Hmm.

What a tangled web.

Paul Staines' solicitor is Donal Blaney, a rather vigorously right-wing chap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donal_Blaney

who is of course great chums with Tim Montgomerie and all those over at ConservativeHome

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/donal_blaney/index.html

He, like Staines, has is own pet NGO thingy

http://www.ybf.org.uk/

which of course is hosted by Staines & co (?)'s MessageSpace

He delivers a nice paean to their service here:

http://messagespacecreative.com/media/sales.pdf

And he helped set up good old 18 Doughty Street as a partner in Doughty Media Limited

His law practice is rather like some of Staines' operations, given per,

http://www.griffinlaw.co.uk/

that
"The sole principal of the firm is Donal Blaney"

It's just him, either in the UK, or somewhere holed up in the BVI... Rather like Staines, who of course works out of Nevis.

Didn't realise he worked as Staines' pet lawyer as well.

Signs are, you're not exactly dealing with Schillings here......

I'm not sure if he is Staines' pet lawyer for reasons I hope to outline at a later date.

:o)

Do correct me if I'm wrong, but is this not an invocation of the precedent set in Arkell vs Pressdram?

http://www.nasw.org/users/nbauman/arkell.htm

Heh. I'm really trying to mind my language. One thing you can guarantee about wingnuts is that they'll* murder babies in their cribs but then climb all over you for being 'abusive' if you dare to say something like "Fucking hell! They're murdering babies in their cribs!"

(*I am not suggesting for a moment that Paul Staines murders babies in their cribs.)

Heh, just had a peek at his blog. He's er... *really* right wing, ain't he. :)

Good luck with this - am interested in comment #2 :)

He does appear to share Paul Staine's fear of a vast leftist conspiracy, yes. And I'll do my best to expand on #2 when possible. For now, let me just say that he is not an ideal choice.

The very least one should expect from their solicitor is that they are objective enough to tell you (or even just know) when you're backing a losing horse. If they are equally enthused about similar politics to yours, trouble lies ahead.

This is the article that made me chuckle:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/studentpolitics/story/0,,581538,00.html

Conservative Future? Don't we have another friend who is heavily involved with that (yes I know he was pardoned, but still)

You've got to love someone who looks at the neocon attempts to start political witch-hunts in US universities and thinks "Yeah! That's what we need too!"

I'm sure the left wing bias in British universities has nothing to do with the comparative thoughtfulness of left wing thought when compared to right wing populism and scare-mongering.

Jonathan: You know, that also happens to be their approach to blogging. This lot copied the US model and promoted the hell out of themselves as if they'd invented or discovered something new and worthy. Next thing we knew, we were up to our arses in sock-puppets, whisper campaigns and outright character assassination.

Piers: Noted.

All: Now that this article's been brought up, can we please be careful on the subject of fervent right-wing types and past brushes with the world of racism? It's a sensitive area.

Wouldn't it be strange if an organisation set up to train British Conservatives (like, for example, the YBF) had received money from an America neocon "think tank" (like, for example, the Heritage Foundation)?

Oh, and Piers? Note the parallels between this...
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/studentpolitics/story/0,,581538,00.html

... and this:
http://www.bloggerheads.com/anne_milton/2005/03/meet-dennis-paul.html

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... those poor, hapless victims of my 'stalking' do seem to have a lot in common, particularly when it comes to the tactics they use.