How Ambersuz has twisted Tony Bennett’s involvement in various campaigns

How Ambersuz has twisted Tony Bennett’s involvement in various campaigns

A key feature of the vitriolic personal attacks against me on Ambersuz’ ‘Missing Madeleine’ Forum is the claim that a search of the internet reveals a series of ‘money-making schemes’ or ‘money-making scams’ as she and others have called them.

I’m banned from exercising a right of reply there. Here is a list of all the so-called ‘money-making schemes’ she and others have listed, and the true facts about them.

1. Publication of ‘Guide for Families with Children in Care’.

This was first published in 1980 and was written entirely by myself and published by Parents Aid, a self-help group for families with children in care I founded in 1979. It originally retailed at 40p. All income from the sale of this booklet were retained by Parents Aid. I didn’t make a penny from sales even though the book went to six editions and sold tens of thousands of copies.

2. Subjects Against the Nice Treaty [SANITY]

I was for a time the Secretary of this group which was formed in 2000 to campaign against the U.K. signing up to the Nice Treaty. It is true that cheques to SANITY were to be sent to my home address, as I was the Secretary for a period. The only merchandise we ever sold was a beautiful limited edition hand-painted scroll setting out the rights of Britons under Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights etc. All cheques were made out to SANITY and all cheques were of course paid in through SANITY’s bank account, which was held in Chelmsford. I did not make a penny from my involvement in SANITY.

3. Active Resistance to Metrication [A.R.M.]

I have been the Secretary for 8 years. We opened a bank account that year and still have that same account. We have sold two items: tape recordings of interviews of me under caution in two police stations, and a series of four postcards illustrating our work of making illegal metric distance signs legal by converting them to miles and yards. The tape recordings are informative because in the course of being interrogated by the police, I give chapter and verse on why metric distance signs are illegal under the Highways Act 1980, the Road Traffic Act 1984 and the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002. In both cases I was not charged with offences because the law showed that metric signs were illegal and that citizens had the right to remove them from the highway (Highways act 1980, Section 131). I have never made a penny from A.R.M. and all cheques are paid into our bank account held at Huntingdon.

4. Campaign for a Referendum on the European Constitution [CREC].

This group was founded at a meeting at my house in 2003. We are best known for two postcard campaigns, the first in 2003/4 campaigning for a referendum on the European Constitution [which we helped to secure when Tony Blair in 2004 promised a referendum on the Constitution. We sold 180,000 attractive pre-printed postcards to the Queen which asked her not to give Royal Assent to any bill implementing the European Constitution until the British people had first had a referendum on it. We ran a similar campaign in 2007/8 when the European powers-that-be decided that the way to get the peoples of Europe to accept a European Constitution was to call it ‘The Lisbon Treaty’. This time demand for the cards was even higher, given that 90% of British people wanted a referendum on this Treaty and we sold nearly 240,000. Cheques for CREC were again sent to my home address and all paid into the CREC bank account which is held in Huntingdon. At present we have a bank account with around £3,000 in it which is substantially due to generous donations from members of the public opposed to The Lisbon Treaty. Again I have never received a penny from CREC and neither have any of my fellow-committee members who worked hard in sending these postcards around the country. If anyone really thinks there has been anything underhand in either this account or A.R.M.’s account I am willing to disclose the name and address of the Chairman of both organisations and he will be willing to answer any reasonable questions about these two accounts.

5. The sale of “Weights and Measures: Britain’s Way Ahead”, published in January 2005.

As described on the A.R.M. website, this was: “A Report by the Customary Measures Society, January 2005, being in part a response to the UK Metric Association’s Report: ‘A Very British Mess’, containing our proposals for the future of Britain’s weights and measures, and in part a celebration of five years’ resistance to the European Union - with the active help of the British government - making it a crime in Britain to sell in pounds and ounces Customary Measures Society. All rights reserved”. The book cost £4 including postage. Cheques on this occasion were sent to me as I personally paid the costs of printing the 64-page booklet, which was A4 size and included many colour pictures. I did not make a penny from the sale of these booklets; I just covered my costs.

6. The Madeleine Foundation.

Once again I place on record that I have not made one penny out of the sale of ’60 Reasons’ nor out of my connection with The Madeleine Foundation in any shape or form. All cheques received here have been paid into The Madeleine Foundation account. There has been no ‘fruad’ or financial irregularity whatsoever. The current police investigation triggered by Ms Butler will help, once it is concluded, to confirm this. I would like to add one important detail here. On a number of occasions, Ms Butler urged me to take money out of The Madeleine Foundation account because I was the author. She would say: “You wrote it, you are the author, if it makes any money, you should have it”. On each occasion I replied: “No, I have promised myself and others that I will not make a penny out of any activity connected with Madeleine McCann. Any surplus from the sale of ‘60 Reasons’ must be ploughed back into things like publishing new booklets and leaflets, maintaining the website etc.

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Now, any fair-minded person, reading the above, might comment something like: “I see, Tony Bennett has committed himself to a number of campaigns from which he hasn’t made a penny. It looks like he is highly committed to those causes”.

I choose to spend a significant amount of my spare time campaigning. The above are not the only campaigns I’ve been involved in over the years.

Now the above activities have been interpreted by Ambersuz and several others on ‘Missing Madeleine’ as ‘money-making scams’.

What has happened on ‘Missing Madeleine’ in the past three weeks or so, where I see there are some 1,700 posts about me in the past three weeks, mostly containing wild and false allegations, is a clear example of ‘groupthink’, where a group maintains a certain view of a situation without it allowing its perceptions and beliefs to be challenged. In this case, my right to reply has been refused and those who query the attack on me for having set up so-called ‘money-making scams’ have their accounts on the forum terminated.

The fact that Ambersuz and others describe giving up one’s free time to campaign on issues for no reward as ‘money-making scams’ says much about her and her fellow-posters who have made those false claims.

Finally, I find it of interest that some of those loudest in alleging that I have ‘made money out of Madeleine’ are those who themselves have run Madeleine McCann Forums carrying adverts.


Tony Bennett
30 November 2009

It shows me that the old adage 'if you want something done, ask a busy person' is as true as it ever was Tony.
Hope this all gets sorted out soon.

"Methinketh thou protesteth too much."

Thank you for posting Tony.

You might not be able to have right of reply on the forums where you're attacked, but that's exactly what this forum is for and I'm glad you're posting your side of the story.

This forum is for you, me, and anyone else who needs it to answer their critics.

Not sure what Carter Ruck will say about this forum, though, now that Debbie Butler has reported it to them, aswell as the police. But then, she said she reported me to the police for asking you if your email was fake and the police haven't been yet unless I missed them when I was out. I did tell Debbie what times I would normally be available for the police interrogation of said email...

Heaven forbid anyone who seeks the truth apparently.

chinagirl, I'm sure if you found yourself in the same position as Tony Bennett, subjected to lies and unfounded allegations, with no right to reply, you would want to have the opportunity to put your side. What is happening on MM is, as Tony Bennett points out, a good example of 'group-think' - many of us on this forum found our accounts terminated, simply because we challenged what 'the core group' had decided was the truth. The fact that admin of MM have denied Tony Bennett the right to reply to their regular smears and attacks upon him is, imo, most cowardly of them to say the least, thankyou for your post, Tony :flower:

'People in glass houses, shouldn't throw stones'.

JKH wrote:Thank you for posting Tony.

You might not be able to have right of reply on the forums where you're attacked, but that's exactly what this forum is for and I'm glad you're posting your side of the story.

This forum is for you, me, and anyone else who needs it to answer their critics.

Not sure what Carter Ruck will say about this forum, though, now that Debbie Butler has reported it to them, aswell as the police. But then, she said she reported me to the police for asking you if your email was fake and the police haven't been yet unless I missed them when I was out. I did tell Debbie what times I would normally be available for the police interrogation of said email...

Heaven forbid anyone who seeks the truth apparently.

Like you JFK I thank Tony for posting.

Also want to say thank you to you for this forum and the chance it gives those needing the right to reply :flower:

I don't post very much now as I'm sickened by what has happened. Thought Madeleine was the prime reason for most posting.
Now that seems to have changed for those who seem hell bent on destroying the very person who put his head up in the firing line to do something

Yes JFK, Heaven forbid anyone who seeks the truth....................

hentie wrote:Like you JFK I thank Tony for posting.

Also want to say thank you to you for this forum and the chance it gives those needing the right to reply :flower:

I don't post very much now as I'm sickened by what has happened. Thought Madeleine was the prime reason for most posting.
Now that seems to have changed for those who seem hell bent on destroying the very person who put his head up in the firing line to do something

Yes JFK, Heaven forbid anyone who seeks the truth....................

JFK?

I'm neither a former president nor dead yet. I have stuff to do. :lol:

JKH wrote:

hentie wrote:Like you JFK I thank Tony for posting.

Also want to say thank you to you for this forum and the chance it gives those needing the right to reply :flower:

I don't post very much now as I'm sickened by what has happened. Thought Madeleine was the prime reason for most posting.
Now that seems to have changed for those who seem hell bent on destroying the very person who put his head up in the firing line to do something

Yes JFK, Heaven forbid anyone who seeks the truth....................

JFK?

I'm neither a former president nor dead yet. I have stuff to do. :lol:

Sorry JKH ................ still try to find the elusive brain cell

is a clear example of ‘groupthink’, where a group maintains a certain view of a situation without it allowing its perceptions and beliefs to be challenged.

which is exactly what happened with the prevailing belief on 3As and other forums that the Mccanns were guilty of doing away with their daughter.

You dont have to tell me what groupthink is Tony, I have seen it and been a victim of it as have many others. You yourself have practiced groupthink, by continuously and loudly trying to tell forum owners who can and cannot post alongside you. Please don't deny it because I will just find the posts and paste them here.

Those considered in any way 'suspect' were targetted by you and your acolytes on so many occasions that it became a running joke. Plenty of us have watched your campaigns against posters such as nicked with utter revulsion.

I think you are a hypocrite of the highest order :evil:

Well, the worst examples of 'groupthink' I have seen have been on the JATWK forum where posters attempt to outdo each other in fawning over the McCanns, always defending, never questioning; it's all blind faith with those bozos. Considering BB started as an avid anti but has reinvented herself as a staunch pro who in hell can trust a word they say?

They studiously ignore the fact that the British police were following the same line of enquiry as the Portuguese, choosing instead to have whole threads dissing the PJ/Amaral for 'corruption', talk of cadaverine being 'planted' (ffs) and my personal favourite 'anyone who says anything against the McCanns must be jealous of their looks and lifestyle'. As debates go, it's piss poor.

Seriously, are they paid? Is it just a wind up to Bren because they really dislike her so? If I see the 'princess sukita' loblocks on there one more time I'll eat my twatting hat scream!

JATYK is not a forum for discussing the case. It has few posters and does not even have a case files section.

3As was and did, and it was there that the groupthink was honed to perfection.

trunky wrote:is a clear example of ‘groupthink’, where a group maintains a certain view of a situation without it allowing its perceptions and beliefs to be challenged.
Tony, you yourself have practiced groupthink...

Er, 'group-think' is practised by,er, a group...

Bennett proclaims me me me