Iain Dale tells lies shock

This entry was posted on
Friday, December 17th, 2010
at
1:47 pm and is filed
under The Political Weblog Movement, Tories! Tories! Tories!.

I’m too time-pressed to write a proper farewell to Iain Dale and his particular ‘style’ of blogging (allowing your site to be used as a platform for anonymous attacks on your critics and rivals then screaming ‘personal attack’ when confronted about it) but he’s now claiming in Twitter that he never blamed me in any way for his failure to secure a seat as an MP.

Technically, I’m violating the Chatham House Rule here, but as his mate Phil Hendren is busy publicly pushing his interpretation of what Iain Dale said privately, I don’t see I have much choice.

This is what Iain Dale said:

“I didn’t apply for several parliamentary nominations in the wider Guildford area because I was convinced Tim would turn up at them and ruin my chances (Woking being the main one, I remember). You may think that is preposterous, but when you are feeling stalked or harassed, that’s how you think.” – Iain Dale

Today, Iain Dale first claimed I was ‘making it up’ and/or imagining that he said anything like this, then later had his mate do the back-pedalling for him, which allows him to put it about as a misinterpretation of what he said while not admitting (oops) that he had actually blamed me, at least in part, for his wider failure to secure a seat.

Well, now you can read what he said and decide for yourself.

He’s talking absolute bollocks about “feeling stalked or harassed”, by the way. He retreated to this position after falsely claiming that I actually stalked/harassed him (months later he deleted this from his site without retracting it). You may also note that rather than host even this watered-down claim himself, he instead burdens the BBC with it as he describes it as “effectively stalking”.

Currently he defends this as opinion when he knows it is being passed off as fact by people who are actually harassing me.

The guy who has been watching my house and blogging details about where I live uses Iain Dale’s claims that I stalk him to justify his actions.

I’ll repeat that bit:

The guy who has been watching my house and blogging details about where I live uses Iain Dale’s claims that I stalk him to justify his actions.

I have been targeted. My family has been targeted. And yet Dale claims the moral high ground and describes my objecting to his role in it as putting him “through hell”. Pardon my French, but he’s a cloaca.

Unlike Iain, I have responded to what I claim to be harassment with an actual attempt to report the matter to police and have the individual(s) concerned prosecuted. A police investigation is in progress. Iain Dale refuses to cooperate with this investigation (just as he refused to cooperate with those that preceded it; a major reason for the calls he puts about as ‘proof’ of my stalking him), even so far as refusing to provide a simple incident number for the single complaint to police he claims to have made (that went nowhere, if it ever happened at all). Instead of offering this simple scrap of data, Iain tells me to “go to hell”. Also, he wants to be the only person active in the original matter who does not want to supply a statement; instead he wants police to call him so he can tell his side of the story on the fly, like he’s some kind of VIP.

[Sidebar: note the similarity between the position of Dale here and the position of Nadine Dorries; Dale has repeatedly put it about publicly and privately that I am guilty of stalking him, Dorries claims I was under investigation for stalking her at one stage, but neither can produce a crime reference number that would accompany any investigation and/or subsequent prosecution… or even an incident number to show that they ever made a complaint.]

Now, while I would certainly campaign against this proven liar, I have never stalked or harassed Iain Dale by the legal or even the popularly-accepted definitions of these words, and especially not in the manner he describes/implies in this email (i.e. as if I am likely to follow him around and linger outside his house, work etc.)

And to show you how I know that even his claim that he is/was “feeling stalked or harassed” is bollocks:

All of Iain’s decisions in this respect were made well in advance of the May 2010 election, which should be obvious. Yet in the relevant email, Iain Dale cites an event during that election as his primary justification for thinking this way long before the election.

(Dale often uses this ‘time machine’ technique; he once claimed he didn’t intervene when I was being smeared as a paedophile because of the way I reacted after he promised to intervene and didn’t, then lied about it.)

As you’ve probably guessed, in the relevant email he references the Flitwick meeting that I was invited to by participating constituents in Mid Bedfordshire where Dorries accused me of stalking her.

Dorries plays a similar ‘time machine’ game now. She claimed at that event that I was under police investigation for stalking her. This claim was entirely untrue. Now she has others doing her dirty work for her (Dorries uses Harry Cole in the same way Iain Dale uses Phil Hendren) and putting it about that my presence at that event somehow proves what she claimed happened before that event.

Also, in this same email, Dale holds the contradictory positions that (a) Dorries’ claims justify his position, but (b) he does not want to talk about them in detail because they are irrelevant to his position:

“I am not going to involve myself in the Nadine stuff beyond saying this, as it is irrelevant so far as I can see to the situation between me and Tim.” – Iain Dale

Iain Dale is either an outright liar or as delusional as he makes me out to be. All I have ever done is confront him with due criticism. Typically, he has responded to this criticism with lies and/or smears, or had others do this dirty work for him. This instance is no different.

Iain Dale also claims today, not for the first time, that I have repeatedly lied about him. He once even sent me an absurd legal threat that accused me of libel. Because it contained no specifics (as genuine concerns of libel do) his cut-price lawyer was challenged to identify just one single instance of libel on my site. He failed to do so. Meanwhile, I could then and can now easily establish that Iain Dale not only libelled Tom Watson, but libelled me in the process.

Iain Dale is a liar; a precious, malicious, vindictive and deliberate liar who knowingly uses damaging lies against political enemies (both real and perceived); his claims that I (almost… maybe… allegedly… ‘effectively’…) stalked him are nothing more than a smear campaign designed to discredit me while excusing his repeated failure to account for his disgraceful conduct.

UPDATE – Upon ‘retirement’, Iain Dale stated that the time to stop doing stuff is when you stop enjoying it. Despite his claims to the contrary, Dale knows exactly who is targeting me and how, and how his outbursts egg this person on. And yet, despite his inability to substantiate his (recently watered down) claims, he won’t stop doing it. Excuse me for suspecting that he is enjoying it.

RELATED: Richard Bartholomew – Why Iain Dale Should Stop Accusing Tim Ireland of Stalking

UPDATE (10:20pm) – Iain Dale, mostly through his hostile little mate Phil Hendren, is telling anyone who will listen that I am a liar and that he hasn’t refused to cooperate with a police investigation as I have said. As usual, the devil is in the detail that Dale hates so much:

1. In any harassment case, a tremendous burden is on the victim to gather evidence before passing it to police. Dale/Hendren would have you think that because it is me asking for the evidence that Dale’s refusal doesn’t amount to a refusal to cooperate with a police/criminal investigation, before going on to claim/imply that he never refused in the first place.

2. Iain Dale damn well did refuse to cooperate in the police investigation of April 2009, but while denying this ever happened, he uses the calls I made to him seeking his statement when it happened as his primary ammunition to publicly claim I am a stalker. That’s really taking the piss. Dale has never once sought to account for his actions on that weekend, but apparently I am to be branded a stalker (and stalked by a stalker calling me a stalker) based on nothing more than his partial account and his untested assertions.

3. Earlier this year, I had good reason to believe police were not taking my complaint seriously because of the counter accusations made by the person targeting myself and my family; the bulk of these resulted from (false) claims by Iain Dale, who refused to even discuss much of the detail privately, never mind provide a public statement. Instead, he made a counter-offer; he wanted me to provide police with a phone number so they could call him. This was at the stage when I wished to present an ordered summary of evidence to get a case going. Dale offering his phone number in these circumstances was beyond inadequate; it was an insult to the intelligence. What was I supposed to do; leave a big gap, say “call Iain Dale for the rest” and hope for the best? Dale has not offered cooperation by any stretch of the imagination.

4. Now I’m being badgered by his mate Hendren, who is claiming I “repeatedly lied about Iain Dale refusing to cooperate with a police investigation” and trying to put me on the spot with the question; why won’t I let the police call Iain Dale so he can help me? Well, the investigation is underway and my needs have changed; it is no longer a matter of getting past counter-accusations by the person targeting me. While a statement would still be appreciated and useful, currently it is mainly a matter of trying to connect somewhere between 3-6 police forces so there is a complete picture of what is going on (not least because recent advice released by the CPS makes clear that the wider picture needs to be taken into account in the particularly tricky realm of cyber harassment). What I need to help this along is the reference numbers that police live by; anything less risks wasting their time or putting them off, and if Dale cannot provide the incident/reference number that he would have been given if he had made a complaint (as he claims to) then I am not going to complicate matters by insisting that they chase him for it. Who the bloody hell does he think he is? Dale has not only refused to provide this number, he has refused to acknowledge receipt of emails requesting it. No doubt he is hoping I will repeat the mistake of trying to call him so he can wave this about as if it proves there’s substance to this smear campaign of his. If Dale is seriously claiming that he wants to cooperate at this time, then the cooperation I need at this time amounts to him providing a reference number that he should already have to hand.

5. Ditto Nadine Dorries, who once offered to ask police for incident/crime reference numbers she would already have to hand if she were telling anything near the truth about complaints she claimed to make and investigations she claimed took place. It is well over a month since she made this offer, but there is no sign of any number(s) and like Iain Dale she is refusing all communication and instead letting others attack me on her behalf. Currently, I am forced to read between the lines of this outburst, where Dorries appears to reveal that she has only recently attempted to make a complaint, only to be told by police that my conduct is completely within reasonable bounds (see here where she says: “I am expected, even though you aren’t one of my constituents, to take it”). I hope to know more about this soon; I am awaiting important data (and not from Dorries).

6. Iain Dale and Nadine Dorries have repeatedly sought to try me in the court of public opinion rather than address this properly through a criminal or even civil route. Worse, they do this knowing how it encourages the person targeting me. Dale is particularly mendacious about this; he privately defends bold assertions/accusations as opinion, while knowing this person targeting me passes it off as fact. He then has the temerity to call me a liar and claim I put him through hell over this. Dale and Dorries have sought to pursue this through the court of public opinion, and if they wish to continue on this path and allow their accusations to stand without retraction, then that is where they should be offering their evidence.

7. Finally, I have NEVER been contacted by police about ANY instance of alleged harssment which is standard protocol for every force following any credible complaint. If Dale or Dorries ever made a complaint, it amounted to nothing. I part suspect that Dale did make a complaint to police as he claimed, but that it is not what he makes it out to be and/or he was as honest with them as he was with me about his promise to call Patrick Mercer. If either is the case, there may not be a number because his complaint was so inconsequential as to be dismissed*, or he would have good reason to withhold the number despite the doubts many people now have about his account/claims. But if he never made that complaint at all, and only claimed that he made a complaint so, like Dorries, he could then claim/imply I was subsequently guilty in some way, then obviously he has no reference number to give.

*MINI-UPDATE – This passage changed slightly to include the possibility that Iain Dale made a complaint and was not issued with a reference number because it was so inconsequential he was advised by police that he was wasting his and their time. If this is the case, Dale has been misrepresenting the nature/significance of his complaint for well over a year and a half.

UPDATE (19 Dec) – Iain Dale is still having his mate Hendren call me a liar on his behalf (while refusing to engage or communicate himself), despite the update above. Offering to do something entirely different than what is asked of you is NOT cooperation, especially when it is so thoroughly inadeqaute as what Dale offered. In any instance, he restricts his bullshit defence to the current investigation, and it is my clearly stated position that he refused to cooperate with more than one. Further, he only made the recent offer in the face of bad publicity; it wasn’t out of any altruism as he pretends. You may also note this accusation does nothing to address the other concerns raised in this post; it only implies that I have lied about it all. Typical of Dale and his leading flunky.

UPDATE (19 Dec) – Oh dear. Dale has just had a comment published over at Hendren’s, and it’s becoming clearer why he cannot produce a reference number, and why he has avoided giving any details about his ‘complaint’ for well over a year:

I visited Tonbridge Police Station on the evening of 15 April 2008. That is all you need to know., I asked their advice, Their advice was to take out a harrassment [sic] order on you. I proceeded to take legal advice and you then received several warning letters.

Quite why you think you are entitled to any information from me after your behaviour towards me one can but wonder.

“15 April 2008”? Dare I bark at Iain to get his facts straight? Doesn’t he allege the events took place in 2009?

And why go to the police station? For dramatic effect? For exercise? A phone call would have done. It would have been logged, too, but surely that’s by the by.

Also, note in this closing paragraph he is again attempting to justify his refusal to cooperate when he claims he is cooperating (and basing a claim that I am a liar on this and this alone).

But most importantly, Iain Dale has repeatedly claimed elsewhere that he “reported me to police for harassment” as if he filed a report or statement (that he would later have to account for if untrue) and/or as if police somehow agreed my actions may have equated to harassment… now he says he merely asked police for their advice, and judging by this account he never got any further than the front desk! This, after claiming to have been the target of stalking for “years”.

He also implies here that he had cause to take a harassment order out against me and further implies that he began this process in earnest, when all he sent was two (not several) deeply flawed letters (that read like he wrote them before having a two-bit lawyer sign them off) containing accusations that he could not substantiate then and cannot substantiate now. The first relied heavily on a claim of repeated libel (not harassment) that, when challenged, was never mentioned again! Tellingly, he even feels the need to exaggerate the number of letters.

Dale’s recent account makes it pretty clear why he cannot produce a reference number; his ‘complaint’ to police was nothing like what he describes when repeatedly smearing me as a stalker and, like Dorries, he falls back on some vague talk about a conversation that is impossible to verify, where he is given ‘advice’ by police which most sensible people would interpret as ‘please stop wasting our time’.

And still he portrays my actions as if they amount to harassment/stalking, despite knowing how his accusations feed a genuine campaign of harassment targeting me.

(To add insult to injury, his mate Hendren is publishing comments suggesting I am imagining the process where the person targeting me recycles Iain’s lies and hyperbole, when he knows it to be a valid concern about actual events.)

UPDATE – Here’s Iain Dale lying about the ‘complaints’ made by himself and Dorries. I’ll include a screen capture in case he later deletes it as if he never said it (as he does often):

Yes, he did make it up. So did Dorries. Neither of them made a complaint that was anything like what they described when repeatedly smearing me as a stalker. If they have a case, let them pursue it through criminal or civil means, not through a whispering campaign, trial by (new) media or tacit approval/encouragement of vigilante action.

MORE RELATED BLOGAGGE:

Ramble On: Billy don’t lose my number

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