…with no Court costs

While I was tickled to note that Lord McAlpine had acceded to The Slog’s request re donating money to Children in Need, after his own initial donation, sadly the giving to charity looks like it will mainly be undertaken by those he wishes to bring to book for going on Twitter and speculating about the false accusation against him of paedophilic tendencies.

This would be fine in my eyes were it not for two things:

1. His Lordship’s lawyers are working on an assumption of guilt on the part of those they have contacted via a website appeal.

2. They appear to be demanding rather a large ‘administration fee’ for completing the process for anyone with 500+ followers: the website ‘form’ being circulated is ONLY for those having under 500 followers on Twitter.

As to point 1 above, they’re only going to be able to establish that by going to Court. I should like to remind readers that to date the strength of Lord McAlpine’s case has not been tested in a Court of Law. Any monies obtained to date are based entirely on the threat of legal action.

I understand from two sources that a well-known socialite has already been advised by lawyers that the Peer’s claim against that socialite is at best shaky.

Regarding point 2, the letter being sent to lucky donors is assumptive bordering on aggressive in its tone. For example, ‘we will let you know how much we shall be asking you to donate to Lord McAlpine’s chosen charity’ and ‘…the more information you can give us, the more the administration charge can be reduced’.

So, you donate where we tell you, tell us everything now or it’ll cost more – why the need for all the personal data? GCHQ? – and as you are of course guilty as threatened, don’t argue chummy.

Is it really likely that – following McAlpine’s massive access to the media and blanket coverage of his innocence – people who may have only 20 Twitter fans have damaged his reputation in any real or lasting sense? Perhaps the question will be tested in Court at some point.

Allegedly, for those with over 500 followers, he is demanding £500 plus £250 in administrative costs. That would net Lord Alistair McAlpine £2.5m in admin fees….and thus potentially increase his net worth by 25%. Nice work if you can get it.

However, when it comes to these bigger fish, McAlpine’s circular offers up an interesting phrase: ‘we have yet to confirm our approach’. So he wants £250 in admin costs before he’s decided how to administer the scheme. Always important to get one’s priorities right.

The Peer’s legal bods have appointed well-known ambulance chasers to run the money-raking operation. More on them in due course.

Regardless of what is or isn’t the lasting ‘damage’ done to Alistair McAlpine’s ‘reputation’, there is more than a whiff of grubby menace about the way this mass-suit without trial is being conducted. I must not of course advise anyone to tell Ali and his team to f**k off, as that would be a gratuitous attempt on my part to undermine His Lordship’s case. I can only speak for myself, and record that this affair could best be given proper closure by a full judicial process assessing the merits of his case…as opposed to a sort of latter day tithes collection based on his automatic right to redress.

Stay tuned.