What struck me as much as anything is that, in 1966, Trelford bought a 4-bedroomed house at Kew (presumably detached) for £6,000. That is somewhere between £120,000-£130,000 in the money of 2026. How much is a 4-bed house in Kew today? Between £1.3M and £2.5M [https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87831852#/?channel=RES_BUY]. The real-terms inflation in residential property values continues to amaze (and appal).
Tweets seen
“ The end of the bees is the end of the world.” ~ Chinese proverb
Throw a millions of third world immigrants and ever increasing crime into this mix and you have the future for Britain that all of the mainstream political parties will bring forth. https://t.co/BivPGrHPnc
Pretty much where I stand. I’m centre left and liberal on most issues with the exception of ethnic demographic security. Logically it shouldn’t be such a hard sell to the left/liberals.
Russian forces continued delivering group strikes with precision weapons on Ukrainian ports overnight to July 24, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
Last night's Ukrainian attack on Russian regions one of year’s largest, according to TASS estimates based on data released by the Russian Defense Ministry:https://t.co/ggaHky4lFxpic.twitter.com/ENqaien30m
Russian Ministry of Defense: Air defense systems shot down 571 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The drones were destroyed over the Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir, Kaluga, Kursk, Leningrad, Novgorod, Oryol, Pskov, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tver, Tula regions, as well as the Moscow region,… pic.twitter.com/08b4hyTaTn
Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited the Irkutsk Aircraft Plant of Yakovlev PJSC, where he inspected the innovative MS-21-310 medium-haul passenger aircraft. Celebrated for its 100% Russian-made components and systems, the aircraft marks a significant milestone in the… pic.twitter.com/xCkt46ONBj
A 30-year-old Russian woman has been detained in Moscow after being caught in the act trying to plant a bomb under the car of a security officer, the Russian FBS Public Relations Center reported.
Those fake states in the Gulf are just an historical anomaly. It would be better if the region were ruled by a supervening imperium (so long as it is not Israeli).
US analysts: Iran successfully targets secret CIA bases – with Russian assistance.
A CIA base in eastern Iraq and the US embassy in Riyadh were targeted.
Some in the US speak of assistance from "Russian engineers." Others believe Iran receives satellite intelligence support… pic.twitter.com/6T5xSSq6w7
Russian forces carried out a group strike on a facility outside Kiev where drones used in attacks on civilian targets in Russia were demonstrated, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
🚨NEWS: The village of Piddington with a population of just 350 people have been told 1,250 illegal male immigrants will be housed in a military base nearby
It should be a general legal rule that for people who commit wilfil abuse of animals, the punishment is to have whatever they did to the animal, done to them. https://t.co/uUpIAjVKKp
He says one thing one day, the opposite the next day. Farcical. Demeaning.
The Trump administration is increasingly concerned that the conflict in Iran is causing the U.S. to consume its advanced air defense interceptor missiles and precision-guided munitions at a rate faster than they can be replenished.
Once again, the Jewish Chronicle propaganda newspaper has to pay out for having defamed someone.
Occasionally, I see tweets by all sorts of mentally-disordered persons about me, including how I allegedly “defame” this or that Jew, System MP, msm drone, and/or other incompetent. Sometimes such tweets urge others to sue me. In a few instances, even the said Jews, mental cases and/or incompetents threaten to sue me. Those tweets make me smile, and sometimes laugh.
When I was a practising barrister (until 2008), I was not very active in the fields of libel and slander, but was asked to advise on such issues from time to time. The only matter that got as far as trial (in the High Court) was some years before I was Called to the Bar.
Not permitted, as a mere (belated) student, to speak, I advised during the two-week trial via notes passed to Flegon by his “assistant”, a dark and nervous Jewish girl. I myself had to be absent much of the time, sometimes because I had to attend tutorials at the Inns of Court School of Law at Gray’s Inn, not too far from the Royal Courts of Justice.
On one occasion, I sent a note to Flegon, who was addressing (and wasting the time of) the judge. I then left the court. Apparently, the judge then asked to see my note! Fortunately, the judge liked what he had read and told Flegon that he would be well-advised “to listen to what your adviser has written to you“!
Flegon was awarded (by a civil jury) £10,000 damages, plus costs. My first “case”, and my first “judicial commendation”!
Reverting to me as potential fantasy defamation defendant, I fear that, in the American phrase, potential claimants have a “sad row to hoe” and a steep hill to climb.
For one thing, while it is possible to launch a defamation action on a no-win-no-fee basis, that really only works where the case is both more than arguable, and also where the defendant has assets sufficient to satisfy at least the claimant’s costs, as well as any damages.
In my case, I admit that my assets are few. That impecuniosity is however a suit of armour for me. I am, in practical terms, “unsueable”.
In theory, a defamation action could be launched against me, with the aim of getting an injunction to restrain me from defaming XYZ person or persons. However, I would fight very very hard. I know the law pretty well (even now, though I admit that I am rather rusty), and would have no compunction about using every avenue open to me, including appeals.
Beyond that, most of that which idiots describe as my “libel” of others is not “libel” at all (eg because in law “mere insult”), or even where prima facie “libellous” is true and justifiable, or is published as justifiable opinion, or is published otherwise lawfully and justifiably.
I wish that tweeters would learn before they tweet, not only about law but in general.
Still, if anyone wants to lose a couple of hundred thousand trying to pursue me, that is their business…they would lose out even if (which I doubt) they were to meet with success in court.
So far, and after many years, no-one has even tried, and only one or two have even threatened (unconvincingly, at that).
More tweets seen
@nickaacampbell Did the Big Questions carpet finally wear out? Or is it something more fundamental? https://t.co/SYziBT3zJZ
God…I saw that rubbish a couple of times. Even worse, if possible, than Question Time.
“Evidence for how cannabis, especially in higher concentrations, impacts mental health is growing and stronger, especially on how it relates to psychosis and schizophrenia-like symptoms.”https://t.co/nkUXeClLb5
— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) July 23, 2021
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he found the Israelite tribes engaging in all forms of decadence. Those involved had to be exterminated for the good of the people as a whole.
Quite so @twinni_two, though my solution is the transfer of as much freight as possible on to a rebuilt railway system, which (with friction one thirtieth of that on roads) would hugely reduce energy waste and pollution. https://t.co/t8yTnw8U2j
Yes, @chimewhistle. My favourite is the enthusiasm for shutting down coal-fired power stations in Britain,whose emissions are then dwarfed by dozens of huge new coal-fired power stations in China:As sustainable power lacks a key quality called inertia, this means power-cuts here. https://t.co/22JI3PTcm0
Why are people still wearing masks at all? Why did they ever do so? Before governments and health quangoes embraced the loose cloth mask as a symbol of their policy, there was no good medical or scientific case for them. https://t.co/UvpLUGNaJD
Classic 'post hoc ergo propter hoc' error, @msjayneet . Please ask my Japan corresponnet @kynohy, to set you right on this. Far more likely variable is the much better standard of general health among old people in Japan. https://t.co/JFDSl3qzzG
2/2 @msjayneet Yet the Danmask study showed that the effect of loose cloth masks was statistically insignificant in preventing infection. Hardly surprising. Public would not endure, and could not afford, effective fitted masks, £5 a go, non-reusable and useless once touched. https://t.co/JFDSl3qzzG
More typical racism from the Mail and the #English legal system. It's obvious that an enriching person like this was only trying to help. #Diversity is always a strength.https://t.co/ieMMNc2yWX
Ha ha! I have to admit that, the more the pseudo-health police state tries to control me, and the more idiots I see wearing facemasks even when cycling or walking in the open air, the more I feel that way myself!
Late tweets
When they say "detained", they actually mean "ferried here and then took to temporary accommodation, prior to giving them newly refurbished flats & a heap of benefits". Not paying tax is now a patriotic duty & act of resistance.https://t.co/wNRsSnUC16
Laurence Fox is, in his own person and in his political flounderings, a socio-political morality tale. Virtually lynched for making a few unexceptional and unexceptionable points around free speech, he soon became a minor aspect of “controlled opposition” to the System.
Fox is unwilling to stand up for real free speech, and not once has the bastard ever said a word supporting or defending the real champions of freedom of expression in this country, those who have suffered greatly for standing up for Europe’s future: Jez Turner, Alison Chabloz, and (if I myself say so) me (among others).
No word of criticism of the Jew-Zionist element has crossed the lips of Fox, yet that alien element is not only behind much of the assault on free speech, but also behind much of the present migration-invasion.
Fox has even set up his own joke political party, which decided not to stand a candidate at Batley and Spen recently, because it might harm the Conservative Party vote!
Now this individual begs to be let back in to the System msm, and so pledges fealty to the contemporary decadence…
This man is one of the richest MP’s, earns over £500,000 each year with a property portfolio worth over £100M, main home £25M. He and his family won’t be required to take the jabs, no coercion, no pressure, no loss of freedom. He, like his mates don’t give a shit about any of us pic.twitter.com/5FN3FFSWnP
People generally should look at the sheer number of Westminster MPs who are not fully British. A very large number. Others have Jewish or other non-English/Scottish/Irish/Welsh wives.
So far, only a minority of clear-thinking people and sceptics has stood up to the brainwashing around the present attempt to place a significant amount of the world population (focussing here on the UK) under a form of house arrest. Here below are a few tweets from leading dissident, Peter Hitchens:
How to think of the furious, raging attackers on Twitter, unresponsive and intolerant, who try to scare dissenters into conformity: 'People sitting in basements quietly converting fizzy drinks into human lard'. https://t.co/ZqdLKJAQPW
I have been pointing out for ages ( and so has Dr John Lee) that the figures are remarkably vague and do not distinguish between deaths from and deaths with. https://t.co/QJYoo4aVYY
Thanks @grumpyoxford. I've been promoting his work for a month now, and you are right. He devastates the ridiculously high mortality figures on which so much of the panicdemnic was based. https://t.co/s6PNhJZrRb
Most BBC journalists these days are not intellectually equipped to question government with any rigour. They can question failings in delivery (the Soviet media used to do with under Communism) but they cannot question actual policy. It does not occur to them. @mark85767033 https://t.co/XqHKvi5Zw3
In relation to that last of Hitchens’ tweets, how true that is! The BBC is now purely a System/Government/Common Purpose mouthpiece, as demonstrated by some pathetic nonsense on BBC News this morning. A virtual concert in “celebration” of the (not-very-effective) public services, I believe. Some bearded fellow selling rainbow T-shirts (apparently for the NHS) too.
A tweet, and answering tweet, below, too, which both reference Joan Bakewell:
It was dispiriting to see someone who ( as a sixties survivor) I remember as a sharp, irreverent mind becoming a conformist burbler of the official line. I suspect the 1960s cultural revolutionaries now believe they have got what they wanted, and have become the establishment. https://t.co/KNwvZIDOCk
Well, I am only 5 years younger than Peter Hitchens, so I also remember Joan Bakewell, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Bakewell , though from the 1970s, not 1960s. As I saw her, a pursed-lipped busybody type, the sort of woman back then who did well at a State grammar school, attended university (in her case, Cambridge), then joined some “Establishment” body such as MI5 or (in her case) the BBC.
Others who did the same (see above) included Jilly Cooper, Diana Rigg, Petula Clark, the theatre director Peter Hall, Kingsley Amis, and even that excellent adventure writer, Hammond Innes (now rather forgotten, but one of the few non-classic fiction writers that I like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_Innes), as well as the once-famous but now equally-forgotten early “celebrity chef”, Robert Carrier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Carrier_(chef). Others too. Sadly, I have been unable to locate Joan Bakewell’s equivalent magazine ad. Or that of Hammond Innes, though I did find this, one of his best books, in my opinion:
Also found a few minutes of silent film showing the writer at his East Anglian home:
A satirist in the early 1970s suggested that Sanderson might try out a Russian literary giant of the time: “Very Solzhenitsyn, very Sanderson” (unsurprisingly, that never happened). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn
I have to say that Joan Bakewell is so typical of many of the people I have fought all my life, the bien-pensant Hampstead-dwellers (I believe that Joan Bakewell herself lives in nearby Primrose Hill, though I may be mistaken) who think, for example, that the multicultural society is wonderful (because they themselves live in a bubble cossetted by wealth and general privilege), and so on. Plenty like that at the Bar, too.
“I don’t really care about mass immigration, neither do I care about Coronavirus lockdown, because I and all my friends live in big houses with nice gardens in Hampstead and Highgate and Primrose Hill and Blackheath.” Bluntly put, but in essence that is more or less the attitude.
This [below] is what we are not hearing from the hysterical msm, let alone the Government of Fools:
But several countries have not had what you call 'lockdown'. What did the famous 'curve' do there? . https://t.co/nGRfzDFtCl
The “flattening of the curve” of the “pandemic” has occurred in both countries with “lockdown” and those without…
Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
1/2 Dr John Lee 'The real point is that there isn’t any direct evidence that what we are doing is actually affecting the peak. It is possible to make arguments that sound reasonable that a lockdown should affect the peak…. https://t.co/GWWJPs8ifv
2/2 Dr John Lee 'And yet other places which are doing different things seem to have similarly shaped graphs. It is only an assumption that the lockdown is having a big effect on the virus spread, but this is not a known scientific fact.'https://t.co/GWWJPspT73
In fact, in terms of propaganda method, the UK state has managed to manage the public easily, in a judo-like way, not using blunt force as the primary way of manipulating behaviour, but combining that with the channelling of the fear of the public (fear of the virus) and the inherent British social conformity.
Where the Government itself has fallen down is in the fact that it has painted itself into a corner, and now cannot back down and then re-open or free the economy and society.
There is this idea abroad that there has to be an “exit strategy”. Why not just say “everything will be open as of X-day, the last day of X-month”?
Meanwhile, the economic tidal wave is approaching. Debenhams (23,000 jobs) has gone (officially only 7 stores and 400 jobs so far, but I doubt that the rest will last long) and I see that the ground force for aviation, comprising several large enterprises such as Swissport, are saying that they will lay off their thousands of employees this weekend unless government guarantees are given.
It is clear that once the furlough monies made available by the Government end (now extended until end of June), there will be a crashing wave of redundancies. More than that, there will, even as things stand, be millions of people on State benefits, maybe for the first time unable to pay their rents, mortgage payments, and general living expenses.
So far the population has been supine, scarcely willing to think for itself, let alone protest as its most basic everyday civil rights have been taken away. That may change when people start to suffer directly. We shall see.
Actually, the very lack of protest or individual (or group) rebellion is not just stunning in itself. It shows how it is that British people have been almost quiescent as their country has been swamped by migration-invasion for decades.
This is a British people that gets more excited or angry about the result of a TV talent show, or the plot of a “soap”, or about who screws whom in some “Year of the Sex Olympics” TV “reality” show, than when their own rights, jobs, and future are trashed.
Twitter, thank God, is not the whole society, but look at Twitter and you see the willing slaves begging to be enslaved more; none more so than the “liberal” or “socialist” tweeters, the sort of people who, in the 1960s, 1970s, even 1980s, would have been debating, protesting, rebelling against the infringement of rights, liberties and life-chances. Now? Begging for longer and harsher “lockdown”, demanding more active policing, eager to clap en masse and on command, eager to “celebrate” state services which in fact are only just, or not, functioning.
I notice that a few of the more notorious “usual suspects”, such as Jew-Zionist minor academic Ben Gidley (under one of his surviving aliases, “@BobFromBrockley”) have started to call any people who do not accept the official line(s) put out by the System re. Coronavirus, “denialists”. cf. “holocaust” “denial” (meaning historical revision of WW2 narratives; and the view that all aspects of history can be examined and commented upon freely), climate change “denial” etc.
David Icke tweets
David Icke used to follow my Twitter account before I was expelled from Twitter via Jewish lobby machinations. He only follows a couple of hundred people, so he must have found my tweets interesting. Perhaps he reads my blog.Here are a few of his recent tweets:
[Update, 14 December 2020: David Icke has now been expelled from Twitter —in the Twitter weasel word, “suspended”— as I was (over two years ago)]
Boris-idiot
Many tweets seen asking “where is Boris?” and many answering their own question by saying that he is in hiding until the death-toll reduces. Quite likely, but what did the voters expect when “they voted for” a part-Jew public entertainer as “their” Prime Minister? (I do not forget, though, that only about 4 out of 10 voters did vote for Conservative Party candidates in 2019).
Evening foray
Went out to Waitrose. The usual black-garbed Handmaid’s Tale marshals there, shuffling around outside. No other shoppers waiting, so no need to join a line. I was graciously waved through. Before that, while parked, I saw the local police drive round the car park once. Why? God knows. In case some people were actually talking to each other and needed to be shouted at? Whatever. The police just drove round and out again.
It strikes me that the police have an easy job right now, certainly in rural and quiet coastal areas. Crime down by a third, officially (I suspect far more, half or three-quarters, if we are talking about real crime, not people saying too many truths on the Internet). Many police seem to spend their time at present driving around, checking out (snooping) as to why someone is out of their house arrest etc; or parked, observing.
In the supermarket, bought a scratchcard. A winner again (though only £10). Few shoppers. Bought a few necessary items (kefir, bread, butter, milk, water, cat food), and a load of unnecessary ones (ice-creams on sticks, raw prawns at one-third of usual price, curry paste, lime pickle, poppadoms etc). Did not notice what items were unobtainable (except bleach, again all gone). Plenty of bread, eggs, milk etc including those panic-buy staples of loo paper and kitchen roll (I myself had no need of any); lemons, limes, grapes and other fruit all available in quantity. Reasonably good selection of tomato. Looks as if this area, at least, has shopped itself to a standstill except for the apparently insatiable demand for pasta, rice and bleach.
Saw the short film below: Hitler visiting the Sudetenland, the bit of the present-day Czech Republic which Germany annexed in late 1938. Most of the population was in fact German anyway.
I think that it can be seen from the film that the popular enthusiasm for Hitler was entirely genuine and unfeigned.
The film below is film taken in Paris during the Occupation (1940-44), but with a later propaganda commentary in English, for an English audience, by Pathe News.
The commentary is unintentionally funny. For example, at one point, people are shown lining up to buy bread. The next clip shows well-dressed racegoers at Longchamps! Of course, the one does not preclude the other. In the Britain of 2020 one could show some people sleeping in the street or even (literally) starving while others are attending Ascot or Newbury…
One might add that it is possible to see people queuing for bread in France today, though not for reasons of rationing and shortage; usually in the morning when les boulangeries open for business.
There was, of course, rationing in the Paris of the early 1940s, just as there was in, say, London; one consequence of a crazy and unnecessary war.
Paris, to my eye, looked better then than it does today. At least there were no non-European migrant-invaders; and (((another element))) was largely absent…
Labour leadership
Many are probably saying, as I do, that all five of the candidates are hopeless, though there are differences among them.
Lisa Nandy has emerged as the main System drone, even more than Keir Starmer. She is Labour in the way of Blair and Brown. A political throwback. In fact she was PPS to the late Tessa Jowell. She is part-Indian, favours mass immigration, has already paid lip-service to the Jewish lobby and has now attacked Putin. Her personal “partner” is a public relations consultant. Need one say more?
Keir Starmer looks the part, but seems to me to have few ideas. There’s a dullness.
Rebecca Long-Bailey: on the face of it, a humourless “radical” who would (imo) never be able to appeal to most of the electorate. Even the fact that the Jews seem to hate her is not quite enough for her to appeal to me.
Emily Thornberry: smug de haut en bas Champagne “socialist”, married to a half-Jew High Court judge (they own 8 buy to let properties as well as at least two other homes). Another one who would sink Labour like a stone if elected leader.
Jess Phillips: a freeloading pro-Israel, pro-Jewish lobby loudmouth ignoramus, who fits a degenerate political system like a populist glove. No education of any worth, no culture of any value, no knowledge of any use. I would add that most of the loud Twitter Jews seem to favour her, as they do, but all five candidates have more or less pledged acquiescence, if not allegiance, to “them”, so none of these five will get my (in any event, irrelevant) endorsement.
Labour leadership voting intention (first preferences):
R. Long-Bailey: 42% K. Starmer: 37% J. Phillips: 9% L. Nandy: 7% E. Thornberry: 1%
Well, there it is. According to Lisa Nandy, anyone in Labour who criticizes actual atrocities carried out by Israeli forces in places like the West Bank will be expelled from Labour. Yes, there it is. Lisa Nandy is a complete mouthpiece for the Israel lobby, which is more or less the same as the Jew lobby or Jewish lobby in the UK.
Another impression I get, looking at that short piece of film, is that Lisa Nandy is rather thicker than I had at first thought. I just looked again at her Wikipedia entry: comprehensive school followed by a soft degree in Politics at Newcastle University and a Master’s degree from Birkbeck (London). No real clue there either way. I cannot see much of the huge talent with which she is credited by some msm scribblers.
Anyway, I think that now Lisa Nandy must join Jess Phillips at the bottom of the barrel. Bin her.
Emily Thornberry
Further to the above, and to intrude a personal and politically-irrelevant note, Emily Thornberry reminds me very much of a teacher at my first school (Caversham Primary School, in Caversham, near Reading). That teacher, Mrs. Mossberg, was a shortish and rather fat woman whom I remember as always smiling, rather bustling, and usually wearing a fur coat (though of course memory is fallible: she can hardly have worn a fur coat in the warmer months of the year). I recall going to her large detached home for some long-forgotten reason. She lived about a mile from the school, in the same area (Caversham Heights) as my family. I still remember what seemed to be a huge room (I doubt that it was, though; I was only 5 or 6) with a grand piano in one part of it.
Labour leadership opinion poll update
Labour leadership voting intention (after second preferences):
Looks as though it will be close between the two leading contenders.
[Update, 21 January 2024: In the event, in April 2020, Starmer won outright in the first round, with 56.2% of the party vote].
Wombat news
I am inclined to leave the blog today on this note:
Apparently wombats in fire effected areas are not only allowing other animals to take shelter in their deep, fire-resistant burrows but are actively herding fleeing animals into them.
We’re seeing more leadership and empathy from these guys than the entire Federal government. pic.twitter.com/LGcpSu9x0M
Not only a very nice story but a very interesting one (even if the tweeter does not know how to spell “affected”…).
In the 19thC, Charles Darwin’s work played into the social ethos of those times: “survival of the fittest”, the struggle for existence etc. However, Kropotkin saw the other side of the animal world, that of mutual help and co-existence, symbiosis if you like, which is every bit as real as that of the red-clawed struggle which many still think of as the only order in Nature. Not so. There is the Red Isis and the White Isis.
The animals in Africa, for example, may hunt and be hunted, but often seem to declare a truce at the watering-hole.
Kropotkin’s work, though rather neglected compared to that of Darwin, is starting to influence society now, including via game theory etc. This has large social implications.
“Kropotkin emphasizes the distinction between competitive struggle between individual organisms over limited resources and collective struggle between organisms and the environment. He drew from his first hand observations of Siberia and Northeast Asia, where he saw that animal populations were limited not by food sources, which were abundant, but rather by harsh weather. For example, predatory birds may compete by stealing food from one another while migratory birds cooperate in order to survive harsh winters by traveling long distances. He did not deny the competitive form of struggle, but argued that the cooperative counterpart has been under-emphasized: “There is an immense amount of warfare and extermination going on amidst various species; there is, at the same time, as much, or perhaps even more, of mutual support, mutual aid, and mutual defense…Sociability is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle.” [italicized passage from Kropotkin, Mutual Aid] [Wikipedia]
Now many who read my blog will know that I was, in the 1991-2008 period, at various times a practising barrister (in England) and an employed barrister (mostly overseas). Defamation was not one of my specialisms. I would have liked it to have been. It is an interesting and lucrative field, often involving interesting and/or famous people, though certainly not demanding the highest legal skills or intellectual gifts (contrary to the general public belief).
I did a few cases of libel while at the Bar, though all were advisory; none reached a substantive court hearing. I did advise, pro bono (unpaid), and when only a student, on a libel matter the result of which made the front pages of the more serious newspapers: Flegon v. Solzhenitsyn [1987].
Unable (as a mere student) to appear before the judge and civil jury (all defamation cases then had a jury), I nonetheless attended court most days, sometimes all day, wrote (mostly ignored) instructions and good advice for the plaintiff (now dumbed-down to “claimant”), and advised generally on tactics etc (also mostly ignored). I was told by another attendee that once, I having told Flegon’s assistant to give Flegon a note while he, Flegon, was (speaking very loosely) “cross-examining” a witness, I bowed myself out of [High] Court, only for the judge to demand of Flegon, as soon as I had gone, “to see that note that you have just been given”. Apparently, the judge read the note and told Flegon (who was proving a massive pain to the judge in various ways) to “listen to the good advice that you have been given, Mr. Flegon”! My first commendation by the Bench!
The Daily Telegraph said, when Flegon died (16 years later, in 2003):
“His remarkable success at repeatedly getting manuscripts out of the Soviet Union led to the widespread view that he must have had contacts in the KGB; but in 1987 he won £10,000 libel damages in the High Court from Solzhenitsyn over an allegation to that effect in the Russian version of The Oak and Calf. Unable to afford a barrister’s fees, Flegon conducted his case himself, in faltering English.”
Well, returning from the past to the present, we often see people, usually on Twitter, either talking about suing this or that person (often another “tweeter”) or expressing an opinion on defamation cases before the courts.
The average Joe has no idea about legal matters, and yet many opine about the law and practice of defamation, perhaps because it tends to attract msm publicity. For example, the tweet below betrays no hint that the tweeter knows that people have never been allowed to get legal aid for matters of defamation.
"Kezia Dugdale wins £25k defamation case brought by Wings Over Scotland"
This seems to me a balanced and reasonable judgement. A Win-Win. But who will pay the costs of the action? Shared costs between plaintiff and defendant? The taxpayer? I hope not …https://t.co/ix1WbN1CBQ
Despite having been expelled from Twitter, I read the tweets of others, particularly those whom I consider “persons of interest”. Often, en passant, I see tweets by various idiots either threatening others with legal action or recommending that others sue —often named— other parties in defamation. Few seem to understand either the relevant law (which has changed somewhat in recent years) or the practical aspects.
In the Kezia Dugdale case reported today, the Scottish judge decided that the words written were defamatory, but that the defendant, Ms. Dugdale, had a defence (that of fair comment). By the way, note that that defence has now been replaced, in England and Wales, by a defence of “honest opinion”, but this case was heard in Scotland under Scottish law.
Now the claimant in that Kezia Dugdale case, a Mr. Campbell, obviously does not understand the law, having tweeted only today that the law or legal system is, in effect, asinine because the judge decided that the words were defamatory and yet had decided against him! Like many many others on Twitter etc, the said Mr. Campbell does not seem to understand that even if words are defamatory on their face or by implication, the defendant might yet have one or more of the available defences.
Time and again on Twitter (I am not on Facebook) I see people, innocent of any useful legal knowledge, claiming that words which are not defamatory anyway are defamatory, or (where the words might be defamatory) ignoring the available defences.
Prominent among the above are Jews on Twitter, who often invoke the name of “Mark Lewis Lawyer” (the Jew-Zionist lawyer who recently fled to Israel after being found guilty of professional misconduct: see Notes, below). In fact, his publicized defamation cases were all (the ones I saw anyway) very simple and straightforward, requiring little real legal expertise. My honest opinion is that he is a copper-bottomed self-publicizing poseur.
Take a look at the above paragraph. It might or might not be considered in part “defamatory” (or it might be considered as a whole or in part a “mere vulgar insult”, which would not be actionable in any event). Also, even if the statements above, or some or one, were to be considered defamatory, I have defences open to me should the supposed “top defamation specialist” reach out from his mobility scooter or wheelchair in Israel to sue me (he has so far not done so in respect of any of the rather many blog posts which I have written about him in the past months). I have the defences of, inter alia, “Truth”, “Honest Opinion”, and “Publication on a matter of public interest” available to me.
There again, the armchair lawyers of Twitter rarely consider other factors, chief amongst which is whether the defendant has any funds. If not, large sums (in some cases, hundreds of thousands of pounds) might be expended in pursuit of a defendant who (like me) would simply declare bankruptcy if faced with a money judgment. Bankruptcy in England is now little more than an inconvenience lasting for a year (in most cases) for someone without capital (whether in cash or real or other property) or income. There are few advantages to being broke (as I now am and, incidentally, as “Mark Lewis Lawyer” now is); one of them, though, is the useful one of being effectively “unsueable”.
There are other factors, but this is a blog post, not a legal treatise.
It is usually the case that the best advice that can be given to a potential litigant in defamation is “don’t”! Three examples:
Oscar Wilde. Wilde need not have brought the libel action which eventually led to his disgrace, imprisonment, exile and early death;
David Irving. A fine and persecuted (by the Jew lobby) historian, but not a lawyer. Need not have brought the case against Deborah Lipstadt, an American Jew-Zionist academic supported and funded by the worldwide Jewish/Zionist lobby. Insisted on appearing for himself. Said to have lost £2M in costs to the other side, at least on paper. He also, more importantly, had his books removed from large bookshop chains; some were even pulped. Large publishers dropped him;
Count Nikolai Tolstoy. The only one of the three whom I have ever met (once). The only one of these three who was the defendant (there was also a co-defendant in his case). He lost, but eventually paid only £57,000 of the £1.5M awarded against him initially; he paid the £57,000 years later and only after the death of the plaintiff, Lord Aldington.
So, Twitter armchair lawyers and the perpetually outraged: don’t put your daughter on the stage, never wear brown in town and stop threatening libel suits against people, even if you can get lawyers you can rely upon…
Ian Robert Millard 