Close followers of this blog will know that I have mixed views about Reform
UK. On the one hand I supported the party at the 2024 General Election, voted
for them and encouraged friends to do the same. True there was not huge
enthusiasm on my part but compared to the lamentable Conservative Party and the
unspeakable Labour Party they represent hope in a political scenario in which
hope has largely disappeared. Reform is far from perfect as recent events
have demonstrated but in my view there is currently no alternative to the Uni-Party.
And then on the other hand one of their senior people - well, senior enough to
get Radio/TV interviews - demanded £4,800 in compensation for
BiB’s election coverage
perceived as negative to a Reform UK candidate. Then came a further demand that an almost ten year old story,
entirely favourable towards the complainant, be expunged from Bonkers; a
request to which I agreed. This was followed by a further demand
that every last word about Reform and any reference to the ‘senior person’ be
removed including six unspecified blogs written just before the 2024 General Election.
Bearing in mind that there has been nothing especially negative about the
aforementioned SP anywhere on Bonkers; indeed the most severe criticism was one use of the word
‘silly’ in 2018, this was all rather peculiar. Under constant threat of
expensive High Court Action, I went along with all the demands apart from paying the £4,800.
Some blogs were extremely favourable towards the SP and why they had to go I have no idea.
I speculated that eventually I would be put under some sort of legal gagging order to prevent me talking to anyone about
the person in question and that is the way things are moving now. I have been asked to sign such a legal undertaking.
Reporting these events on BiB would I hoped attract the attention of even more
important Reform UK personalities; and it did.
They were curious and naturally sceptical that such things could be happening
under their banner and asked who the
mysterious SP was. I didn’t tell them but I suspect they knew anyway. They
also asked if I could provide a little evidence that I was not making up such a far
fetched story while at the same time saying they were perfectly happy with my
General Election coverage and asked that it be kept on the record. (It is
currently withdrawn.)
I am totally perplexed by why it is, ten years after
the SP first came to notice here and six years after a
reference to a Court case involving SP was removed from Bonkers, the issue
has been resurrected. I am perfectly happy to remove everything and have pretty much done so
and told SP’s solicitor that if he can identify any I might have missed I will attend to those too.
Why would I risk being dragged before the High Court in defence of a tuppenny
halfpenny blog especially one which has ploughed a lonely furrow by being broadly supportive of SP?
The fact that SP is now effectively expunged from BiB history is not the issue, few will notice and
I do not much care. The real issue is why would someone fairly prominent within
Reform UK be so keen on having every record of the past being wiped from the
history books and then go on to prevent me talking about it to political friends.
(I meet up with a group most Thursday evenings and they can be an inquisitive bunch.)
I have my theories and no doubt readers with an interest in politics will
formulate their own but if I am dragged before the Court I have a huge bundle of
documents which would be put before the Court and thereby into the public
domain. As things stand now they merely gather dust in a remote corner of my
computer where I had hoped they might stay undisturbed for ever.
Despite the legal attack I am adamant that there has never been anything
remotely like severe criticism of SP on Bonkers, the one use of the word silly
is the most severe that could ever be found and everything related to that
disappeared from view six years ago, The threatening letters acknowledge
the generally supportive tone but the requirement is that I am totally silenced.
I must emphasise that my new Reform UK contacts are entirely supportive of my
reporting and have said so in writing and do not want me to remove
anything, but then they are not constantly at the end of of Injunctions and the like
and are apparently reasonable people.
The Free Speech Union has been kept informed but the decision to comply with the
demand to remove all the old blogs was mine and not theirs.
Reform UK has serious problems lurking within their midst.