Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2010-03-4/Swinton Circle

Dear Sirs,

For some time we have been extremely disturbed by the Wikipedia article about our organisation, the Swinton Circle.

We do not think any useful purpose is served by going into detail about the problems which engulfed the Swinton Circle in 2008, suffice to say that there was an attempted - though happily unsuccessful - coup by neo-fascist (BNP) elements to take over the organisation. As a result of this crisis an Extraordinary General Meeting was called on 17th January 2009 at which, inter alia, three existing members of the Swinton Circle who had been exposed as being in league with the would-be infiltrators were expelled from the organisation. Those expelled included Messrs Allan Robertson and Daniel Wilkinson, who subsequently formed a rival organisation using the same name (though reviving the former prefix word "London" to their title) together with neo-fascist elements. Copies of both the minutes of the EGM of 17th January 2009 and the letters of expulsion sent to Messrs Robertson and Wilkinson can be produced on request to confirm the veracity of these claims.

Prior to this problem of 2008 the Wikipedia entry for the Swinton Circle - although not entirely to our liking - had always been reasonably fair and objective. After the crisis, however, the entry was constantly vandalised (we believe by Mr. Wilkinson) to convey an inaccurate and misleading picture of the organisation. In spite of our constant attempts to edit and remove the untrue and offending sections of the Wikipedia article they were alas almost immediately altered back again. Even more disturbingly, however, this article has recently been even more radically altered to include some abusive and we believe libellous comments about current leading officials of the Swinton Circle, and for some inexplicable reason has been given "semi-protected" status so that these offensive and inaccurate comments can no longer be removed.

In particular our objections to this article in its current form are as follows :-

1) The claim that "Since 1992 the Swinton Circle has been run by Allan Robertson" is untrue. Mr Robertson served on the Executive Committee of the Swinton Circle from the mid-1990s, but was one of several ExCo members and never "ran" the organisation on his own. Furthermore, of course, since his expulsion in 2009 he no longer has any connection with the official Swinton Circle, only with his own breakaway group.

2) The claim that Alan Harvey was expelled from the Swinton Circle in 2008 is totally without foundation.

3) The intimation that Alan Harvey is a "Searchlight mole" is both completely untrue and potentially extremely damaging. The Guardian article quoted simply stated that they had asked staff at Searchlight magazine whether this claim of Robertson/Wilkinson was correct and they refused to comment - as they would undoubtedly do regarding any such claim about anybody.

4) The claim that Alan Harvey is an "Odinic Rite activist" is misleading. He has for long taken an interest in alternative religions, and attended a few Odinic Rite gatherings a few years ago, but has long since ceased all connections with them.

5) The claim that Gary Cartwright was a candidate for the "National Democrats" is also misleading. He was briefly a member of this short-lived and irrelevant party, but was not a candidate.

6) The comment that "Harvey claimed he was in charge of the Swinton Circle and even called meetings, however as they rapidly degenerated into occasions for him to attack anyone he felt like, they have not been a great success" is completely without foundation. The quotation in question, furthermore, was taken from an obscure broadsheet called "The Flag" which was originally the house publication of the extremist National Front, and therefore has no credibility whatsoever.

Taken together these untruths and distortions contained in the present version of the Wikipedia article on the Swinton Circle not only could cause great potential damage to the reputation of the organisation itself, but also cause great distress and potential personal and business damage to the individual officials of the Swinton Circle who have been defamed.

We therefore call upon the administrators of Wikipedia either to ensure that a fair and balanced article about Swinton Circle appears in a protected form in future, or if this is not possible to delete the article entirely.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Harvey -  Chairman, on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Swinton Circle.
 * I referred Mr. Harvey here after contact at OTRS 2010031410012696; please contact me if you require background or details. Stifle (talk) 10:51, 3 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Some of the concerns raised, for example item 4 above, seem to be straightforward policy concerns, so I've gone ahead and edited the article, and removed much of the dubious material. Obviously, I can't be a mediator for this case now. PhilKnight (talk) 22:35, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Statement by the London Swinton Circle

It has come to the attention of the London Swinton Circle, commonly known as the Swinton Circle, that one of the Swinton Circle's former members, Alan Harvey, has posted a statement (above) making certain claims with regard to the Swinton Circle and some of its members. We do not wish to be considered a party to mediation on the article; we have no intention of editing the page in question as we understand Wikipedia's policy on 'conflict of interest' and we hope this is the last posting we make. We are only writing this statement due to the 'open letter' nature of Alan Harvey's comments.

Alan Harvey has no claim whatsoever to the name of the 'London Swinton Circle' or 'Swinton Circle'. Harvey's use of the determiner 'our' is wholly inappropriate in the context of the Swinton Circle which operates on a consensual basis. The name applies to the group, the members, and not an individual. I am only the current Chairman by the agreement of the members of the Swinton Circle. It is blatantly disingenuous for Alan Harvey to claim the Swinton Circle has 'revived' the prefix 'London' as that has always been its name, as indeed Harvey would know having formerly run the Swinton Circle's website (Example from June 2008 http://web.archive.org/web/20070425213808/www.netcomuk.co.uk/~springbk/lsc2.htm)

Alan Harvey was Chairman of the Circle from April 2007 until August 2008. Alan Harvey was removed as Chairman of the Swinton Circle following an incident at a meeting in July 2008 when he tried to eject two attendees for what we understand were purely personal reasons. The allegation made by Alan Harvey of a "coup by neo-fascist (BNP) elements" is manifestly untrue (and in making such claims Alan Harvey needs to recall his letter of 30 July 2008); the Swinton Circle visibly continues to support the Conservative Party/UKIP as per the general will of its members. As Alan Harvey "did not uphold the decorum that is expected of a Chairman" and because his "conduct was not endorsed by the Circle" he was removed as Chairman but remained as a member on condition that he did not attempt to disrupt the activities of the Swinton Circle. However, Alan Harvey then engaged in a number of actions disruptive of the Swinton Circle which ultimately affected all members of the Circle. This included trying to cancel a scheduled meeting and misusing the Circle's website (which thus necessitated the creation of the new website www.swintoncircle.org.uk). Such behaviour, directed as it was against all members, was obviously unacceptable. Harvey's membership was suspended and he was offered the opportunity to apologise to the two people he had "verbally abused" in July 2008, and he was requested to immediately cease his actions against the Swinton Circle. As he did not Alan Harvey was then finally expelled from the Swinton Circle in November 2008.

Significantly, Alan Harvey made no attempt to appeal or legally challenge the decision of the Swinton Circle to expel him, and on that basis it is our understanding that Alan Harvey accepted the decision to expel him as a reasonable and just response to his actions. Later claiming, as here, that he was not expelled is not the same as challenging the expulsion; such claims could, then, be inferred as an attempt by Alan Harvey to mislead, and as we would contend, with the intention of seeking to disrupt the activites of the Swinton Circle.

Only one member of the Circle chose to leave in support of Alan Harvey. To talk of splits or factions has Alan Harvey has done is clearly disingenuous and we would again contend, in the light of Alan Harvey's activities is yet another attempt to deliberately mislead.

The Swinton Circle is aware that Alan Harvey has continued to attempt to disrupt the activities of the Swinton Circle by making such false claims, and by even pretending to be the Swinton Circle. As Alan Harvey accepted his expulsion any attempt to deceive on his part can only be inferred as a continuation of the activities directed against the Swinton Circle and its members which led to Harvey's expulsion in the first place.

During the second mediation attempt with Alan Harvey via Nominet (DRS 7119) Alan Harvey made serious claims about one of the attendees of the meeting on July 2008 which when challenged Harvey chose not, or was unable, to substantiate. Alan Harvey also presented as 'evidence' about one of the Circle's speakers material which Harvey had deliberately edited. Again this can be taken as evidence of a deliverate attempt to mislead. We are not aware that Alan Harvey ever offered an apology to these two individuals; we were advised by Nominet that the law applies to Alan Harvey's submission as it would normally.

We are unable to comment on the other matters mentioned in Alan Harvey's posting as they are not relevant to the Swinton Circle.

Allan Robertson,

Chairman of the London Swinton Circle

--Swinton Circle (talk) 18:04, 7 April 2010 (UTC)