More harassment and stupidity from the Israel lobby. This time the smearing has been done by Labour Against Anti-Semitism, who decided to cast noxious insinuations against Darren Williams, a member of Labour’s NEC. Williams’ ‘crime’ was to send them an email asking them to take him off their mailing list. Like an obsessive lover, they couldn’t take rejection, and so stuck his request on the internet with their own snide comments. Here’s what they said:
According to the Skwawkbox, it appears that Williams never asked to be included in their mailing list, and had every right to ask them not to send him anymore. And instead of accepting his request, they’ve very publicly implied that he’s acting from very suspicious motives, like anti-Semitism.
Their tweet is illegal under the Data Protection Laws, which stipulated that they have to have the express permission of the subject before they publish their email address. Breaches of these regulations can result in huge fines from the data commissioner and action from the rozzers.
Mike in his comment on the Skwawkbox’s report states that, if he recalls correctly, the LAAS is the pet project of Euan Philipps, who was one of those who accused Mike of wrongdoing last year when he was falsely accused of anti-Semitism.
Mike goes on
It seems that this organisation is not above wrong-doing of its own, however. Do people like this believe the law doesn’t apply to them – while doing everything they can to smear the innocent?
Absolutely. And this seems to be the general mentality of the Israel lobby – that laws apply only to ‘little people’. Just like Margaret Hodge decided that she should get away with calling the leader of her party a ‘f***ing anti-Semite’ in parliament, while anyone else would have been punished with disciplinary action.
In the comments section, G. Millward, one of the great commenters and supporters of Mike and his blog, gave this piece of advice:
This self styled group are in breach of data protection act (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
I am advising all those who have been targeted by this group to contact the ICO, who have flagged up LAAS on their systems quoting the reference ENQ 738439
The ICO case officer dealing with this is:
Ciara Hagan
Case Officer
Information Commissioner’s Office
0330 414 6209
Martin Odoni was also disgusted at the LAAS’ treatment of Darren Williams, and wrote a letter of complaint to the Labour party. Martin also wrote one complaining about Margaret Hodge’s grotesque trivialisation of the Holocaust, and posted it on his website so that others could also use it as a template for their own. He has also done this with his letter about Williams’ victimisation by the LAAS.
He describes the LAAS as a fringe group who use the Labour party’s name without recognition or permission. He states that they have broken the law on possibly as many as three counts – data protection, breach of privacy and defamation. Here’s the letter
Good morning,
I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms about the conduct of the group “Labour Against Anti-Semitism” (LAAS), who, while operating in the name of the Labour Party (probably without permission), have potentially broken three laws, and engaged in extremely indiscreet and undeserved acts of public humiliation against a fellow party member.
Referring you to the following article, LAAS are, by their own admission, guilty of harvesting people’s contact details from online search engines, and then adding them to their mailing lists without explicit permission. This is an incontrovertible violation of data protection laws.
When a member of the Labour NEC, Darren Williams, politely asked LAAS to take him off their mailing list, as the law allows him to do and compels them to co-operate with, they instead decided to use his request in an attempt to humiliate him publicly. They put images of his e-mail on social media without his consent, which is a possible breach of privacy, and implied that he was hiding something about supposed ‘anti-Semitism’ in the Labour Party, which may amount to defamation.
LAAS are therefore definitely guilty of violating data protection laws, while possibly guilty also of violation-of-privacy and defamation-of-character. Furthermore, whether legal or otherwise, all of these misdeeds clearly constitute Bringing The Party Into Disrepute.
I understand that Euan Philipps is the spokesperson for LAAS, and that he is a member of the Labour Party – a former chairman in his local constituency.
Given this conduct by LAAS has quite serious criminal overtones, while being carried out in the name of the Labour Party, the party cannot turn a blind eye to it without implicitly approving of it. Therefore, I hereby demand that Mr Philipps, and any of his colleagues in LAAS that the party know of, be suspended from the party with immediate effect, pending a full and detailed investigation into their conduct, with a view to their expulsion if found guilty. The party should also examine what legal avenues are available to force LAAS to stop using the ‘Labour’ name without permission.
Kind regards
[Name]
He also has a graphic sending up the organisation’s pathetic little logo, calling it ‘a meaningless badge for a law-breaking sub-organisation. And he says they if they want to complain about him using their logo, they can do so after they’ve apologised to the Labour party for using its name without permission.
Beastrabban\'s Weblog 
August 20, 2018 at 1:29 pm |
Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
August 20, 2018 at 2:59 pm |
Had a reply from them. The Labour complaints team don’t seem to be reading their e-mails properly.
August 20, 2018 at 4:51 pm |
Thanks for the info, Martin. I’ll take a long at your article and see how odd it is.