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Battles past
Saturday quiz
Just managed to beat political journalist John Rentoul this week— a poor 4/10, as against Rentoul’s even less impressive “3.5/10”.
I disallowed myself the extra point for question no.10, which I really knew but could not recall. I knew and recalled the answers to questions 3, 5, 8, and 9.
From the newspapers
My blog post from nearly 5 years ago about Macron has held up quite well: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/09/on-recent-events-in-france/
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“русский народ – культурный народ”…
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As previously blogged, the armed forces of the Kiev regime are running out of cannon-fodder. There are few if any volunteers from Ukraine itself, and the virtue-signalling nitwits and would-be “soldiers of fortune” from the UK, USA etc have either been killed or returned home, and the supply has now dried-up. Thus the regime uses press-gangs to force service upon ever-less-useful categories of recruit: the disabled, the middle-aged, those with various illnesses etc.
“Ukraine” (the Kiev regime) has only one chance— to drag NATO into the war. All their efforts are directed to that end.
More from the newspapers
I must have missed that, from last month:
“Israel-based solicitor Mark Lewis has been heavily criticised by Mr Justice Nicklin in a recent High Court judgement. Lewis is known for acting for Rachel Riley against Mike Sivier and Laura Murray, and for John Ware against Jewish Voice for Labour and Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi. Lewis also acted for the late Dr Pete Newbon – a director of the notorious so-called ‘Labour Against Antisemitism’ (LAAS) group who was repeatedly disciplined by his employers for his behaviour on social media and was being sued by another of his victims – in his libel claim against Michael Rosen after Rosen had complained about Newbon’s tweeted misuse of Rosen’s famous ‘Bear Hunt’ book to attack former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
In the recent case, Lewis came unstuck when he was acting for Richard Davidoff of ABC Estates, a lettings and leasehold management firm. Lewis was seeking a court order requiring Google to disclose the identities of people with gmail addresses who had left negative reviews about ABC Estates on Trustpilot. The evidence in support of the court order was two witness statement by Lewis. The judge described Lewis’ evidence in general as “nothing more than assertion” and “perfunctory, even desultory” and “simply not good enough” to justify making the court order.
Things then got much worse for Lewis. He had stated that the Trustpilot reviews were “false, fabricated statements which Unknown person(s) know are untrue”. The judge conducted some online research himself and found that one of the reviews was true and based on the findings of another court. The judge said it was:
a matter of very real concern that the Claimants put evidence before the Court, on an ex parte application, that was not true.
The judge did not require Lewis to provide an explanation for the evidence that was “seriously in error” and accepted that Lewis would not have knowingly misled the court. The judge’s explained Lewis’ evidence as being:
because he had simply failed to carry out sufficient (or any) research or to take adequate instructions from his clients.
The judge also stated that there had been a “significant failure” by Lewis to comply with the general obligation of full and frank disclosure. The judge refused all the applications and the escapade is likely to have costs Lewis’ clients tens of thousands of pounds. Perhaps Lewis’ claim against Michael Rosen would have ended in the same way?
Mr Justice Nicklin’s full judgment is available here, with comments about Lewis’s contribution from paragraph 84 onwards.
Mark Lewis is a former director of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) until his emigration to Israel and was involved in the relaunch of right-wing pro-Israel group Herut UK. UKLFI locked access to a YouTube video in which a panel discussed Lewis’s “very handy way of bankrupting organisations” the group considered to have done ‘wrong’. However, a transcript of the discussion is still available.
In 2018, Lewis was fined by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority for abusive speech on social media toward a young Labour-supporting critic and others.“
[Skwawkbox]
Some of my blog posts from past years about the egregious Lewis:
[other posts are linked via the one above]
Lewis was (is still?) a “Patron” of the malicious Jew-Zionist cabal known as the “Campaign Against Anti-Semitism” or “CAA”.
Incidentally, the title “Patron” does not indicate financial support. When Lewis was censured and fined by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority a few years ago, his fine was reduced by two-thirds after his Counsel told the tribunal that Lewis’s sole assets were his clothes, a private pension worth £70 a week, and a used mobility scooter! So much for the so-called (sometimes, but only by the naive and ignorant) “top lawyer”! He then scuttled off to Israel.
Here is more on that story:
“Richard Davidoff, of ABC Estates, and his legal team bungled a high court attempt to force Google to reveal the identities of online reviewers whose comments they claimed were false and defamatory.
The case unravelled after libel lawyer Mark Lewis, of Patron Law, accused one reviewer of writing a “false, fabricated statement” that referenced the decision by ARMA and IRPM to expel ABC Estates and Richard Davidoff.
Mr Justice Nicklin became peppery in his ruling (below, pp84-89) as his own “basic online research” revealed that this allegation was in fact true…”
“It is a matter of very real concern that the Claimants put evidence before the Court, on an ex parte application, that was not true.
“Mr Lewis has not provided an explanation to the Court for this error (I have not required him to provide one). Nevertheless, I accept that Mr Lewis would not have knowingly misled the Court.
“It is likely that this error occurred because he had simply failed to carry out sufficient (or any) research or to take adequate instructions from his clients. Nevertheless, as a result, he included a statement in his witness statement that was seriously in error. That error was not detected (or corrected) by the Claimants.“
[Mr. Justice Nicklin, in the High Court]
The High Court judge accepted that Lewis “would not have knowingly misled the Court” (but why accept that? Lewis is hardly a credible witness). Still, as the extract shows, Lewis (once again) “bungled” his work…
“The judge [also] said “the underlying claims in defamation are hopelessly weak”.
[Mr. Justice Nicklin, reported by LKP]
Neither Lewis nor the Counsel in the case (also used by Lewis in other cases in the past several years) seem to have taken that last into account.
Cave emptor…
More from the newspapers
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/16/rory-stewart-tory-mp-decade-incompetent
I agree with some of what Stewart says; in much of it I was there 30+ years ahead of him, though that is not entirely his fault, he being 16-17 years my junior in years.
My assessment of Stewart (updated since then), from 2019: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/05/03/will-rory-stewart-mp-be-prime-minister/.
As I blogged recently, I shall probably buy his latest book used, via Amazon, once its £22 cover price reduces (you can already get a new copy for £16.69, and a used but almost new copy for £16.02). Once it gets down to a fiver…
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Incredible.
Historical note
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trenton_Psychiatric_Hospital
“In 1907, Dr. Henry Cotton became the medical director. Believing that infections were the key to mental illness, he had his staff remove teeth and various other body parts that might become infected from the hospital patients. Cotton’s legacy of hundreds of fatalities and thousands of maimed and mutilated patients did not end with his leaving Trenton in 1930 or his death in 1933; in fact, removal of patients’ teeth at the Trenton asylum was still the norm until 1960.[3]“
[Wikipedia]
Can you imagine the furore had a German psychiatrist done that during the currency of the Third Reich? It would be notorious and known across the world.
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Ian Robert Millard 