Harry Cole - Bullying Personified

After the character of the 36th Vice President of the USA became more widely known, Democrat Presidential challenger Adlai Stevenson gave a warning that was heeded rather more in 1974 than 1956: “Our nation stands at a fork in the political road. In one direction lies a land of slander and scare; the land of sly innuendo, the poison pen, the anonymous phone call and hustling, pushing, shoving; the land of smash and grab and anything to win. This is Nixonland. But I say to you that it is not America”.

The bully may also be an unappealing slob

Today, out there on the right, there is a true heir to the Nixon tradition of low and nasty politics, who knows full well about the kind of bullying that went on when Mark Clarke was welcomed back into the Tory Party, because he has been a full participant in that kind of behaviour. Step forward Harry Cole, exponent extraordinaire of the loud and shouty.

The photo that launched an intemperate phone rant (the young woman at left is Carrie Symonds)

Cole perfected his act as a dishonest and unprincipled bully and smear artiste while at Edinburgh University, where he stood for the top post at the Students’ Association and asked his opponents to sign a “clean campaign” pledge, while also running an anonymous smear blog, which was duly rumbled. He lost. Sadly, the techniques honed there were seamlessly transferred to his time at the Guido Fawkes blog.

The bully need not vary his behaviour merely because he is attacking women

Here, the bullying element reached its zenith in January this year, when an inoffensive post on Zelo Street which said nothing other than that there might be a good reason Cole had wisely gone on a diet resulted in an intemperate, shouty phone call and a follow-up email, of which this is a typical sample: “Now, that picture is owned by David Bennett via Getty Images. It needs to go. You do not have permission to use it and you can take it down now or I will call him to make sure he pursues payment”.

All the unappealing bullies together. Cole is the last one to be untainted by scandal

He had no intention of ringing anyone. That was not the point; the point was to use bullying to bend others to his will. He would take the same approach whoever opposed him, as witness his dismissive and patronising tone to Naomi Colvin over the earlier behaviour of Mark Clarke, to whom his loyalty included turning up to see his newly-born child.

Behold another of the YBF's alumni

The bullying tone extends into Cole’s media appearances: any kind of intellectual process is eschewed in favour of loud proclamation of his case, and if he deems it necessary, even louder dismissal of dissent, or any attempt at argument. And now it extends into his reporting on his friend Clarke.

This is how close he is to Mark Clarke - something Sun readers are not told

Sun readers are not informed that Cole and Clarke are friends, nor that they go back a long way. Both were part of the now-moribund Trade Union Reform Campaign, along with disgraced ex-MP Aidan Burley and Clarke’s sidekick André Walker, where they dishonestly used the presence in the Commons of Darren Gough to promote themselves. But none of this is presented to Sun readers, despite the clear conflict of interest.

Harry Cole is the modern face of Nixonland. He is congenitally dishonest, utterly without either principle or shame, and quite prepared to verbally and physically bully anyone and everyone who opposes him. He and Mark Clarke are honoured and, indeed, decorated alumni of the Young Britons’ Foundation. He knows all about bullying in politics because he is one of its most able practitioners. 

And he will still not come clean with Sun readers. Bullies can also be cowards.