“Harry Cole” is young conservative activist who edits a couple of websites and who appears in the media as a pundit from time to time. Yesterday, he used Twitter to make an accusation against Tim Ireland:
…he tried to get us to run fake evidence of his madness. Deeply odd. (1)
…anyone with a basic grasp of photoshop could see it was knocked up (2)
…I was emailed photos purporting to be of his medication…(3)
…I was then informed by a reliable source that they were fake and that it was an attempted sting by non-other than @bloggerheads (4)
Cole was indeed sent a photo purporting to be of medication, but not from Tim. As Tim explains:
In January 2010, during a police investigation that resulted from Dorries’ complaint/’report‘, some fabricated evidence emerged. It was quite damaging stuff. The anonymous originator claimed to have fished it out of my bin; a box of prescription medication made out to me (specifically a powerful anti-psychotic drug). Bedfordshire Police investigated its origins until they hit a dead end.
Police were advised of the following by a medical professional they interviewed as part of their investigation, and I was present when it was said; the medication involved is a carefully controlled substance to the extent that you cannot pick up even an empty box like it by digging through bins at the back of Boots; the original picture that was used for this forgery was most likely accessed by someone who had been prescribed this medication, or enjoyed a position of trust with someone who had been prescribed this medication.
Quite reasonably, Tim asked Cole for the email’s metadata – the person who created this picture has elsewhere referenced Tim’s family, and he may be dangerous. Cole’s response:
Here is my formal response @bloggerheads. In the name of openness and transparency I will do it publicly: “Go fuck yourself” (5)
Tim pointed out that this amounted to “protecting a bastard who has been targeting my wife and family”; Cole’s reaction was to pretend that Tim had accused him of this, and to declare that “you can shove your allegations up your arse”.
The Blog that Peter Wrote has further discussion here. Cole has contributed to the comments; he continues to pretend that Tim had accused him of threatening his family, and – having begun the whole row with his bogus “sting” allegation – he now complains that
Ireland is deluded with his giant conspiratorial web, that I’m frankly bored of being slightly tangled in.
I think all reasonable people will be repelled by such a display of childish spite. It’s also sad to see someone who has so obviously had his integrity and empathy corroded by his older role models: his day job is working for Paul Staines, and last year he and Staines smeared a disabled woman as a benefits cheat at the behest of Nadine Dorries MP.
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Forgive me if I am being thick here, but I don’t understand Tim’s point that “It was quite damaging stuff.”
There are two points here really. Firstly if the evidence had been fabricated, then who or what would be damaged by its disclosure?
Secondly, I have a diagnosis of Bipolar 1. It naturally follows that you will find powerful psychotic drugs in my cupboard. The boxes too. You are welcome to the empty boxes when I have finished with them. What ‘damage’ is likely to occur to me, or anyone I should happen to supply the boxes to, as a result of someone rummaging in my or their cupboards. I strongly resent the implication that people who take anti-psychotic drugs are ‘damaged’, if that is what Tim is trying to imply.
I do, by the way, remove the labels, before they go into the recycling bin. This is to defer the infernal junk mailers, who I despise with a passion. A sensible precaution, I would think.
Talk about dodging the main issue in the search for other “points”. But since you ask:
1. Tim has had to deal with bogus accusations of stalking and with someone actually stalking him. In that context, it would obviously be unhelpful if the police and others were to incorrectly believe he suffers from paranoid delusions. Although it’s doubtless unfair, the fact is that someone suffering from such a mental health problem will find it more of struggle to establish their credibility.
2. Why would you think that Tim is “trying to imply” anything anyway? His post is not about his attitude to people who need anti-psychotic medication, it’s about (a) Cole and his behaviour, and (b) the malicious intent of the person who contacted Cole with the picture. From all I’ve seen of Tim’s writing, he’s actually quite careful when it comes to mental-health related stigmatization – frowns on terms like “nutter” etc.
Looks to me that you’re trying to point-score rather than raise a concern in good faith.
Re: 1. The undoubted unfairness is very the point I want to challenge. People should try to tackle unfairness where ever they may find it. It actually takes a bit of guts to put your own diagnosis out there. Just as you want to speak out about issues which are important to you, I want to do the same on my issues. Our issues may not overlap to any great extent, but you can surely see that we may have a common purpose in some limited area. If you reject my opinions out of hand, I find it very hard to see you as sincere in what you do.
Re: 2. Firstly I have absolutely no objections to grown adults calling each other nutters, except in the very limited sense where people may gather round to spread hate about another individual who for whatever reason cannot answer back. Avoiding contentious terms is not the same as fighting predjudice. Secondly the sentence you quote from contained that magic word ‘if’. I wasn’t claiming he was, I was indicating that he might have. The logic of Tim’s reply below defies all reason, but I will take it on faith that this was not what he meant, and state for sure that I am not offended. I actually have some respect for some of the stuff that Tim does, but I remain a stern critic that far too much is venting off in the abscence of anything productive.
If you cannot trust that people are acting in good faith, then there is no point in continuing this conversation any further.
I normally ignore ‘Pogsurf’, aka Martin Wiesner, who uses multiple/false identities to attack his political enemies, and now attacks me because I caught him doing it, but I will happily kick his straw man to bits before going back to ignoring his petty distortions:
To go on and pretend that medication belongs to someone else while including text saying people should be careful of me because they allege I take it (or have sometimes neglected to): THAT is what is damaging and dangerous.
I am also aware of Pogsurf/Martin. His often-repeated self-justifying bleats are really broken pencil.
(that’s ‘pointless’, folks. I’m here all week.
I’ve deleted a second message from “Pogsurf” that crossed the line. It’s clear he hates Tim and wants a platform for some kind of vendetta – he can take it elsewhere.
[…] medicine made out in Tim’s name. The image was emailed it to various hostile individuals, including Harry Cole and, as a form of harassment, to Tim […]