This entry was posted on
Monday, June 29th, 2009 at
1:57 pm and is filed
under The Political Weblog Movement, Updates.
There are many things that I would love to blog about right now. I would love to tell you all about [censored] and their threat to [censored] but there are significant legal and moral obstacles.
Iain Dale knows of these obstacles. He also knows that I am effectively (and quite unjustly) silenced on this matter while suffering the continued fallout from a multi-faceted smear campaign involving an increasing number of players. (I can’t even address the Private Eye writer casually smearing me as a “nutter on a bus” in the current precarious conditions.)
However, for reasons he is keeping to himself, Iain Dale is knowingly continuing to publish and broadcast claims about me that he knows not to be true.
He does this knowing that the person smearing me is building their smears/fantasies on these false claims, and that his claims have also sparked several ‘copycat’ attacks that are no less damaging/alarming.
On top of this, the man claiming to act as Dale’s lawyer refused the offer of the relevant contact details and case number that would allow him to quickly establish why I had at least one good reason to persist in my attempts to contact Iain Dale on the weekend he was smearing Tom Watson. Instead, the man claiming to act as Dale’s lawyer has ignored my every email, for weeks now.
Further, Iain Dale has taken it upon himself to independently call people directly/tangentially involved in my case and accuse me of harassment (just as the man harassing me has been doing).
I went to call Iain Dale about this man and his recent publication(s) this morning… Iain answered the phone apparently under the impression that he was speaking not about that man, but to that man. He even greeted me by that man’s first name.
1. If Iain Dale has been in touch with the man who is harassing me, then perhaps he could admit it. Or deny it.
2. Either way, he also needs to explain why he appears to have ‘accidentally’ done so much to help that person over the past three months
3. And perhaps he could ****ing bring an end to it; I’m sure he’s quite enjoying my silence but the treatment I’ve been subjected to is entirely undeserved.
When other bloggers (from the left and right) recognised this attack on me as beyond the pale and went out of their way to help, Iain Dale took multiple steps to complicate rather than alleviate the situation. For a while there I thought that perhaps he was merely initially careless about the smears aimed at me and feared losing momentum and/or moral authority during ‘smeargate’, but his recent actions raise many doubts.
(NOTE – Iain was aware of a similar event in Guildford, but decided not to speak out about the actions of fellow Tories, and instead went on to smear me as a stalker… just as he is doing now, as it happens.)
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UPDATE – No names in comments, please. It should be obvious what to avoid. Cheers all.
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UPDATE – Iain Dale denies using that man’s first name in greeting on this morning’s call. He aso denies speaking to him or emailing him, but that is all Iain is prepared to say (or do) about this. He didn’t say a word about the increasingly problematic claims about me on his website that he knows to be false/untrue, be he did take a few seconds to accuse me of lying.
By Guy Gooberman June 29, 2009 - 2:49 pm
I feel for you Tim, I really do and I also feel pretty damn helpless about how best to be of use to you and to assist you. I find it hard to take that a good man, like yourself, is having being made the target of such terrible abuse.I've only just extrapolated myself from a real pile of nonsense with over-eager BNP members, it put much pressure on myself and my personal life.Stay strong, if there is anything I can do, give us a shout and take care of yourself and your family.Peace.
By Manic June 29, 2009 - 3:14 pm
Cheers, DHG. Pressure is pretty significant here, but we're holding up.