Robert Jenrick Impresses on Immigration at Hertfordshire Conservative Party Hustings

MHN is backing Robert Jenrick MP for leader of the Conservative Party. At an event on Sunday 20th October 2024, your author had the privilege of meeting him at an official hustings. Whilst Kemi Badenoch, who was also there, is an impressive candidate, I felt that Jenrick was by far the stronger and had a much clearer policy platform.

Robert Jenrick speaks to a packed hall in the Old Palace at Hatfield House. Your author can just be seen on the left, four rows back behind Jacob Rees Mogg.

Robert Jenrick speaks to a packed hall in the Old Palace at Hatfield House. Your author can just be seen on the left, four rows back behind Jacob Rees Mogg.

Before moving on to my support for Jenrick, let us not overlook Kemi Badenoch. I was tempted to back her for leader because she has a similar background to myself, starting as a software developer before studying law. She is an impressive candidate, and not to be disrespected. Second of six is nothing to sniff at.

Even so, Jenrick was far better. He has an extremely coherent platform – identify the core issues, number one being immigration, and identify solutions. Jenrick intends quite clearly to cut through the red tape of the European Court of Human Rights by withdrawing from it as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Convention provides a number of rights, for example the right to life, to be free from arbitrary state execution, free from arbitrary detention, free from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, free from slavery, the right to a fair trial and also the right to family life. These were used, for example, to block the Rwanda plan attempted by the previous Conservative government. By withdrawing from the Convention, Jenrick will put truly radical options on the table for resolving the problem of illegal and legal migration.

I asked a question which the very efficient Hertfordshire area officers enabled me to have heard. I asked about Jenrick’s position on Ukraine. This was very near the end of Jenrick’s section and was cut off, but he answered it afterwards whilst mingling. His position was very cautious – he was in favour of Ukraine winning but not willing to escalate – I suspect he believes that the war will be resolved long before he is anywhere near number 10 Downing Street – so I was not dissatisfied with his answer.

Overall it was a very positive event.

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Cleverly Out Despite Shapps Support – MHN Supports Robert Jenrick for Conservative Leader

Robert Jenrick is MHN's pick for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Robert Jenrick is MHN’s pick for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

James Cleverly is out of the race for Conservative leader, despite being boosted by the support of former MP and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps who was chair of his leadership campaign (archive). Cleverly obtained 37 votes, rivals Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch obtained 41 and 42 respectively. Cleverly doubtless benefited from Tory ‘big beast’ Grant Shapps’ support – it just was not enough. The question is which candidate can now connect with the the party, reconnect with former Conservative voters and appeal to the wider public. MHN says that means a proper strategy with credible policies that appeal to to voters and to Conservative Party members – past, present and future.

Grant Shapps has always been good at picking Conservative leaders. He was one of the signatories to David Cameron’s nomination papers for leadership. My personal opinion is James Cleverly gained more from Shapps’ support than Shapps did from backing him. Of course, Shapps is a canny politician and the support was undoubtedly in part based on the calculation that Cleverly could win and then reward his supporters. He was very close to correct – two or three votes more would have seen Cleverly in the final round. It was very close and Cleverly’s loss of two votes in the final round came as a big surprise to observers.

Grant Shapps, former MP for Welwyn Hatfield and former Defence Secretary. His support has been a large, influential boost to Cleverly's campaign. Even Shapps' formidable campaigning skills however, did not get Cleverly over the line.

Grant Shapps, former MP for Welwyn Hatfield and former Defence Secretary. His support has been a large, influential boost to Cleverly’s campaign.

The question is, what comes after the ballots of MPs? It is all very well to be able to predict and count support in the Parliamentary Conservative Party, but after their votes comes the Party members’ vote followed by the most important vote of all – the next general election.

Make no mistake, Labour did not win the last election. Keir Starmer obtained a large majority with fewer votes than Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘disaster’ of 2019. In the 2024 General Election, Starmer’s Labour received 9,708,716 votes. In 2019, Corbyn’s Labour had 10,269,051 votes. The only reason Keir Starmer got a whiff of power was that the Conservative vote split. When the New Labour-ish right regained power in Labour and ousted Corbyn, Tony Blair wrote a triumphant article in the Guardian, “Labour’s task is not to make itself feel better – it’s to win power” (archive). He summarised his message about Corbyn like this,

“The proximate cause of defeat was not complicated or hard to see, but simple and in plain sight. We put forward a leader and a manifesto that voters thought unacceptable to such a degree that many were repelled. Too extreme economically. Anti-western. Lacking in patriotism. And therefore dangerous.”

Tony finished, “These things are obvious. The frustration is that it is necessary to say them”. I haven’t seen Tony Blair for years since I was Labour Party staff in 2005 and as a local staffer I was part of the entourage on a visit he made to Enfield. I felt like responding, “touché”. The reason Corbyn was ever Labour Party leader is the same as the reason Keir Starmer got less votes. New Labour is a far, far more tainted brand than Corbyn’s hard leftism has ever been. That is an objective truth demonstrated by the cold hard numbers from the last election.

MHN author Sam Smith and (then) newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1997.

MHN editor Sam Smith and (then) newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair a very, very long time ago in 1997.

When I was 18 I was a starry eyed Labour supporter, indeed a party official. What we were promised was a, “Third Way” (archive) between left and right. What we got was something else – a government that mostly cared about image. Not just spin over substance but which presided over a culture in which whistle-blowers and critics were actively terrorised. As a few examples from many, there were the mid-Staffordshire Hospital scandal (archive), the Essex scandal (archive) and of course the Rotherham Scandal (archive). Under Labour, police and local authorities were afraid to acknowledge or tackle the rape of 1,400 children due to a fear of being accused of racism by the government. Aside from that was a great deal of race baiting and laughing with contempt at our members and supporters. There was casual corruption even over trivial issues. The contempt for the supposedly benighted masses ran to the bone. That is Tony’s legacy. That is why Keir Starmer got less votes than Jeremy Corbyn. That is why I cannot envisage ever returning to Labour. That is why all attempts to rehabilitate Blair have failed. To respond to Tony, “The frustration is that it is necessary to say.”

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Why I am Voting Conservative and Grant Shapps, Not Reform UK

Grant Shapps, Parliamentary Candidate for Welwyn-Hatfield 2024.

Grant Shapps, Parliamentary Candidate for Welwyn-Hatfield 2024. A longstanding, hard-working, MP.

The Witchfinder will be voting for long serving, hard-working, local MP Grant Shapps and the Conservatives, not Reform UK, Labour, Liberals nor Green.

I’ve met a lot of politicians. I’ve been one. I was a Labour Student, Chair of my Labour Society at University. Later I was a Labour Councillor, and was a politician. I’ve been Labour Party staff and one of those be-suited people walking around behind Tony Blair during a local visit. I’ve been a Conservative and a blogger. I’ve been invited to eat at the House of Commons by Labour MPs and Conservatives.

My experiences on both sides are why I’ll be voting for Grant Shapps and the Conservative Party. I have the good fortune that is relatively easy in Welwyn-Hatfield, which has a had a genuinely good Conservative MP in Grant Shapps. Sadly, our society has lost its way. The so-called expenses scandal, now almost forgotten, revealed that much of Parliament was on the take. From moat cleaning, to pornographic movies, it seemed that almost the entire House of Commons was quite literally taking the mickey. Grant Shapps was one of the few Members of Parliament who was not – he was called an, ‘expenses saint’ (archive) even by left-wing paper the Independent.

Some Labour MPs I have met were spiteful and petty. One instructed me to exclude an annoying, un-telegenic party activist from events on an, ‘unofficial’ basis contrary to their own party rules. They were overruled on one occasion by redoubtable Labour (former) General Secretary Margaret McDonagh, who was organising a national event featuring Tony Blair and was able to manage the behaviour without needing to mess about with secret exclusions. The incident was memorable to me, because it was rare for a senior Labour official to do something non-sociopathic, leaving me with a permanent good impression of McDonagh. Sadly, she was the exception that proves the rule, in my experience.

Shapps shares some of McDonagh’s better traits. As a local MP, he is hard-working but not unkind. He has his flaws, but the worst attacks that have been on him are that (i) he used some pen names, like many authors (e.g., ‘Michael Green’) and (ii) he once, as national Co-Chair failed to act swiftly on conduct allegations – but I agree with Conservative Home’s opinion that the buck for that stopped with Lord Feldman. Others clearly share that view, because Grant was taken back into the cabinet as Defence Secretary.

Character is not the only consideration of course. The key problem facing the Conservatives is the government’s national performance. Here, I understand the doubts and why some people might vote for other parties, until you look at the alternatives. Continue reading

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Vox Day: A Sea of Skulls Review

In 2016, I reviewed Vox Day’s lengthy novel ‘A Throne of Bones’ (‘AToB’) and found it to be “very, very good”. Now, 8 years since my review and 11 years since the first book was released, he has finished the sequel – ‘A Sea of Skulls’ (‘ASoS’), which can be bought as an ebook on the Arkhaven Comics website. The book was released in incomplete form in 2016, but not finished until the end of 2023 (nearly double the original length) and your author has refrained from reviewing until now that it is complete. I paid for the original release of the book, and received a free upgrade voucher for the finished version. For those who have not already received it, the final version is well worth buying. Be warned, spoilers follow.

A Sea of Skulls by Vox Day

A Sea of Skulls by Vox Day

For those unfamiliar with the series, the, “Arts of Dark and Light” is set in a fantasy world on a continent called Selenoth. The setting and story is dominated by the ‘Republic of Amorr’, which is almost indistinguishable from the Roman Republic. Amorr, however, exists in a fantasy world that will be familiar to players of Dungeons and Dragons and other Tolkien-derived settings. The world contains many of the usual fantasy elements of elves, dwarves, demons and magic. Amorr has some variations in timeline and technology, for example it has a monotheistic faith very similar to Christianity that is already the official state religion. In the real Rome that did not happen until the Republic had been replaced by the Roman Empire. Technology levels vary from bronze-age to medieval – with roughly ancient era Amorr next to medieval Savondir – a France analogue.

The ongoing story, not unlike other fantasy novels such as the Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson or a Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin, concerns conflicts between various human and supernatural factions in multiple fantasy states.

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A Late, but Deserved, Obituary for former Councillor Steven Markiewicz

Steve Markiewicz in his prime

Steve Markiewicz in his prime before his final tragic illness.

Steven Markiewicz was my friend, and a Conservative Councillor. He tragically passed away in October 2021. He was a good and diligent councillor and was decent to me on many issues when others were harder to find – not just paying lip service but taking action I could verify. Steven also shared an interest in gaming and had a gaming PC although towards the end he told me he had not had the time or energy to play. More importantly, he was a councillor of the old Conservative school who thought it was a councillor’s role (respectfully) to hold council officers to account, not just champion them. He was my go to, often.

I was not sure if I should write about him at the time. However, he came to my mind today. Whilst investigating a council mess-up, I used the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 to obtain information. I discovered a vast number of emails from councillor officers. In particular, one officer had asked councillors not to reply to me on an issue and appeared to state this was something they would do regularly (that is, ask councillors not to reply to complaints from members of the public). Given councillors are supposed to support members of the public, hold officers to account and deal with complaints when members of the public are dissatisfied with handling by officers, this seems to me improper.

I suspect Steve would respond badly to such a request. Sadly, not all our modern councillors take the same approach. So, I thought I would raise a glass to him tonight. He is missed. I will not name the officer here, but I will deal with them appropriately in due course.

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Is Kiwifarmer ‘Erasmus of Rotterdam’ Really Caroline Farrow?

Yesterday, MHN posted a damning exposé about Caroline Farrow. She was quite a bit upset with my media inquiry letter which was sent beforehand to give her a chance to point out any factual errors. Caroline went so far as posting on Twitter that my media inquiry made her, “throw up in fear” (archive). Today, a user called ‘Erasmus of Rotterdam’, posted bizarre allegations on Kiwifarms, claimed to have hacked MHN and the editor’s PC, but was especially upset about questions 10 and 11 in the letter. Those questions were never published. There are grounds for investigation as to whether the poster was in fact Caroline Farrow, sock-puppetting.

Kiwifarms user 'Erasmus of Rotterdam' posts allegations so fake even Dynastia calls them out. But this person has seen a private letter I shared only with three people.

Kiwifarms user ‘Erasmus of Rotterdam’ posts allegations so fake even Dynastia calls them out. But this person has seen a private letter I shared only with three people. Click for full size.

So, who could it be? Firstly, I do not have a copy of anything uploaded to Kiwi Farms so if a copy of the letter was actually uploaded, I have not verified it is the real letter. However, the poster must have at least seen the real letter to know about the questions. So, there is a limited pool of suspects.

Full disclosure. I do not normally correspond with Stephanie Hayden but as they were a subject of the story, I sent them a copy of my letter. Another went to Simon Just. Finally of course, a copy was sent to Farrow via her solicitors. Not long after, Louise Moody claimed to have read the letter. From time to time, Caroline Farrow has been advised by Adrian Yalland, so I considered he might have had a copy. All of these people have at times been accused of sock-puppetting, save that I discount Farrow’s solicitors as likely culprits having no reason to suspect them of socking nor breach of confidence.

The ‘Erasmus of Rotterdam’ account was created on 1 September 2022. It is an account mostly notable for a virulent hatred of transgender persons, variously describing them as fat, eunuch, paedophiles (note the British spelling of ‘paedophile’ as opposed to the American, ‘pedophile’). The account was created before my beef with Farrow and comments mostly on a debate my supporters and I have little involvement in. Beyond a suspicion they are British, who could it be.

But … we have such a short suspects list. Who would be really, really upset about my article about Caroline Farrow? Who would claim to have hacked my hard drive, when they only actually have access to one document – clumsily trying to be, “down with the kids”, if you can call the members of a stalking site, “kids”. I could just imagine Erasmus beginning a post with, “Hello fellow Kiwi Farmers”. Indeed, I had been talking about this with Hayden and Just all day, also separately with the hacktivist Echo. Echo is a younger woman in her twenties and by eerie coincidence had made the very same point about Farrow being a cringe user of Kiwi Farms.

So, I decided to make use of a tool we have had for some time. An AI neural text analyser. Continue reading

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Caroline Farrow, Paedophile Sadism, Terrorism, Child Protection and the Catholic Church

As a Conservative, Christian, law blogger I have much sympathy with the gender critical movement. I am the author of multiple articles on that side of the debate, for example, “Trump Boosted as American College of Paediatricians Describes Transgender Ideology as Child Abuse”, “High Court Judge Saves 7-Year Old Boy from Being Forced to be Transgender by Abusive Mother” and “Why Straight Men Should Support Lesbians and Feminists Over ‘Drop the T’”. So I was surprised to hear that Joshua Moon was claiming I was assisting a person suing Caroline Farrow as McKenzie Friend (and should, “die”) … because I am not. No offence to either side – but I have nothing to do with Farrow related litigation. The incident has however reluctantly forced me to scrutinise Farrow’s online activities – which I fear may reveal a serious safeguarding failure by the Roman Catholic Church. In my opinion, based on the materials below, Farrow and those closely associated with her have no place in a Christian ministry or anywhere near vulnerable people.

Caroline Farrow Respects Joshua Conner Moon

Caroline Farrow Respects Joshua Conner Moon. So, what is Moon known for? This article explores the man she rates so highly.

Caroline Farrow is a member of the website Kiwi Farms, a site she describes as, “doing the Lord’s work” and, “the basest site in the world”. This is an unusual and concerning way to describe a site that has promoted and facilitated paedophilia, stalking (including child stalking) and terrorism.

Farrow uses Kiwi Farms to, "decompress" and for, "laughter".

Farrow uses Kiwi Farms to, “decompress” and for, “laughter”.

According to her profile (archive), Caroline joined the site on 13 March 2020, she has over two and a half years of posting and 181 posts. The profile also describes her as a, “bulwark” of the Catholic Church. So, her Catholicism is very much associated with the site. So, what is it, exactly? What is this site that Caroline has chosen to endorse in such an enthusiastic (and therefore, it is to be inferred, informed) way?

KiwiFarmsTwitter

Kiwi Farms is run by paedophile sadist Joshua Conner Moon and exists, in its own words for “exploitation of the mentally handicapped for amusement purposes”. Based on her enthusiastic endorsements, Caroline apparently believes this is God’s will.

Kiwi Farms was set up, in the owner’s own words on the site’s now banned official Twitter account for the purposes set out left.

“Gossip and exploitation of the mentally handicapped for amusement purposes.”

A good example of the, “exploitation” is the site’s treatment of an autistic person called Christine Weston Chandler. Chandler used to live in Ruckersville, Virginia and has been the focus of Kiwi Farms’ interest to the extent they used Chandler’s postal address on their accounts at times – hence the Ruckersville location in the image to the left.

Chandler was stalked on an industrial scale. Female members of Kiwi Farms and its precursor CWCKi would pretend romantic interest and record phone calls or even meetings with them. This included phone sex. The recordings would be shared online for pleasure. This behaviour was well exposed by Margaret Pless in New York Magazine, “Kiwi Farms, the Web’s Biggest Community of Stalkers” (archive).

Vulnerable Chandler suffered as a result of the stalking that continued throughout the latter part of their minority and into adult life. Eventually Chandler was arrested after a female member of Kiwi Farms persuaded him to have sex (or claim to have had sex) with his very elderly mother (archive).

Given the stated purpose of Kiwi Farms, which is also extremely well covered in the media, I asked Caroline Farrow, via her solicitors AI Law – Question 1 – Is stalking the disabled and encouraging sexually activity for the purposes of mockery, “the Lord’s work”?

No reply (and no denial) was received. Continue reading

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A Statement on Kiwi Farms for GamerGate and KiA

I saw a statement on KiA2 earlier, from Null, which was gaining sympathy from a very small number of misguided people, about the deplatforming of Kiwi Farms. It deserves a response. Kiwi Farms is paedophile, criminal, stalking, terrorist trash. It has nothing to do with free speech.

In 2015, whilst passing through law school, doing my GDL and later my LL.M LPC, I received a police warning for alleged, “harassment” of the Block Bot team (made up of transgender activists) in support of Gamergate. It was frightening to me, and if it had not been revoked, could have been damaging or stopped me finishing my studies. But it was revoked. Using my burgeoning litigation skills I extracted a formal rescindment and apology from Cambridge police. The police apology letter is still up in my article and I reproduce it below. In our society, boycott campaigns are legal. It is legal to write to someone’s employer to draw their attention to egregious wrongdoing even outside their job, or organise a boycott of said company. Free speech is a wide and important protection. If anything, KiA in recent years is too timid about boycott and advertisement cancelling campaigns. Free speech does not however, extend to Kiwi Farms and its satellites, which are forums for exchanging child pornography, defamation and cyberstalking individuals, including children, to death.

PINWithdrawal1

The Police official rescinding the ‘harassment’ notice that had been given on the basis of allegations by Sarah Brown of the Block Bot team.

Ironically, Sarah Brown, like Keffals, is transgender. Like many, I have had to fight for my right to free speech against aggressive transgender activists. I understand how upsetting this ideology can be. Kiwi Farms and their supporters are desperate to convince the unwary that their being deplatformed is something to do with that, that it means no one can criticise transgender persons. That is a ridiculous lie. The new British Prime Minister Liz Truss, has expressed strong views and also on forcing social media companies not to deplatform Conservatives. Laws are being passed this year. Those are views she holds not just in public, but in private. As a Conservative member and blogger, I have met both candidates for leadership of the Conservative Party. Liz Truss spent a good chunk of a Christmas Party I went to last year telling us her very strongly held views on free speech and transgenderism, as well as the need to protect spaces for biological females, and the need to protect children.

That will not help Kiwi Farms. Kiwi Farms is a stalking and terrorism forum run by an avowed paedophile that does and permits things that are illegal even in 1st Amendment jurisdictions, let alone Europe or anywhere else. At no point in history has a proposition along the lines of, “Paedophiles unite for stalking! Yay!”, been legally or socially acceptable. Below, I post an exchange between Joshua Moon and Gandi.net, one of many hosting companies in many companies that deplatformed his site for hosting illegal child pornography, until he had to start his own hosting company, 1776 Hosting. Which has now had its IP addresses rescinded by the Australian government for illegal content.

KiwiFarmsIllegalMaterial

Joshua Moon claims that he did not know there was any child pornography and begs Gandi.net for just one more chance. And fails. Click for full size.

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I Voted for Rishi Sunak

Today, MHN editor Sam Smith, having met both candidates, voted for Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership election. It was a decision on a narrow balance, and should not be seen as disparagement of the other side, but here are the reasons why.

MHN Editor met Rishi Sunak at an event organised by Grant Shapps MP, in the beautiful grounds of Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire. Picture shows Rishi speaking to party members.

MHN Editor met Rishi Sunak at an event organised by Grant Shapps MP, in the beautiful grounds of Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire. Picture shows Rishi speaking to party members.

Firstly, kudos to Welwyn-Hatfield MP and Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps. Thanks to him, local Conservative party members have had the chance to meet both candidates for leader – Liz Truss at the Christmas Party and, at a lunchtime event on Tuesday, Rishi Sunak. Sunak spoke to members in a room in beautiful Brocket Hall and afterwards spoke to members in the grounds. Kudos also to both candidates for meeting members.

The beautiful grounds of Brocket Hall in summer. Auberge-du-Lac restaurant is on the other side of the lake. Picture by MHN.

The beautiful grounds of Brocket Hall in summer. Auberge-du-Lac restaurant is on the other side of the lake. Picture by MHN.

Nonetheless, how to vote was a difficult decision because neither candidate shares my view – at least openly – on the issue most important to me. That issue is the Ukraine war and the linked cost-of-living crisis. My view is that our policy is wrong. Whilst Putin may well be a deplorable dictator, the Ukraine war and the consequent global energy, economic and cost-of-living crisis is the West’s fault.

Firstly, let us be clear. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, who took power in 2019, is no heroic democrat. Forget Russian propaganda – readers need only look at what Amnesty International and the United Nations said about the Ukraine under his rule.

From the Amnesty International report on Ukraine 2021 (archive) –

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Could the UK High Court Case of Smith v Baker Determine the Delaware Case of Twitter v Musk et al and the Fate of Twitter’s Vijaya Gadde?

Vijaya Gadde at a Fortune Event

Vijaya Gadde at a Fortune Brainstorm Tech event. Would she be such a popular speaker if she was properly no-platformed due to her allowing vile stalking and racism against a child rape victim as well as anti-Semitism? Picture by Photograph by Kevin Moloney/Fortune Brainstorm TECH. (NC License here).

On 4 April 2020, I published the article, “Twitter’s Del Harvey / Alison Shea and Vijaya Gadde Openly Back Child Rape Stalker and Anti-Semite Racist”. Multiple parties, including Twitter, threatened lawsuits. Twitter did not make good on their threats. Esther Baker attempted to do so. The lawsuit over the article, brought by Esther Baker in the High Court in London, was commenced in 2020 (before the Twitter purchase was proposed) and determined in my favour last week. The lawsuit has the potential to harm Twitter’s reputation. So, did Twitter know about it, and did they disclose it to Elon Musk when they formed the purchase agreement between Twitter and Musk currently being litigated in Delaware in the United States? Did Twitter notify Musk of the legal risks arising from the matters in this article – “Labour’s Secret Deal with Twitter and Facebook to Surveil its own members”? The article ended with an express threat to draw it to the attention of the relevant regulatory law enforcement body.

It is worth recapping for new readers. In 2020 I was covering a significant amount of what, in my opinion, was wrongdoing by Twitter. The Labour Party head office team had been using an in-house application that used their database of member emails, cross-referenced with privileged access to the Twitter API, to scan their members’ tweets for statements warranting disciplinary action. It is unclear if members’ consent was ever clearly sought for this by either the Labour Party or Twitter, or whether they were told about it. It is likely that would have been a legal requirement for processing to be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The second issue was Twitter’s inconsistent handling of complaints of breaches of its rules. Esther Baker, had, at the time, been made subject to two restraining orders by UK courts. One was for libel and the other was for, in the words of His Honour Judge Gargan, “particularly malevolent” and “racist” stalking. One of her supporters, Alan Goodwin, had made plainly anti-Semitic posts including gratuitous, utterly baseless, speculation that a senior British government minister had conspired with Mossad to cover up child abuse. The actions of Esther Baker (@Esther9982) and her supporter Alan Goodwin (@Ciabaudo), followed by Twitter lawyer Vijaya Gadde’s failure to deal with them even after being thoroughly put on notice, were the subjects of my 4 April article.

Around 8pm on 1 May 2020, I received a letter from UK lawyers Bristows telling me that my article was libellous and there was, “no conceivable chance of defending” it as truth or honest opinion and saying it should be, “removed immediately”. I refused, and published the relevant section of the letter and mocked them in this article. I then requested further information under UK pre-action rules. Much as Elon Musk complains, Twitter were curiously reluctant to answer my questions and backed off as I detailed in my later article, “Twitter and Bristows in Humiliating Libel Climb Down”.

Extract from Bristows' Email of 6 May 2020

Bristows now claim they were never threatening to sue me on behalf of Twitter. That letter they sent me late on a Friday night was just abstract information shootin’ the breeze.

Bristows are a proper libel law firm and therefore know better than to test me in court. I stand by the article. Vijaya and her colleagues have in effect supported the actions of Esther Baker and Alan Goodwin by not banning / permanently suspending them from Twitter, when others have been banned without recourse for far lesser wrongdoing. In fact Twitter did not even remove the tweets that were the actus re of the stalking, just made them inaccessible in the UK.

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