The Sunday Reflection #63 - Free speech and the truth

This week we saw the launch of a new publication, set up by former Observer journalists

Former Observer big-hitters inc @carolecadwalla @sarah_donaldson @JaneFerg @ImogenCarter launch title with redundancy payouts

After Observer sale "We decided to launch a title that the journalists themselves would own, that would be truly independent" https://t.co/pa7pTKUL8d pic.twitter.com/qYUKMDjFKm

— Press Gazette (@pressgazette) September 26, 2025

Carole Cadwalla's blog logo

Anyone who has followed the trials and tribulations of Carole Cadwalla and her battles with the rich and powerful will wish them every success.  This week, I've been binge watching The Hack on ITV. If you've not seen it, I recommend it. A brilliant series. I followed the story in the Guardian and I also worked with a member of Hacked Off at The Passage, so I was more than familiar with the story. Even so, it was shocking. Perhaps the thing which I found most upsetting was the huge effort the Murdoch empire put into getting stories that were largely tittle tattle. Scoops on celebrities private lives was of no interest to me. It might have been excusable had they been  exposing scandals that truly were of public interest, but the NOTW seemed more interested in ruining the lives of people, rather than improving them. Another story in the news this week was the fact that Her Ladyship Michelle Mone's dodgy dealing will require a repayment over a hundred million pounds. I doubt this will happen as the company that supplied the dodgy kit to the NHS has gone bust and needless to say, having pocketed the profits in dividends, she is under no personal liability to pay the money back. I have a deep interest in the story. A whistleblower approached me with the story before any news outlet had picked it up. They were deeply sceptical of the mainstream media, not least becuase of the hacking story. We met and the evidence was truly shocking. I started writing a blog partly to expose such shenanigans. However, I also have become painfully aware of the limitations of a personal blog.  Occasionally, people have given me tip offs of things that have become larger stories, the Barnet Freedom pass scandal being one such story. But none of these are national scandals, concerning hundreds of millions of pounds. Such stories are well beyond the resources of a blog such as this one to manage. I am not poor, but I am not in a position to face down the legal teams of multi millionaires. My advice was to approach the Guardian. Through my contacts with Hacked Off, I am of the opinion that the newspaper is the one most likely to run with such a story. The person I spoke to was an intermediary for the actual whistle blower. Like me, they were aware of the pitfalls of facing down the rich and powerful.

I was pleased to see the Guardian take and develop the story. I deleted the emails and the trail, as a precaution and suggested my contact do the same thing. Their main concern was the consequences of taking on the rich and powerful. I explained that The Guardian has a legal team and understand the protocols of anonymity. The editor will not lose their house if the story goes pear shaped, although they may get the sack. The people who are always most at risk are the actual Whistleblowers, who get no proper legal protection. About six months after our conversation, odd things started to happen. It became clear that I was being followed. To this day, I have no idea why. My assumption was that it was related to my opposition to various local developments and that they were looking for dirt to lean on me to shut up. It was all a bit strange. Nothing really happened. One dodgy character, who I saw repeatedly lurking around started to get on my nerves. As I know the local geography pretty well. I was able to sneak around the back and sneak up on him. I invited him in for a cup of tea and suggested that he just told me what he was looking for, as it would save us all a lot of bother. I also took a few pictures. I suggested that if he didn't bugger off, I'd put them on my socials and blog. That sort of ended that. More recently, I wondered if it was related to the Mone scandal. I have no idea. I have rattled a fair few cages over the years. If ever you think someone is following you, it is pretty easy to spot, especially if you walk a dog! I took great delight in putting on wellies and doing the waterlogged Darlands trail. If you are ever planning to meet someone and you don't want to be seen, arrange to meet someone on a super long dog walk in muddy fields in February. 

Yesterday, I mentioned my old blog sparring partner Brian Coleman. Mr Coleman  took great delight in tainting me about my prostate cancer, when I announced it. Many people told me stories of Coleman that I have never been able to publish due to the fact that I'd get sued. I believe the sources implictly, but don't have the requisite level of proof to defend a legal challenge, if he decided to sue. I always said that if I discovered I had terminal cancer, I'd leave a forward dated blog, with all the worst stories on, change all of my blog passwords, and let that be my deathbed present to him, to pay him back for his gloating. When he got ejected from public life, following his criminal conviction for assaulting Helen Michael, I lost interest in him. Brian will be pleased to know that he is such a non entity now that I really wouldn't want that to be blogging legacy anymore.

My experiences made me reflect on one of the key themes in the Gospels. Jesus said that someone can only really be a follower if they give up all of their possessions and follow him. I used to think this was to show their commitment to the cause. I now realise that it was something entirely different. If you follow a difficult and dangerous path, the less you own and the less people you love, the less people can lean on you. If I really wanted to publish all of the terrible stories that I've been told and would love to publish, I'd get divorced, give my wife and kids every and live under a tree in Mill Hill Park, writing the blog on the computer in the library.

That is why I salute Carole Cadwalla and her colleagues. She's braver than I am!