A wealth of public money, lawyers, journalists, services, local government, police, media and an army of professionals at his finger tip. It’s of great concern that a senior Tory minister who is armed with a great deal of power at his disposal, would use it to abuse his position to discredit and smear CSA survivor and author, Teresa Cooper.
This is not the first incidence and attempt to discredit Ms Cooper and the Kendall House abuse by her constituent MP, Mr Pickles. Articles BBC HERE and Independent HERE
The definition of a smear campaign on Wikipedia
Pickles smear campaign will inevitably of had a major impact on Coopers life given his powerful position as a senior Tory minister for local government.
The smear campaign took yet another ugly turn when an article appeared in Politics UK, titled ‘Pickles, ‘Medication woman totally unreasonable’.
and written by senior political journalist Alex Stevenson. A senior journalist reporting for both the BBC and Politics UK.
The major share holder in Adfero media Ltd, the media company who owns Politics UK is Tory MP Adam Afriyie. Tory MP Afriyie has his own history HERE
Stevenson knowingly went to publication on Politics UK without giving Ms Cooper a right to reply or the ability to defend herself from yet another public attack on her by Tory government minister and MP for Brentwood and Ongar, Eric Pickles. After being alerted to the article by Google alerts, Miss Cooper contacted Stevenson who had no regrets and refused Ms Cooper a right to reply.
It was a clear Stevenson abused his position and as a senior political journalist for both the BBC politics and Politics UK, he ought to know better. It shows there is no protection for the public or any survivor of childhood abuse who maybe subjected to public and private smear campaigns by politicians.
Politics UK brags how close it is to Parliament and claims to be the UK’s leading political news website among MPs and members of the public. If that is true, that will have a bigger impact on Coopers life and credibility as a direct result of that article. It was clearly written with the intention of smearing a CSA survivors reputation and ruin her life. It worked.
Politics UK also states they are an ‘impartial political website with no political affiliation, which prides itself on standing out as an independent voice in a landscape where the norm is to nail your colours to the mast.’
Is that an accurate statement or false advertising given a Tory MP owns Adfero media Ltd who own Politics UK?
It also states ‘Our editorial team appear regularly on the BBC and Sky, as well as many other news and current affairs stations.’
Quote. With over 150,000 visitors a month, Politics.co.uk ’s team of journalists produce their stories from deep within the corridors of power in Westminster, where they were the first digital journalists to gain access to the lobby.150,000 visitors a month is a large audience to smear a survivor of abuse.
Yes Mr Stevenson, we can now see just how close to Parliament you and Politics UK are
Complaining to Politics UK may well be something to consider by legals and not directly from Cooper given the situation.
Teresa Cooper made a complaint to the BBC who have suffered a massive blow in light of the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal and this will come as no favour to their diminishing reputation.
The BBC wipes itself of responsibility for the actions of freelance journalist behaviour as long as they are doing wrong and smearing a child abuse survivor somewhere else while remaining a freelance journalist for the BBC.
The BBC email reply to Ms Coopers complaint as follows
Dear Ms Cooper
Complaint reference: *****************
Thank you for your telephone call.
I can readily appreciate your distress about this issue but I should explain that we are limited to considering complaints about BBC output against the BBC’s own guidelines and policies.
We cannot consider complaints about output produced by staff members elsewhere in a freelance capacity and it may be that you wish to pursue this matter directly with the politics.co.uk website.
I am sorry if this seems unhelpful but nevertheless, I hope you will find it useful.
Best wishes,
S*** ****
Complaints Adviser for BBC News website
A reminder of the horrific Kendall House abuse scandal that is now known to be one of the worst cases of historic abuse in UK history.
It must be very clear so everyone understands what impact Mr Pickles has had and will continue to have on Teresa’s life and her family. He has attempted to discredit her by means of a very public and private smear campaign with a view to deliberately damage Ms Cooper’s name, reputation and credibility as clearly heard on video and now clearly seen elsewhere.
There was also this attack by Mr Pickles who felt it appropriate to abuse his position and request confidential information from Essex police about the survivor by claiming she might be a threat to him (he needed an excuse right?) and he promptly emailed the confidential Essex police response about Cooper to the MEDIA. Pickles and his team done this without Coopers knowledge or consent HERE.
Further more, the attacks continued via the Politics UK article where even the title is a deliberate attempt to mislead readers into thinking the author is mentally ill and on Mental Health medication. Teresa is not on, nor has been on psychiatric drugs which are easily proved with her full medical records. Not that this should make any difference because attacking anyone with a mental health illness is a stoop too low by all standards. The theme of the article follows a very strong and condemning mental health approach by both Pickles and Stevenson. He publicly attempted to discredit the abuse she suffered by claiming she tells different stories at a public event. Teresa Cooper was under the care of local authority Wandsworth and the Church of England. Mr Pickles was close friends with the then Wandsworth leader Christopher Chope, now MP ref: The Pickles Papers HERE.
Kendall House abuse backed up with full evidence – BBC world news 2009 HERE
Ms Cooper won her case in 2010 after eighteen long years and has recently helped many more Kendall House girls settle their cases with the church of England. The church have now accepted responsibility and a review into Kendall House was in the process of being set up by the Church of England but faced complications HERE.
The severe abuse at Kendall House was fully aided by home office psych and senior fellow at the royal college of psychiatry Dr M.S Perinpanayagam (now deceased)
It was in fact the Tory government and Sir George Young in 1979 and 1980 who failed to protect Kendall House girls after refusing to intervene thus leading to many more girls being placed at Kendall House by Wandsworth and Kent where they continued to be placed and severely abused. The misuse and forced drugging led to KH girls children and grandchildren being born birth defects
Any attempt to discredit any survivor of abuse in such a manner especially after they won their case is totally unacceptable not only by Tory minister Eric Pickles but also Politics UK who share some responsibility in the smear campaign that was done to hurt, discredit and damaged the authors life and reputation deliberately.
There needs to be tighter media controls to prevent ministers or any politician and their teams from abusing their positions to launch personal attacks on any member of the public or survivor of abuse. There is also a clear need for tighter controls on media companies owned by any government official be it an MP or minister and how the media is used by them and their PR teams who are clearly abusing their positions and participating in the smear campaigns.
#Ericpickles #Mentalhealth #smearcampaign #ToryMP #Governmentminister, #PoliticsUK #Adfero #Alexstevenson #BBC #CSA #Adamafriyie #Political #Teresacooper #Kendallhouse #Childabuse
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