Commenting Policies

I have a pretty relaxed commenting policy here on this website – if you don’t swear then your comment stays, even if you criticise me. You can see an example of this here. Some people however don’t have the same policy. This story I mentioned yesterday is still going on. Tom Watson has put up a new post defending his previous attack on Tony Lit.

It remains the case, that there is no Tony Lit registered to vote in either Chiswick or Richmond (and certainly not in Ealing or Southall). It is true that a Surinderpal Singh Lit is registered to vote in Chiswick, just as he was previously in Richmond. Though not in Ealing or Southall. I do not think it unreasonable to have assumed that the man the Conservatives are telling the voters of Ealing Southall is Tony Lit is, in fact, called Tony Lit.

The fact that “Tony Lit”’s six company directorships are not only held at three different addresses but in three different names does not add clarity to the questions I raised yesterday.

It appears that almost the only time that the Conservative candidate is Tony Lit is when he is campaigning in Ealing and Southall.

In Chiswick, where he claims to live, as in Richmond, where he used to live, it appears that he is Surinderpal Singh Lit. In his business directorships, he is sometimes Tony Surinderpal Lit, usually Surinderpal Singh Lit, and only occasionally (when working with Himalaya Shows, Events and Exhibitions Ltd) is he Tony Lit.

I thought this was slightly disingenuous so I posted the following comment:

Tom, I think you’re digging yourself a bigger hole here and need to back out fast. The content of your first post was that the Conservative candidate Tony Lit was not registered to vote. Now you seem to be backtracking by using the exact name “Tony Lit” where-as before you were intimating that the candidate was not registered. The different pseudonyms that Tony uses in his different business directorships is a red herring.

Many professional people use different names for different purposes. For example, my wife’s name is Gayle Ould but she publishes academic papers under the title Dr Gayle Ritchie. This is because she published before we got married and now after changing her surname she doesn’t want to confuse people. If someone was to challenge her and say, “Dr Gayle Ould” has never published an academic paper”, then you would be incorrect. This is exactly the same situation with Tony Lit. The use of a different name is irrelevant – the candidate Tony Lit is registered to vote (in the same way that the candidate “Tony Blair” at the last election was registered as “Anthony Blair” – different name but same person) and you need to back down gracefully.

Just admit you were wrong – we all make mistakes from time to time.

Now, that’s hardly a blast of vitriolic abuse is it? But has Tom W allowed the comment to stay? Nope… and I personally think that speaks volumes.