Having thought about it, I've come to the strange conclusion that this was a pre-planned trolling operation. I think a few radical left activists got together after seeing me ask an inconvenient question, and decided it was my turn to get a playground monstering. In my view this sort of behaviour is totally unacceptable, but I'm not holding my breath for the self-appointed Civility Police on the radical left to actually condemn it - as they would do in an instant if it was coming in the opposite direction.
Utterly bizarre. If anyone has a clue who Richard and his chums are (there was also someone called Rachel McCormack), and what their agenda is, please do enlighten me.
UPDATE: I am reliably informed that Rachel McCormack is "a slightly contrarian, Scottish nationalist food and whisky writer" who has hated my guts for some time, even though she gets me mixed up with my Labour MSP namesake. You learn something new every night.
Whenever I read the name James Kelly I have to pause for a moment to figure out which of you it is.
ReplyDeleteI would like to suggest you to use a middle initial even if it is a fictitious one.
I always use all 3 of my initials as the pair has an unfortunate connotation in the USA. I was once at a Star Trek convention where Data (Played by Brent Spiner) mentioned he had the same problem.
If I was starting from scratch I might do that. But if I did it now people would probably think there was yet another James Kelly.
DeleteTwitter is for idiots, no wonder Trump has taken to it "as a duck takes to water".
ReplyDeleteAmazing civility James. I for one could not have walked past the open goal of being trolled by a man called Dick Palmer
ReplyDeleteI'd put money on the butt-hurt RISE idiots being livid about you calling the clickbait hack (Boyd) and her moronic "party" out. That's what all this is about.
ReplyDeleteAnd the question is never answered. It's 'just cos they sez so, right?'
ReplyDeleteNever is there a pause to consider that:
a) it's none of their business if someone feels they were defamed and wishes to pursue it. Maybe social media plays a role in making them *think* it's their business, but it's not.
b) it's none of their business if others want to spend their money assisting that person in making the claim (and I say that as someone who has not contributed, but doesn't feel it's my place to tell others what they must do).
c) that they show no understanding of the law (if there was no case, presumably it will not proceed. If these people are educated in the law and know better, tell us how. Otherwise, it's sometimes better to accept that you don't know what you are talking about and let the experts, in this case the court, decide).
and d) that these people think they are 'nice' because they favour some worthy causes, but are actually quite dictatorial ('I say Stu's a prick, so you lot have to do as I say and not fund him'). There may be a debate to be had, but why it can't be done without name-calling I don't know (I guess because, based on the law, they have no case to suggest that the action shouldn't be heard).
Eesh. These guys don't need a conspiracy to coordinate being rude pricks. Block/ignore etc.
ReplyDelete(I'm eeshing at the pricks btw).
DeleteTrawler-man beard speaks, from red-tie labour position. God awful people.
ReplyDeleteAh, the Corbyn ball-on-the-slates. All these European migrants, stealing our jobs and lowering our wages.
What a wonderful job being done, by the Scottish NHS and Scottish education. Fair puts the wind, in our sails.
At least they didn't liken you to a bunch of Neo Nazis, so there's that.
ReplyDeleteWell, I haven't a clue what they thought they were on about either, so, as my auntie used to say, James, crush them under your moral chariot wheel. And block'em. Life's too short to waste time on eejits, and rude eejits at that.
ReplyDeleteI interacted with a couple of them as part of the abuse they were dishing out to you - I asked why they hate you. They wouldn't/couldn't say. But that did prompt them to enlist the help of someone else to tweet a spuriously untrue comment about me. They liked this very much. No one else has taken up that trolling-directive so far though.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to be organised in so far as they support each other when one of them goes on the attack, but beyond that it doesn't look like they're being directed by a third party. Don't quote me on that though.
There's one other thing about their collective - several of them are followed by figures in the wider Yes movement - Paul Kavanagh, Mhaire Hunter, Chris Cairns, Alyn Smith MEP - so it looks like they're part of the Yes movement too.
I honestly can't say why they feel the need to do this in the first place. There's something quite unsettling about them going after another person without knowing why. Worse, that they don't think twice about lying to get the effect they're after. It's not the behaviour of healthy minds.
Anyway, I hope that helps.
Thanks for your support on Twitter - I really appreciate it, because a lot of people were piling in this morning. One of them was Iain Robertson, who seems to be part of their extended group. That may be a clue as to where some of this stuff is coming from.
DeleteI ended up blocking about twelve people, including one who I've followed for years and never, ever thought I'd block. But if someone is going to essentially egg on a gang of bullies, there comes a point where it's a question of self-respect. I can understand he was being loyal to close friends, but...
I see the comments of support for you James and add mine to the support.When I see the (radical) Left of Scotland behave in this manner it reminds me of why they never make any inroads into getting an MP or MSP,s elected.They always do this stuff even to each other one always wants to be boss and wants everybody to believe like they do.In short they all want to lead,be the big chief,control all of us minions but none can agree to the rules they set down for them selves.Plainly put stupid perhaps pseudo intellectuals is a nicer phrase than just plain dafties,it rhymes leftie daftie!Although in this occasion a couple of them actually got coordinated gold star between them just watch the fight over who wears it for the first week!LOL.You can educate a fool but cant get them to think they are just not able its not in their genes or DNA to paraphrase a previous Labour (branch office) leader.Now I see why Twitter is to hard for me I ramble on and on,might even make sense someday to myself.Don't ignore them tease them on you did it so well and the worst part or maybe best part is they never got it.Keep up the great work I enjoy your writings as do many others thank you.
ReplyDelete