Dan Hodges Defames Stop The War

Obsession can spill over into dishonesty and defamation all too quickly: being convinced of one’s righteousness soon escalates into going beyond mere facts in the desperate search to prove one case right and another wrong. And obsession has for so long eaten away at the Mail on Sunday’s not even slightly celebrated blues artiste Whinging Dan Hodges. Now it is threatening to have him taken to the cleaners.

He's desperate, Dan

Desperate Dan does not like Jeremy Corbyn, and has shown that he will go to almost any lengths in order to justify his stance. Jezza is upbraided for being insufficiently bellicose in international affairs, insufficiently hostile to anti-Semitism, and of course insufficiently electable, all of which have been proved variously wide of the mark. But then came Jezza’s closeness to the Stop The War coalition.

Tony Blair could be involved in all manner of dubious dealings, especially if the subject at hand was Iraq, and Young Dave’s abandonment of Libya was fine, but Jezza being associated with Stop The War? That was, for Hodges, truly beyond the pale. So far beyond, in fact, that he went on George Galloway’s Talk Radio show in pursuit of his campaign. But it was a campaign destined to turn out not necessarily to his advantage.

We know this as The Great Man has now told “I’ve been contacted by Stop The War about something I said on George Galloway’s Talk radio show a couple of weeks ago. Apparently I claimed a Sunday Times report had shown money had been channelled directly from the Kremlin into Stop The War. That’s not true”. And there was more.

In a statement so far detached from reality that it could have been made by someone at Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), Hodges talked of “those of us who aspire to be better have to hold up our hands when we get things wrong”. Just f*** right off. And then f*** off some more. Dan Hodges “aspiring to be better”?

In any case, he was already in need of the nearest extinguisher to deal with his burning trousers. This is what he said at the time. “Boris Johnson is right. We must be careful not to tarnish all Russians. But we do need a proper investigation into Russian attempts to influence UK internal politics. Brexit and Stop the War would be a good place to start”. Yeah, Bozza was right - another detachment from reality. Do go on.

BUSTED

“To help @georgegalloway with his investigation into links between the Putin regime and Stop the War, here’s the Sunday Times article I was referring to. Go get ‘em George”. The Sunday Times article referred to today. So what claim did he make about it?

To Tom Jarvis’ question “Kremlin pumping money into STWC?” Hodges replied, and as someone once said, I am not making this up, “Into Stop The War campaigns. According to the Sunday Times”. He didn’t just make the claim on Talk Radio. He made a direct assertion on Twitter. It’s still live. And Mr “aspiring to be better” hasn’t removed it. Yet.

There are now some observers suggesting Stop The War should take Dan Hodges to the cleaners for his defamation. Has he been caught bang to rights? Well, as the man said, you might wish to conclude thus. I couldn’t possibly comment.