Askival, Mike Nestor, Malcolm Ward and Paul Hutchinson Simpson: A Risk to Clients and the Public Interest?

Paul Simpson will need more than a crash helmet to save him this time. Picture irrevocably licensed by Paul Simpson from his Flickr under CC-BY-2.0.

Paul Simpson, of “Plane Crash” Homes for Lambeth, is now actually trying to sell his services in consultancy! Picture kindly and irrevocably licensed by Paul Simpson from his Flickr under CC-BY-2.0. Edit: In an attempt at rebranding, Paul is now going by Paul Hutchinson Simpson.

Largely unregulated, management consultancies can provided a useful service but it is very much a case of caveat emptor (‘buyer beware’). The dubious decision by Askival, a housing and project management consultancy, to take on Paul Simpson (now rebranded as Paul Hutchinson Simpson) of the very publicly failed and abolished property development company Homes for Lambeth, demonstrates just how important that can be. The move raises questions about the judgement and competence of CEO Mike Nestor and Managing Director Malcolm Ward. Meanwhile, consultancy Newman Francis, which seems more capable (or at least possessing a greater facility for self-preservation), has begun an investigation after a media inquiry from MHN.

MHN covered the Homes for Lambeth disaster last year. The full article is here. In short, Lambeth council tried its hand at property development by setting up a property development company. That company failed, squandering around £25 million of public money and only starting (starting – not delivering) 65 houses in 5 years. At the same time the company was criticised for waste, luxury and profligacy at the expense of taxpayers – for example spending just under one million pounds on upmarket WeWork offices in Waterloo when the council that wholly owned the company had empty, but less luxurious, buildings in Vauxhall.

The story is a scandal in its own right. Many vulnerable, impoverished residents of Lambeth live in undown, unpleasant, even unsafe residences. Money which could have improved their lives was squandered on the white elephant project.

My personal interest was piqued, however, because I knew one of the key figures in the failure. Paul Hutchinson Simpson (formerly known as Paul Simpson) was a former Labour Party staffer I had the misfortune to work with nearly twenty years ago. I was not impressed then and so I was unsurprised to be able to draw a clear line between many of the failures identified in the Kerslake review, which led to the decision to close the firm, and functions that Simpson personally boasted responsibility for.

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Vox Day: A Sea of Skulls Review

In 2016, I reviewed Vox Day’s lengthy novel ‘A Throne of Bones’ (‘AToB’) and found it to be “very, very good”. Now, 8 years since my review and 11 years since the first book was released, he has finished the sequel – ‘A Sea of Skulls’ (‘ASoS’), which can be bought as an ebook on the Arkhaven Comics website. The book was released in incomplete form in 2016, but not finished until the end of 2023 (nearly double the original length) and your author has refrained from reviewing until now that it is complete. I paid for the original release of the book, and received a free upgrade voucher for the finished version. For those who have not already received it, the final version is well worth buying. Be warned, spoilers follow.

A Sea of Skulls by Vox Day

A Sea of Skulls by Vox Day

For those unfamiliar with the series, the, “Arts of Dark and Light” is set in a fantasy world on a continent called Selenoth. The setting and story is dominated by the ‘Republic of Amorr’, which is almost indistinguishable from the Roman Republic. Amorr, however, exists in a fantasy world that will be familiar to players of Dungeons and Dragons and other Tolkien-derived settings. The world contains many of the usual fantasy elements of elves, dwarves, demons and magic. Amorr has some variations in timeline and technology, for example it has a monotheistic faith very similar to Christianity that is already the official state religion. In the real Rome that did not happen until the Republic had been replaced by the Roman Empire. Technology levels vary from bronze-age to medieval – with roughly ancient era Amorr next to medieval Savondir – a France analogue.

The ongoing story, not unlike other fantasy novels such as the Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson or a Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin, concerns conflicts between various human and supernatural factions in multiple fantasy states.

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Sonia Poulton: Anti-Semitism and Vile Child Sex Slave Allegations (Redux)

This is a heavily revised version of my article about Sonia Poulton’s vile anti-Semitism. Sonia Poulton has been tweeting recently about the court case we are involved in and me, claiming I have been making up lies, including in particular that she is “anti-Semitic”. I have revised and republished this article because I do not wish to prejudice any proceedings should they occur, unexpectedly, much sooner than initially anticipated.

Sonia Poulton claims the allegations of anti-Semitism are lies.

Sonia Poulton claims the allegations of anti-Semitism are lies.

I stand by my opinion that Sonia is anti-Semitic, which is based on the content she has produced and participated in. To give some (non-exhaustive) examples of the facts my opinion is based on I would like to start with her video aired on 18 July 2020 in which Sonia Poulton and Shaun Attwood interview noted holocaust denier Ryan Dawson, uncritically and sympathetically. The horrifying assertions from this video include (checks notes):

(1) When asked if victims of 9/11 would see justice Dawson responds – “some justice yeah I mean I don’t think it’ll get back to Israel […]” – meaning that Israel is responsible for 9/11 and victims will not see justice against Israel.

(2) The Knesset, Israel’s legislature, only banned people trafficking to avoid Jewish blood being diluted, “what it was that won them over to finally start making rules about the victims of human trafficking wasn’t the horror of being lured to Israel under some false pretense like oh you’re gonna be a nannie or you have this job or that and they’re getting all these Eastern Europeans and then just taking their passport away and forcing them to work in a brothel no it was because they uh it was disturbing the Jewish majority demographic”

(3) The laws that were passed by the Knesset were designed to ensure children could be used and raped then deported when they were adults and no longer desirable to paedophiles, […] so once they were of age uh they were no longer desirable sexually they deported them back to wherever they stole them from based on illegal immigration.”

At the end of the video, Sonia fulsomely thanks Dawson, apologises for any technical issues and expresses a wish to get him involved again. She in no way condemns or criticises his views. She later posted this on Twitter [1] (archive):

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Riddings Park Community Centre: Moderate Trustees Resign Over Event by Extremist Sonia Poulton

After being put on an indefinite hiatus by the video sharing platform One VSP, extremist Sonia Poulton has been trying to fundraise by other means. On Saturday 9th December, concerningly, Riddings Park Community Centre allowed an event of hers to go ahead despite being notified of some of Sonia Poulton’s content. Meanwhile her former platform Brand New Tube has been reprimanded by the ICO, shortly before it was renamed One VSP, and is now under investigation by OfCom. A judge has found that allegations of child abuse made against Poulton by Hemming as part of his libel and harassment claim have, “a real prospect of success”.

Sonia Poulton promotes Albert Bishai

Sonia Poulton promotes the channel of a man called Albert Bishai – with this sinister graphic. In your author’s opinion, this graphic bears the racist and anti-Semitic meaning, promoted by Sonia Poulton, that the world is ruled by a Jewish conspiracy in the name of Satan. According to the public notice of investigation, OfCom are investigating whether One VSP has taken sufficient measures to protect the general public from, “material that would amount to a criminal offence under laws relating to terrorism, child sexual exploitation and abuse, and racism and xenophobia”.

In a recent court judgement, allegations of child abuse against Poulton were found to have a ‘real prospect of success’ and John Hemming was given permission to bring a claim against Poulton on that basis. Screenshots from his draft amendments to his claim and the judgement below:

John Hemming New Pleadings Malice Crime Accepted

John Hemming’s pleadings that Sonia is guilty of a criminal offence of child abuse by her naming two children who had been tortured in breach of a court order. The court found this had a, ‘real prospect of success’.

Judgement November 2023 - Judge Finds Real Prospects of Success on Child Abuse Allegations Against Poulton

In her judgement of November 2023 – Ms Justice Hill DBE allowed Hemming permission to bring a claim of malicious defamation against Sonia Poulton. The claim is based on her abusing two child torture victims by naming them in breach of a court order. When Poulton was interviewed by police and the video was taken town, it is alleged that she then defamed John Hemming and others as having tried to frame her. The judge found the claim has a ‘real prospect of success’.

The remaining Trustees have not denied any of the allegations when they were put in writing by MHN.

The content of Sonia Poulton’s output is now the topic of concern from many people and institutions. We will continue to campaign for her to be de-platformed for promoting hate speech and reckless, irresponsible journalism. The two resignees are to be commended. The remaining Trustees have only themselves to blame for being tarred with the brush of Poulton’s vile extremism.

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High Court Judge: Child Abuse Allegations Against Sonia Poulton Have, “real prospect of success”

Sonia Poulton Video Statement

A High Court Judge has found that, child abuse allegations against Sonia Poulton have a real prospect of success.

Readers will likely have seen my previous article about the massive costs hit of £30,000 Sonia Poulton took in the High Court judgement of Mrs Justice Hill released on 24th November 2023, which is available on BAILII here. Poulton has of course published her own highly biased account. One fact she has chosen not to share with donors and supporters is the fact that the judge found child abuse allegations against her – specifically that she is guilty of a criminal offence for naming two child torture victims in breach of a court order – to have a, “real prospect of success”.

In 2021 Poulton was interviewed by police after naming two child torture victims in breach of a court order. My careful article opining that this amounted to child abuse, referring only to public judgements made available by permission of the judge, is still online – #UnfollowSoniaPoulton: Reminder that the Fringe Journalist who Attacked the Queen is a Child Abuser. After the interview, her co-host Shaun Attwood says he accepted a caution and the video was removed. Poulton claims she did not accept a caution and no further action was taken. In a witness statement used at the public hearing on 17-18 October this year, she produced a heavily redacted police email appearing to confirm the no further action decision, but in which she had redacted the sender, crime number and the reason no further action was taken.

Horrifyingly, she also said as follows – […]The Metropolitan Police have been very clear that sharing the video is a criminal act […]. This of course, dovetails nicely with one of the additions John Hemming wanted to make to his claim, which the judge permitted, that Sonia was malicious in a post in which Sonia accuses him of trying to frame her for a crime. The basis of the malice pleading was firstly, John did not report her and did not know about it until afterwards, secondly, because she had no reason to think he reported her and thirdly because she knew she was guilty. This pleading was allowed. The important question is why?

John Hemming New Pleadings Malice Crime Accepted

John Hemming’s pleadings that Sonia is guilty of a criminal offence of child abuse by her naming two children in breach of a court order. The court found this had a, ‘real prospect of success’.

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Sonia Poulton in Court Humiliation – Costs Hit of Over £30,000 – Harassment Claim Against Her Has, “Real Prospect of Success”

Sonia Poulton has had a bad day in court. After John filed his defamation claim against her in 2020, she and her backers have relentlessly used delaying tactics to try to force an unjust settlement, opposing every procedural motion, proclaiming victory over every costs order in their favour even when larger costs orders are made the other way. Today’s judgement by Mrs Justice Hill is a humiliating and devastating blow for Poulton.

From left, Darren Laverty, Sam Smith, John Hemming and barrister Matthew Hodson outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the 18th October 2023

From left, Darren Laverty, Sam Smith, John Hemming and barrister Matthew Hodson outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the 18th October 2023.

In today’s judgement, which is available here, Sonia failed in her bid to stop John Hemming bringing a harassment claim against her, failed in her bid to stop John Hemming’s data protection claim against her, failed in her attempt to withdraw an admission on serious harm and failed in her bid to strike out another data protection claim, which was instead stayed until the end of the current case. In order to obtain permission, Hemming had to show a real prospect of success on the harassment claim. The court found that he had. Hemming did however not receive permission to bring an additional, parallel, libel claim to the GDPR and harassment claims.

Darren Laverty is also proceeding with a claim against Sonia Poulton for breach of the settlement between them. The settlement was confidential, but was referred to in court and in the judgement and has become public domain. Humiliatingly, it can now be revealed that Sonia did not in fact get costs against him for their lawsuit, and had to agree to a lifelong restraining agreement that prohibits her from disparaging Laverty in any way on any topic – although that term is reciprocal. Although the judge has acknowledged that Laverty’s claim (and Sonia’s counterclaim) are technically for breach of contract she described it as in effect a harassment claim, saying,

[…] I cannot ignore the assertions that have been made about the Defendant’s own conduct of the litigation; that I have given permission to the Claimant to advance a harassment claim against her; and that ultimately the Fourth Party’s allegations of harassment against her may be upheld.”

Sonia Poulton Video Statement

John Hemming has been given permission to begin a harassment claim against Sonia Poulton, which the court found has a “real prospect” of success.

Because of her litigation misconduct of ambushing Mr Hemming before the hearing of 13 July 2022 with a limitation point, Poulton has been ordered to pay the entire cost of that hearing whoever wins the case. Hemming’s claimed costs were over £7,500 whilst Poulton’s claimed costs were over £22,982.90. Regardless of who wins the case, Sonia has lost her nearly £23K in costs for that hearing and will have to pay some part of Hemming’s costs (to be assessed if not agreed). So she has taken a hit of around £30K.

Ms Poulton was given permission to amend her harassment claim against me … because I consented to the amendments as I wish to prove the merits of my article(s) complained of. She did not receive any costs of the amendments. Interestingly, the judge chose to quote my observations on the amendments, specifically that they had no chance at trial and were wrongly pleaded:

“The 3rd Party consents to the amendments but nevertheless considers these to be an abuse of process. The Defendant initially threatened a libel claim. Confronted by defences of Truth, Honest Opinion and Publication in the Public Interest, she has brought a harassment claim instead. It is trite law that a harassment claim relating to press publications, including citizen journalist publications, must please a conscious or negligent abuse of power by the media. None has been pleaded. The 3rd Party consents to the amendments only because he believes it is in the public interest to prove the truth and reasonableness of his allegations made in the articles.”

Poulton has also been ordered to pay £195 costs to me of earlier disclosure against a commenter on this blog. The claim against the commenter has been formally abandoned by Sonia and she is not allowed to use the commenter’s name, which as the judge noted has never passed into the public domain. The costs in my favour mean she has lost her costs of applying for the order. I did fail in my attempt to get some of the hearing costs from Sonia in ‘any event’ but I get a second chance as all of those costs were instead ordered in the case.

I represented myself, but John Hemming was represented by barrister Matthew Hodson, whose performance in advocating for John at the hearing was near-perfect in my view, which is the opinion of a particularly demanding legal consumer. Kudos also to the judge, whose judgement was swift and thorough. Obviously, I did not agree with every point but she had gone and researched the file and case law with great care.

Not so long ago, Sonia gloated that her claim for ‘harassment’ against me was ‘growing’. She now faces two similar claims against herself and significant costs consequences of her actions.

The judge has also ordered extensive disclosure.

The case continues.

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Introducing my Article Series on Neural Networks and Tensor Mathematics

Outside my activism work, I earn my living as a software developer. I have recently been working in the sphere of artificial intelligence, including a project involving implementing a neural network library from scratch using C#, C/C++ and nVidia CUDA. This blog is for politics and law, however, so I have started a separate WordPress site and a Medium for my technical writing.

Machine Learning Graphic

Machine Learning Graphic – looks complicated but my article series’ intend to demystify it.

I have begun two article series which are intended as introductions to neural networks and the related tensor mathematics, respectively, being “Introduction to Neural Networks” and “Introduction to Tensors in Neural Networks”.

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Why I’ve Ditched Norton

I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, but today I’ve ditched Norton 360. Why? Renewal of subscriptions for background services are really a function of inertia. Telephone company, anti-virus, all the same. No one wants to spend their life thinking about this unless they are made to. Recently though, it has just gotten beyond parody.

Norton's 'Message' 'Centre' recommends I buy another Norton product

Norton’s ‘Message’ ‘Centre’ recommends I buy another Norton product

Everyone expects a little bit of upselling. That does not make it right, but many businesses do it. I saw a note in a hotel not so long ago – “Happy Upselling!” it said to the bar staff. Norton however have taken it to extremes. Their anti-virus client application actually has an email style inbox, backed with alerts when you receive an, ‘important’ ‘message’. Effectively it uses their trusted position as an anti-virus provider to put their commercial messaging in a privileged position.

I have had messages breathlessly and illiterately warning me of, “Broken registries” (meaning, “broken registry entries”). However, when I click on the link I have to pay more to find out what they are and fix them. In reality what is pointed to were minor and inconsequential incorrect entries that any Windows PC accumulates over time. They do not pose a significant threat requiring addressing. I double checked this using CC Cleaner (which is free). It identified a number of minor issues – out of date junk entries – requiring no action although to be fair some of them were inaccurate. Norton’s installed product that I had paid for had found some minor problems with no serious consequences for inaction and attempted to charge me more to fix them.

In each case they offered to bolt on around £27 a year for an extra service. I can see elderly, or technically untrained, people actually falling for this, perhaps evening being worried or frightened. I also question the wisdom of a marketing strategy involving telling people what the product they have paid for cannot do (more precisely, will not do) unless they pay extra.

So, as my subscription approached the end, I disabled auto-renewal and today I am trying Bitdefender for a year. To be fair, they tried to upsell me during the checkout. However, at least they left it there. The product does not have its own inbox for their sales material. I also saved around £60. Looking at online forums I am not the only person who feels this way.

Reviews say Bitdefender has a hair thin lead over Norton on virus detection, but for the comparable product, I noticed it does not have a reputation checking function. Aside from that they have nearly identical options just with different colour branding. So, Bitdefender get my business for a year and all they have to do to keep it is not attract enough of my attention to make me think about alternatives.

As far as I am concerned, the Norton Message Centre is an expression of contempt for customers, and in my opinion, I have removed at least one piece of Adware from my system today.

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Sonia Poulton Lawyers Cease Acting

Sonia Poulton Video Statement

Sonia Poulton has terminated the instruction of her lawyers, Simons Muirhead Burton.

In the latest bizarre antics in the case of Hemming v Poulton and others, and others, and more others Sonia Poulton’s lawyers have given notice of ceasing to act, at the same time as Poulton faces threatened allegations by two third parties she has dragged into the proceedings. Poulton, the ‘face’ of Brand New Tube, has also taken to sending us lengthy, rambling letters in open correspondence full of largely irrelevant, inaccurate, allegations against us whilst congratulating herself on her legal brilliance. She also seems to think almost any disagreement whatsoever, or any step her opponents take she does not like, is pleadable harassment. Quite why her financial backers like Muhammad Butt think this is going to increase their chances of recovering costs is unclear. However, her behaviour is consistent with the ratings given to Brand New Tube by independent groups such as mediabiasfactcheck.com,

“In conclusion, Brand New Tube promotes tin-foil hat conspiracy theories and quackery-level pseudoscience. They completely lack credibility based on a lack of transparency and numerous failed fact checks.”

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A Late, but Deserved, Obituary for former Councillor Steven Markiewicz

Steve Markiewicz in his prime

Steve Markiewicz in his prime before his final tragic illness.

Steven Markiewicz was my friend, and a Conservative Councillor. He tragically passed away in October 2021. He was a good and diligent councillor and was decent to me on many issues when others were harder to find – not just paying lip service but taking action I could verify. Steven also shared an interest in gaming and had a gaming PC although towards the end he told me he had not had the time or energy to play. More importantly, he was a councillor of the old Conservative school who thought it was a councillor’s role (respectfully) to hold council officers to account, not just champion them. He was my go to, often.

I was not sure if I should write about him at the time. However, he came to my mind today. Whilst investigating a council mess-up, I used the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 to obtain information. I discovered a vast number of emails from councillor officers. In particular, one officer had asked councillors not to reply to me on an issue and appeared to state this was something they would do regularly (that is, ask councillors not to reply to complaints from members of the public). Given councillors are supposed to support members of the public, hold officers to account and deal with complaints when members of the public are dissatisfied with handling by officers, this seems to me improper.

I suspect Steve would respond badly to such a request. Sadly, not all our modern councillors take the same approach. So, I thought I would raise a glass to him tonight. He is missed. I will not name the officer here, but I will deal with them appropriately in due course.

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