The Sunday Post: That Was The Week That Was
It began with this News.
and ended with this News
and in between Gary Glitter was convicted, and the newspapers sentenced him to die in prison.
So, it turns out that Freddie Starr really was fighting for his life after all.
Private Eye has gone in to bat for the epicenter of Savilisation: Karin Ward. Eye is decrying the treachery of the ITV and the BBC in not helping Karin by funding her defence. It seems strange that Private Eye doesn’t mention the failure of MGN – Mirror news Group – to step up to the plate, or drop a coin in it, seeing as MGN must surely be the news outlet that made the most money out of Karin.
MGN is of course no worse than any of the other deep-pocketed UK newspaper groups, none of whom seem to be interested in their Prize Victim any longer.
Nor did Private Eye suggest that Esther Rantzen should be running a campaign on Karin’s behalf, using her influence with those Claims lawyers who have been stripping the Savile Estate of millions of pounds, mostly on the momentum Karin gave them. Buddy, can you spare a dime?
And of course we already know that Karin has long realized that she can expect no help from Mark Williams-Thomas Associates, only his manipulation and exploitation.
And where I wondered were all the Friends Reunited from all those old Duncroft Forums? Some of them had made a few bob by the looks of things, riding on Karin’s back. No crowd-funding on offer Gals?
David Price QC is a powerful force to have on ones side of course, and Karin won’t be the first to be grateful for that support I daresay.
It may well be that there is more to this Pro-Bono lark than meets the eye, but I’m not banking on the obsequious Private Eye of the 21st Century to tell the unadulterated truth, but rather only what their buddies in Fleet street want us to hear and what their legal pals want us to know.
I’d almost forgotten Liz! She must have a few bob handy, surely? From her glittering career at the BBC I mean, the career that Meirion Jones helped with so much. Anyone remember her?
Hmmm…. Nope. It looks like they’re both alone again – naturally.
I certainly hope Freddie will get more than a few bob, in due course. In fact I know he will, because he has the Truth on his side. I cannot help but feel sorry for Karin but I don’t expect Mr. Starr to share my sympathy and in truth the angels look as if they have been on his side all the time.
The wheels grind slow, they say, but they do grind fine. I only hope they will keep grinding until all of those who truly merit being ground down will be dust too, and not just the woman that they left behind, alone, frozen out, on Fleet Street after they’d enjoyed all that she had to offer. One might almost say she had been raped by the Mass Media.
I recall from Karin’s autobiography, which was the tool that got this whole Hysteria got started, that she wrote of how she once spent a delightful evening with David Bowie. This was when Jimmy Savile was escorting her around London to posh parties. Ah! The past! What a memory! Perhaps she should have listened to the lyrics of one of David’s songs more carefully. It even carried a title that seemed relevant to notions of Feminism and Empowerment: Suffragette City. You must remember it Karin?
“Wham. Bam. Thankyou Mam.”
Moor Larkin
- IlovetheBBC
February 8, 2015 at 10:13 am -
Where is Meirion going? Or has he gone to the Eye?
- The Blocked Dwarf
February 8, 2015 at 10:53 am -
Good piece Moor, very informative for those of us who, like myself, refuse to follow the daily vomitations of #spewtree.
BUT
I was looking forward to my weekly dose of “Gildas On Sunday”, looking forward to a gentle, well written, scholarly, indepth examination of some topic of searing social importance such as “The ‘Burghers Of Calais’ And Possible Ramifications On Wheat Prices in Upper Wendland”
Or even better, news about his cat- which of course is the really important stuff. Aged Popstars are just for Xmas-live Aid appeals, Cats are forever.
- GildasTheMonk
February 8, 2015 at 11:13 am -
Thanks BD. I think! The Old Cat is doing OK, a new dose of meds this week. Young Cat has decided to destroy the carpet on the stairs, a matter which bothers me not, but others seem perturbed about it, and domestic unhappiness has resulted.
As for that proposed title, sound fascinating to me, and for some reason put me in mind of a post I once quite innocently entitled “Who Gets the Wet Patch?” For an exposition of planning laws as they relate to important migratory geese populations, it generated quite a surprsing degree of internet attention.- JuliaM
February 8, 2015 at 12:01 pm -
Try rubbing a cut lemon on the patch he’s scratching at.
- GildasTheMonk
February 9, 2015 at 10:44 am -
Thanks Julia – good tip!
- GildasTheMonk
- The Blocked Dwarf
February 8, 2015 at 12:25 pm -
“Thanks BD. I think! ” it was indeed a compliment (but not in anyway a criticism of Moor’s writing). Thank you for the Caturdayness.
As to my suggestive title; back when I was a kid there was a TV show called “Connections” with James Burke [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_%28TV_series%29] which enthralled my youthful mind with tales of how, say, a clockwork fork server from C15 Florence led to the invention of the atomic bomb and unstick saucepans…or something like that. It, the programme, also taught me that nothing happens in isolation, then or now, in history or the present. Everything has an effect upon everything else and that is what fascinates me about history and your historical posts.
What if the Innkepper in a little Austrian village in the summer of 1836 hadn’t gotten a slightly better batch of malt then normal and hadn’t brewed a slightly stronger beer for the Harvest Festival Festivities? Maybe the itinerant journeyman wouldn’t have gotten ‘beer goggles’ and ended up having a’knee trembler’ behind the pub with an Old Maid of the Village? Would WW2 have happened? Would Israel exist? The EU? Any of us born as a result of the war or the end of rationing?
(btw for the historical pedants among us, I made that bit about John George having ‘beer goggles’ up but it’s as good an explaination as any for the conception of Hitler Snr.)
- Mudplugger
February 8, 2015 at 4:39 pm -
‘Connections’ was a brilliant series – helped me to understand inter-connections of the some surprising aspects.
Burke is still around with brain-cells actively whirring, only a few months ago he popped up on Radio4, still making fascinating predictions – it’s time the Beeb gave him another series (although he’d probably have to condense his complex ideas into 140 characters now to get/keep any impressionable young Twitter-twats interested).
- Mudplugger
- JuliaM
- Moor Larkin
February 8, 2015 at 11:25 am -
* I was looking forward to my weekly dose of “Gildas On Sunday” *
I’m just a Grunt. The Editors make all the publishing decisions…
- The Blocked Dwarf
February 8, 2015 at 12:49 pm -
“I’m just a Grunt. The Editors make all the publishing decisions…”
Ahhh, I just thought you’d bribed Petunia with sweetmeats and fancies…
- The Blocked Dwarf
- GildasTheMonk
- Chris
February 8, 2015 at 11:51 am -
Meirion is definitely one of the Horsemen of The Apocalypse, an Ellsworth Toohey type of protagonist, who’s work succeeds by allowing other more foolish ‘voices’ take public credit whilst he beavers away in the background, plotting & scheming away with ‘Give ‘Em Enough Rope’ in the forefront of his mind.
Programmed to cause ruination to the various ‘institutions’, he’s done more than most to wreck the already-delicate post-John Birt BBC, and now may be moving on to Ian Hi-Slop’s Private Eye to ensure that becomes a Force FOR hypocrisy instead of against – given it was severely compromised in 2012 once the media was briefed on How To Officially React (there was 2 or 3 issues ‘post-Savile’ when they weren’t playing ball)Why haven’t Private Eye ever thought to look at the career of the self-styled Paedofinder General? I am sure he’d have been “exposed” by now by the PE of 15/20 years, never mind the no-holds-barred force of the Ingrams Years
- Moor Larkin
February 8, 2015 at 12:04 pm -
New masthead soon perhaps: Private Sly …..
- Moor Larkin
- Alexander Baron
February 8, 2015 at 12:12 pm -
My thoughts on Glitter here: http://www.wikinut.com/did-gary-glitter-have-a-fair-trial/1bodawaz/1miknrie/
It seems now that in all such cases the mere allegation is more powerful than any defence evidence.
- JimmyGiro
February 8, 2015 at 12:15 pm -
Moor, you’re a Trojan, and I don’t mean that in an equine fashion.
The lesson is that useful idiots of the State, never learn. They never learn from the long history of what happens to all the previous useful idiots, going all the way back to Judas Iscariot, and countless others. It’s not just the 30 pieces of silver either, some actually believe they are betraying love and truth for some greater promise.
The lesson they fail to learn from the long line of their distinguished forebears, is that the true price of treachery is credibility. For who would trust those who betray trust itself? And who in a balanced mind, would trust ‘evidence’ that is bought for 30 pieces of silver, or £32,000 in today’s money?
And who, in an honest frame of mind, would trust a legal system that makes the Law into a political tool? For when the Law becomes political, then laws become debatable; and to preserve the power of the State, debate must be controlled by that State.
The agents of the State are presumably bright people, they must not show their hand too soon, or the game is blown, as to maintain power involves a certain degree of mutual compliance between the people and the State, so subversions combine elements of publicity and subterfuge. A delicate manoeuvre, which requires two feats: to undo faith in the world, whilst maintaining faith in the State.
The cuckoo State can only supplant our sense of truth and justice, by clearing up all the loose ends of their subversions, which of course are all those useful idiots. Their destiny is therefore inevitable, the price of betrayal is eternal oblivion, for who can live without credibility?
- The Blocked Dwarf
February 8, 2015 at 6:42 pm -
“Moor, you’re a Trojan, and I don’t mean that in an equine fashion.”
For our American readers I would like to point out that Moor is NOT being compared to your version of a cut price “Durex” (other brands of prophylactics are available). Moor may be slick, sensitive yet with a thick skin but he doesn’t smell of warm “Marigolds” (other brands of washing up gloves are available)…at least I hope he doesn’t.
- Moor Larkin
February 9, 2015 at 9:09 am -
As a Trojan I keep hoping to go Viral. One day… I keep telling myself…
- Moor Larkin
- The Blocked Dwarf
- Chris
February 8, 2015 at 12:36 pm -
“The Execution Of Gary Glitter” – remember that 2009 ‘drama’? Musing over Britain restoring the Death Penalty for “paedo’s” and this drama did not feature an Ian Huntley or a Roy Whiting to whip up the hysteria, but an ailing glam rocker who I sincerely doubt ever harmed or abused any children.
How in Christ’s name could he ever have a got a halfway fair trial, even taking into the rolling travesty of justice that is Operation Yewtree?
- Chris
February 8, 2015 at 1:26 pm -
Look what wanker is up to today – picking on an innocent woman. Calenders must be right up there with 1970’s board games and long-out-of-print books
https://twitter.com/mwilliamsthomas/status/564377417901703168 - Lucozade
February 11, 2015 at 8:38 am -
Re: “Musing over Britain restoring the Death Penalty for “paedo’s” and this drama did not feature an Ian Huntley or a Roy Whiting to whip up the hysteria”
Exactly those two guys, Fred and Rose West, the Moors murderers, Peter Tobin, to name but a few, are examples of far worse depravity than Gary Glitter – so why use Gary Glitter to make the argument?
- Moor Larkin
February 11, 2015 at 8:58 am -
I took the film/play as a dark satire rather than a piece of promotional propaganda in favour of the hangin’ is too good for ’em brigade. The key moment revolved round the court-room scene where Glitter is being questioned about his Vietnamese victims. There was a suggestion that he was winning his case up to that point. However, his testimony then lurches into victim-blaming as he arrogantly dismisses the Vietnamese matter as a con-trick for money. The set-up of the play makes clear that at that point he loses the sympathy of the court and the jury and he is doomed.
What did surprise about the real-life trial was that the Vietnamese case never came up in the reported testimony.
- Lucozade
February 11, 2015 at 2:12 pm -
Moor Larkin,
Re: “However, his testimony then lurches into victim-blaming as he arrogantly dismisses the Vietnamese matter as a con-trick for money. The set-up of the play makes clear that at that point he loses the sympathy of the court and the jury and he is doomed”
So (assuming they’re dealing with a false accusation, which can happen a lot), if the defendant says anything against the accusation in their defence they’re seen as ‘victim blaming’? :/
- Moor Larkin
February 11, 2015 at 2:28 pm -
It was apparent in the Glitter testimony that the Briefs though the best approach was to make the jury feel sad for the poor baldyman, rather than attack the fact that the CPS had resurrected an accuser from Glitter’s 1999 News of the World corrupted trial.
http://youtu.be/Ay4nzJ6Y124- Lucozade
February 12, 2015 at 6:35 pm -
Moor Larkin,
It’s best to get as much of the truth out as possible i’d say, if it was me i’d rather do that than go down for a crime I didn’t commit any way, but without getting my point across, just for fear of appearing to offend people, and (perhaps) an ever so slightly lighter sentence…
- Lucozade
- Moor Larkin
- Lucozade
- Moor Larkin
- Chris
- Alexander Baron
February 8, 2015 at 3:03 pm -
The bandwagon rolls on:
but not everyone is taken in, note this comment:
“Lesley Anne Jones and her sister were not victims of abuse. I’ve read the entire article and neither of them was hurt by Paul Gadd aka Gary Glitter. He’s a sick man who’ll go to prison now thank God for what he did to other children, but this woman had no reason to write this article other than wanting to jump on the bandwagon with her weak and pointless story.”
I wonder if Glitter might simply have been genuinely nice to this girl. We all have our soft spots. Even I’ve been known to help a blind man across the road.
- The Blocked Dwarf
February 8, 2015 at 4:00 pm -
” Even I’ve been known to help a blind man across the road.”
Totally O/T but not long ago The Bestes Frau In The Whole Wide World and I were out walking through the Norfolk town where the Dwarf Hovel is located. Coming up onto the busy narrow main road I saw a Blind Man standing in the middle of the road, white roller-ball cane in hand. Of course , with no thought to my personal safety nor my ever increasing Life Policy payments, I made haste to assist my fellow man and guide him to safety.
Then I realised he was directing the traffic around a lady who had collapsed onto the road!
Welcome to Norfolk, where the Blind do truly lead…
- Henry the Horse
February 8, 2015 at 4:21 pm -
By sheer coincicence yesterday I came across an old article written last time a figure from the world of pop music was locked up for underage sex. An amazingly piece by Ian Jack which although only from 2001 feels like it is from another world with its daring comparison of King with Oscar Wilde. I cannot imagine the Guardian even tolerating a comment suggesting this to remain on its pages today let alone to publish such a piece above the line:
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/dec/01/socialsciences.highereducation - Tedioustantrums
February 8, 2015 at 11:08 pm -
Hmmmm…… I didn’t mind some of GG’s music at all. I gave a distant but interesting connection to him. One connection away.
In 1973 I went in holiday to Lloret in Spain with the many concreted hotels. I was 16. Did I fail to mention that we went in November? It wasn’t warm and as sometimes happen all the sort of kids formed a sort of gang. We sat about at the outdoor pool in anoraks. There was a spread ages and a couple of girls older than me.
The chat was easy and varied. The two older girls were disappointed that there were no males of their own age. I was below there age barrier but no matter. At one point they told us that they in fact looked after GG’s fan club. Most of the gang thought this was just lies. The girls said they had glitter outfits and they followed GG around when he toured etc.
I didn’t think they did.
But… Within a couple of weeks on Top of the Pops GG was on and there in the audience were the two girls dressed in their glitter gear.
I’ve not needed to seek support etc. I’m a big boy now after all. On that trip I bought my first guitar, buts that’s another story.
- Cloudberry
February 9, 2015 at 9:13 am -
For investigative journalism, it looks as if Private Eye is rivalling the Beano and the Dandy.
How’s this: Jimmy Savile was a cold case, like on the telly.
Before October 2012, 2 documentaries versus 46 police dramas, including 36 episodes of Waking the Dead.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2519883/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1“From Madeleine McCann to Jonathan King, criminologist, TV presenter and Hindhead man Mark Williams-Thomas has worked on some of the UK’s top cases. Catherine Whyte meets him as his new show airs on ITV…
…I confess to enjoying every minute of this chat with Mark Williams- Thomas, ex-police detectiveturned-TV presenter, who is one of the principal advisors on the sort of TV drama I never watch, like The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Waking The Dead. … Mark had left the force by the time Jonathan King was arrested. But he would soon find himself in the company of other detectives, in the shape of DIs Lynley and Boyd, as he began to advise scriptwriters on the accuracy of their storylines. Waking The Dead, in particular, is a series close to Mark’s heart. “It’s my favourite because it was the hardest to do. It was all consuming. Many of the characters and storylines that I delivered were drawn from my own experience.” So, is it realistic? “Some characters are exaggerated, but others are very real. Take Boyd, for example. Yes, sure, he does go over the top sometimes, and perhaps he delivers above what a police officer would, but actually I think he’s very real. You know, he is that police officer of the 1990s. Not a modern one. He’s the sort of police officer we need more of.”
http://williams-thomas.co.uk/sites/default/files/Mark%20%20Williams-Thomas%20-%20Surrey%20Magazine.pdf (From Surrey Magazine, pulished by sheengate.co.uk)- Cloudberry
February 9, 2015 at 10:00 am -
And in view of that, how’s this then
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/police-reassure-school-over-porn-4861013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zBMHssk61U
- Cloudberry
- Moor Larkin
February 9, 2015 at 1:25 pm -
Just noticed today that in the wake of the legal execution of the glittery one, The Grauniad is trying to puff new life into Karin’s Tales of the TV Centre…. or is this the start of some new CPS finagling?
Another woman has since alleged, in an ITV documentary, that she saw Gadd having sex with a girl under the age of 14 in Jimmy Savile’s dressing room.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/05/gary-glitter-guilty-child-sex-offences- Cloudberry
February 9, 2015 at 2:32 pm -
They also seem to have decided to question Rolf Harris on the same day as the Glitter verdict, and to make that known, with the result that news reports at both ends of the world have put the two names together, including in the headlines. They surely wouldn’t want to suggest ideas to people would they, and risk attracting Glitteresque accusations against Rolf Harris, like the Savilesque ones he was found guilty of? No-one with demonstrable knowledge of the suggestibilty of the psychologically vulnerable would do anything like that or allow it to be done, and no-one who did not want to suggest ideas like that would have put out or allowed to be put out Harris’s name with “Savile” and “sexual offences” nine months before he was charged and first thing in the morning of the day Lord Leveson said in his report “I think that it should be made abundantly clear that save in exceptional and clearly identified circumstances (for example, where there may be an immediate risk to the public), the names or identifying details of those who are arrested or suspected of a crime should not be released to the press nor the public.”
- Cloudberry
- Charlotte walters
February 9, 2015 at 7:30 pm -
I can’t imagine why anyone would feel sorry for Karen Ward, she made the desicion to write her blogs and books and to talk on TV. IF she is so certain of her account then why worry, but she must take responsibility herself for her actions and not expect help from anywhere else. Why should the licence payer bare her court costs anyway? Some people make a career out of people feeling sorry for them. They’re sometimes called suckers.
- Moor Larkin
February 9, 2015 at 8:43 pm -
I’ve noticed her books have now been repackaged to stretch to five purchases, whereas they used to be three. Certainly the celebrity libel is in Pt3 now where it used to be in Pt2. I guess even the most kindly lawyers have to be paid somehow. Here’s the David Bowie story… “The girl with the mousey hair” bit is pure genius I must confess…
“, I spent a very pleasant hour with David Bowie in an exclusive London coffee-shop-come-bar. I can mention Mr. Bowie without fear of reprisal as the man was a perfect gentleman. His conversation was intelligent; he was sensitive and most concerned about me and the strict regime at Duncroft. He sympathized with me when I told him all my hopes and dreams had been dashed before they’d even been truly born. He further gave me some good advice (now I look back on it), telling me to live each day to the full, as it comes, and simply see where life leads. With astonishing foresight he told me all subjects would soon be studied by people of all ages and it was never too late to start out in a new direction.
I told him I often wrote poetry which I should one day like to convert into songs. His odd coloured eyes twinkled as he told me writing poetry was a good start. He said he’d try to keep in touch and if he used any of my material, he’d pay handsomely for it.
Sadly, I only ever saw him on that single occasion. That he was successful and very busy is without doubt, but I often wonder if he ever recalls the skinny, mousy-haired girl he passed an hour with after he’d met her at Television Centre.The list of celebrities I met during weekends in the company of JS is a long one. I acquired an autograph book and had almost filled it before I left Duncroft. I’ve no idea what happened to that book; I moved about so much in the years after I left and it became lost. I should like to have it and look back on it – although maybe not. Doing so might revive some memories I have mercifully blanked out and forgotten.”
- Moor Larkin
- eric hardcastle
February 10, 2015 at 3:00 am -
Re : Private Eye
As a subscriber this article struck me as very strange even for them and I venture that we all know who the author is and PE would easily accept a piece from him. My reasoning:
1. There is no way in the world Private Eye or indeed any publisher or business would fund the defence of a libel action they are not named in and for PE to even suggest it is very odd and suspicious.
2. With their long history of libel actions PE must at least see what is evidently a legal strategy being played here.
3. Starr’s lawyers would have already put any publisher who published Ward’s claims on notice : that they reserve the right to take a libel action at any time. That’s a normal procedure and necessary because of time limits for actions.
4. pursuing the weakest link is a good strategy. If Starr’s team demolish the prime ‘witness’ they can then pursue tabloid publishers. Those cases would not even get to court and settlements would be negotiated.
5/ Of course Starr and everyone knows no money will be forthcoming from Ward if he wins. She would either go bankrupt or they would let payment lie on file as the real money would follow from tabloids who would have no defence once Ward had been dealt with.
6. Private Eye’s piece is amazingly naive for them and that is why I think it’s a contribution from someone who has a lot to lose if Ward faces a court – anyone connected with her and who encouraged her claims would be in the firing line.
7. The piece sticks put like a sore thumb for what it is : written by someone with an undeclared interest in having rich publishers fund Ward’s defence. This is a long term strategy and Ward has little to lose being broke- others have far more to lose and we know who they are.
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }