Blacksmith-A worthy cause

by saltnpepper 24.10.12 19:09

The Blacksmith Bureau

A worthy cause

Blacksmith-A worthy cause Bennett_thumb%25255B2%25255D

Mr Tony Bennett finds himself in a tight spot.
The Bureau and
Mr Bennett very much don’t get on for all sorts of reasons, none of
which are we going to list: doing so would only be seized on by the
parents’ diminishing bunch of allies who have precious else to sustain
them than pleasure at the misfortunes of others.
Mr
Bennett, like many before him when faced by opponents with greater
financial clout, chose to try and avoid being bankrupted in the libel
courts. For reasons which he has never given the public he then chose
not to stay silent as the terms of his formal gagging order demanded.
He
told us what his savings were some time ago and it is clear that the
Smethurst and McCann costs already accrued will wipe out that figure. It
is clear also that the chances of a support fund raising significant
amounts of money to assist him as things stand are very low.
He
is bankrupt. The temptation to try even now to cut his losses
shouldn’t trouble him any longer – it is too late. He is broke,
virtually on his own, and unless he publicly recants he is likely to
face jail, perhaps repeatedly. It is a position which is going to test
him to his very roots, as it would test any of us.
And
in that situation lies his salvation. What else can the courts and his
enemies do to him? It is Kate and Gerry McCann who are asking for Mr
Bennett’s imprisonment. And it is they who will have to decide what
action to take should Mr Bennett, his original contempt purged and with
no financial means to pay future fines or costs, make fresh and, one
hopes, very carefully considered, comments on them.
Should
Mr Bennett go to jail he becomes, to put it bluntly, a valuable
commodity for the first time. Whatever criticisms can be made of him he
will be in jail because of his beliefs about justice and the way he has
expressed them to the public, something that most people thought could
no longer happen in the UK. Mr Bennett has never gained financially from
his stance on the fate of Madeleine McCann, unlike the journalists who
profited so richly from writing about the family and unlike the
fortunate recipients of the Find Madeleine fund. People instinctively
recognise and respond when someone makes a sacrifice for their beliefs.
And so, as both Mr Bennett and, more particularly, the McCanns should
recognise, do the media. He may not believe it at the moment and he may
feel that we are being presumptuous about even discussing his affairs
like this; but once he is truly broke he has a surprisingly strong hand
to play.
We've said
some very harsh, indeed libellous, words directly to Mr Bennett in the
past. So be it. If he goes to jail we’ll be among the first to make a
financial contribution to assist him.

by **Tony Bennett** 25.10.12 0:22

saltnpepper wrote:The Blacksmith Bureau

A worthy cause

Mr Tony Bennett finds himself in a tight spot. The Bureau and Mr Bennett very much don’t get on for all sorts of reasons, none of which are we going to list: doing so would only be seized on by the parents’ diminishing bunch of allies who have precious else to sustain them than pleasure at the misfortunes of others.

REPLY - Blacksmith, I'm not quite sure why we 'don't get on', never having met you, nor spoken to you so far as I can recall, but if you don't get on with me, OK, noted. I do seem to remember that you have said some unpleasant things about me, and I think with some expeletives added. My beliefs require me to forgive others, so if you have said anything bad about me, I forgive you.

Mr Bennett, like many before him when faced by opponents with greater financial clout, chose to try and avoid being bankrupted in the libel courts.

REPLY - That's correct. Where you speak of 'greater financial clout', I'm really not sure that I have ANY financial clout. The gross imbalance of financial clout is called by the European Court of Human Rights 'inequality of arms'. And in several ECHR cases, they have said that inequality of arms means that any trial is unlawful. Period. End of. As in Steel & Morris v UK, and Alkan v Turkey.

For reasons which he has never given the public he then chose not to stay silent as the terms of his formal gagging order demanded.

REPLY - Let's be very clear. The terms of the undertakings never required me to 'stay silent', as both the McCanns and Carter-Ruck accept. Indeed, in one of my letters to Carter-Ruck, I actually wrote the words: "My undertakngs were not a Trappist vow of silence". I am fully at liberty (or so I thought) to write as much as I wished on the facts of the case. The McCanns themselves accept that I can recite as many facts about the case as I wish. For example:

* Listing obvious contradictions in witness statements

* Examining their choice of private investigators

* Reproducing the list of police questions that Dr Kate McCann refused to answer

* Listing the reasons why Tavares de Almeida in his report of 10.9.07 said the Portuguese police decided to make the McCanns suspects in Madeleine's disappearance...

...and so on.

Look at some of my articles, running to 30-50 pages, and (if you look at their committal file), there may be only 2 lines within those articles that are said to breach the terms of any of the undertakings.

He told us what his savings were some time ago and it is clear that the Smethurst and McCann costs already accrued will wipe out that figure

REPLY - If (a) the McCanns win and (b) if the judge then awards them all of their claimed costs.

It is clear also that the chances of a support fund raising significant amounts of money to assist him as things stand are very low.

REPLY - I suspect that's correct.

He is bankrupt.

REPLY - Hold on a moment. Not yet, by a long chalk.

The temptation to try even now to cut his losses shouldn’t trouble him any longer – it is too late. He is broke,virtually on his own, and unless he publicly recants...

REPLY - That won't do me any good, it's too late for a recantation now. Even if I did recant, I'd probably do an 'Archbishop Cranmer' and end up being burnt at the stake at the end of the day anyway.

...he is likely to face jail, perhaps repeatedly.

REPLY - Go to jail? For repeating what the original detective in the case has said, in a book which has been translated into 9 different langauges and has sold over 600,000 copies in around 30 countries around the world? That seems more than a tad unfair, don't you think? Especially in this land famed the world over for loving freedom of speech and allowing robust debate.

It is a position which is going to test him to his very roots, as it would test any of us. And in that situation lies his salvation. What else can the courts and his enemies do to him? It is Kate and Gerry McCann who are asking for Mr Bennett’s imprisonment. And it is they who will have to decide what action to take should Mr Bennett, his original contempt purged and with no financial means to pay future fines or costs, make fresh and, one hopes, very carefully considered, comments on them.

REPLY - Spiller v Joseph [2010] gives me and everyone else on this forum and everywhere else the right to make 'honest co mment' on just about anything.

Should Mr Bennett go to jail he becomes, to put it bluntly, a valuable commodity for the first time.

REPLY - Thanks a bunch!

Whatever criticisms can be made of him hewill be in jail because of his beliefs about justice and the way he has expressed them to the public, something that most people thought could
no longer happen in the UK.

REPLY - You make a valid point there.

Mr Bennett has never gained financially from his stance on the fate of Madeleine McCann

REPLY - As members of The Madeleine Committee know and can verify, I've made a significant loss so far.

, unlike the journalists who profited so richly from writing about the family and unlike the fortunate recipients of the Find Madeleine Fund. People instinctively recognise and respond when someone makes a sacrifice for their beliefs.

REPLY - Not always. It depends what the issue is.

And so, as both Mr Bennett and, more particularly, the McCanns should recognise, do the media. He may not believe it at the moment and he may feel that we are being presumptuous about even discussing his affairs like this; but once he is truly broke he has a surprisingly strong hand to play.

REPLY - I doubt it..

We've said some very harsh, indeed libellous, words directly to Mr Bennett in the past.

REPLY - I agree.

So be it.

REPLY - You could recant?

If he goes to jail we’ll be among the first to make a financial contribution to assist him.

REPLY - A food parcel from Fortnum and Mason would be nice.

by garfy 25.10.12 12:02

excellent replies Tony ..but imo it is something you can do without ...now especially

i have never really got what BB is all about ...especially lately

i may be in the wrong with how i am perceiving all this but surly ...at the end of the day ...there are enough people on your back ...with out BB having his pennies worth ...

but surly i am right about this ...not every thing i read i agree with ...but that's the way it goes .... we are still on the same side we should stick together in our beliefs [of what happened that night]....

maddie needs all the help she can get in outing the truth...tony you are doing something constructive you stand by your principles and belief ...so what the hell is BB going on about why should you have to explain yourself to him

Walter Scott · by david_uk 25.10.12 12:51

One guys talks the talk

the other walks the walk

I know which one I respect most. thumbsup

by garfy 25.10.12 13:37

david_uk wrote:One guys talks the talk

the other walks the walk

I know which one I respect most.

so do i ...well said Blacksmith-A worthy cause 3711883763

by Newintown 25.10.12 13:51

garfy wrote:excellent replies Tony ..but imo it is something you can do without ...now especially

i have never really got what BB is all about ...especially lately

i may be in the wrong with how i am perceiving all this but surly ...at the end of the day ...there are enough people on your back ...with out BB having his pennies worth ...

but surly i am right about this ...not every thing i read i agree with ...but that's the way it goes .... we are still on the same side we should stick together in our beliefs [of what happened that night]....

maddie needs all the help she can get in outing the truth...tony you are doing something constructive you stand by your principles and belief ...so what the hell is BB going on about why should you have to explain yourself to him

I get the impression that Blacksmith is too full of his/her own importance and thinks that everyone on the internet hangs on his/her every word and gets carried away. As you say why should any poster have to explain themselves to any other poster on the internet, I believe that Blacksmith has another agenda as SB did until he revealed his true colours.

by garfy 25.10.12 14:03

Newintown wrote:
garfy wrote:excellent replies Tony ..but imo it is something you can do without ...now especially

i have never really got what BB is all about ...especially lately

i may be in the wrong with how i am perceiving all this but surly ...at the end of the day ...there are enough people on your back ...with out BB having his pennies worth ...

but surly i am right about this ...not every thing i read i agree with ...but that's the way it goes .... we are still on the same side we should stick together in our beliefs [of what happened that night]....

maddie needs all the help she can get in outing the truth...tony you are doing something constructive you stand by your principles and belief ...so what the hell is BB going on about why should you have to explain yourself to him

I get the impression that Blacksmith is too full of his/her own importance and thinks that everyone on the internet hangs on his/her every word and gets carried away. As you say why should any poster have to explain themselves to any other poster on the internet, I believe that Blacksmith has another agenda as SB did until he revealed his true colours.

Newintown ..yes you could be right there...its like david_uk said ....he talks a lot ...but does absolutely nothing ....an then as the audacity to question those who do ...think a little bit of the green eyed monster is involved

edit .....not your words david_uk...but what i thought them to mean

by justme3 25.10.12 14:11

"Mr Bennett, like many before him when faced by opponents with greater financial clout, chose to try and avoid being bankrupted in the libel courts".

Oh dear! Tony how COULD you. Trying to "avoid being bankrupt"[ed]. Now why would anyone on earth try to avoid bankruptcy?

Walter Scott · by david_uk 25.10.12 14:46

Would just like to state that while I personally think Blacksmith as gone a little a awry recently, I have before now always thought his blogs to be excellent. He has never made a secret about not believing in wider conspiracies banded about in this case. I tend to agree mostly, but I believe there is some higher level of assistance afforded to the McCann's for some reason, I just wish we knew exactly why.

by Guest 25.10.12 21:37

I read that Blacksmith spiel earlier today and thought it must be an imposter, in my opinion of late he has taken on a new persona concentrating more on directly slating people outside the immediate known Mccann circle. I preferred him when he put his intellectual efforts into the case of missing Madeleine.

I applaud Tony Bennett for posting that clever response to the points raised by Blacksmith, it's the best laugh I've had in many a day when reading different opinions of the case, I always thought him to be a master of the written word, I hope the Blacksmith has seen it.

Too many people think they know better than the rest which is rather annoying considering we are all in the same boat with regard to detailed knowledge of the case. I can only admire Tony Bennett for having the tenacity to stand up against the bullying tactics of the Mccann's and their legal team and anyone else who doubts his intentions. How many of Tony Bennett's cyber critics are trained lawyers that might put them in a position of authority, they seem to think they know better?

Well done that man!

by statsman 25.10.12 21:47

Gollum says

Well done that man!

And I second that wholeheartedly!

by **Tony Bennett** 25.10.12 21:53

Gollum wrote:I read that Blacksmith spiel earlier today and thought it must be an imposter...

Er, Gollum, thnak you very much - and, um, you just could be right because THIS has just appeared above the top of the thread:

Blacksmith Hand Forged

Range of traditional window & door ironmongery from the Anvil

by Smokeandmirrors 25.10.12 22:13

Tony Bennett wrote:
Gollum wrote:I read that Blacksmith spiel earlier today and thought it must be an imposter...
Er, Gollum, thnak you very much - and, um, you just could be right because THIS has just appeared above the top of the thread:

Blacksmith Hand Forged

Range of traditional window & door ironmongery from the Anvil

Wonder if they make Good Quality Shutters?

by Guest 25.10.12 22:47

Ah yes, quality blacksmithing for the unitiated:

1. Basic preparation....

a) Building the forge b) Firing the coals c) Working the steel

2. Basic skills....

a) Bending b) Twisting c) Upsetting d) Flattening