Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Iain Dale: some questions about John Hirst
I do not personally agree with all of the views expressed by John Hirst; some of them are as hard and as harsh as his life has been. But he does have the right to express those views. Here, Iain Dale would seem to agree (to a point):
"I remain of the view that if society judges your offence to be so serious that you should lose your liberty you should also lose your freedom to elect the government. In the new year I'm going to invite John Hirst and a range of guests onto 18 Doughty Street to discuss the issue at length." - Iain Dale (14 December 2006)
But John Hirst has not appeared on 18 Doughty Street since that invitation was made, and Iain Dale has not explained why... and, as Hirst points out here, Iain seems unusually tight-lipped about it.
I think I know the reason why... but first, some background:
As you probably already know, Iain Dale relies on a gang of (mostly anonymous) bullies to keep any 'debate' on his site free of material that undermines any specific case he makes or his integrity in general.
One of these anonymongrels goes by the name of 'Verity', who appears to be a ringleader of a gang of right-wing bullies and sock-puppeteers who will respond to any valid point John Hirst raises by shouting "Axe murderer!" at him. They will often follow him around from blog to blog to do this and scream "Axe-murdering stalker!" as they do so.
John Hirst was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility in 1980, and he himself picks up on the technical difference between manslaughter and murder here.... but it doesn't really matter if you somehow interpret his stated lack of remorse as an admission of murder (as some people seem to be doing) and it doesn't even matter if you think citizens abandon all rights to hold opinions and/or have them heard after they have taken a life, as neither position changes the logical fallacy at the heart of the ongoing smear campaign against Hirst:
If you actually thought it likely that someone would come after you with an axe, you would not goad them... and you would certainly not goad them specifically about the likelihood of their coming after you with an axe. Even doing so 'anonymously' makes no sense, as many past outings have proved.
To put it bluntly, the only thing that allows Verity and his gang of thugs to call John Hirst an axe-murderer is the fact that he is not an axe-murderer... and they know that.
On January 7 (2007), Iain Dale can be seen singling Verity out and promising that all such future attacks on the site would be deleted... but as you've probably already guessed, Iain didn't really mean it:
Jan 7, Jan 8, Jan 12... of course, all of these comments were made anonymously, and not under the name of 'Verity', which makes it OK.
But let's proceed to March... Mar 7, Mar 14, Mar 17, Mar 26... *ding*... Mar 29, and Verity returns to shout "Axe murderer!" using his usual handle.
(Psst! Nice moderation there, Iain. Way to promote 'politics for grown-ups'.)
Moving right along to what might at first appear to be a change of subject...
Here's Paul Staines helpfully promoting a press release from 18DoughtyStreet claiming that the semi-departure of Tim Montgomerie will allow for a less partisan approach to coverage... as if that were ever likely.
Even if you ignore the source of funding, Iain Dale's continuing role as primary host rules out any possibility of the 18DoughtyStreet being fairly described as non-partisan... not least because his conduct as host isn't that different from his conduct as a 'blogger'.
Iain will often undermine guests he does not agree with by interrupting them with demands for on-the-spot proof of this or that, when he himself regularly counters these same guests with flawed arguments or unsubstantiated claims. If he ever gets called on the latter or a debate simply isn't going his way, he will abuse his status as host and utter the magical phrase 'moving right along'... which, amusingly, also serves as the unspoken mission statement for 18DoughtyStreet.
But Iain is also subject to influences that further his own right-wing bias... and I'm not talking purely about the exchanges featured above.
Take a look at this exchange hosted by 'Croydonian' (dated December 20, 2007), where he, Verity, and a number of other bullies from the Dale/Staines stable are openly bragging about scuttling Hirst's planned appearance on 18DoughtyStreet.
Verity is loud and proud about it, but not all of these individuals are visibly active in the relevant thread over at Dale's blog, so it's safe to assume that some objections were raised anonymously and/or via email. Regardless, Iain Dale has not responded publicly to the objections raised (in the relevant thread or elsewhere); he has simply withdrawn the invitation and refused to be drawn on the reasons why.
So... here come the questions for Iain Dale:
1. Does the invitation for John Hirst to appear on 18DoughtyStreet stand?
2. If not, why was the invitation withdrawn?
3. Further, if the invitation was withdrawn, why was it withdrawn without explanation?
4. Do you really believe that John Hirst can be accurately and legally described as an 'axe murderer'?
5. If not, why do you continually allow publication of this description on your website?
6. Are you really afraid of your own bullies?
Note - Iain should be aware that his answer(s) to any or all of these questions may raise further questions about the claimed 'non-partisan' status of 18DoughtyStreet.
Labels: 18doughtystreet, jailhouselawyer, john hirst, verity
Posted by Tim @ | Permalink
2 Comments:
- John Angliss said...
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Verity is the same handle as a libertarian blogger on Samizdata.net. The most snide, IMO, when in general they're alright.
4:49 PM, April 24, 2007 - Larry Teabag said...
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Is this the same Verity who once castigated left-wing blogs because...
5:32 PM, May 04, 2007
...they are a shrieking kindergarten of angry attention seekers who bore everyone else to death with their predictable comments. They're all over the place in little democratic kumbayahs... No one opposing your point of view even visits your blogs because of your jaw crunching, yawn-o-rama predictability and your self-righteous Hitleresque bashing of people who don't agree with you. You don't argue the case. You call names.
?
