BY THE EDITOR

Before this weekend I’d never heard of the group Hunting Leaks. They sound like a plumbing firm or a cabinet audit committee. As it turns out, a brand of incontinence pads would be more applicable.

I was amused to hear that this group, replete with balaclava crusties and mad cat women, were so flustered as to concoct a ‘take-down’ of me – so I was warned on Saturday afternoon on one of my Countryside Signal groups while chomping away on a mouth-watering pulled pork roll in a Twickenham car-park.

I didn’t have time to read their effort until yesterday afternoon after chewing my way through a delightful roast beef lunch (bloody). Come to think of it I have munched my way through quite a few dead animals recently. Apologies to any vegans who may feel lost here in these hallowed pages.

This is the latest in a series of attempts over the years by leftist militants from Chavistas to Corbynistas to smear me and it had me chuckling away after only a couple of sentences.

My wife read it and commented, ‘Gosh, you’ve been busy!’

These kind of ‘take-downs’ are somewhat expected and come with the territory. I was talking to a police officer just last week about the latest in a line of sinister threats I have received from animal rights activists and even she commented, “they are absolute vermin”. And so I am learning…

“We’ve all been blooded on Hunting leaks, Dom. They smeared me as a failed MI5 operative who runs a sex toy business. You’ve got off lightly!!”

“They claimed I was a child molester. In spite of one of them actually being a convicted child molester. You couldn’t make it up!! If you’re not targeted by that rabble you’re no one. Badge of honour, mate”

“They didn’t mention that sheep!”

Certainly the antis and sabs are an odd (and criminal) crew who openly admit to caring more about animals than humans but do so much harm to animals by adopting prejudiced and impracticable policies with unintended consequences. They seem to engage in rather a lot of projection and relish in spouting bile from behind their laptops. So far I’ve been attacked by an actual witch from Wales, by a thug from Manchester, by a primary school teacher from Buckinghamshire (the Department for Education are investigating her), a sociopath called Christine Hoxworth (Jane Macdonald) and by a phony solicitor from Northamptonshire. One would have thought that Hunting Leaks admins (I have been handed a list of names and addresses, Aubrey) might have considered that, since I am involved in a civil case for defamation, now might not be the best time to be posting prejudicial smears about me given that I am in daily contact with defamation lawyers?

The ‘sources’ for this latest leftist smear turn out to be a mentally ill ex-librarian turned stalker from Hastings visited last year by counter terror police, a Homeless charity boss who offered her councillor lover donated clothes and who pocketed benefits from homeless men in Torquay whose charity (rather lack of) I helped expose and close down in 2019 (now confirmed as mismanaged by the Charity Commission), and the abovementioned sorceress who has badgered the police to the point of harassment. A top-class array of characters with more PINs between them than your average hedgehog. The Torquay charity boss (I hope mendaciously for Boris’ sake) claimed to be an ex of our Prime Minister, and I also have her on audio claiming she received a pink sports car from the actor Rupert Everett when she was dating him – the part of the recording where my colleague points out that Everett is gay and the resultant silence are to die for.

But hey-ho, accuracy really does not matter to keyboard warriors. Hunting Leaks are cut from the same cloth as groups like Wild Justice, Wild Moors and CBTH. They lie through their teeth because they know their supporters think that being gullible means being prone to random attacks by seagulls.

When these groups yoke and depend on these kinds of citizen investigators for whistleblowing tips you can see why they so often end up with egg on their face when reality bites. While I was enjoying the rugby, the magazine’s Twitter account was abuzz with smears and attacks from all kinds of basement dwelling pond-life. This account was particularly vile:

In this latest iteration of smear bingo the smearers have clearly thrown darts at a smear bingo board:

In my case they seem to have used rather a lot of darts.

I rarely bother addressing smears as a rule. By existing they show you’re hovering over the target. Marxist orcs never like it up’em. Responding to trolls can give them oxygen.

But in this instance, as their smear coincided with some fundraising attempts associated with the defamation case and it’s more than just me involved in that case, I’ll quickly address some of the issues directly and take any oxygen these muppets thought they might be enjoying away from them in one fell swoop:  

DBS Check

Not that Hunting Leaks are at all interested in facts or Truth, my conspicuously clean DBS check must be a rather unexpected spanner in their works as it sinks almost all of their smears in one shot:

Hunting Leaks Admins: “Oh”.  

Our 2,000+ head of cattle and a fixed income fund keep me well clear of ever needing to ‘swindle’ people as their smear implies. This allows me to edit this magazine and to fish as much as I do.

Hunting Leaks Admins: Facepalm. “Ah but we relied on Google searches and Richard Bartholomew – yes we know he’s a mentally sick troll and his mother does not let him leave his flat but – but he said….”

I feel pity towards these armchair investigators. They are not getting paid. In the past they would have written green ink letters all day long and topped up their dole money by knitting gloves for orphanages. Then the Web came along and created some seriously manipulative and flawed figureheads who made them feel like they were part of something more significant, while fleecing them for time and money. Poor sods.

These people are incapable of seeing targets’ bank accounts or uncovering addresses purposefully hidden from them. Their hackers are not up to much either. Since 2009 I’ve lived under the gaze of some very unpleasant (and insane) stalkers who even managed to get themselves jettisoned from the Labour Party then refused back in even under Steptoe. Do you think I’d publish my personal details anywhere so they can check them out online using Google and the Wayback machine?!?! Keyboard warriors always have issues tracking trails and assets, especially internationally. Mostly, they are far too lethargic and way too busy fretting about their latest grifts, failed relationships and doorstep scams to get off their bums. No wonder Hunting Leaks, LACS and the rest go for the simple option and fake videos, just making stuff up.

As for the ‘far right extremist’ tag, that’s always harder to shoot down as it’s so subjective. Those who know me would classify my dull kind of common sense politics as somewhere between One-nation Tory and Thomas Sowell – think Crombie and Barbour rather than bomber jacket or black leather SS trench coat. (Way to the right of their extreme left, certainly. Then again so are the SDP and Keith.)

Conclusions and some Smear Writing Advice

As smears go, this was a two out of ten at best. Much room for improvement, lads and lasses.

For future reference, 1+1 does not ever equal a thousand. The key to a good smear is making it somewhat plausible – aim more at a 1+1=3 in future and you may attract some more mainstream cranks, as does Carole Cadwalladr or The Badger Trust.

And as for the lack of embarrassing facts in the smear. Well, I am surprised and disappointed that you smearers didn’t mention that stag do in Barcelona in 2001. Or the time I vomited over my boss’s wife in a Chinese restaurant in Soho in 1997. I am veritably grateful to Hunting Leaks that the story about the school maid didn’t surface – that always generates a round of slapping from the wife.

Meanwhile, Dear Readers, thanks for all your charming messages of ‘keep your chin up’ and ‘par for the course old chap’ but you are misjudging the man. As you know I have the hide of an elephant. I eat these Marxist orcs for breakfast. In any case amateur ‘take downs’ and ‘smears’ are only written on sand.

Far better to let the sand of moral relativists blow away in the wind or get washed away by the sea – to be on the side of Truth, which burns its imprint in even the hardest granite. Truth will always shine through in the end. Lines in the sand get trampled and disfigured. Attempts to discredit or kill off messengers always fail and backfire. All that Hunting Leaks have done is to gird the loin, inspire us to work harder with our solicitors, to expedite key actions, drawn attention to the burgeoning Crowd Justice fund and to refocus our brilliant team. Indeed it is the prejudicial smearers themselves who merit my deepest gratitude – with such useful frenemies the future is bright indeed.

Dominic Wightman is Editor of Country Squire Magazine.