by Julian Ruck
For a classic example of the Welsh government’s blazing incompetence and reluctance to consider any true private investment (but to be fair, there is no authentic private sector in Wales) that doesn’t involve their profligate dishing out of tax-payers’ money at will to duff so-called commercial enterprises, please consider some correspondence (below) that was recently sent to me by Jeremy Oakley, a businessman.
Mr Oakley’s abridged letter to first minister Carwyn Jones, on 16.5.13 is as follows – please note, no response was forthcoming from Mr Jones, neither was there a response from his deputy Rhodri Price, who had put his deputy, one James Price onto it as a matter of urgency.
“It is with deep regret that I must inform you of my decision to pull investment we had planned for north Wales, specifically for the Trawsfynydd power station site.
Over the last 2 years, we have created a green energy project that was specifically designed for Trawsfynydd.
The project was to create 100 full time long term jobs by using new technology to create Bioethanol from the local natural resources of grass, bracken and soft rush.
The annual return to the region would have been c€20m plus the income derived from full time mixed ability jobs created in a high unemployment area.
The capital expenditure for the project would have been 130m EUR of which c60% would have been a local spend.”
That’s right €130m of investment in Wales in exactly the type of green energy project we desperately need, lost without even an explanation. But Wales’ loss is other countries’ gain. Mr. Oakley continues,
“Given the lack of encouragement and support from within the various Welsh authorities, I have taken the project to three EU countries, one of which is prepared to attract the project because of the positive social impact it will make in the region and is prepared to support it with a series of financial incentives still within member states support allowances.
The second country were able to respond within 24 hours of my initial visit and have instantly come back with a series of measures, incentives and land supply and the third has initially offered land, a site and support on the strength of a phone call and without a visit as yet!”
Mr Oakley has been in talks and meetings with a legion number of Welsh establishment figures from MP’s (Elfyn Llwyd MP, Glyn Davies MP was written to, no reply), Leaders of county councils (Dyfed Edwards, Gwynedd CC), to welsh Labour administration officials of all shapes and sizes eg Dafyd Elis-Thomas AM, Sioned Williams, Gwyneth county council head of economic regeneration and where Edwina Hart Minister for economy science and technology was concerned, she was too busy to communicate direct so her bureaucratic minions were instructed to act on her behalf. The welsh Committee at Westminster has also been too busy to respond in any meaningful way.
Frankly, the rest of the list is far too long to be included here.
Mr Oakley writes to me personally, saying:
“I have had 100% funding pledged twice for the project in Wales. Once from Private Equity and more recently as part of a larger fundraising programme to fund a series of these projects in Europe. The project required no subsidy from the Welsh Assembly Government. I needed their moral support to please the funders, I needed them to work with the Snowdonia National Park planners in helping to regenerate the site and help us with the design of the plant so it fitted in to the surroundings and I needed them to upgrade the railway line, which they plan to do anyway, to limit the amount of road traffic through the National Park.’
Carwyn Jones’ office promised a reply by 14th June and merely mentioned the fact that I must feel ‘frustrated’ not to have got very far with the project. They were supposed to be looking at the problem with some urgency but after 4 weeks nobody has contacted me.
I wrote to the Welsh Committee in Westminster and had a very subdued reply from their admin person who said he would pass the comments on to the MP’s on the committee and had I tried speaking to the AM’s!!
It is incredible!!”
The loss to Wales is not just this project but the confidence and commitment of entrepreneurs like Jeremy Oakley. He goes on,
“I see that the business minister and inward investment agency are off on another jolly to Japan – presumably to attract another giant subsidy seeking short term company.
Perhaps they should look on their own doorstep!
Given the enthusiasm from other countries… I need waste no more time in Wales.”
I do not feel I need to add anything here, except to say that it is no wonder that Wales is the lowest performing economy in Europe and I hear that Carwyn has just put in an order for 20 two-seater bi-planes as part of his commercial development plan for Cardiff airport.
Finally, there is a salutary lesson in the above for welsh Labour and its institutions – you cannot gag private individuals who refuse to travel on the welsh Labour gravy train express.
Julian Ruck is the author of the Ragged Cliffs Trilogy and legal thriller The Bent Brief. He is a Freedom of Information campaigner, columnist and makes contributions to both Welsh and national broadcasting and media.
Tags: Carwyn Jones, Jeremy Oakley, Julian Ruck, Letter from Wales, Trawsfynydd power station
No subsidy?
Hmmm, How much are they getting from the drivers,forced to buy their product at a high cost than the alternative.
‘…it is no wonder that Wales is the lowest performing economy in Europe’
What information are you basing that on? I am no economist but I’m sure there are plenty of countries doing worst. In fact, what does ‘lowest performing economy’ even mean?
Also, what do you mean by the Welsh Assembly having a ‘reluctance to consider any true private investment’? What is the difference between ‘true private investment’ and regular ‘private investment’ and how is the assembly blocking the former?
To Nick,
I’m not sure that your comment addresses the point of my Letter, but you are of course entitled to an opinion.
Thank you.
JR
To Caryhorse/Crazyhorse,
You have form.
I will not engage with you.
JR
You can’t just refuse to debate withsomeone. They seem like perfectly legit questions to ask. Based on what stats do you judge that Wales is the lowest performing economy in europe?
An interesting story, if accurate. Had I been news editor on any organisation to which this piece was submitted, however, I would have asked these questions:
1. Who is Jeremy Oakley? ‘A businessman’ doesn’t suffice. What’s the name of his company? What are his credentials? Who are the private equity backers willing to stump up 130m euros without asking for a penny in public subsidy?
2. If the funding was in place why did Mr Oakley have need of ‘moral support’? Surely he could just make his plans public and seek permission for them?
3. What are the three countries that think this project is the bee’s knees? Especially the one that offered land, site and support ‘on the strength of a phone call and without a visit’? How credible are they?
2. What do the other parties have to say? Has the author even tried to get their side of the story through a simple phone call or question to their offices? Or did he simply read this letter from Mr Oakley and recount it verbatim?
3. The piece ends by claiming ‘there is a salutary lesson in the above for welsh Labour and its institutions’. Yet earlier it cites the apparent disinterest in Mr Oakley’s plans by Glyn Davies MP (Conservative) and Elfyn Llwyd MP (Plaid Cymru), and ‘Dafyd (sic) Elis-Thomas (also Plaid Cymru). If this is a Labour failing why do the Tories and the nationalists share it?
4. When the author refers to ‘Gwyneth county council’ is he referring to Ms Paltrow?
Great dismantling of the article, and in record time. Other questions I am surprised the LU moderators didn’t ask are: Firstly, if Jeremy Oakley is talented and experienced enough to get companies to stake E130 million in a renewable energy project, why is there absolutely no mention of him on this internet. I assume he must be the CEO of some significant company with some sort of prior track record. Secondly, how come if he is smart enough to convince people to stake millions in his project, he is not smart enough to know you don’t end a sentence with two !! (Funnily his punctuation is very similar to that of Ruck’s)
Poppycock, Labour uncut. Poppycock.
Jeremy Oakley is an imaginary character.
The Trawsfynydd power station is in good hands being decommissioned.
And I’d expect this website to slate the PC and Tory AMs mentioned above.
Wales is a beautiful country, full of passionate Labour supporters, and yet you choose this ill-informed and plagiarizing clown to represent our opinions?
A Letter from Wales? A Letter from Cuckooland, more like.
Yours,
Disappointed of Builth Wells.
Crazyhorse – I wouldn’t say I’m dismantling it. Just questioning it. For all I know there are good answers to all the questions above. But if so they should have been in the article as any junior reporter should know.
I’m assuming the technology involved here is cellulosic ethanol by the way. I’m not sure how a national park would take to having its land harvested for biofuel which may explain some of the reticence. That and the fact biofuels aren’t quite as fashionable as they once were.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/26/uk-bp-ethanol-idUKBRE89P06H20121026
Apologies for the poor numbering on the paragraphs in that response by the way. I’m too used to letting Word do that for me.
You publish a “letter from Wales’ by someone who can’t even spell the Gwynedd, as in county of Gwynedd, who can’t be bothered to spell place names correctly. Enough said.
The article itself, apart from telling Wales that Jeremy Oakley (who he?) is the great dashed white hope of North Wales (the man can’t be found on the internet and nor can the company to which Ruck refers), can’t seem to tell the difference between local politics, county councils, assembly members and the Westminster Welsh committee. While the Assembly may be run by Welsh Labour, the Westminster committee is chaired by a Tory and answers to the UK parliament, and Gwynedd council is Plaid. Not sure where ‘Welsh Labour and its institutions’ are in all this.
I ask: would Labour Uncut publish ill-written, under-sourced, at times plagiarised and always badly written and ill-spelled ‘letters’ form Scotland? I imagine not.
This article is truly bizarre. Mr Ruck seems to take entirely on trust the assertions of someone who is unfindable both on the internet or in the register of company directors. Mr Ruck says that Mr Oakley is a ‘private businessman’. Great! Where? in what? who says? How does he know the 130 million euros exist or are forthcoming? Which other countries have offered their lands and national parks to this man who appears to have no record in owning companies or managing sustainable energy?
Bizarre , but weird outright is this statement:
“I needed their moral support to please the funders, I needed them to work with the Snowdonia National Park planners in helping to regenerate the site and help us with the design of the plant so it fitted in to the surroundings and I needed them to upgrade the railway line, which they plan to do anyway, to limit the amount of road traffic through the National Park.”
Let’s go over this: if the funding is there and exists , then in what way in moral support an issue? Work with the Snowdonia National Park – what does he mean here? The Parks is an area of outstanding natural beauty, and yes it has planners – has Mr Oakley consulted them? Clearly not, in which case the plan was a pipedream; also, the National Park planners are not what Ruck laughingly calls ‘Welsh Labour’. ‘I needed them to upgrade the railway line’ – really? how do the park planners upgrade a railway line? That’s a matter for Arriva Trains Wales and the Welsh govt. ‘Which they plan to do anyway’? Who plans to do it? Who are these ‘funders’ who need moral support shown to Mr Oakley?
The reason I think Mr Oakley is either an invention, a hoax or possibly a well-meaning but thoroughly unrealistic individual is that, were he to exist, the procedures he describes for starting a major energy company in a national park, bear no resemblance to those that exist in reality.
It may well come to pass that Mr Oakley is real and his company flourishes in another country, but for now I think he’s either an invention , a hoax, or well-meaning amateur.
The fact that he chooses Julian Ruck to come to for succour is puzzling, to say the least.
Love the meta vibe of this posting: an imaginary character (‘ruck’) talking about another made up character!
Julian –
As others have pointed out, this would be a potentially interesting story if true. The problem is that much more detail is required in order to make sense of it. Fortunately, given that you have researched the subject, it should be easy for you to provide it.
Can you confirm that you have substantiated the information provided in the email from Mr Oakley? You haven’t just taken it on trust, have you?
I’ve had a root around on the internet and there is simply no record of Mr Oakley, his bioethanol projects or any company he owns or directs that corresponds to this story to be found.
I’m just puzzled really at the odd naivety of the way in which the letter Ruck quotes appears to be written: an application which apparently already has money but needs ‘moral support’ from devolved govt, but which at the same time needs a national park to ‘upgrade’ ‘its’ railway system and writes to the Welsh committee at Westminster which has tory chairman. The 2 MPs named are Plaid MPs and Gwynedd council is Plaid-run. Assuming they’ve been approached by Mr Oakley, in what way does their reluctance to engage reflect on ‘Welsh’ Labour? And in any case, judging from Mr Oakley’s odd letter, I’d expect any elected rep from any party with responsibility for public money to be extremely cautious of anything so peculiarly unrealistic and confused.
Maybe it’s the way Ruck tells the story, but I’d want a hell of a lot more than what is described so far before I hand over a power plant in a national park to anyone.
It’s possible that the project is in such infancy it’s only at embryo stage, but it’s a rum tale Mr Ruck is telling so far.
I won’t hide the fact, as I have stated, that these letters from Wales are of extremely poor quality, but here at least I am engaging with the issues, and not for the first time I am asking Mr Ruck to elaborate, clarify or answer very basic questions.
While I’m sure there must be some truth to this story, it does occur to me that there is nothing in the article to suggest Julian isn’t basing it solely on an email received from someone calling themselves Jeremy Oakley. It would be useful for him to break his (unusual) silence and provide more detail.
The reason I say this is because Julian has talked in the past about the prank emails he’s received. It would be unfortunate if he’s fallen victim to one. But I, too, can find no obvious trace of Mr Oakley online.
To ‘Dave’,
I will not engage with anonymous Trolls.
And neither you Hewson nor you Mosby, are worthy of any meaningful response.
JR
Au contraire Mr Ruck. I find your response very meaningful indeed!
Julian –
“And neither you Hewson nor you Mosby, are worthy of any meaningful response.”
Based on past experiences, I imagine neither of us was expecting one.
Can you substantiate your article, Julian? It should be fairly simple. People are only asking you to elaborate on the points you’ve raised. If you don’t want to, why did you want to raise the issues in the article in the first place?
This is telling. When comment threads are free of what Mr Ruck calls “personal insult”, he is extremely quiet and blatantly refuses to engage in debate. Answer the questions you coward.
To the Trolls at al,
I must say, you desperate interlocutors really are a curious rag-tag mixture of wishful thinkers and hopeful obsessives aren’t you?
For the record I personally contacted Edwina Hart’s (Business Minister of Welsh Government) office for a response to my article, indeed I also requested an interview. On both occasions I dealt with one Matthew Pritchard – do feel free to speak with the Welsh Government’s Press Office to confirm.
M/s Hart was unprepared to make any comment neither was she prepared to be interviewed- you must draw your own conclusions.
But do note that no-one from the Welsh Government has come out and denied Mr Oakley’s correspondence etc
Further, only yesterday the Western Mail’s Chief Reporter, Martin Shipton did a piece on my Arts Council of Wales Letter, confirming every word I had put into the public domain.
I personally contacted John Griffith’s (Minister for Culture and responsible for Arts funding) office for a response to my Biennale Letter. Again nothing and an outright refusal to be interviewed – again draw your own conclusions.
Now, all I can say to all you who insist on constantly trying to discredit me, do please contact the relevant Welsh Government departments as stated above and be enlightened.
And if you really think I would be stupid enough to put unsourced, uncorroborated and unverified data into the public domain, then you really are out of your minds – come to think of it………?
Do please go and waste someone elses time, preferably your own, which you all seem to have an inordinate amount of.
JR
PS Journalists have also been given Mr Oakley’s telephone number should they require interviews.
PS I dealt with a Mr Sebastian Hains, assistant to John Griiffiths and Lynsey May Press Officer, Welsh Government.
Please check if you so wish.
JR
Julian –
“Now, all I can say to all you who insist on constantly trying to discredit me, do please contact the relevant Welsh Government departments as stated above and be enlightened.
And if you really think I would be stupid enough to put unsourced, uncorroborated and unverified data into the public domain, then you really are out of your minds – come to think of it………?”
You don’t know the answers to the questions people have asked you, do you? Oh dear.
Basic journalism, Ruck. It’s your job to verify your sources. No one else’s. The fact a government official doesn’t reply to a query he or she may regard as frivolous or plain stupid does not validate your article.
Is Mr Oakley, a ‘businessman’ according to you, a company director? If so… What company?
‘I’ve contacted X, you can check!’ Excellent Walter Mitty trope, well applied.
Genuinely interested to know which ‘prep school’ you attended ‘Mr Ruck’, we might be old boys! Please can you respond?
Given your vehement opposition to the waste of public money we should also be told why you’re wasting it yourself by contacting government officials and politicians and demanding they give you their time.
Above you claim you contacted a press officer. They’re there to deal with the professional media. Not rank amateurs. Hardly surprising they don’t respond.
To Hewson,
My inbox is full of replies, not to mention notes on telephonic conversations eg the policy officer of Welsh Labour one Martin Eaglestone.
As for Mr Oakley himself, you of all people should know that I am hardly likely to put into the public domain the personal details of one of my sources?
The fact remains, that in spite of numerous communications with Edwina Hart’s office, no-one has denied the veracity of my article.
Res ipsa loquitur, don’t you think?
Keep trying, if it makes your day a little livelier than it normally is.
Now do go away.
And as for you, ‘Ed Parke’, fantasist extraordinaire, Craig y Nos. Earnie Walters was my Headmaster for five tears back in the 1960’s, when the school was located in Eaton Crescent, Uplands Swansea.
Somewhat before the your time I suspect. The learned gentleman steered me through the Common Entrance Exam.
Like Hewson, keep trying you silly Billy.
JR
To Ed,
You haver brought back delightful some memories!
Those were the days, particularly when I was little older. Pretty girls from Malvern Ladies’ College, Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Roedean and even the odd romantic fling with girls from St Clare’s Porthcawl! – keeping up the Welsh side of me as it were, you will no doubt be pleased to know!
JR
Surely Mr Ruck will supply or will have supplied the corroborative details about Mr Oakley to the editor of Labour Uncut, who will be able to confirm them without revealing them.
I don’t think there’s anything trollish about wanting more information about Mr Oakley, his project, the name of his company or his experience of major energy projects that involve using power stations in national parks.
All this can be done without affecting confidentiality, and probably Mr Oakley would welcome Mr Ruck shedding light on his form as a businessman and entrepreneur.
Besides, if we are to have a full debate about the merits of the scheme and ‘Welsh Labour”s alleged responsibility for ‘blowing’ it, Mr Ruck should welcome the chance to clarify things without abusing people.
Mr Ruck is as usual evading the questions.
For a FOI ‘campaigner’, Mr Ruck is pretty opaque when it comes to answering questions.
Martin Eaglestone appears to be a Labour Party official. What on earth has a planning application to do with him?
Thank you Ruck for a) confirming you have no idea whether the central premise if this article – that a serious attempt to bring jobs and investment to Wales was scuppered by Labour – has any basis in Ruth whatsoever; and b) that you really couldn’t care less.
Oops.. Basis in truth of course… Autocomplete fail….
Hewson, now I know you really have lost the plot.
Who has written anything about Town and Country planning?
Oh and give up the class war, very last Season. Eight ‘O’ levels is an achievement to be proud of, I worked like hell for mine. How may Grade 1’s just out of curiosity, being as you are such a clever chappy?
JR
Julian –
“As for Mr Oakley himself, you of all people should know that I am hardly likely to put into the public domain the personal details of one of my sources?”
What, like his name?
This is beyond parody. You have a written an article about a news story, which – if true – is interesting enough to discuss. And yet you have not provided enough detail for people to do so. When asked for more detail, you’re evasive. Do you not want people to discuss the story you have broken? I’m genuinely baffled.
The objective observer is left with the most obvious explanation: that there is no basis for this article; that you have either made it up yourself or been astonishingly gullible. Because the truth is, if you had more information, you would surely provide it. There is no reason not to, and both your article and the discussion would benefit enormously from you doing so.
Res ipsa loquitur indeed.
To Mosby,
Still trying I note.
I assure you all the objective observer is noting, are your desperate and farsical attempts at juvenile smear.
Go away and concetrate on writing another of your ‘bestsellers’ is my advice, although you are getting a bit of cheap publicity on Uncut I suppose.
Helping sales is it?
JR
This is a ludicrous spectacle – why doesn’t Ruck give us more details on who this Mr Oakley is? All people are trying to do is establish what on earth was going on, what this company is, who they contacted and where their money is or was coming from. This is because the story, if true, is interesting, and yet it’s impossible to find anything out about it.
All Ruck does is insult people. I know I myself have been guilty of intemperate remarks about Ruck, his motivations and his truthfulness in the past, but now I just want to put that aside and to know some of the facts that underpin this story.
As other commentators have remarked, there’s a bizarre element of confusion/ignorance/obfuscation in this piece.
It isn’t plagiarised, and it isn’t sexist of homophobic, which is something, but it remains bizarre.
Julian –
“To Mosby,
Still trying I note.”
Yes, still trying to get you to answer basic questions about a column you clearly think is important, but which you’re unwilling to provide more information on, for reasons I can’t fathom. Do you not get – do you not understand – that you would garner some credibility by doing so? That your detractors might then have to say “you know, Julian has a point – that’s interesting”?
You don’t seem to want to be a real journalist.
“Go away and concetrate on writing another of your ‘bestsellers’ is my advice”
I write for most of the day. I can’t write every second of it, though. In some cases, extra-curricular entertainment just presents itself. In others, it keeps mentioning me in comment threads and then wonders why I won’t leave it alone.
Julian, this article seems a bit ridiculous, but, thankfully, not plagiarised.
If this Jeremy Oakley could, or did, have the power to find €130m of funding to Wales, why has he no online presence?
Why has it not been announced that he offered it? On the bbc or the western mail? That is huge news, so why is it you and not a real journalist?
You have been hoodwinked before via email, are you sure this is not another attempt?
You ask Mr Hewson who is talking about town and country planning, you did! In your letter.
Again can you stop being evasive and childish when your views have been called into question? If people have valid questions, even if you dislike them, you have a responsibilty to answer them.
Anything else, no matter how defiant, is an admission of defeat.
JA
This is totally laughable. Ruck bemoans the standard of debate, then when people try to engage, he tells them to “go away”. Labour Uncut, for the love of God, why do you keep on publishing this imbecile’s rants?
You lot are all very good at tossing out your ridiculious garbage but now YOU answer the following questions:-
1 Why do you suppose that after one year and my NAMING umpteen people not ONE of these people has sent me a solicitor’s letter or attempted a cause of libel?
And this includes all the Welsh administration officials I have named, also note that there hasn’t been one solitary word of denial re Mr Oakley’s letters etc, whom I have met and talked to.
NB And again note particularly you Hewson, for such a ‘serious’ platform (your words) isn’t this a trifle odd???
2 In spite of all my articles and exposures not one ONE individual who has been the subject of said articles has sought to challenge me on fact or pose even a desultory defence?
You are all peeing in the wind, you all quite obviusly lead empty and extremely sad lives and you are all an utter waste of space.
Now I repeat go away, and find somenthing more constructive to do.
JR
Mr Ruck, you are deluded – all anyone does on this site is challenge you to prove things, clarify things, admit things (plagiarism, rejection by publishers you attack etc) and offer you the chance to make some sense.
All you do is insult them.
Labour Uncut – this fool is an embarrassment to you.
It’s not libellous simply to get your facts consistently wrong. Just the behaviour of a buffoon which is why they ignore you. All people have asked for here is some evidence that the claims you’ve made are true. Instead of providing it you ask me what grades I got in a school exam 40 years ago. Says it all….
Ruck writes: “please consider some correspondence (below) that was recently sent to me by Jeremy Oakley, a businessman.”
Well, we are considering it, that’s the point. We’re asking the some further questions in the spirit of this thing called ‘debate’. But Ruck doesn’t debate, he insults and calls people names.
Who is Mr Oakley? What and where is his company? The ‘letter’ Ruck quotes is so full of bizarre misunderstandings and confusions about procedures and different government and non-government bodies that it cries out for clarification. There’s even confusion about national parks having responsibility for rail infrastructure, and a total absence of understanding of which politician belongs to which party.
Of course it calls out for Ruck to answer questions and clarify his points, and the total absence of online presence of, articles about, or reference to, Jeremy Oakley are very odd.
I can only think that Ruck has diddly-squat and has made this up – it wouldn’t be the first time.
As David Hewson says, the reason no-one engages with him is that he is obviously a buffoon and a crank with a track record of deceit and vindictiveness.
What on earth a politics website is doing giving him a platform is beyond me, but it’s entertaining in its way.
Well now Hewson.
You’re the one who is claiming to be such a smarty pants, nay a prospective Nobel Prize winner for Literature no less
You were the one declaring your ‘O’ Level evidence of academic excellence on this site ( I won’t go into mine, I don’t have the time), so I rather think the buffoonery is all yours.
But here’s the the thing, for such a Pulitzer aspirant and no doubt runner-up in your time, why on earth have you spent one year stalking and attempting to smear and discredit me – one who is merely a humble scribbler, a Mr Nobody and who according to you, has only sold a copy or two of his books????
Get a life Hewson and go and bore somebody else to death. Actually, you might think of visiting a male hair-piece salon while you’re at it, you know what’s it’s like these days, image is everthing!
JR
Mr Ruck, you’ve raised the issue of libel before. I hope this time my response gets through moderation – I don’t understand why it was suppressed in the first place.
To quote you:
“I am more than familair with the law of libel Mr Campbell, so does it not strike you as odd, that to date NOT ONE individual or member of any Welsh organisation who has been the sublect of my exposures come forward to correct me – or try to sue me?????????”
To which I responded
“No odder than that you haven’t sued the people whose comments here you yourself have called libellous, Mr Ruck.”
Mr Ruck,
Instead of letting this conversation descend further towards a full on squabble, would you be kind enough to provide a little more information about this Mr Oakley. What company does he work for, what are the other countries the power station will move too now it will not be in Wales. Maybe you could provide his e-mail so one of us can ask our questions to him directly. Or did you pass on his e-mail to Labour Uncut so that they could verify the story themselves before posting it online?
I look forward to you reply.
DA
To Campbell,
A suit of defamation is only worthwhile if the defendant has means and assets to cover both costs and damages.
The ne’re do wells who lurk around the internet trying to smear and discredit me have neither. If they did, they wouldn’t waste their time bothering with me.
Simple.
There is of course always the option of making a defendant bankrupt in pursuit of costs and damages but again a Bankruptcy Petition is only as good as the bankrupt’s assets, Hewson and Mosby would do well to consider this
I have the means to institute proceedings, do they have the means to defend them? Particulary where any income payment orders, gifts under Wills, transfer of ownership of all real property to the Trustee etc etc are concerned
Probably not I suspect, although their words are being scrutinised very carefully.
Apart from the above, frankly none of you are worth the time let alone effort.
I really do have better things to do and believe me no-one is taking any of you seriously anyway.
So Campbell, like the rest of them, go and find something better to do.
JR
PS And by the way Campbell and for the record, lawyers have been instructed even where Welfare Benefit claimants are concerned.
Bankruptcy has an extremly long arm particulary where time is concerned and I can be a somewhat determined fellow when needs must, particularly where my reputation is concerned.
And if anyone thinks I’m prone to fancy, try me.
JR
I really wouldn’t fear for your reputation Ruck. Can Labour Uncut kindly amend the headline on this article? Clearly the author has nothing to substantiate his claim that the Welsh government has blown any such deal. Or indeed that such a deal even existed.