by Julian Ruck
Mark Drakeford, Welsh health minister and professor of social policy no less (these days, just about everyone who has attended the Cardiff university Welsh madrassa is a professor of something or other), was spouting forth on the Sunday Politics show last Sunday – the Welsh version, which I assure readers is far more entertaining than Andrew Neil’s London spot.
Whilst ducking and diving in true Welsh government fashion, he seemed to be of the opinion that viewers were privileged to hear his pearls of medicinal wisdom and that indeed they were lucky to see him at all. He did have better things to do than accounting for himself you know. I mean, never mind the fact that the Welsh NHS is receiving less money than the English NHS due to Carwyn’s Bernie ap Madoff accountancy rules and farcical use of taxpayers’ money to generate no hope causes eg billions of European hard earned going AWOL, Carwyn’s Carriers at Cardiff airport, business ‘Techniums’ and bankrupt pubs (I’m not joking, see next column).
He began his justifications with a flogged out, tedious and somewhat pedestrian class war diatribe aimed at Cameron’s “telescopic Etonian” perceptions of right not being might – I wonder who wrote that for him? One cannot help but wonder here, what his views on Fettes College elitism and doctoral graduates of the University of Edinburgh are? Not quite the stuff of a Cardiff madrassa, are they? Maybe he had eaten too many laverbread splattered Welsh cakes for breakfast, who knows?
So, the point of all this?
The interview was a classic example of Carwyn’s government being camera shy and not taking kindly to public scrutiny. The soundings I hear from the Welsh media are all the same: Carwyn’s gegin cabinet (gegin, Welsh for kitchen) are always reluctant to show their faces and take a sound thrashing from their masters, indeed they won’t even advise the Assembly Communications Office of briefing times.
Allow me to give you a more personal example of the Welsh government’s contempt for democratic accountability and scrutiny. Only last week when I telephoned its press office for notification of press briefings, one Matthew Pritchard implied I was lying and then in a fit of juvenile tantrum slammed down the phone when I advised that I am a member of the NUJ (with a press pass), I write regularly for SWW Media (owners of the Evening Post, Star, Journal etc etc) and that I have made contributions to both Welsh and national broadcasting and media (BBC’s Sunday Politics being one of them ).
Where previous requests for comment were made to the head of the Welsh government’s press office (one Simon Jenkins, no Alastair ap Campbell I hazard, more a pacifist Ghandi without the loincloth) were concerned, the response was always the same. ‘We do not respond to blogs ie Uncut.’ This ruefully robotic and shifty reply may well have some merit, were it not for the fact that I write for the Welsh press and not just Uncut? Further I am certainly not lying, as Mr Pritchard implies. The evidence to refute this scurrilous accusation is all over the internet for all and sundry to see.
I should mention here, that the Welsh Labour Party press office is no better. Their communications apparatchik Huw Price ( I wonder what his salary is?), is equally inclined to Putinesque lock down when it comes to any kind of journalistic scrutiny that, in his profound sound bite and protective wisdom, may be deemed even remotely inquisitive.
Where Uncut is concerned, I suspect that both Jenkins and his toy throwing side-kick Pritchard, have been too distracted by the pages of Goebbels Diaries and a parochially compliant Welsh media to consider that internet news platforms are rapidly taking over from their print counterparts. The Welsh government may not like my pointed criticisms in these columns and elsewhere, but it is accountable and subject to unapologetic scrutiny whether it likes it or not.
We live in a democracy, albeit that Carwyn and his professorial Team Druid would have the Welsh believe otherwise.
What will they try and do next?
Stop me going to Liberal Democrat and Tory press briefings?
As I have said before, Carwyn’s Labour is not Ed’s Labour and as far as I know Ed hasn’t just forked up £6,661 of taxpayers’ money for a personal 75-inch office TV either.
Julian Ruck is an author, journalist and columnist. He also makes contributions to both Welsh and national broadcasting and media.
Tags: accountability democracy, Julian Ruck, Letter from Wales, Mark Drakeford
What a load of Tory propaganda, Wales is suffering huge cuts thanks to your Tory and Fib-Dem friends. Also there are a huge amount of people retiring to Wales and so puts more pressure on the NHS. Instead of criticizing the Labour Government for trying to deal with massive cuts, why don’t you attack the real villains in the Con-Dem Government who are destroying the welfare state? Or are you really a front for the Tory party on Lynton Crosby?
To Socialist Agenda,
My column is hardly a celebration of Tory rule and it is certainly not a criticism of Westminster Labour.
With respect, but I feel you are missing my distinction between Welsh Labour and Ed’s Labour.
Julian Ruck
Socialist agenda, if Julian has the Tories and Libdems as friends, then why would they possibly stop him going to presentations, your point about cuts, didn’t you read what what said about Ed and the TV,
As a former NUJ member and onetime FoC (you won’t know what that is Ruck so look it up) I have to say I’m appalled my old union appears to be so short of readies that it’s letting the likes of him claim membership now.
The NUJ is a legally constituted body with firm rules on membership eligibility. These state that full membership is only open to ‘Persons in staff occupations, freelances who have no other full-time job, earn at least half of their income from journalism and are mainly dependent on this income or journalists who are refugees or who are seeking asylum in the UK or Ireland.’
Unless the Llanelli Star is extraordinarily generous towards someone who writes the occasional sad rant, or Labour Uncut lavishes largesse on him for the weekly drivel he produces here, it’s inconceivable he meets these criteria.
Membership is the NUJ is for professionals, not amateurs. A clue to Ruck’s thinking appears in his boast that he has a ‘press pass’. An NUJ card is a membership document, not a pass to anything. He appears to assume otherwise.
When I appeared at the Dylan Thomas Festival in Swansea a few weeks ago he blagged a free ticket on the basis of ‘being press, thereby depriving the local authority of the £6 entrance fee. After which he flounced out after five minutes pleading ‘another engagement’ (presumably the approaching end of Wetherspoons Happy Hour).
The NUJ is a professional trade union. Its membership card isn’t there to get you into events for free or to demand that working PRs and politicians take notice of you, however ridiculous and offensive your behaviour, however incompetent your attempts at amateur journalism.
I do hope any NUJ member reading this boast above will ask why Julian Ruck has been admitted to their ranks. They could start with asking the Cardiff and SE Wales branch if anyone has verified his credentials – http://www.nujcardiff.org.uk/
And I certainly hope that all the political parties restrict press briefings to bona fide professional members of the press.
Julian, no party will speak to you because you are seen as a tragicomic farce! You are not a journalist and your writing is only known for its badness.
Your last interview ( I use the term begrudgingly) was the worst political interview ever conducted.
You say you write for the Welsh press, you don’t old boy, you write for the Llanelli Star. When not plagiarising you come out with corkers like this
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Julian-Ruck-s-column-dangers-working-nursing-home/story-19463151-detail/story.html#axzz2kjv7vkqD
This is why you don’t get a response julian.
To our David,
Now you mention it, Wetherspoons do a grand pint of ale I must say, tidy price too.
And their Happy Hours really are a fine old wheeze!
All the best,
Julian
“I write for the Welsh press and not just Uncut.”
Indeed.
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Julian-Ruck-s-column-men-turning-women/story-19778799-detail/story.html#axzz2kkoXibRq
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Julian-Ruck-s-column-Battle-sexes/story-18727658-detail/story.html#axzz2kkoXibRq
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Julian-Ruck-s-column-Brummie-skip-driver/story-18921806-detail/story.html#axzz2kkoXibRq
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/aren-t-women-funny/story-17446138-detail/story.html#axzz2kkoXibRq
http://julianruck.wordpress.com/media/llanelli-star-weekly-column/
To Messrs Hewson, Abell and Campbell,
Your relentless hating and smearing has been going on for well over a year now.
Sadly, I can only conclude that all three of you must lead desperately unhappy lives.
I genuinely hope that one day, you all find whatever it is you seek.
I’m off now to make the missus a cup of tea before I enjoy the warmth of our Saturday morning cwtch.
Best wishes,
Julian
I imagine no one will be surprised you try to laugh this off rather than respond or even deny it. Uncut has made much of the union shenanigans with Unite in Falkirk. How rich that it has a ‘columnist’ who appears to have acquired and attempted to benefit from a union card to which he isn’t entitled.
Given your opinions on journalist you clearly didn’t join the NUJ because you admire the profession. In your own words…
“Facts are sacred! The bedrocks of journalism! Who the hell are you kidding?! …Dear God, journalists have a worse reputation than lawyers and that’s saying something.”
http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2013/06/23/letter-from-wales-where-has-%E2%80%9Cclear-red-water%E2%80%9D-got-wales/comment-page-1/#comment-19049
I trust this will help the NUJ reconsider your membership.
PS And all because I exposed in the national press and on television, the scandal of taxpayers’ money being used to fund Welsh writers, the autobiograhies of BBC Wales staffers and presenters etc etc
It is regrettable that you are all so viciously averse to the truth.
JR
‘ To Messrs Hewson, Abell and Campbell,
Your relentless hating and smearing has been going on for well over a year now.’
I think that is an extraordinary response to my post, which did no more than provide links – absolutely without any comment on my part – to your own journalism.
I never realised the ‘truth’ was so important to you. That certainly doesn’t come across in your ‘work’.
But let’s see some of it. How did you manage to join the National Union of Journalists when you are plainly not eligible under union rules? And why, given your distaste for journalism, did you bother? Because you thought a ‘press pass’ would get you freebies and access to politicians who have better things to do?
Not complex questions. A simple answer will do.
Dear Mr Hewson,
Fair minded readers will recognise that I have exercised considerable restraint where your persistent personal attacks are concerned, beginning with your delightful article about the Kidwell-e Festival back in July 2012.
It is plain for all to see, that you quite obvioulsy believe yourself to be intellectually and morally above and beyond the ontological norms of most day to day human beings – a not unknown trait amongst authors it must be said. Indeed, it appears that you have been be a unber-John Pliger in days gone by, not to mention that you are now a crime scribbler of such extraordinary genius that even Agatha Christie pales into insignificance.
Apart from musing, somewhat mischievously I admit, whether or not you should have ‘Twat’ inscribed onto your bald pate – actually I note that upon being in your Divine presence the other night in Swansea, you were either wearing a wig or had followed in the venerable footsteps of Andrew Neil – I have continued to treat your spite and loathing with a degree of gentlemanly fortitude.
However, in view of your recent unpleasantness, I am compelled to point out to readers that you ‘appeared’ to a virtually empty Swansea theatre – unfortunately my countrymen quite obviously prefer Agatha to Dai Hewson, either this or the Welsh are plainly unable to appreciate true literary excellence when they read it.
Oh and by the way I ‘flounced out’ after 5 minutes of your ‘appearance’ not because I had another engagement at Wetherspoons, but simply because your pompous and self-important ramblings would have bored a donkey’s glass eye to sleep.
Do go and find other means of obtaining cheap publicity Mr Hewson, because now you are not even being tiresome.
Best regards,
Julian
Julian –
“Your relentless hating and smearing has been going on for well over a year now … And all because I exposed in the national press and on television, the scandal of taxpayers’ money being used to fund Welsh writers, the autobiograhies of BBC Wales staffers and presenters etc etc”
Actually, for me, it was your inappropriate comments on twitter, reading many of your sleazy, sexist blogposts, your infantile posturing about ebooks and the publishing industry, the crass and unprofessional invitation you sent me to your doomed festival, the subsequent posturing around that, reporting my blog to the police, wasting police time in others way (at – oh, sweet irony! – taxpayers’ expense), apparently editing your own wikipedia page, threats of legal action against me, threats of writing articles about me after making FOI requests (even though you never did), your general character, or lack thereof, and – lest we forget – your blatant plagiarism. The arts funding business doesn’t really interest me at all.
To David Hewson,
My NUJ Membership no. is 002304.
Do feel free to file a complaint, albeit that readers can fully verify my antecedents by a quick perusal of my website’s ‘Media’ page ie julianruck.co.uk.
My press articles, radio and TV appearances etc are all properly documented.
Readers may also choose to observe my ‘Events’ page, wherein I am contracted to give current affairs lectures on cruise ships, public speaking engagements, talks etc etc
Give it up Mr Hewson, and may I suggest that you find an alternative occupation to that of professional hater.
Now, do please go away. You are demeaning only yourself.
Julian Ruck
‘A simple answer will do.’
Mr Hewson, if you expect Mr Juck to give a direct answer to a direct question, you clearly have not been paying attention to the way he has replied to the last 50- odd questions he has been asked here! I would still like to see some of evidence to back up his accusations of corruption in relation to Cardiff Airport that was mentioned in a previous article.
Julian, as usual you answer none of the questions put to you by mr Hewson.
How are you possibly a member of the NUJ, you match none of the basic criteria? That is a reasonable question, as you put yourself in the public domain and refer to yourself charmingly as a journalist.
The truth is you aren’t a journalist, as mr Campbell has pointed out, using only your own ‘journalism’ as proof. You are not a broadcaster either, you were on the Sunday Politics once getting demolished by Jon Gower and seeming a bit odd.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-20566698
You still haven’t got used to being public with your views julian. You respond to criticism like a child, you claim to be hard done by and trolled when that is not the case, you are merely having your dubious opinions questioned.
It is known you use conjecture, plagiarism and have lied in the past, notably in your now deleted blog post about your Chapter talk in Cardiff. So are you telling fibs about your NUJ membership?
It is a reasonable assumption based on the evidence.
You talk about mr Hewsons talk in Swansea, I have it on a lot better authority than you it was well attended and in a large venue. Don’t bring up attendance after Kidwelle-e Julian, or after no one at all turn up for one of your talks.http://jewelsfromjulian.wordpress.com/tag/historical-revisionism/
The reason, again, no one gives you the time of day, and hangs up the phone, is because you are not a journalist or indeed an author of any quality.
Point taken Darren! But you have to ask… The Swansea event wasn’t huge – I don’t know how many people are expected on a wet November Friday night. But it was very pleasant and I got the impression the audience enjoyed both my contribution and the very amusing anecdotes of Emma Kennedy.
It was certainly a mass turnout compared to the Kidwell-e farce (where 20,000 were supposed to turn up). As far as I can gather Ruck saw very little of indeed before departing after getting in for free.
I don’t know if you’re just being obtuse or simply evasive again, Ruck. But the criteria for joining the NUJ is to do with money. It is only open to ‘Persons in staff occupations, freelances who have no other full-time job, earn at least half of their income from journalism and are mainly dependent on this income or journalists who are refugees or who are seeking asylum in the UK or Ireland.’
Do Uncut pay you for this infantile dross? Is the occasional column in the Llanelli Star a living wage? Do you honestly think talking on a cruise ship counts as journalism? Are you really ‘mainly dependent on this income’?
If not you have no place in the NUJ, and no right to wave around that card.
To Mr Abell,
My apologies.
I have just checked my blog (julianruck.wordpress.com) and for some unknown reason ( sadly, I am no techy), there is only the reference: ‘Welsh Writing Sucks’ – New York Daily News. A talk by Julian Ruck 10.12.2012
I have now reblogged the transcript for anyone to read, should they so wish.
You will note that to date, no-one from the Welsh literati has been able to challenge the veracity of the data quoted.
You will also be aware, that my talk reached the New York Daily News, The Telegragh, The Daily Mail and The Guardian (wherein parts of the Guardian article had to be corrected and retracted due to the libellous intent of ex-national poet of Wales, Gwyneth Lewis).
All the above is in the public domain, but no doubt you will claim that everyone is lying (including me) apart from your good self of course.
Julian Ruck
And finally?
The only conclusion I can charitably draw about all you Trolls and Haters, is that you are all plain bonkers, albeit that on occasions you can be rather fun!
Adieu,
Julian Ruck
PS You may want to read the article on my lastest novel (to be pub. April 2014) in the Bookseller earlier this month (5.11.13) – naturally it’s all lies, the editors were paid to publish it.
JR
Uncut doesn’t pay you. The Llanelli Star surely can’t pony up much if anything. Having your press release run by an unsuspecting trade magazine doesn’t count as journalism, nor does having a few gullible newspapers pick up on a few inflammatory remarks peddled by the PR agency you employ (and I can tell you from certain knowledge those papers won’t fall for that one again).
In short if your earnings from ‘journalism’ amount to much in the way of three figures it would be a miracle. You should turn in that NUJ card now before they rumble you like everyone else has.
Is it really your ‘lastest novel’ by the way?
To Mr Mosby,
How gratifying! It’s good to know that you are still reading every word I write. The last I heard you were seen in Watchet, lurking around the statue of Coleridge with a tattoo drill in your hand.
Apparantly your wails of ” I’m an amateur body art expert!” didn’t quite cut it with the police, I’m told.
Never mind, better luck next time eh?.
All the best,
Julian
To Mr Hewson,
I nearly forgot. I’ve just finished writing a review on your Swansea ‘appearance’ for the Welsh press. Title?
‘CAR CRASH IN SWANSEA, FEW HURT,NOT MANY WITNESSES!’
The same title of your very own blog post on the Kidwell-e over a year ago, I’ve just changed the name. Forgive the plagiarism Mr Hewson, but such a title is irresistible you must admit. Nothing like being hanged, drawn and quartered by your own self-righteous petard is there?
And by the way, please confirm on Uncut that you did not nobble Swansea City Council ie the taxpayer, for a fee and expenses? You have previously written that you are above the reading of contractual minutiae and that it had never been your intention to take a fee – AFTER I had raised the issue both here and elsewhere.
All the best,
Julian
PS A word of advice Mr Hewson. Even Nobel Prize aspirants should avoid lobbing hefty bricks around when their houses are made of extremely thin glass.
Here it is.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/dinefwr-signs-boy-soprano-tale.html
Mr Hewson, I am so glad you distinguished the fact that it was the delightful Emma Kennedy who provided all the charm and humour.
In fact, I nearly stayed on to buy the lady a post ‘appearance’ cocktail.
Smart and feisty, can’t beat it!
JR
You’ve written a ‘review’ of something you didn’t even stay to watch? How very clever of you. And of course characteristically inconsistent given you emailed me the day after with this charming missive.
“I attended your tallk this evening but unfortunately I had to leave early due to other engagements.
I will not be writing an unpleasant review. And why?
Put simply, I will not lower myself to your level.
Julian Ruck
PS The title of my review would have been, ‘Car crash at the Dylan Thomas Centre, few hurt, not many witnesses.'”
Though plagiarising someone else’s headline is pretty much par for the course.
This Dinefwr? https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gwasg-Dinefwr-Press-Ltd/352256108120682?id=352256108120682&sk=info
Julian – that’s a printing company. Are you not paying them to publish it?
Mr Hewson, by ‘everyone’ I assume you mean, you and Messrs Mosby, Abell and Campbell? Four out of a population of 60 odd million. Impressive I must say.
I can only suggest that you and your fellow Musketeers set up a literary 12 stepping self-help group, wherein you can all try and resovle your Obsessive Compulsive Disorders.
Good luck, and if the self-help group fails, then professional input it must be. Long overdue, in my view.
JR
Dinefwr Press are clearly jobbing printers. Or the first publishers I’ve ever encountered that doesn’t list the books it publishes or even the names of their authors.
So your press release to the Bookseller was untrue too. Perhaps this explains why you’re now whining that Waterstones won’t carry your work.
http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Swansea-authors-bring-Waterstones-book/story-20051670-detail/story.html
Very odd given that not long ago you were praising them to the heights.
http://julianruck.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/waterstones-newport/
You do fall out with so many people, don’t you?
Democratiaeth am byth! We have nothing if we do not have have democracy and accountability.
Be not afraid of accountability; some are born accountable, some achieve accountability, and others have accountability thrust upon them…….
To Steve Mosby,
As expected you are now saying the Bookseller is lying and of course we’re back on the ‘I pay for my books to be published’ old chestnut, which I don’t by the way and no-one yet has been able to prove otherwise.
You know, I am still trying to work out exactly who you think you are Mr Mosby?
A self-important deluded scribbler or petty, egotistical pretender without a crown?
Or even an individual with as much charisma as one of my dogs who has just rolled in fox poo and whose narratives tend to begin with ‘I’d rather stick fxxxing pins in my eyes…?’
You are still I believe, struggling to ‘breakthough’ into the UK market with your criminal masterpieces apparently. Sadly thats the writng game for you, true genuis is rarely recognised.
As with Hewson, I’ve taken enough of your pea-brained kindergarten insults, so if you want more of the same then keep ’em coming, you silly irrelevant little Trolltwit.
Like me, you are nothing but a humble word mechanic. Get over it and stop thinking that just because you’ve turned out the odd tome or two you are superior to everyone else.
As with Hewson, you personify all the worse traits and lucubratious lavatories of the writing world.
Get a good woman or man in your life to bring some balance to it.
JR
Mr Hewson,
I repeat, have you, your agent or publisher put in an invoice for a fee and expenses from Swansea City Council? Remember, you told readers of Uncut that you had no intention of making such claims. A noble gesture it must be said, particuarly in these austere times.
No ducking now Mr Hewson, a FofI request will confirm one way or the other. And as for my private email a couple of weeks ago, nothing had been written until you started your inadequate little games on Uncut again.
We reap what we sow, Mr Hewson.
I’m off now, I’ve got better things to do than bother with Trolls on a day out.
JR
Oh and just for the record Mr Hewson and Mr Mosby, who writes for the press and Uncut, you or me?
Now go away and play with the junior version of that old board game ‘Careers’. Come to think of it Mr Mosby, you would have still been throwing toys out of your cot (not much has changed here it must be noted!), when this particular board game was popular.
Never mind.
JR
Julian, you can blog as many transcripts as you like. It doesn’t stop you talking utter bollocks. Here is my description of what happened
http://johnabell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/julian-ruck-comic-creation-par.html
It was the first time I’d come across you. You were so rude.
http://jo-mo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/an-answer-to-julian-ruck.html
Julian, read this please
Everyone knows dinefwr is nothing, julian adding zero to zero still makes nothing
To Mr Abell,
I am obliged to remind you that your demented and hooligan antics at the public talk I gave in Cardiff (December 2012) were filmed by the BBC for the Sunday Politics Show and duly broadcast.
Readers of Uncut must choose whom they wish to believe.
The Jackanory fairy tales of your own personal blog or a BBC camera crew? Oh and not to mention a couple of AM’s (one of whom asked you to shut up or leave), a couple of doctors (one medical, one academic), a lawyer and about 30 members of the general public.
Julian Ruck
Readers can judge for themselves whether this is the website of a publisher or not. The name gives a clue, as well as the fact the site lists no books or authors.
http://www.dinefwrprinters.co.uk/
Given you never answer sensible questions here I don’t see why I should answer stupid ones. Especially when they’ve already been answered. If you want to waste yet more money with one of your frivolous FoI requests then do go ahead but as a ticket fee dodger too don’t pretend you’re a guardian of the public finances.
Uncut is not ‘the press’. If it was it would be covered by the Press Council and drowning in official condemnation of your constant errors, lies and thuggish attempts to force public officials to talk to you.
Uncut is an amateur – very amateur – blog which pays you and its contributors nothing. Quite why it chooses to give you space remains a mystery given you’re clearly a right-wing bigot with nothing positive to say about anything or anyone.
Anyone reading your rants and the evidence presented here can see quite clearly you have no right to an NUJ card or claim to be an author. I know you hate being outed as a charlatan. But the best way to avoid this in future would be to stop being one.
Julian –
I don’t think I’m better than anyone. The irony here, of course, is that I have nothing against self-publishing, and I know and admire many writers who do it successfully. From your evasions, it is obvious that you’re the one thumbing your nose at it.
Your latest round of insults is particularly weak sauce. I probably was in a cot when that game came out, yes, although I really have no idea. But if so, then why, when you’re a good thirty years older than me, do I feel like I’m the one talking to a child?
“To Steve Mosby,
As expected you are now saying the Bookseller is lying…”
I don’t see where he says that. Here is the Dinefwr Publishers list in its apparent entirety.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.352296138116679.94123.352256108120682&type=1&comment_id=5205016&offset=0&total_comments=2
To Hewson, Mosby and Campbell,
I can understand difference of opinion. I can even understand passionate insult and anger. I have encountered the very worse and indeed the best of human kind in my time. From murderers and Intifada Kalashnikovs to the humour and kindness of Down’s Syndrome youngsters trying to learn how to budget their money.
Usually, hateful vitriol tends to have a short life even in this technological age, indeed it normally comes and quickly goes.
Rarely however, do human beings unknown to each other, embark upon a relentless, year long vendetta of immensely personal hatred and attempted character assassination.
With all three of you, in the past I have endeavoured to exercise considerable restraint, as my personal emails to you politely asking that you desist and various internet platforms plainly evidence.
Nevertheless, I am a human being and will sometimes react to provocation on a grand scale, as my intemperate remarks above clearly illustrate.
What astonishes me more than anything else, is why three published authors should persist with such abusive insult, and hate for so long?
I cannot even begin to imagine what you actually get out of it? You are not damaging me in any way, shape or form. Indeed my modest writing career is going from strength to strength.
What drives you all? As I say, I can understand a few days of angry insult and difference of opinion but a year of stalking and watching every move I make??
Surely you must have better things to do in your lives, as I have said to you all so many times before, I’m really not worth it.
Do please go away and exorcise whatever demons trouble you somewhere else.
Best wishes and good luck,
Julian
PS I can’t imagine that you are endearing yourselves to your readers either.
In the interests of fairness, I must point out that Ramsey Campbell has never been in the same league as Messrs Hewson and Mosby. Indeed, he is of a far more gentlemanly and temperate inclination, albeit that he still keeps an eye on everything I write.
JR
“What astonishes me more than anything else, is why three published authors should persist with such abusive insult, and hate for so long?”
Please show me where and how I’ve insulted you, Mr Ruck. Any example will do. I’m interested in accuracy, that’s all.
Julian –
“I have encountered the very worse and indeed the best of human kind in my time. From murderers and Intifada Kalashnikovs to the humour and kindness of Down’s Syndrome youngsters trying to learn how to budget their money.”
This is honestly the most amazing thing you’ve ever written. Thank you so much. You are the gift that keeps on giving, even when the things you give aren’t straight answers to easy questions or wholly original prose.
Julian, your last response is pathetic. No one has done a hate campaign. You put your opinions in the public domain, a lot of people do not agree with you and say so. You do not answer direct question and are evasive. You play the victim and it is utterly childish and undignified, like a lot of your behaviour.
You say I acted in a demented way at your talk? Do you actually believe your lies?
Here is the BBC footage.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-20566698
There are a few accounts of your talk, you deleted your one which was a collosal pack of lies even by your standards. Which are low.
Again, here is my account of your talk. The only person who got annoyed was another awful writer friend of yours. There were others there who would agree with me.
http://johnabell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/julian-ruck-comic-creation-par.html
You are a self published author, wannabe journalist, and to quote the wikipedia editor who deleted your page, a cadfly.
I wouldn’t say your writing career is going from strength to strength julian, based on your latest effort…http://www.julianruck.co.uk/books/all-gas-no-oil-chapter.html
To Mr Mosby,
I hate to undermine your derision, but I have been to many a prison in my time interviewing inmates. I was also in Israel back in 1987 when the first Intifada broke out. And lastly, as an LSC manager for CAB’x in Sandwell and District, Director of a Credit Union, and member of a dispute Tribunal, I would sometimes go to schools and charities to give talks on debt/money management etc etc
Please Mr Mosby, direct your sad frustrations somewhere else.
Julian Ruck
To Ramsey Campbell,
It seems our posts crossed in the post as it were. I hope my blog and the above now put the record straight.
My apologies for any previous misstatement.
Julian Ruck
To Mr Hewson
Dear Sensei
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpC03B9d1Vs
After discovering your blog on Labour Uncut I am now a big fan of yours and have just ordered a hardback of “The Lizards Bite” for a penny on Amazon.
I, myself, have two ideas for writing a book. One is about an alien who turns up at a village in the dunes, the second is about a crime writer.
I would be honoured if you could give me some advice on my second idea. I’m not sure what kind of book it is or it’s starting point. The theme is basically about a crime writer that starts a campaign of hate towards a self published writer.
Have you any ideas on how it could end or the motivation behind the crime writer, who sees himself as virtue incarnate and stands up as champion for perfect prose in the darkest provincial backwater of Wales.
Do you think a working title is important? I have come up up with a vague one for the time being – “To kill off and mock a a provincial self publish writer.”
Arigato gozaimasu
Origami-san
PS Sorry to ask you some questions of a political nature, but do you think: devolution has been a success, Welsh education policy is ill-conceived and that devolution has ultimately not benefited the people Wales?
To Origami – san
Just for the record my first two novels were self-published, the last two and one due out in April 2014 are not.
Although frankly, in the new publishing world, so what if all five are self-published?
They have all sold in the thousands and are still selling, so I’m perfectly happy.
All the best,
Julian Ruck