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For those who came in late: The Learning & Skills Council harbours paedo-scum

You may remember this little adventure with Dennis Paul and Mike Chambers from October 17, 2005. Following that adventure, Mike got busy on the University of Surrey Student Union (USSU) discussion boards declaring; “Chris Ward is unfit to be Editor” (of Barefacts; the publication that dared to point out that Anne Milton declined to meet student members of her electorate at a freshers’ fayre after the election, when she seemed awfully keen to attend many a freshers’ fayre before the election).

Sadly for Mike, his fearless Tory-campaigning has never been popular on these boards, and his name has been M.U.D. in this online community ever since I busted him for posing as an ordinary member of the public on Anne Milton’s literature. After roughly four posts (one of which has since been deleted following a disastrous attempt at being funny), Mike was forced to leave the USSU boards with his tail between his legs… on October 20, 2005.

On October 31, 2005 a new member joined the USSU board; davidjones.

You can see a post here where ‘davidjones’ lays into Chris Ward with claims of political bias… just as Mike Chambers was fond of doing. By following links in that profile, you can also see posts signed off with the nickname ‘stereo’ and the photo in the Jonesy profile is named ‘stereossonthepulllook.jpg’ (“Stereo’s on the pull; look!”) and… and… and…

OK, and here I must admit that…. this entire pre-amble has been a shameless tease.

:o)

[Mike, I know you’re reading this, and I know that up until now you’ve held fast to a dim hope that I was 100% reliant on circumstantial evidence. Sorry, but… you’re screwed, pal!]

You can see just under that post (linked above) a USSU BB Administrator rolling his eyes at the claims of political bias; it turns out he had good reason to.

You can see the profile of that USSU BB Administrator – Ickybod – here. It clearly links to piersonthe.net, the weblog of Piers Karsenbarg. Piers has been contributing to recent posts at Bloggerheads under comments, and he now has the following to share with us:

1. The profile for ‘davidjones’ used to link to the now-infamous ‘Jonesy’ blog; i.e. the weblog that ‘innocently’ aired claims that Liberal Democrat campaigner Chris Ward was a paedophile.

2. Posts made under the profile ‘davidjones’ were made using the IP address 62.60.124.52 (i.e. that of the Learning & Skills Council).

3. And finally… (here comes the slam-dunk) this profile was originally registered using the email address Michael.Chambers@lsc.gov.uk – the work address of Mike Chambers.

This email address was hidden from the public, but not the admin team. An email was sent to Michael.Chambers@lsc.gov.uk pointing out that it was visible in such a way; Mike responded (i.e. proving the email address was valid and used by him to set up this profile) by changing the main email address to davidjones@44london.com and claiming that he had set the profile up “for a friend”….

One of many imaginary friends, I think it’s fair to say.

The current WHOIS for 44london.com does not reveal the registrant’s name but I’m sure the WHOIS history will prove to be revealing… not that this data is needed.

Mike Chambers is ‘Jonesy’ – and Mike Chambers is directly responsible for the disgraceful smear campaign conducted at the ‘Jonesy’ weblog.

No doubt Mike Chambers will fall back on further claims that the blog is the work of ‘a friend’ and/or that Piers Karsenbarg is also a member of a vast Liberal Democrat conspiracy, but – once again – the Learning & Skills Council can verify all of this with a quick check of their HTTP and/or email records.

Up until now, they appear to have been reluctant to do so… but perhaps they’ll change their minds now this has gone public.

[Psst! Mike! Dennis! This is the bit where you start ratting each other out in the hope that you personally will get off lightly. The sooner you start this vital process, the sooner we can all get on with our lives.]

UPDATE (1:20pm) – John has chipped in to point out that 44 London Limited – the company previously named at 44london.com and/or named in a way that only indexing robots could see (thanks Google) – is a real company and is registered at the following address:

18 Scholars Walk, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7TR

Now take a look at this Christmas 2005 pamphlet from local Conservative Councillor Sheila Kirkland (screengrab here and to your right). The address given for Mike Chambers is….

18 Scholars Walk, Onslow, GU2 7TR

Slam. Dunk.

UPDATE (1:37pm) – Doesn’t it strike you as odd that this is normally the kind of thing that Guido and Iain Dale go for… but neither of them have shown the slightest amount of interest? Yeah, me too.

UPDATE (3:33pm) – The ‘davidjones’ profile on the USSU discussion boards has been deleted.

UPDATE (4:50pm) – Oops. Now that the ‘davidjones’ profile has been deleted, the person who created it can no longer delete posts made under that profile… and now – in posts such as this – the system has stopped linking to the profile/website of the user and instead displays a link to the last-known email address for that profile…. davidjones@44london.com (i.e. an email address at a domain name which we know is owned and controlled by a company registered at Mike Chambers’ address).

1. Mike, I’ve been forced to beg you to stop for your own good before… I’m going to do so again now: Mike, *please* stop… you’re really not very good at this and you should give up now to avoid any further damage to yourself and those around you.

2. Can someone from the three organisations/groups who can do something about this please get on with it? Your inaction suggests that you either don’t understand what’s going on, or that you endorse this kind of behaviour. I seek to remind you that further updates to both offending sites were made while you twiddled your thumbs.

UPDATE (24 Aug) – The domain name 44london.com was registered using the email address m.chambers@o2.co.uk, which is the same email address that Mike Chambers uses on this site under his credit as web designer. You may also notice in the Tory pamphlet referenced above that he also uses the email address michael.chambers@ycge.com… the domain name ycge.com was registered with the same registrar as used for 44london.com

It’s almost lunchtime!

I haven’t heard anything beyond the usual assurances from Anne Milton’s office that this would be brought to her attention (which only served to remind me why the Anne Milton weblog exists in the first place; I remember well the first time she promised to ‘investigate’ something).

UPDATE (2:44pm) – The only new development so far? The ‘Irish Tim’ weblog has become more overt in its attempt at impersonation, and now includes a pretty shoddy attempt at keyword placement (and a special message about me wasting my time “writing page after page of gash about Dennis Paul and Mike Chambers”). Someone’s feeling confident that they won’t get found out…

This is a copy of an email I’ve just sent to relevant parties attached to Anne Milton’s office, Conservative Central Office, and the Learning & Skills Council regarding this sordid affair:

So, here we are… it’s 5:30pm on a Friday afternoon and still nothing has
been done about this. I assume that this means that an unsubstantiated claim
that a man is a paedophile (which includes his name, photo, and details of
his location) will stay live on the internet for at least another two days
while you swan off and enjoy your weekend and/or continue to enjoy your
holiday.

I am appalled… and each and every one of you should be ashamed.

Tim Ireland
www.bloggerheads.com

Oh, and here’s a little something to think about…

If I were a clever troll wishing to damage the reputation of Mike Chambers and/or Dennis Paul, and I had set up a series of anonymous weblogs that they were stupid enough to contribute to, I would have deleted those blogs immediately following the recent exposé in order to make these two look as guilty as hell.

Anne Milton – Guildford MP (and Dipstick): Behind the smearing wheel

Now, a month after my initial complaint to her, we may see some action.

1. Given the headline, I think it’s important that I begin by providing my definition of the term ‘paedo-scum’:

Paedophiles, as well all know, are adults who engage in sexual activity with a child or children. But there are also many in our society who use fear of paedophilia for personal, political and/or financial gain. These people are paedo-scum.

2. If you’re new here, you’ll need some background:

Anne Milton is my local (Conservative) MP. I’m not one of her biggest fans.

Dennis Paul is a supporter of Anne Milton, and a local campaigner seeking a seat in the next council elections. He is endorsed by the Conservative Party and he is (or perhaps was) employed by Sutton Council.

Mike Chambers is a supporter of Anne Milton, and a local campaigner seeking a seat in the next council elections. He also is endorsed by the Conservative Party and he is (or perhaps was) employed by the Learning & Skills Council.

OK, are we all ready? Onward!

Both Dennis and Mike have been behind a number of petty personal and/or party-political attacks against myself (and others). Some of these attacks have been made publicly (1, 2), and some of them have been made anonymously.

I already gone on the record saying that I have proof that both Dennis Paul and Mike Chambers have misused time and facilities paid for by the taxpayer by engaging in their petty personal and/or party-political attacks from their work computers.

In both cases a formal complaint was made.

In the case of Sutton Council, the matter was finally dealt with 76 days after my initial complaint. (On Nov 7 2005, they responded by assuring me that they had “investigated this matter and taken appropriate action.”)

In the case of the Learning & Skills Council… well, I need to trundle out some evidence first. Please bear with me…

On Thursday, January 05, 2006 at 9:40am this comment was left on the Anne Milton weblog by someone using the Blogger account LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem.

The IP address 62.60.124.52 was used to post this comment. That IP address belongs to the following range:

inetnum: 62.60.124.48 – 62.60.124.63
netname: LSC-NET
descr: Learning & Skills Council – Corporate Access

Now the Learning & Skills Council employ quite a few people, not just Mike Chambers. It could very well be that there’s someone else who works for the Learning & Skills Council who is also an ardent supporter of Anne Milton that loathes Liberal Democrats with a passion and/or has been part of an ongoing vendetta against a local Lib Dem campaigner by the name of Chris Ward.

Perhaps Mike complained to other staff members about my unfair little weblog in the lunch-room one day and one of them decided to intervene on his behalf… the universe is infinite and nothing is impossible. Me, I’m reckless enough to operate under the following assumption:

LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem = Mike Chambers

You can see here at the weblog controlled under that account a single post that clumsily suggests under comments that the blog (and a wish to legalise all drugs and buy drugs illegally in the meantime) is the work of local Liberal Democrat campaigner Chris Ward.

This is not the only instance of Mike Chambers impersonating Chris Ward.

You’ll also wish to take into account the strapline of the SurreyTories weblog linked above; “Because too much blue is really poo” – and also the conviction clearly held by Mike Chambers and Dennis Paul that I’m part of a massive Liberal Democrat conspiracy against them. Watch and wait for more…

Now any reasonable person could see that the profile name alone is misleading and party-political, but I want you to join me here now as Dennis Paul allows ‘LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem’ to make a comment on his site posing (again) as the aforementioned Chris Ward.

Some anonymous comments lay in with further rubbish (here it must be noted that Dennis Paul has a long track record of making fake/anonymous comments on his own website and that he has recently unwittingly admitted to making anonymous comments on my website) but – officially – Dennis Paul simply allows the impersonation to pass.

Now, I mentioned in a recent post that Dennis Paul once deleted an entire post on his weblog because of one ‘inappropriate comment’. I’m about to reveal why he thought it prudent to delete an entire exchange… but hang in there for the detail first.

On Sunday, June 25, 2006 the paedo-scum at News Of The World saw fit to remind us that roaming gangs of paedophiles lurk in our midst. (There is a mirror of the relevant article here and a BBC report on the outcome here.)

The following day (June 26, 2006) at pretty much the same time ‘someone’ was busy battling to keep Anne Milton’s Wikipedia entry clear of any impure thoughts, Dennis Paul put a post on his weblog about it. The cleansed and renewed version of this post (dated July 1, 2006) can be seen here.

The original post, including an all-too-revealing exchange under comments, is archived here at Bloggerheads.

In the comments under this post, you will see two genuine comments from me. You will also see comments by individuals operating with the Blogger profiles Irish_Tim and Jonesy. Dennis Paul responds to ‘Jonesy’ with a comment about “paedophile acts with minors of the same sex which would also be a homosexual act,” but – again – he allows an outright if clumsy impersonation to slide by without so much as a whisper.

We’ll get back to ‘Jonesy’ and “paedophile acts with minors of the same sex” in a moment… first I want to talk to you about ‘Irish_Tim’ – and for that we need to take a small step back in time…

On Tuesday, April 25, 2006 I submitted a formal complaint to the Learning & Skills Council regarding Mike Chambers and his conduct under the profile ‘LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem’. I’m guessing that a verbal warning followed.

In May 2006 this weblog by ‘Irish_Tim’ went live, where ‘Irish_Tim’ claimed to be me. He linked to my main websites, and to that of my employer and their clients.

Wait… backtrack… make that my former employer and their clients. Y’see, intelligence is lacking here. I haven’t worked for that company or any of their clients for well over 18 months. But, still, the effort is there and the intention is clear.

This mucky little weblog, which has less-than-subtle xenophobic and homophobic overtones, has published the following since going live:

– Threats that a bunch of Tory MPs are trying to get my permanent residency status withdrawn
– Assertions that I am operating at the behest of the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Guildford (Sue Doughty)
– Anonymous comments supposedly from Sue Doughty thanking me for my support
– A claim that I have been dismissed from employment for “downloading porn and not doing much work really”
– A lovely statement that “my wife, bless her, just doesn’t do it for me these days”
– A further statement that “my son think’s (sic) I’m a bad father”

Also, in comments on Chris Ward’s weblog, ‘LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem’ has posed as me a number of times (1, 2, 3), but there’s worse to come…

The weblog is headed “too much kangeroo (sic) is really poo” (see: “too much blue is really poo”)

On this weblog and in the profile, I am classified as a “computer hacker”. Here we quickly zip back to a previous post of mine: Dennis Paul (who clearly does not know the difference between hacking and tracking) is the only person I know of who has made any accusation of hacking associated with myself or this website. Ever.

Here the line blurs between close chums Dennis Paul and Mike Chambers… but the connections between these two and this weblog – and that of ‘Jonesy’ – are remarkably strong.

Aaaand finally we get back to ‘Jonesy’… and what I can say without fear of hyperbole is the lowest political act I have seen at a local level in my entire life.

Prepare yourselves….

On Friday, June 30, 2006 (i.e. very soon after this charming exchange on Dennis Paul’s weblog), Jonesy went live with this post ‘innocently’ airing claims that Liberal Democrat campaigner Chris Ward was a paedophile and then went on to press the matter relentlessly with the help of a number of anonymous comments on the matter.

(Note also in those comments some late-in-the-day negative comments about Mike Chambers, which to me smell like clumsy misdirection.)

I was appalled. Just… dumbstruck, really.

As the post expanded, it went on to feature a photo of Chris Ward, and details about his location. It should be obvious why this is such an irresponsible thing to do. Further, I think it qualifies as a hate crime.

The first thing I did was submit a renewal of my complaint to the Learning & Skills Council with this new information. Far better, one would think, to just see the material removed (and if not, secure evidence that would link an actual person to this crime).

They responded by telling me that “relevant person” was “not available to deal with this at the moment”. Later, I was assured that “the LSC are taking this matter seriously”.

Seriously? By now it was over two months after my initial complaint and it should have been pretty clear to any sensible or responsible person at this stage that this was a matter that should be dealt with pretty fucking urgently!

The main thing to remember here is that there is a lot of circumstantial evidence. In can be stated with some certainty that Mike Chambers is ‘LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem’, but we also have the following…

– Dennis Paul allowed ‘LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem’ to make a comment on his (moderated) site and published it without question or any kind of significant challenge.

– Dennis Paul happily chummed it up with ‘Jonesy’ and ‘Irish_Tim’ before deleting the evidence.

– ‘Jonesy’ links to ‘Irish_Tim’ and ‘LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem’ in his blogroll.

– ‘Irish_Tim’ left a comment with ‘Jonesy’, posing as me and asking; “So what’s wrong with sex at 15 or even younger anyways?”

– ‘LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem’ merrily contributed to the comments under the paedo-post on the ‘Jonesy’ blog and made another comment requesting a link from that blog.

– ‘Jonesy’ left a comment on the ‘Irish_Tim’ weblog suggesting that he earnestly believed it was my main website.

Now amongst all of this noise, there are really only two possibilities:

1. That these disgraceful smears are the work of Mike Chambers and/or Dennis Paul – which would prove either or both to be totally unfit for public office.

2. That Mike Chambers and Dennis Paul are the victims of an elaborate set-up that they have been stupid enough to willingly take part in because they were blinded by their hatred of myself and/or Chris Ward – which would prove either or both to be totally unfit for public office.

But – as only Mike Chambers was operating for a time from work blissfully unaware that his HTTP access records might be presented in a court of law – only the Learning & Skills Council can tell us for sure if he is behind any or all of the relevant identities (or maybe even – perhaps – totally eliminate him as a suspect).

Somewhere in this world is a complete and utter lowlife (or team of lowlifes) with an overdue appointment in court. Only the Learning & Skills Council can help to identify the individual(s) involved.

And what have they done about it so far? Sweet bugger all.

So, here we are, back to the headline:

The Learning & Skills Council harbours paedo-scum.

Now I’ve gone public with this information, I’m curious to know what this organisation plans to do about it.

—–

UPDATE (4:50pm) – Do give me a shout if any of the relevant evidence starts disappearing. I have it all saved to disk, so I’m ready and waiting to publish mirrors.

UPDATE (5:20pm) – Wouldn’t you know it? The relevant person at the Learning & Skills Council is away until 21 August. No matter. I’ve sent a link to the ‘if this is urgent’ email address that came with the auto-respond. I’ve also called Conservative Head Office, and since calling them I’ve received yet another visit from host97.conservative-party.org.uk (194.203.158.97)

(waits)

UPDATE (6:15pm) – An extended visit from in.parliament.uk (194.60.38.10)

UPDATE (11:39pm) – Well, how about that, then? It’s past chucking-out time and Dennis is busy publishing comments under this post. Will a response* from Dennis follow?

(*And by that I mean a response other than anonymous/fake comments. There are already a few such comments… including an out-of-the-blue one from a ‘nasty Liberal’ who sooooooo obviously has it in for him and Mike Chambers. It’s painful to watch.)

UPDATE (00:47) – Well, he’s finally made a comment under his own name… just under three comments that he made himself from ‘other people’; I have the records of a rather stunning schoolboy error that proves this saved to disk, but can’t be arsed posting the details right now… suffice it to say that we can now add ‘Labour Lennie’ to his list of sock puppets (which makes this exchange between ‘Labour Lennie’ and ‘Jonesy’ all the more entertaining). Anyway… enough about what ‘other people’ have to say… let’s get to the official comment from Dennis:

“Well if that is real political debate online, it rather sums up why this blog is closing. This is the last blog and time to close, but if the last Liberal is still blogging into vacant cyberspace, could you please switch off the light.”

*sigh*

Painful. To. Watch.

But it had to be done… and the job’s not finished yet.

UPDATE (17 Aug 10:05am) – Y’see, this is the problem with crying wolf:
Who now is actually going to believe that Dennis Paul’s blogger account has been hacked?

UPDATE (17 Aug 1:43pm) – The ‘hacked’ entry has been removed. Good thing I saved a copy.

UPDATE (22 Aug) – There are further updates in subsequent posts and comments (all within the Anne Milton category), but this one needs to go here for ready-reference:

On the 21st of August ‘Jonesy’ deleted the link to his blog from his Blogger profile, possibly to give the impression that Dennis Paul was not aware of the offending weblog when checking this profile following comment submission (which is something any sensible moderator would do). Of course, if he tried this on, Dennis would also have to explain why another persona he invented – Labour Lennie – played an active role in the offending ‘paedo’ post.

UPDATE (22 Aug 12:06pm) – Proof: Mike Chambers is directly responsible for the ‘paedo’ claims

It’s been a while since I’ve done a thorough fisking… but this one is going to be worth it. And then some.

Either very late last night or very early this morning, Dennis Paul announced that he was quitting his weblog:

Dennis Paul, Conservative Campaigner: Nighty Night

Well folks, this is the last blog for a while I’m afraid. As a facilitator I have come to the conclusion that blogs are a complete waste of time. Some time ago I saw them useful as a way of publicising initiatives, (promoting my credentials obviously) and stimulating genuine discussion and debate by opening up access to the community. To date, with perhaps the exception of ‘Paul’ and ‘Contratory’ most of the community involvement has involved a tiny band of opposition hacks trying to engage in distractive, petty political point scoring which serves little purpose other than to smear their opponents or put off genuine visitors from becoming involved in politics.

I will happily continue online at my site at www.dennispaul.org where I will be reporting on local issues and initiatives. But before you go, ask yourself Why is blogging a waste of your time and mine (this is the last debate, so keep to the point, avoid petty point scoring, smears, negative links and your post should get through)? Discuss:

Dennis Paul’s version of ‘keeping to the point’ is never straying from his own personal version of reality, and countering a number of his quite ridiculous claims requires the use of a few facts that he would dismiss as ‘smears’… so I’m turning down his kind offer of a final ‘debate’ on his ‘blogsite’ and will instead will publish my response here.

What the following is going to prove is that we are well rid of Dennis Paul, because the bulk of his public and anonymous contributions to the blogging community have been “distractive, petty political point scoring which serves little purpose other than to smear their opponents or put off genuine visitors from becoming involved in politics.”

On we go with the fisking…

If you have a political interest, you could be reading more informative literature, even in the tabloids. If you want debate, you’ll find more people down the pub to argue with than online – and it’s more sociable

Untrue. Many weblogs (that may or may not publish articles of their own) give readers access to a wider variety of mainstream articles, but I’m not at all surprised to see that he thinks online debating arguing is a waste of time, because he has yet to discover the joys of Playing. By. The. Rules.

Apart from that, his final line about the pub only serves to explain why Dennis is so fond of posting/commenting after closing time.

(Oops. A snipe slipped through. Sorry about that.)

Blogs give those that post the buzz that the whole world is watching, when frankly only a few political hacks at most are online hanging on every word.

To be fair, this may be a true account of Dennis Paul’s experience. As for myself, between Bloggerheads and Backing Blair I reached well over a million unique visitors last year. The Anne Milton weblog is a little more modest in that it ticks over at around 40,000 unique visitors a year.

Also, rather than reaching “a few political hacks,” I’ve tracked regular visits from inside Parliament, Downing Street and the headquarters of every major political party in this country (including a recent visit from Conservative Central Office, which might explain this Conservative campaigner’s ‘independent decision’ to quit blogging… it won’t be the first time he’s been told to pull his head in after going OTT).

If you contribute by blogging genuinely on some sites, you may provide the host with your IP address when you blog which enables unscrupulous hackers to attack your computer. That is why they are so obsessed with the IP identity of those who blog. You may limit this risk by moving from a static IP address to a Dynamic IP address, but you are still vulnerable while you remain online without protection.

Dennis Paul has made a few big mistakes in the last few days, but this one is the biggest by far (still, at least now he appears to know what an IP address is). What he’s referring to is the fallout from this showdown (relevant details are at the base of that post and comments). It’s a subtle but rare public repeat of his claim that he was hacked this time last year and that I’m the most likely culprit.

Important Bit To Remember #1: Dennis Paul (who clearly does not know the difference between hacking and tracking) is the only person I know of who has made any accusation of hacking associated with myself or this website. Ever.

Important Bit To Remember #2: Dennis Paul (who clearly does not know the difference between blogging and commenting) has never commented under his own name on any of my websites. Ever. Basically, what he has done here is unwittingly admit that he has done so anonymously in the past.

Big, big, mistake. And there may be more on this in the mystery link (see below).

Anonymity for bloggers gives them the scope to create the illusion that their views are commonplace with more people contributing posts than there actually are.

So speaks the man who has made a regular habit of submitting anonymous/fake comments on his own website since well before he started blogging “to create the illusion that their views are commonplace with more people contributing posts than there actually are.”

All you have to do is browse around his weblog to see this in action (even with his new ‘no-time timestamps’ it’s painfully obvious), but if you want to go straight to the most entertaining part, click here to watch Dennis dismiss one of the few anonymous comments that he didn’t write himself. Because it was made anonymously, obviously.

The content of blog air is generally crap. Some of my opponents spend time writing reams of material every day with no comments or sign of engagement in any discussion whatsoever (except say a few chums). The idea that the content is ‘public’ drives them on, but actually no one is watching except people in political circles (including me I have to confess) checking to see if anything interesting or relevant crops up – which rarely happens

1. At the risk of repeating myself; Opponent? You what?

2. Oh really? I’d regard this revelation to be particularly interesting. Given that Anne Milton likes to big-note herself as Parliament’s Nurse, I’d regard her poor attendance record on the Health Select Committee to be particularly relevant.

3. As for comments, I’m a busy guy and don’t wish to waste my days pissing about with timewasters, so people who comment on my site are required to establish their identity via TypeKey. That means I get fewer comments than many sites that enjoy this level of traffic, but at least it keeps most of the shitheads away. Oh, and did I mention that Dennis Paul has never commented under his own name on any of my websites? Ever?

(Damn. Another snipe slipped through. I must be more careful.)

Blogging has little or no effect on public opinion. Why? Because no one is watching. More productive time can be spent knocking on doors or delivering leaflets that address local concerns than appealing to a narrow sect through internet media.

Ah, yes… and we all know what type of leaflets Dennis Paul likes to circulate. As for door-knocking, a report reaches me that – during a recent by-election – local Tory canvassers were instructed to ask to speak to the man of the house, show them a picture of the Conservative candidate (Kathy Lyons), and say; “Isn’t she a lovely piece of totty to have as your councillor?”

Sometimes this kind of thing is effective… and sometimes it is not.

Also, Dennis Paul himself has accused me of having local political connections, but of the associations that have been made, most of them were a direct result of my “appealing to a narrow sect through internet media.”

Quite a few members of the great unwashed have been in touch, too – including a couple of people from Dennis Paul’s past… and present. I think this counts as an example of the effectiveness of a robust and honest approach to blogging.

For a rough idea of how this works, Dennis is invited to search for his own name in Google. Or perhaps Anne Milton’s name. Or maybe even the words ‘health select committee’…

When you read posts on blogsites they could be anyone. Just register with a few duff details and you are in there, blogging as Michael Jackson or Jack Spratt. More often than not, they are a couple of opponents trying to create the illusion that there is a mass following out there that does not exist

And Dennis Paul would know. The illusion of a mass following has already been dealt with above, so what is going to be dealt with here is his quite correct assertion that anyone can “register with a few duff details” and start “blogging as Michael Jackson or Jack Spratt.”

Of course, if you don’t put your name to the venture and/or fail to provide evidence of any given claim, issues of trust are going to crop up from time to time, and you’ll find yourself struggling for traffic…. but the Big One here is that I wish to prove that Dennis Paul is 100% correct on one single point, and – for practical purposes – that proof needs to presented outside of this fisking. Watch the space below, where a link will (or perhaps *may*) appear shortly:

————————————————————————————————-
Yep… here you go… Dennis Paul and Mike Chambers are heavily implicated in an anonymous weblog smear campaign that will turn your stomach.
————————————————————————————————-

For those who think independent blogging is a productive use of their time, you can try to persuade us otherwise too! But spare us the crap about how you champion the public good etc by bringing important facts to light. We have the Surrey Advertiser for that, and they are fairly impartial!

Dennis Paul is totally wrong on this front… our local newspaper the Surrey Advertiser is not big on investigative journalism. More often than not they are totally reliant on someone coming forward with evidence and/or a point of view; the majority of stories that stray toward the investigative are headlined as follows:

(Insert Name Here) claims that (Insert Name Here) has/is (Insert Story Here)

All in all, I guess the proof of the pudding will be in whether the meat from the mystery-link above makes it to print and/or is acted upon once/if it is published and/or starts turning up in search engines. We’ll see. Maybe.

And I say ‘maybe’ because I’m going to give Dennis one more chance:

Dennis, you have two hours (from now) to delete any suggestion or allegation that I blog about Anne Milton at the behest of the local Liberal Democrats from your public sites, and to see to it that certain anonymous sites are removed in their entirety. You know what I’m talking about. Two hours. After that, I go public and get totally mediaeval on your ass. Have a serious think about it.

UPDATE (1:46pm) – I’m busy. Dennis gets a bonus hour. See you at 3pm.

UPDATE (4:20pm) – The mystery link just went live. Dennis Paul has had plenty of time to deal with this honourably. Now it’s time for him to chew on a burger with the works.

UPDATE (Aug 22) – Dennis Paul has now moved/renamed and updated the fisked post. The changes have been recorded here: Dennis Paul is busy covering his tracks