The current issue of Private Eye magazine (#1494, and if you want to see the full story, BUY A COPY) reminds the world that last year, while he was still peacefully ensconced in the Ecuadorian embassy in London’s Knightsbridge, Julian Assange appointed a new PR to act for himself. Sadly, the PR he appointed was Richard Hillgrove, who Zelo Street regulars will remember from the Saatchi and Nigella falling-out.
Hillgrove acted for Charles Saatchi, making all manner of disobliging statements about the Domestic Goddess™, including effectively claiming that she had a cocaine habit. The sum total of his efforts was that Saatchi lost the war of public opinion and ended up looking an even more unpleasant SOB than when the whole thing kicked off.
As he behaved like a twat, and wore an oversized hat, Hillgrove soon became known as The Twat In The Hat. He kept on slagging off Nigella. But he also kept on pretending he was as rich and famous as all the people with whom he occasionally hung around. This culminated in him appearing at Bristol Crown Court on charges related to the non-payment of around £100,000 in VAT, as well as Income and other taxes.
The Western Daily Press told that “Recorder Robert Linford sentenced him to 15 months imprisonment, suspended for two years ... The judge also ordered Hillgrove to pay £5,000 towards prosecution costs and complete 200 hours of unpaid work”. The judge told Hillgrove “You need to rebuild your life and pay the Government what you owe them”. Which meant he still had to pony up the missing £100,000.
Richard Hillgrove
As the Eye put it, “Hillgrove himself appeared on BBC News, claiming the British Government was acting illegally and ‘must follow international law’ by releasing Assange. As readers will recall … he isn’t always such a stickler for law-abiding. In 2014 he was convicted of a £100,000 tax fraud - money due to HM Revenue & Customs which, Bristol Crown Court heard, had instead been spent on hotels, luxury goods and school fees”.
In appointing Hillgrove as his PR, Julian Assange is not only associating himself - and his cause - with someone who has a criminal record, he’s giving the green light to an appalling self-promotion artist to make himself the story. Neither aspect of that appointment is good for the Assange cause - not now his embassy sojourn is over and he’s pitched into a battle to avoid being extradited to face retribution Stateside.
So now Team Assange needs to choose, and choose wisely. If they leave The Twat In The Hat in place, it will only be a matter of time before his lack of legal acumen, ignorance of international law and general bombast produces something equally as bad as the shit-show he generated for Charles Saatchi. Don’t do it Jules, get a decent PR before something dreadful happens. Because by then it will be too late.
Let the Punk PR find himself someone else to punk. I’ll just leave that one there.
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Assange has no need for a terrible PR. He's perfectly capable of making people think he's a dick all on his own. Also Tim, "Jules"? Really?
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