. This same account provides the reader with everything they need to turn up at my house should they decide to take an interest. The same author has accused me of involvement in religious extremism, hardcore pornography and paedophilia.

Many of you may be unaware of a further complicating factor; I now do extensive volunteer work with a children’s charity. The people who supervise my work are fully abreast of this situation, and very understanding, but I have already been in a position where I have had to explain a few things to some curious young Google users, and I am sure it is only a matter of time before concerned parents/guardians take an interest. Worse, I have been unable to blog any details about the work I have been doing in support of this charity because of a series of bastard Tories intent on destroying my reputation because I dared to expose their lies and corruption. (‘Big Society’, my arse.)

Nadine Dorries has gone beyond refusing to cooperate with the relevant police investigation (see: Iain Dale); she has involved herself with the primary subject of that investigation, even inviting email contact, and linking to the website where he reveals the location of my home.

Further, there can no longer be any doubt that Dorries told a deliberate lie about police reports that were never made and a police investigation that never took place, and it is clear she has done this repeatedly to avoid the fallout from questions arising from her expenses claims.

(NOTE – The Sunday Times yesterday reported that this matter has now been referred to the CPS by police. This is not the only police investigation that Dorries has been the subject of recently.)

Dorries has even gone so far as to suggest that I have been following her around, further implying that police gave her advice because they feared I might be/turn violent. She has done this knowing that there are people out there repeating her claims alongside my home address in the hopes of prompting violence against me and/or making me fearful of same.

If Nadine Dorries has ever received any advice from police about harassment, it was entirely generic. If she hasn’t invented the relevant conversation, she has wholly misrepresented it.

If Nadine Dorries ever called police to complain about my conduct, even with the lily-gilding that’s inevitable with any account given by Dorries, it never went to the stage where any officer suspected a crime may have occurred. If it had, Dorries would have been provided with at least a preliminary reference number if not a crime reference number.

Dorries was challenged to produce any such reference number. She failed to do so. Eventually, she promised to go and ask a Chief Constable for something she should already have had on file and/or could get within an hour by calling the switchboard like a lesser mortal. I suspect she responded to this challenge by making a further attempt at a complaint in order to generate a reference number so she could again play games with her magic time machine. Here, I invite you to read between the lines of the post by Dorries that followed this promise with another series of entirely false allegations and further accusations of harassment:

“I am an elected member Tim. You harass me on an almost daily basis, including my staff and my Chairman. I am expected, even though you aren’t one of my constituents, to take it. I am expected to tolerate your inappropriate level of intense attention, as were the MPs you harassed before me.” – Nadine Dorries

The best Dorries can say is that she complained about me to police very recently, only to be told that my behaviour was entirely within reasonable and legal boundaries. And yet she and her dirtbag mates continue to spread the lie that I stalked/harassed her and others. I suspect she will later attempt to defend it by claiming she meant ‘harassment’ in an entirely different sense, but there is no escaping the fact that Dorries talked about this as if it were the subject of a police investigation, when she had no reason to think or even suspect that an investigation was in progress.

What Nadine Dorries has repeatedly broadcast is a calculated lie that she had repeatedly sought to rely on so I might serve as her alibi for her failure to properly account for her expenses claims; she did it at Flitwick to avoid going on the record about her expenses claims, and she did it again as the closure of the Commissioner’s investigation into those same expenses claims.

Further, Dorries and her supporters appear determined to continue to smear me as a danger to her and others regardless of any attention I may grant her (see: the 70% defence) and the stated intent of at least one individual is to harangue me to the point where I am forced to leave the country.

Finally, to be clear on this point, despite all the accusations from this small circle of far-right Conservatives, there has never been a single, credible complaint against me about anything like this, even to the point where police have taken a mild interest. I have an entirely clean record, and unlike some of Dorries’ more ardent supporters, I do not have a hostile/irrational nature or a history of violence.

Will the Conservative party continue to turn a blind eye?

Here I will remind you that Dorries is supposed to serve the public as a lawmaker, but I have contacted CCHQ about this and been repeatedly fobbed off; the Conservative Party are aware she has lied about a police investigation that never took place, and they continue to endorse her. It’s clear she will sail through any complaint process with the all-too-accommodating Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and there is no point reporting her conduct to a Speaker whose authority she rejects.

I’m really quite surprised and alarmed that the system does not work better to protect the public from MPs bound to serve them even when those MPs go entirely off the rails, but here we are; if CCHQ continue to pretend that none of this is happening, I am left with no option I can see but civil action against Dorries. This activity may have to extend to concurrent/further action against Dale, Mercer and Milton.

The problem with this remaining option is that Dorries is notorious for battling mere criticism with counter-accusations, and I suspect she is likely to counter-sue. Even if every one of her counter-accusations turns out to be entirely unsupportable, I would need to take a very long journey through a time-consuming legal battle to establish that, and even with a firm likely to take this case on a pro bono publico basis (no comment on specifics, sorry), this will involve an enormous investment of my time.

I am confident that the evidence supports everything I have published about Dorries (and others), but to establish this I would need to complete this long journey; the prior deceitful conduct of Dorries and her supporters (Dale in particular) makes it clear that any cessation prior to victory in court will be portrayed as a victory for Dorries and a vindication of her position, which will leave me right back where I started; with Dorries and a small gang of Conservative wannabes and hangers-on gleefully repeating a smear that puts me at risk, and puts my family at risk.

The staff of Baroness Warsi, Conservative Party Chairman, are aware of all of this bar the most recent revelation (even though they pretend otherwise). I will be contacting them again today in an effort to have them moderate Dorries behaviour and force a public apology, or withdraw the whip.

If this effort fails, it is very likely that my next conversation with you will be about long term plans for fundraising so I might have the time/capacity to take Dorries on in the courts.

–

UPDATE – I’m sure you’ll be amazed to learn that the staff of Baroness Warsi fobbed me off yet again today. The same thing happened in 2006 when I contacted Anne Milton’s office (and then CCHQ) with evidence that her activists were smearing a young man as a paedophile. The same thing happened in 2009 when I contacted Patrick Mercer’s office (and then CCHQ) with details of his associate(s) smearing me as a paedophile. I know what comes next if I dare to press the point; Warsi and/or her staff cry ‘stalker’ either privately or publicly. Meanwhile, I’m supposed to take my medicine and keep my mouth shut and Warsi gets to pretend that she was never informed, the poor dear. The ‘Tory scum’ chant appears wholly justified from where I’m standing.

–

IMPORTANT UPDATE (20 Jan) – It turns out there is, at present, a police investigation. Police had not contacted me about it until yesterday (19 Jan 2011). It relates specifically to the hustings event at Flitwick. There is no crime reference number for this as yet, because there is no crime. I was perfectly happy to speak with police and answer their questions (and I still am), but there is very little I can share publicly about it at this stage, and police didn’t raise anything that I haven’t already published/addressed (as text or video), so you’re not missing much.

Obviously, this revelation does not change or undermine the central thrust of this post or the vast majority of what I specifically assert in it. If it had, significant changes would have been made to the headline and body of this post to reflect this. For now, this update will suffice, as nothing has changed about the following:

Dorries made her accusation about there being an investigation in progress at a time when no relevant police force can confirm her ever having made a complaint. I still intend to hold her to account for that, as you should.

–

FURTHER UPDATE (19 May) – That investigation closed with police finding NO evidence of harassment or stalking, but Dorries, inexplicably, continues to imply otherwise. Nadine Dorries has been making most if not all of this ‘stalking’ nonsense up, and it is well past time for her to stop.

–

Nadine Dorries is in the news again, this time over a relationship with a married man. I’ve no stomach for going over the detail at present, but highlights include the now-standard Dorries tactic of smearing her detractors (in this case, the wife of the married man) and making claims in her defence that appear impossible without the use of a time machine.

There was also this, which caught my eye:

“I don’t lie. I never, ever lie. And I would defy anyone to go back over my blog and point out a single lie to me.” – Nadine Dorries (source)

Challenge accepted.

Nadine Dorries presented some highly dubious evidence to the House in a recent abortion debate, and when I dared to look into her claims about an organisation called Forsaken, she published this on her ‘blog’:

“Already, Forsaken have had the infamous Bloggerheads, Tim Ireland, on the phone this morning. Probing, asking questions about their status, amking the usual inappropriate comments etc. Usual Tim Ireland, agressive ‘I have a right to know all about you’ style.” – Nadine Dorries (source)

Forsaken have confirmed that I did not call/phone them at any time. They have also confirmed that there was nothing improper or inappropriate about any of my emails to them. To give Dorries the benefit of the doubt, her claim may have begun as an error, but once the truth was established and she failed to update, correct or retract her claim, it quickly evolved into a lie, and it remains a lie for as long as it is published without correction or retraction.

There are many other examples of untruths and deceits in this single incident and her wider campaign to smear myself and others as stalkers (major update on this to come soon), but if I’m to be limited to one example, I’d want to choose one she cannot dismiss under the mysterious ‘perception’ exception she alludes to:

“I don’t lie. I never, ever lie. And I would defy anyone to go back over my blog and point out a single lie to me. However, the thing about fact and fiction… is perception.” – Nadine Dorries (source)

She claims she never lies on her blog, and I’ve just shown you an example where she maintains what is clearly a lie on her blog. Will she take any measures to correct it? Unlikely.

Back on deck soon with that major update. Cheers all.

(This post comes to you with a BIG tip of the hat to EinyWatch, which is well worth a follow if you want to keep half an eye on at least one of these characters.)

I should make it clear from the outset that I do realise that Einy Shah and Hind Essoussi are only minor players in the grand scheme of things, but then so were Mike Chambers and Dennis Paul (the Guildford Tory activists working under Anne Milton who went on to smear an opponent as a paedophile and publish personal/sensitive data about their political enemies when none of the local Tories saw fit to moderate or police their actions).

As with many posts on this site about people whose ambitions override comment sense and/or common decency, this post isn’t really about Einy Shah or Hind Essoussi, but about the more senior Conservatives who fail in their duty to educate and regulate their activists, and instead tolerate any/many ‘indiscretions’ for as long these people remain a useful/deniable asset.

(Young/ambitious people reading this should be aware that if any politician knows you harbour political ambitions but offers you tacit/off-the-record approval of conduct you know to be poor or even illegal, then they are most likely using you; they are using you to do their/party dirty work while knowing that your acts, if discovered, will exclude you from any position of responsibility in future.)

Hind Essoussi is an Area Chairmen (North West) for London Conservative Future, and an intern for both the Conservative Women’s Organisation and Women in Public Policy. She is studying law at the London School of Economics and Political Science and is/was a Law Mentor for the Islamic Society.

Einy Shah is Deputy Chairman of London Conservative Future, and in a recent puff-piece on the Conservative Future websites that states she is “studying law at a London University” her “past involvements” are listed as follows:

– Jo Johnson MP’s office [role not defined]
– Campaign co-ordinator for Jo Johnson MP
– [Boris Johnson] Mayor of London’s Peer Outreach Team
– Department for International Development’s ‘Write Here Right Now’ reporter
– Campaign manager for Loanna Morrison PPC
– Bill Wiggin MP’s office [role not defined]

This same puff-piece includes the following endorsements:

“Every campaign needs an Einy!” – Jo Johnson MP

“By the response she got on the doorstep and my re-election result it is clear that Einy made a significant impact.” – Grant Shapps MP

Now, Einy is the type of person who sees no wrong in creating a false online identity so she can pretend to be an enthusiastic member of the public while campaigning for Tories generally and Boris Johnson specifically, but that’s to be expected if she hangs out with Tories generally and that sock puppeting loser Grant Shapps specifically. She’s been like/at this for a long time and really there’s not much about her antics that surprises me any more.

But what does surprise me is that she would not only engage in what appears to be criminal damage, but go on to publish the evidence on her Facebook profile (under a title that leaves very little room for confusion; ‘Millbank Revenge’):

‘Millbank’ refers to the Conservative headquarters in London that recently played host to a student fees protest where criminal damage was done to that building. The resulting cry of outrage from Conservative-supporting blogs could be heard from space, and was somewhat justified if obviously feigned at times, but I would argue that even a mock attack in ‘revenge’ sends entirely the wrong message, and that’s assuming the best about what these images show.

For example; this might be an abandoned car that Einy Shah is defacing, or perhaps even an art installation. It may even be an art installation where members of the public are invited to spray-paint what they please on it (even party-political slogans)… but what it looks like from here is criminal damage in favour of the campaign to re-elect Boris Johnson for Mayor of London, painted by someone who has served under him, and worked for this brother:

Add the title ‘Millbank revenge’ to the photo collection and it looks like quite deliberate criminal damage with a specific agenda in support of the Conservative party and government policy… but who/what is it aimed at exactly? If this is a campus, it’s the arse-end of it; it appears to be a loading area or a car park. Surely if one is to adopt the position that this is a justified attack of revenge for the Millbank event, then Einy Shah and Hind Essoussi should be kicking their way in through the front door of a local student building and spray-painting the lobby.

Also, not only does this look like a loading area or a car park, but it could easily be mistaken for the loading area or car park for one of the many council estates in London. I’m not saying that’s what it is, but by not going through the front door and making clear where they are, the ladies risk giving the impression that they have reacted to a protest about student fees by defacing the homes of people who have done nothing more than dare to live in the poorer part of town (i.e. almost as if their thinking is that they can do as they please in what they regard to be a shithole).

Returning to the struggle to assume the best about these photos, it could be that this plywood is Hind Essoussi’s property, or property in her care. It could even be that she was specifically asked by the owner of the plywood to leave a message for the bin-men to leave the item alone (with a cryptic ‘PS’ about Dane hearting some guy called Boris for that personal touch, in lieu of a Christmas tip):

[MINI-UPDATE – Of course, it’s most likely not about ‘Dane’, but some chap named ‘Dave’. Dave heart Boris. Bless.]

But even if we’re not looking at evidence of a criminal act here, questions need to be asked about what Conservative Future is teaching these young activists. First of all, if you are going to announce the re-launch of “Web Cameron”, you should at least get the main brand/keyword right (it is ‘webcameron’) even if you can’t be bothered making it legible. There is also the small matter of campaigning for ‘change’ when your lot are already in government:

Einy Shah was asked what these photos might show, but she first deleted the relevant album then pretended not to know what I was talking about because the link I provided was ‘missing’. When shown copies of the photos that had been preserved elsewhere, she said “that may or may not be me”, then refused to comment further.

I should explain at this stage that Einy Shah is currently going through a similar process to that of fellow Tories Iain Dale and Nadine Dorries; after somehow arriving at the conclusion that attempts to publicly call her to account for her campaigning amount to harassment, she has made ‘reports’ to police (about others) that don’t even warrant an initial reference number, and then attempted to use this act to suggest that she has some kind of case.

She’s not likely to get anywhere with police, but the cry of ‘stalker’ from a young woman has a particular and persistent resonance, and is likely to be repeated by your more blinkered/vindictive Conservative supporter, regardless of the truth, risks, and other trivia.

It is for this reason that I am somewhat hesitant about contacting Hind Essoussi for comment. However, because I make no strong assertions about what takes place in these photos, I am perfectly comfortable putting the relevant question to her in public (that question being; “Can you explain to me what is going on in these photos?”).

After both ladies have had an opportunity to respond, I probably won’t be wasting my breath on a call to Tory HQ (they talk to you like you’re scum and sweep even the most serious of concerns under the carpet), but I will most likely report this to police.

If anyone recognises the location where these photos were taken, it would be of enormous help in determining what property was damaged (if any) and which station this should be reported to (if at all).

–

UPDATE (05 March) – Thanks for the input, folks. I’ve known about the location for some time, but Einy and Hind managed to embarrass a lot of people with their ‘revenge’ stunt, and the people involved are reluctant to go on record. Knowing the truth, I’m perfectly happy to sit on what I have published to date, but if these two claim or imply that they had permission to spray-paint the walls with Tory slogans (as they have recently), it is a lie.

Rather than hide this is in the closing paragraph like tabloid scum, I wish to make it clear from the outset that I have seen no evidence even hinting that Peter Ould has raped a child.

Of course, that’s not to say it didn’t happen, but it would be wrong to engage in such speculation without supporting evidence. The fact that unseen evidence might still exist somewhere is neither here nor there.

Of course, that’s not to say it would never happen in the future, but it would be wrong to engage in such speculation based on nothing.

Of course, he is an Anglican priest, but it would be wrong to judge him and all other priests on the actions of the minority of an entirely different set of (Catholic) priests.

Of course, he is a supporter of Conservatives, but it would be wrong to judge him on the basis of wild assumptions made following the actions of the minority of sexual deviants within that party.

Of course, he does have a history of homosexuality, but only homophobic morons like Paul Staines and Richard Littlejohn equate homosexuality with paedophilia.

However, if I were to operate from a position of prejudice, my view of Peter Ould’s capacity for child rape would be very different. In fact, if I were sufficiently prejudiced against priests, Conservatives, homosexuals, or this man personally, I could very easily take the position that he must be guilty of child rape, or certain to rape a child in the future.

Similarly, any photo of this man in close proximity to children would be likely to set me right off, as it would look very different to me than it would to other people who did not share my prejudice(s).

Further, I could influence how others interpreted such photos, simple by engaging in speculation likely to engage or reinforce prejudice(s) in others.

(Psst! Supporters of Nadine Dorries who have the idea in their head that I’ve stalked that MP; a significant clue is within your reach, but I urge you to feel your own way forward from this point so you may later claim to have discovered it on your own.)

And it is on that note that I reproduce the very first tweet engaging in speculation about damage to the Cenotaph during the kettling of students in Whitehall on 24 November 2010:

This was re-tweeted by 14 people, mainly far right (or ‘true blue’, if you prefer) Tory commentators and/or their followers. The idea spread though overlapping networks and, as time passed and footage of students near to the Cenotaph was shown on TV, the idea soon evolved into tweets stating as fact that the Cenotaph was vandalised and/or some of the hundreds of poppy wreaths surrounding it were thrown on a nearby fire.

First, it should be stressed that students sought and gained permission to protest, and wished to walk down this street and be on their way. But the police chose to block their way in both directions and enclose them in this area using a method known as ‘kettling’ (that they claim is designed to calm crowds… much in the same way that a kettle ‘calms’ water to boiling point).

Some people were unimpressed/outraged when students subsequently formed a crowd (!) then later set a fire near to the Cenotaph, but police set the venue for this crowd and there has so far been no evidence of students defacing this memorial or disturbing the poppies around it.

There were many camera-equipped helicopters above them (two from networks running live footage) and dozens of media cameras around them; most of the latter were drawn to the fires by the same mysterious forces that drew them to the vandalism of a police van and bus stop.

None of them recorded any damage to the Cenotaph or the poppies surrounding that memorial.

If at this point anyone wishes to wander off along the tangent that says the students should not have set fires anywhere near the Cenotaph, then by all means be my guest, and go with my blessing… and a reminder from me that there was a dirty great barrier around the Cenotaph that may not have been entirely visible from your vantage point inside the living room.

Speaking of the view from the living room, let’s take a look at two tweets describing exactly the same helicopter shot, but from differing political perspectives:

For one person, this disgraces what they think Teh Troops fought for, while for another, this encapsulates what they think Teh Troops fought for. And they’re looking at exactly the same thing.

For another example, let’s take a look at what the BBC broadcast at 5:05pm (this being the source of the majority of later ‘eyewitness’ tweets):

V/O: “The wreaths from Remembrance Sunday still lay on the Cenotaph, surrounded by hundreds of angry and frustrated young people.”

Let’s look at that same voiceover from two different perspectives; one confirms the wreaths lay undisturbed, while the other has them in imminent danger:

The wreaths from Remembrance Sunday still lay on the Cenotaph, surrounded by hundreds of angry and frustrated young people.

The wreaths from Remembrance Sunday still lay on the Cenotaph, surrounded by hundreds of angry and frustrated young people.

In this case, your perception of what you were looking at could have been significantly altered not just by the volume of the television or what was specifically said by the broadcaster, but by the prejudices you brought to the exchange.

Add to this that the fire is a red thing with black and white shapes in it right next to a pile of red things with black and white shapes in them, and you are not too far from a short mental leap where the two are associated in unfortunate ways.

But having reviewed the relevant footage again and again and again, I can assure you that at no time did I see a poppy wreath being thrown in the fire.

However, with the luxury of a rewind button and other data sources, I was able to determine that there was a barrier surrounding the Cenotaph (i.e. those who look disturbingly close to the poppies are merely resting on the barrier).

If at this point anyone wishes to wander off along the tangent that says nothing happened only because the barrier was there and/or that it was there because students have a habit of desecrating war memorials, then by all means be my guest, and go with my blessing… and a reminder from me that you may still be operating under the influence of prejudice.

(ahem)

I should stress that I am NOT claiming that the event never happened as described by some tweeters. That would be impossible to do, even with access to all available footage. One actual witness claimed to have seen wreaths thrown (just not onto a fire). Another “saw young students closing the barriers up at the Cenotaph so none got trampled and damaged” (but, if this is true/accurate, we do not know if the barriers were initially disturbed by natural crowd movement or an individual with fuckwit intentions).

But this post is mainly about speculation and prejudice and those influenced by it to the extent that they later claimed to witness something they didn’t actually witness.

At best some of these people later clarified that they meant they saw it on TV. Others claimed it was reported by the BBC (at approx 4pm; prior to the footage I have access to) that poppy wreaths had been thrown on a fire. I have spoken to a member of the BBC who was present with camera crew inside the kettle, and he does not recall anyone reporting this event, or the event itself.

But watch this tweeter change their story before retreating to ‘I saw it on TV’ (read from bottom up); she clearly added ‘from the Cenotaph’ in her mind, even if she heard the words ‘wreath’ and ‘fire’ in the same sentence as others claimed to:

Here’s another who initially comes across as an eyewitness before admitting he’d seen it on TV, and falling back on an as-yet-unnamed witness… but note that he too appears to have added the detail of ‘from the Cenotaph’ (again, you will need to read from the bottom up)

From what I can see, I think it fair to suspect that words were spoken by someone during the BBC’s live broadcast that may have given the impression that poppies were burned, and these were spoken over footage of the Cenotaph. Subsequently, several people made the same leap in unison (followed by a similar event roughly one hour later).

Here’s someone who actually rode past the Cenotaph the next day [later that same day; my bad], and projected damage onto it under the influence of earlier tweets (bottom up, folks!):

I should mention for the sake of accuracy that these are excerpts of wider conversations, and I’ve included a question from me for the proper context in the last. I should also add that the author in this last example expressed support for the students and their cause… but this person (like others) still came under the influence of those who tweeted claims they could not substantiate.

On this note I should also make it clear that not everyone who tweeted about damage to the Cenotaph and/or poppies thrown into the fire was a Conservative; some of them may merely have been influenced by earlier prejudices or may have been prone to certain conclusions/assumptions for other reasons.

However:

– Along the way there were varying degrees of prejudice, and I would argue that the more prejudiced you are in a case like this, the more likely you are to ‘see’ things that you didn’t actually witness. I would question how fair or wise it is to do so without linking to supporting evidence, or giving a false account of your supporting evidence that you don’t link to. (Case in point; this may or may not show what the headline describes, but at least you have the opportunity to make up your own mind, even if it is influenced to some extent by the headline written by the photographer, and I am by no means claiming or giving the impression that I have witnessed an event that I did not actually witness when I link to it.)

– The people who tweeted the initial speculation based on nothing but their own prejudice were the type of Conservatives who are so conservative that other Conservatives tend to be embarrassed by them, and with good reason.

– The later allegation of wreath-burning was later leapt on by those aligned against the students (i.e. in line with Conservative policy enacted by the coalition).

And it is on this note that we return to Peter Ould’s tweet:

What reason did he have to tweet this other than his own prejudice? What purpose does it serve to speculate in this way?

Perhaps these are questions he can ask himself if he can get past any issues he may have with my headline.

(Psst! Clue. Within reach. Feel your way forward.)

–

Related Post: Anorak – Student Demo 2 In Photos: Will They Urinate On The Cenotaph?.

A Much Earlier Post: G20: Callum Winton may wish to revise his eyewitness statement(s)

–

UPDATE – One of the authors mentioned in this tweet reports abuse in response to this post. That is against the spirit of this post and my site, and not a nice or constructive thing to do. Oh, and Peter Ould has described this post as defamatory, but has tweeted plans to ignore it. Pity. Well, it’s his call if he wants to ignore me now when I say I beg to differ on the point of defamation, and invite him to simply point out, specifically, how I have defamed him.

FFS. Once again, I’ve been spammed about Total Politics. (Here’s an earlier effort; this one direct from Total Politics staff.)

To: Webmaster

From:
Emma Bradfield
emma.bradfield@exacteditions.com

Message:
Hello

Total Politics, the lifestyle magazine dedicated to all things
political, is now available as a digital edition through Exact
Editions.

You can preview it here: [LINK SNIPPED]

Hope it’s of interest!

Best wishes
Emma

The person who sent this did not even take a moment to glance at what was then the most recent post on my site or an of my entries about Total Politics. Had she done so, she might have seen before sending her email that her offer is of NO interest to me; she may even have had formed the beginnings of a clue that I regard Iain Dale, the publisher of Total Politics, with nothing but contempt. I don’t think I’m wrong in suspecting this person is simply trawling political blogs for contact details/forms so she can spam the authors, without taking any care to determine if what she’s pushing might actually be of interest to them.

Iain Dale is not only a vindictive bastard who takes politics far too personally, he is a liar, a scoundrel, and a rogue publisher with bias on par with a putting green on the side of a cliff. I have ZERO interest in reading his two-bit magazine that itself relies heavily on its status as junk mail to keep its circulations figures up (it is “distributed freely to all MPs, MEPs, peers, political journalists, members of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies, and all senior councillors down to district level” whether they want it or not).

I’d say that Iain Dale needs to sort this out, but one of our earliest disagreements was over an obvious spamming by him that he refused to admit to on the basis that he only sent the unsolicited email to a few about 8 over 30 recipients, before trying to project the spamming charge back onto me by objecting to my linking to supporting evidence in comments on his site. So even if he’s going to pretend that he’s entirely unaware of this promotional push for the online version of his own damn magazine…

… I doubt he’d admit to it being spam in the first place.

Oh, and before anyone asks; yes, I am pretty darn sure that this is a genuine email from the good people at Exact Editions, because the same IP address used for this email was used to make these edits to Wikipedia.

(You will find equally-illuminating edit histories here and here. There’s a word for this kind of behaviour, but it escapes me at the moment.)