The C-word

I apologise to readers for once again devoting time and energy to the C-word. I would not have mentioned Stuart Campbell again were it not for the fact that he is once more using his blog to attack me, as he flounces off in a huff, and it is important that I set the record straight about what really happened as it will not be apparent from the one sided and self-serving account being set out by Campbell.

After my very public falling out with the fake reverend and his followers towards the beginning of the election campaign I received a communication from a woman whose identity I will not disclose. Campbell has a great many enemies. She made an allegation that Campbell had behaved in an inappropriate manner with another person.

I did not share this information with anyone, but I reached out in private to the woman who was allegedly the victim in order to inquire if the allegation was true, and whether she wished to make a complaint about it if it was.

She replied to tell me that she was distressed and upset to find herself being drawn into a dispute between two prominent bloggers and that anything that had occurred between her and Campbell was a private matter which was entirely consensual.

I immediately apologised for causing her any distress and assured her that the information I had received had not and would not go any further. Having been satisfied that the allegation being made could not be substantiated, and that the information I had received did not appear to be true, as far as I was concerned the matter was over. One short email was the extent of the “harrassment” which Campbell accuses me of.

Late that night I received an angry email from Campbell calling me “sick”. This was followed some time later by another angry email in which Campbell claimed that the only reason he had not already reported me to the police was out of his concern for the feelings of the woman. This was followed an hour later in the wee small hours of the morning by yet another furious email which was more directly threatening. Campbell asserted that if I ever “tried to pull this slimeball shit” again he would have the police at my door “quicker than I could pee.” He need not worry about that, because if in future I ever receive information detailing a similar allegation against him, I will call the police myself.

I will not be bullied, threatened or intimidated by Stuart Campbell. His threat to call the police was risible, hysterical, and typical of a bully. I acted entirely appropriately and with integrity. An allegation was made by a third party, and while protecting the privacy of all concerned – including Campbell – I made a discreet inquiry in order to discover whether the allegation could be verified. As it transpired it could not be verified and I did not pursue things any further. The only reason I am mentioning any of this now is because in an effort to impugn me even more than he has already Campbell is claiming that I acted inappropriately and in the process is causing further distress to the woman whose feelings he claims to be concerned about.

All did was to carry out a basic and entirely ethical journalistic practice upon receipt of information- which I did not solicit – making an allegation of misconduct. If someone had shared information with Campbell alleging that I or anyone else on his long and ever lengthening list of enemies was guilty of a form of personal misconduct, he would have done exactly the same. It is disingenuous in the extreme for him to imply otherwise. If anyone had threatened him with the police for daring to follow up a lead that he’d received, he’d be the first to scream about a police state and how his freedom of speech and the freedom of the press were under threat. It’s not the first time Campbell has been exposed as a hypocrite, I’m sure it won’t be the last.

The fact that he is using this episode in order to continue his obsessive vendetta against me only provides further evidence that the only feelings he truly cares about are his own. His laughable bullying threat to call the police on anyone who dares to try and ascertain whether there is any truth in an allegation of misconduct made against him merely demonstrates that in Campbell’s eyes when a woman makes an allegation of misconduct against a powerful man, the allegation should be instantly dismissed without any scrutiny or investigation. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions about what this tells us about his much vaunted “standing up for women’s rights.”

I will now get back to ignoring Campbell and allowing him to howl into the void of his own irrelevance. Incidentally, I am not quite sure why Campbell ever called me a backstabber. I was quite sure I’d stabbed him in the front.