Yearly Archives: 2018

PC Gamer’s Lawyers Clarify Andy Chalk Article on Jessica Price, Do Not Allege Harassment

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After the dismissal of writer Jessica Price from MMO developer ArenaNet on 05 July 2018, the media had a feeding frenzy. One particular article by Andy Chalk in PC Gamer quoted Price in its headline as calling her firing an ‘active solicitation of harassment’. After representations from Matthew Hopkins News, PC Gamer parent company Future PLC have conducted an investigation and now their lawyer has clarified that, “[…] For the avoidance of doubt, Future does not allege that [Arena Net CEO] Mr O’Brien is guilty of the criminal offence of harassment […]”.

JessicaPriceGloatsOverDeath

Jessica Price, fired ArenaNet Developer, has a history of inappropriate media posts such as this one about the death of popular Youtuber “Total Biscuit”.

In fact the sacking of Jessica Price was unsurprising. Price had not only been rude to a popular fan of the firm with no provocation, but had a history of inappropriate social media conduct including celebrating a cancer victim’s death. What is disturbing is the behaviour of a small number of gaming journalists who have enabled her to vilify the company by giving her complaints a platform, including Andy Chalk at PC Gamer and Ben Kuchera at Polygon. This can only reflect adversely on Vox CEO Jim Bankoff and Future PLC CEO Zillah Byng-Maddick.

On 23 April 1991 jewellery chain CEO Gerald Ratner gave a speech about his products in the Royal Albert Hall. It destroyed his business. Joking, Ratner described his jewellery as “total crap” before going on to say that an earring sold by his firm was, “cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn’t last as long”. The speech wiped £500 million off the value of the company leading to Ratner’s departure as CEO. In the modern world of social media and instant communications, companies are even more vulnerable to the instant destruction of their brand by inappropriate communications by employees.

On 3 July 2018 Jessica Price, an writer at Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet opened a thread about writing for characters in online games. A well known streamer @DeroirGaming, made an innocuous comment –

“Really interesting thread to read! However, allow me to disagree *slightly*. I dont believe the issue lies in the MMORPG genre itself (as your wording seemingly suggest). I believe the issue lies in the contraints of the Living Story’s narrative design;”

He went on to suggest branching dialogue as an option. In response, Price posted the following, embedding his tweet –

“Today in being a female game dev: “Allow me–a person who does not work with you–explain to you how you do your job.””

Price was accusing Deroir of sexism for a polite suggestion on a public platform. The essence of this argument was that he was demeaning her experience as she was an experienced writer and he a mere plebeian unqualified to comment. By this argument, no ordinary fan could ever comment on a game to a developer without demeaning them. Unsurprisingly this gratuitously rude absurdity, which demeans real victims of sexism and abuse, was not accepted by the game’s fans.

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Persecuted Bakers Vindicated in United States Supreme Court

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I am entitled to equal rights under the Equality Act 2010. Does that mean I should be able to go into a local halal or kosher butcher and demand a pork chop? Should I be able to demand the local LGBT t-shirt and craft shops print me a t-shirt with Leviticus 18:22 spelt out in rainbow colours? A similar question was asked of Christian bakers who disagree with gay marriage for religious reasons and were asked to spell out a message contrary to their fundamental beliefs. Now the cake shop owner who stood up for their religious beliefs has been vindicated in a historic 7-2 victory in the United States Supreme Court. The ruling bucks a sinister left-wing trend to compel conduct, with extreme social justice warriors recently arguing for compelled sex under discrimination laws.

WeddingCakeMessage

This Wedding Cake bears a message – which may amount to protected speech for the purpose of the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Masterpiece Cakeshop v Colorado Civil Rights Commission is a pivotal case in United States jurisprudence. In 2012 the eponymous cake shop was visited by two homosexuals who wished to get married and asked for a custom cake. The owner refused to create a custom cake as they felt it would violate their Christian faith, although they were welcome to buy any other standard goods in the shop.

The couple sued successfully in the Colorado Courts but yesterday the Supreme Court overruled. The arguments used and the reasons given were extremely technical and worth examining in detail.

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Alt Hero Arrives and it is Good

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Alt-Hero 1: Crackdown cover featuring Captain Europa and Dynamique

Alt-Hero 1: Crackdown cover featuring Captain Europa and Dynamique.

Vox Day’s eagerly awaited crowdfunded comic has finally made its debut with Issue 1 – Crackdown and it is a promising start.

Alt-Hero was offered to fans on Freestartr with a sales pitch that it would be a be a challenger and eventually a replacement for Marvel and DC on the basis that those organisations have become, “SJW-converged”. Many fans perceive the output of the major comics publishers as having declined in quality in recent years whilst clumsily pushing increasingly extreme far left views.

Vox Day set out to prove there was a market for an alternative and did so in spades. His initial campaign asked for $25,000. He made nearly ten times that – Alt-Hero raised $235,900. Like Kickstarter, Freestartr allows creators to specify a variety of awards levels including one which begins, “This is for those who could not care less about comics, but enjoy tormenting SJWs and would enjoy the privilege of triggering them […]” How could anyone resist? I went for one of the higher tiers because (a) LOL, (b) LOL and (c) Vox Day has a history of delivering quality product, albeit sometimes with delays.

Although I supported the campaign, I did so with reservations. I like much of Vox Day’s work and that of Castalia House – Mutiny in Space by Rod Walker for example. Mutiny has an eerily accurate portrayal of the far left – and its depiction of a ‘Social Party’ meeting reminded me all too uncomfortable of my youthful attendance at Labour Party meetings before I became a Conservative. However Vox can push too hard sometimes to his own detriment. Fortunately so far Alt-Hero has remained pitch-perfect satire.

WARNING – Spoilers after the Break

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100K in a Day – Dankula Appeal Fully Funded!

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Markus Meechan

Markus Meechan, AKA Count Dankula. Image CC-BY-SA 30 extracted from video by Bunty King.

Yesterday morning, I reported on and supported the appeal fundraiser set up by Markus Meechan, AKA Count Dankula. He was asking for £100,000. Seeing the importance of the issues at hand, supporters fully funded that goal in a day. At the time of writing he is currently over £140,000. This is gonna be a gold-plated, diamond-encrusted appeal.

Dankula has been convicted and fined for the absurd crime of making a comedy video in which he sets out to annoy his girlfriend by training her dog to make Nazi salutes in relation to Nazi phrases. The scene is reminiscent of a Monty Python sketch and to be brutally honest I never found Monty Python that funny. Even the dead parrot sketch.

However, I would never expect the police to rock up to someone’s home for a poor taste joke. There have been hundreds of comedians making Nazi jokes over the years. Remember, “‘Allo ‘Allo!”? The involvement of the criminal law in a bad taste joke is deeply sinister, and has been condemned by many including Ricky Gervais, the Independent and the Spectator. I set out some of the legal issues in my previous article.

All that said – a hearing in Sheriff’s court in Scotland is roughly the same as a hearing before a district judge in a magistrate’s court in England. An appeal would usually cost a few thousand pounds. With this budget he had better have the best Queen’s Counsel in Scotland and buy them a golden wig.

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Back Dankula’s Appeal (and a British Bill of Rights)

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Markus Meechan

Markus Meechan, AKA Count Dankula. Image CC-BY-SA 3.0 extracted from video by Bunty King.

On 23rd April 2018 Markus Meechan, better known as Count Dankula, was sentenced to a fine of £800 for the publication of a YouTube video. In the video he had trained his girlfriend’s dog to raise its paw in what was meant to be a Nazi salute.

The case raises serious issues of free speech. I have to say when I go looking for comedy, I do not go looking for people training dogs to salute Hitler. I had never heard of Dankula until this controversy. Having said that, I do sometimes go looking for Monty Python. Remember the corpse eating sketch? The Life of Brian? Or what about this sketch by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring?

Should we really be criminalising bad taste jokes? Even the left-leaning Independent and other major publications like the Spectator say no.

The question that prompted this article though, from several people, is – can Dankula appeal? He has a GoFundme seeking appeal funds here and has raised £70,000 at the time of writing. I suspect that he will exceed his target by the end of the day. Readers may wish to contribute. Will he succeed? Is it worth it?

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UK Labour Selects Female Ethnic Candidate With 14 Restraining Orders for Parliament

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Mandy Richards at a door with a file of documents

Ominous: Mandy Richards, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Worcester, approaches a door with a file of documents. House number erased to protect the resident.

The UK Labour Party has selected a female ethnic minority candidate, Mandy Richards, to stand for Parliament in Worcester. According to the Mail (archive), the Sun (archive) and the Times (archive), Ms Richards is presently the subject of no less than 14 separate Civil Restraining Orders (CRO). A CRO is used by a judge when a party to a lawsuit abuses the courts by bringing totally meritless claims or applications. To get a CRO, a claimant must make take two separate applications that a judge formally records as totally without merit.

14. Fourteen. Four-teen. That is a special and magical number. It is also the number of times a judge has restrained Mandy Richards, Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Worcester from using the courts without permission to protect the public and individuals from her.

The courts do not make such orders lightly – it takes two completely meritless – utterly worthless – applications in the same proceedings (lawsuit) to get one. So, just who has Mandy Richards been suing? Apparently –

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Nasty Labour MP Ellie Reeves Singles Out Female Civil Servant for Public Criticism

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Continuing her recent charm offensive, Ellie Reeves MP has taken the unpleasant step of criticising the female Chief Inspector of Prisons, Glenys Stacey at a parliamentary select committee and then singling her out by sharing the video on her timeline on Twitter, without including the woman’s reply. Reeves has frequently complained of the treatment of women on social media.

Ellie Reeves MP

Ellie Reeves MP supports women in public life by publicly criticising a very successful female civil servant but not including their reply. Click for full size.

Reeves’ Tweet is here and its archive is here. She is apparently concerned that Dame Stacey said she might have fewer time commitments than a younger woman. Reeves thought this might undermine women in the workplace. Of concern to me however is that the video clip she shared does not include Dame Stacey’s reply. Under the circumstances I thought it was only fair for me to share the full section and in particular the response.

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After Speaker’s Corner, Tommy Robinson Should Man Up and Sue

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TommyRobinson

Tommy Robinson – I do not agree with him, but he should not be silenced in this way.

I do not agree with the EDL. I am a Conservative and I do not agree with everything Tommy Robinson says. However, the destructive attempts to undermine his rights to free speech by preventing him speaking at Speaker’s Corner threaten our democracy. Even Marx and Lenin were allowed to speak at Speaker’s Corner. Yet, Robinson was stopped by police and non-UK activists Lauren Southern, Brittany Pettibone and Martin Sellner were denied entry to the United Kingdom.

The law is set up so police can get away with low grade intervention – that is, talking to people and asking them to do things not technically within their powers. However, now the authorities are clearly overreaching and Robinson, Southern et al should sue.

UK police often seek to use persuasion to resolve problems. Some are reasonable but others go too far – often under pressure themselves from politicians or others. Police will invent imaginary powers or exercise real ones with willful perversity. Such actions tend to evaporate in the face of a complaint and letter of claim, particularly if you are reasonable and keep your temper. I usually do not name police officers because when they overreach it is often in the face of a powerful complainant. For example last month barrister and MP Ellie Reeves complained about a media inquiry I sent her. After discussion, police took no further action and silence descended from Reeves.

There are those who will be instinctively hostile to Tommy Robinson. They need to realise how dangerously far the envelope of free speech in Britain has been restricted. Robinson’s views on transgender persons are more liberal than the hundreds of Labour Party feminists who are threatening to resign if the Labour NEC allows male-bodied-persons on all-women shortlists. He is more liberal on Islam than the Women’s March 2018 who walked through London to protest the encroachment on their rights, “Feminists March against Sharia Law, Gender, and Patriarchy”. He is more moderate on Islam than the LGBT group, “Gays Against Sharia”. Continue reading →

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Lauren Southern, Brittany Pettibone and Martin Sellner Denied Entry to UK – Can they Bring a Judicial Review? (Yes)

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LaurenSouthern

Conservative Commentator Lauren Southern – Image via Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY Unported License.

In a further recent example of the increasingly sinister interference with free speech demonstrated by the United Kingdom authorities, Conservative activists Lauren Southern, Brittany Pettibone and Martin Sellner have been denied entry to the United Kingdom. Whilst I disagree with some of their policies, some points they raise are valid and critically they are peaceful political critics who do not advocate violence. Persons denied entry to the UK are frequently told that they have no right of appeal. However, it is possible to bring a judicial review or claim under the European Convention on Human Rights, which may be appropriate in this case.

In the UK, sinister attempts to use criminal law against political opponents are on the rise. In 2015 I received a written apology from the police. They had given me a police information notice for harassment, but it was revoked when I served a letter of claim and a police complaint. The apology and formal rescinding of the PIN is at the bottom of my article here.

Last month I wrote an article about Labour’s Ellie Reeves MP entitled, “Ellie Reeves MP and the Corpses of Children”. Ellie Reeves contacted police and accused me of harassment. I received a call from a Police Constable but as the article relates, no action was taken and after a brief discussion with the Detective Inspector, it was confirmed in writing that no action would be taken and no harassment warning was given.

Last week Brittany Pettibone, Lauren Southern and Martin Sellner were banned from the United Kingdom using poorly written official notices. Of particular concern, Southern was detained under under section 7 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2000. Ms Southern intended only to interview a controversial political figure, Tommy Robinson.

As a Conservative I do not necessarily agree with their views but it has to be said of each of them that they have specifically repudiated violence and promote their concerns via lawful democratic means. The intended interviewee, Tommy Robinson was a founder member of the English Defence League (EDL) but he left it because of extremism.

The criticisms they raise of militant Islam are similar to those raised by UK newspapers, the National Secular Society and indeed numerous feminist women’s rights groups who fear that women will be treated poorly under Sharia law as per this YouTube video, “Feminists March against Sharia Law, Gender, and Patriarchy”, from the Women’s March 2018.

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Ellie Reeves MP and the Corpses of Children

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Last year Ellie Reeves MP was one of a number of current and former politicians of all parties asked to help with a bipartisan campaign against a hate group targeting children. Ellie Reeves, who is associated with right-wing faction Labour First, alone ignored the requests. Subsequently two children were brutally murdered. I sent Reeves a draft article about it and she complained to police claiming my media inquiries were harassment. Initially I was spoken to by a PC but when I politely explained she had never replied to object to contact, other than automated emails, a DI wrote back confirming no formal action would be taken (including no harassment warning). The police do not consider this article a criminal matter. I will not name the officer or force and note that I am active around the country in different places. Statements to police are privileged but if she repeats any such allegations in public, I am likely to bring defamation proceedings.

EllieReeves

Ellie Reeves MP. Official Parliamentary photo released under CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.

I remember Ellie Reeves from 20 years ago, when we were both Labour Students. So, last year when I discovered she and other mutual acquaintances had been targeted by trolls I got in touch and offered my assistance. Sadly, my attempt at bipartisan cross-party kindness was not returned.

Ellie Reeves was asked to assist in a cross-party campaign against a hate group that targets children. Grant Shapps MP (Conservative) agreed to assist, John Hemming (Liberal former MP) agreed to assist and even Brendan Cox (Labour) had agreed. Ellie had not replied – except automated emails. Grant even wrote to me saying he had tried to find her in the Commons but not been able to get hold of her.

I emailed Ellie Reeves on 9 November 2017. I sent her a couple of reminders warning her children were being targeted. Margaret Pless, a left wing American writer wrote to her on 11 November 2017 and on 7 December 2017, two children were murdered by a member of the hate group, William Atchison, who walked into a school and started shooting. Ellie had been under no obligation to assist, but she was the only person who totally blanked us. As I said I remember her from University but there was no ill will between us as far as I know (except I had joined the Conservatives).

The campaign Reeves had opted out of was to eliminate a trolling forum called Kiwi Farms. Kiwi Farms, which is owned and operated by former Florida resident Joshua Conner Moon states that its goal is “gossip” and “exploitation” of the mentally handicapped.

The forum essentially targets vulnerable people, celebrities and its opponents for cyber-stalking. This includes collecting images of victims’ children. On a satellite board also owned by Moon, members also distributed paedophile-murder-rape stories about pre-teens of the same age. Moon has a detailed knowledge of the law relating to sex crimes and realized that stories about child rape, unlike photographs, are not illegal to possess. Therefore Moon allowed a board called, ‘/phile/’ on his website 16chan for the distribution of child rape stories.

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