Re: Clarence Mitchell's interview with Radio Humberside - The full transcript

by **tigger** 15.08.15 11:50

pennylane wrote:Mitchell looked mighty petulant when he announced his resignation from MMU to go and work for the dodgy duo on a full time basis.

I got the distinct feeling he was unceremoniously pushed following the initial FFS results, and the 'hurtful and unhelpful' blood and cadaver dog alerts!

From previous page:

I actually met Gerry for the first time in Leicestershire. He came back to collect some belongings from home, errr... and he and I then flew back to Portugal in May 2007 and I met Kate out there for the first time. So that's... that's how it came about. I went out as a civil servant and met them through the... through the consular assistance that they were offered.

Sheree Dodd (apparently unaware that she had to move house the following week), was the first press officer loaned to the McCanns, CM is supposed to have been appointed when Gerry met him at Leicester Police station during his first trip home around 21st May (collect DNA and get at least one holiday photo sorted..) which leaves the McCs without a press officer at a crucial time.

I now work for a PR agency in London, Lewis PR. I'm the Director of Media Strategy and Public Affairs which means that I work with a number of their clients as well, advising them on their media contact. And if any particular stories flare up involving those clients I... I generally act as a... a bit of a go-between, in much the same way as I do for Kate and Gerry, with... with the media, the print, broadcast and online media. Errm... And on the public affairs side because of my governmental work, errm... I'm able to assist as well, where I can, with, errr... governmental contact for some of the clients too. So it's... it's a busy old agenda, errr... just as frenetic as... as the BBC in many ways; if it's on the other side of the fence.

In view of this snippet below it seems that early June the Government tried to reclaim Clarence and make the McCanns pay for a new spokesman. Why didn't this happen? Why did it take three more months before he officially 'resigns' from the MMU. Iirr he was also taken on by the Freud agency at some time. He doesn't seem to last that long in any job. At least if he'd won the Brighton seat he could have counted on four to five years in one job.
From 'madeleine'

Chapter 11:
At the beginning of June, Gerry had a call from the director of communications at the Foreign Office. There was concern in the
government, he said, that Clarence was ‘becoming the story’. I am not quite sure what he meant by this. Clarence was
certainly a visible presence and perhaps his open, affable style prevented him from being quite as anonymous as the Foreign
Office would have liked. Perhaps it had drawn attention to the fact that they were still providing us with a media spokesperson and questions were being asked. It had been a month since Madeleine’s disappearance, so maybe they were simply trying gently to prompt us into appointing somebody of our own to help us.
Whatever the case, it was suggested to Gerry that we should use Madeleine’s Fund to employ someone to replace Clarence once our campaign visits were complete. Reluctantly, Gerry agreed. We honestly hadn’t bargained for having to pay a salary
for media liaison out of the fund, which we’d envisaged being used primarily to meet costs related directly to the search for Madeleine. It hadn’t occurred to us that we’d still be needing this kind of help a month down the line. With no way of knowing how long this would continue, we had no idea how long the money would last.
unquote

"Once our campaign visits were complete." Hmmmm - they didn't come off that well did they?

by willowthewisp 15.08.15 12:20

Clarence Mitchell, OBE, CBE,Sir, your Lordship etc, unelectable in Brighton?

Eight years multiplied by £70,000 = over £560,000 from the find Madeleine McCann (benefit) fund,family associate members, Open and transparent?
Perhaps DCI Nicola Wall's team could possibly look at how the fund was initially set up and how the funding financed a certain legal firm to have benefited from representing them in so many cases, conflict of interest perhaps?

It is quite clear that dodgy Dave and his cohorts do not mind abusing the tax payers money for the benefit of certain friends, Chilcot Inquiry, £10 million, Operation Grange £14 Million, Daniel Morgan and Stephen Lawrence murder trials costs millions, phone hacking trails?

by worriedmum 15.08.15 12:23

For some reason I can't copy and paste the transcript , but Hobs could you give your opinion on the first three lines of the paragraph where CM tells us 'they are coping..?'

Has anyone got the audio clip? I find the use of language here very interesting...

by **tigger** 15.08.15 12:35

worriedmum wrote:For some reason I can't copy and paste the transcript , but Hobs could you give your opinion on the first three lines of the paragraph where CM tells us 'they are coping..?'

Has anyone got the audio clip? I find the use of language here very interesting...

The Late Late Show RTE ONE

09 May 2008

Clarence Mitchell

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Scroll down a bit and have a look at this long transcript - it's very interesting too.

by **tigger** 15.08.15 12:39

worriedmum wrote:For some reason I can't copy and paste the transcript , but Hobs could you give your opinion on the first three lines of the paragraph where CM tells us 'they are coping..?'

Has anyone got the audio clip? I find the use of language here very interesting...

Here you are:

Peter Levy: What are they like as... as people, because, I mean, they... they've been through, you know, errr... hell and back really but... and also, at one time, of course, everybody was pointing fingers very much at... at them?

Clarence Mitchell: They are coping as... as best they can under the circumstances. Nobody ever expected that, errm... we'd be here, what, nearly four years further down the line without Madeleine being found, errr... without her being recovered and brought home to... to her rightful place at home with them. Errm... they have good days and bad days like anybody. If they feel that there is momentum in the private investigation that's still very much ongoing - they have a small team of former British police officers working on the case - errm... they feel, they... they draw strength from that or if the campaigning side of the work that they constantly do, errr... is going well, again they... they draw strength from that. It's during the quieter periods when nothing much appears to be happening, errm... that they can... they can be knocked back a little bit and that's only natural and perfectly human. Errm... But they are very committed to the search for their daughter. They want an answer. And until they know what has happened to their daughter, and until this awful situation is resolved, they will keep going. And yes, you're right, there was a lot of criticism at different times and a lot of leaked rubbish, frankly, that came out in the Portuguese press and was then repeated without any attempt to check it in the British media and then recycled a third time into... back into Portugal. Errm...This was a very difficult period for them. They were, errr... part of the investigation as 'arguido'; the status that's given to people who, errr... the police wish to speak to about incidents in Portugal. But that status was ultimately lifted and the Portuguese Attorney General made it clear there was absolutely no evidence, errr... to, in any way, to implicate them in Madeleine's disappearance which, of course, there isn't because, errm... I know them well enough now to say with with absolute confidence that... that... of course, they were'nt involved. They are a grieving family and they need all the help and support they can get, errm... to keep the search for their daughter going.

by **Tony Bennett** 15.08.15 12:40

willowthewisp wrote:Clarence Mitchell, OBE, CBE,Sir, your Lordship etc, unelectable in Brighton?

Eight years multiplied by £70,000 = over £560,000 from the find Madeleine McCann (benefit) fund,family associate members, Open and transparent?
Perhaps DCI Nicola Wall's team could possibly look at how the fund was initially set up and how the funding financed a certain legal firm to have benefited from representing them in so many cases, conflict of interest perhaps?

It is quite clear that dodgy Dave and his cohorts do not mind abusing the tax payers money for the benefit of certain friends, Chilcot Inquiry, £10 million, Operation Grange £14 Million, Daniel Morgan and Stephen Lawrence murder trials costs millions, phone hacking trails?

To set the record straight, and to be fair to Clarence Mitchell as we must be, IIRC the figures stack up as follows:

* Stated annual salary as civil servant and then as McCanns' chief public relations officer: £75,000

* Started working part-time for the McCanns on 40% of his salary from September 2008 i.e. £30,000 p.a.

No statements from anyone since then about how much he is being paid, so it looks like:

May 2007 to Sep 2008: 1 yr 4 months on £75,000 = £100,000

Sep 2008 to Aug 2015: 7 yrs at £30,000 = £210,000

TOTAL £310,000. Plus no doubt rises for inflation.

But I think the two journalists who told me back in 2008 that Clarence Michell was effectively No. 2 in MI5, there to protect the government and all its nefarious activities, were probably correct. They said: "He is on the MI5 payroll"

by **Nina** 15.08.15 14:55

Tony Bennett wrote:
willowthewisp wrote:Clarence Mitchell, OBE, CBE,Sir, your Lordship etc, unelectable in Brighton?

Eight years multiplied by £70,000 = over £560,000 from the find Madeleine McCann (benefit) fund,family associate members, Open and transparent?
Perhaps DCI Nicola Wall's team could possibly look at how the fund was initially set up and how the funding financed a certain legal firm to have benefited from representing them in so many cases, conflict of interest perhaps?

It is quite clear that dodgy Dave and his cohorts do not mind abusing the tax payers money for the benefit of certain friends, Chilcot Inquiry, £10 million, Operation Grange £14 Million, Daniel Morgan and Stephen Lawrence murder trials costs millions, phone hacking trails?
To set the record straight, and to be fair to Clarence Mitchell as we must be, IIRC the figures stack up as follows:

* Stated annual salary as civil servant and then as McCanns' chief public relations officer: £75,000

* Started working part-time for the McCanns on 40% of his salary from September 2008 i.e. £30,000 p.a.

No statements from anyone since then about how much he is being paid, so it looks like:

May 2007 to Sep 2008: 1 yr 4 months on £75,000 = £100,000

Sep 2008 to Aug 2015: 7 yrs at £30,000 = £210,000

TOTAL £310,000. Plus no doubt rises for inflation.

But I think the two journalists who told me back in 2008 that Clarence Michell was effectively No. 2 in MI5, there to protect the government and all its nefarious activities, were probably correct. They said: "He is on the MI5 payroll"

Hi Tony, good to see you around again.
Did he pay his own expenses from this I wonder? Doubt it very much.

by willowthewisp 16.08.15 13:33

HiTony,
Stand corrected on Clarence Mitchells pay from the find Madeleine McCann fund, sorry about that, but took it as gospel of his previous salary.
still whatever amount he is withdrawing from the fund is detrimental to what the fund was originally set up to do was, to find Madeleine McCann, not be used as a private bank of cash to fight off criticism/defamation cases of non belief of the parents claims of an Abduction?

by **tigger** 17.08.15 11:58

From the Late Night Show link above:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Man in audience: Yeah, similar as well too, just as well disrespect, to the poor family is an awful thing to happen, but, err, like d'you really the amount of coverage it did get in the media, all the page one, err, editorials, everything on it was justified when at the same time, particularly in Ireland, there were so many in my opinion, more, err, erm, important stories happening and breaking all the time, but in all... all the page ones were going to the McCann's family.

Clarence Mitchell: Well, again, we weren't demanding page ones, it was the media that were deciding to put it on page one, and we were grateful for that. If this attention in the over all, in the round, can be focused back onto the whole issue of missing children and getting some improvement in Europe whilst we continue to look for Madeleine privately, then surely that's some good coming out of it.
Unquote

But Clarence, didn't they tell you about paying Lord Bell half a million to keep them on the front page? big grin