Well, I didn’t think there’d be anything in this thread to make me laugh but there it is! Trial by bookie.
Is there a Lord McAlpine, or something like that? I think I saw that name getting passed around on Facebook in the early hours.
He’s a former fundraiser for the conservatives, who held the position of Treasurer. He was very close to Margaret Thatcher and she gave him his peerage. She was always such a terrible judge of character (I’m thinking of Cecil Parkinson, Jonathan Aitken and many more). The rumours about McAlpine have been around for years.
Yes, Lord McAlpine was accused by Newsnight of being a vile, evil child molester.
Lord McAlpine Did Not Abuse Me, Says Wales Care Home Victim Steve Messham
Pedogeddon implosion at eleven.
McAlpine is fairly insistent that he never went to Wrexham to abuse young boys, but he says nothing about them being delivered to him elsewhere. I’d call the fucker’s bluff and say sue away, especially if I had no money.
Random rich people should be sued on the off chance they might be a pedophile? 
Of course it’s random. He just picked McAlpine out of a hat.
I’m glad you cleared that up.
As someone elsewhere on the internet has already expressed my opinion, I’ll post it here and save myself some typing.
Oooops - “Lord McAlpine to sue Twitter users who named him”
I feel I should point out that this was allegedly a case of mistaken identity, and the victim now says it wasn’t Lord McAlpine after all.
And I should probably stop saying “Lord McAlpine” before the thought police come for me :eek:
Because, unlike nearly 20 years ago, he was plastered all over prime time TV?
If you were a prominent businessman with nothing to hide, would you be prepared to let slide allegations out in the wild about you sexually abusing children, and worse, as long as they weren’t plastered all over prime time tv?
If it were a two line article in the Podunk Sentinel, the quite possibly yes. No need to throw my gasoline on someone else’s ember.
A conspiracy-minded person could say this Messham fiasco was tailor-made to discredit any future allegations against important figures, and try and sour the public’s perception of accusers.
How about if it was in a book written by a guy who goes on speaking tours all around the world to promote his books? You’d want to put that guy out of business, wouldn’t you?
Assuming this is what actually happened (I honestly have no idea), then my answer is still quite possibly yes. One guy on a book tour is not the same as being on the front page of every newspaper in the world.
There’s very little upside to suing no names (see the McDonalds case above). It’s expensive and generates a lot of publicity.
Whatever the truth of the allegations, it looks like he has made a tactical error at least, because it’ll be far harder to dam the tide of rumours in the age of social media than it was when the accusations were made.
That’s Dave Lee Travis been arrested by the Savile police today, and I’m hearing internet rumours about a man from Crinkley Bottom…
The other side of the coin…
Dave Jones, at the time manager of Southampton Football Club was arrested and put on trial for alleged molestation of youths in his care while working at a children’s home.
The judge threw the case out of court on the second day of a ten day projected trial saying “There is no smoke, there is no fire”.
Two men were later gaoled for making false allegations against him.They had apparently hatched a plan to sell their story to a tabloid newspaper. Thirteen years later he’s still got to put up with taunts from opposition supporters.
I
And an interesting article now saying Savile was a mobster!
(okay, technically saying “was Savile a mobster?”)