David Keen writes

the following was sent to the 475-odd members of the We Support Dave Walker Facebook group earlier this week:

Subject: 1 year on

Dear all,

This Wednesday, 22nd July, was 1 year to the day since Dave Walker and Phil Groom both recieved their ‘Cease and Desist’ legal threats from Mark Brewer. An awful lot has happened during that time, not least of which has been the support of hundreds of you for Dave, former SPCK bookshop staff, and others who have suffered at the hands of the Brewers.

The good news is that plenty has been achieved.
– Firstly, Mark Brewer failed to get his St. Stephen the Great charity declared bankrupt in the US, a court case in which Dave’s posts were cited as evidence.
– In April this year the UK Charity Commissioners took over the running of the St. Stephen the Great charity, after a formal investigation.
– Even though the Brewers had moved all the bookshops into a new organisation (ENC Shop Management) the CC’s are now taking possession of these shops as St. Stephen assets.
– 30 former staff, whose tribunal against SSG was being heard earlier this year, will now have their cases settled by the Charity Commissioners.
– In the meantime Durham Cathedral has (at last) served notice on the Brewers tenancy of the Cathedral shop.

As you may know, though the SPCK posts remain absent from the Cartoon Blog (see them in full at http://opendebatenotlibelthreats.blogspot.com/), Dave has mentioned the saga a couple of times on his Church Times blog. At no point have any of Mark Brewers threats been acted upon. Instead it’s Mr Brewer himself who has gone very quiet.

Thankyou again for your support of Dave, and for those of you who have blogged, commented and emailed in support. We may be at the beginning of the end – both the end of SSG’s dismal foray into UK bookselling, and the end of the bookshop chain themselves. Any further developments will be reported at http://spckssg.wordpress.com/

Your fellow supporter

Attack of the Giant Leeches – 1959

Taglines:

Massive Blood Sucking Monsters!

What was the terrible power of the DEMONS OF THE SWAMP

The Story:

After local-moonshine swilling trapper Lem Sawyer sees a giant creature, people start disappearing. While searching for illegal traps Steve Benton and Nan Greyson, his girl-friend find Lem dying with giant sucker wounds on his body. One couple Liz Walker and Cal Moulton, forced into the water by her enraged husband Dave Walker, gets taken by the leeches. When police refuse to believe Dave’s story, he hangs himself. Soon after this, 2 more trappers disappear, the local Game Warden Steve Benton gets involved. He and Nan’s father Dr Greyson realize that the people were taken by the leeches and the leeches live in caves under the swamp. Using dynamite, the 4 missing bodies are discovered and the leeches are destroyed.

The Director: Bernard L. Kowalski (Night of the Blood Beast, Sssssss)

Executive Producer: Roger Corman (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Wasp Woman, and dozens more)

Get the Widescreen version of “Attack of the Giant Leeches” on DVD

more like this at GoreMaster.com!

I’ve shied away from this topic so far. So many of the obvious things have already been said. It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon. It’s easy to be carried along with a public tide of anger and bloodlust.

But today, I’ve caved in. The relentless daily reporting of the affair by the Telegraph has today hit on something that makes me hopping mad. It’s not another claim for cleaning a moat or a duck home, or another of life’s little essentials. No. The Chancellor of the Exchequer can’t do his own tax return. In fact, he is one of nine Cabinet members who have claimed accountancy fees back from the (now infamous) Fees Office.

Why does this touch a raw nerve with me? Because once again, they are doing something I can’t. My wife and I both have to endure the nasty process that is self-assessment of income tax. In my case, although the majority of my income is my stipend, paid through PAYE, I get the occasional (very occasional, here!) additional fees, and I can set a number of things against that as legitimate and honest business expenses. My wife is not in paid employment, but we have held onto her house, ready for retirement. In the meantime, we rent it out through a letting agent. That income has to be declared for tax purposes, and again certain things such as repairs, can be set against that income as a business expense. While she was still paying a mortgage on the property, that mortgage was not an allowable expense, even though a major reason for letting was to cover that cost.

Oh – and guess what – neither of us is allowed to claim our accountant’s fees as a business expense. Do you see why I’m angry? MPs have agreed to a system on the timeless principles of ‘One rule for you, one rule for me’; ‘Do as I say, not as I do’.

It’s not as if this is the only example. This Parliament passed legislation that made it more difficult for religious organisations to employ exclusively people of their faith. Jobs within a religious company now have to pass a ‘Genuine Occupational Requirement’ test if the organisation is to insist on employing someone who shares their faith. Guess which category of organisation was exempted from this legislation? Political parties.

So the first reason to be mad at the politicians is the old favourite of double standards. Politicians have faced a standard charge of hypocrisy for years; the expenses scandal is hard evidence. The politicians we will trust will be those who display transparency.

We also need representatives who will to some extent identify with their constituents. I do not mean that they should not receive a good income for doing a demanding and responsible job, nor that they should not be properly reimbursed for all genuine expenses, but the problem shows that several have lost touch with reality. We saw this last August when Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg announced that he and his wife were switching their shopping from Ocado to Sainsbury’s. Poor dears: they have to survive on his parliamentary salary and her pay as a lawyer. It must be tough keeping that £1.3 million house in Putney going. If this is how detached from ordinary life a party leader has become, then we’re all in trouble, and the expenses row only underlines that.

For as a Christian, I find myself using the words ‘representation’ and ‘identification’ closely. Not in a political sense,  but in talking about the life of Jesus. The incarnation and Cross both show his identification with humankind. Without them, he could not represent us and in any sense be a substitute in his atoning death. From a faith point of view, then, identification and representation have to be brought together. They have been forced wide apart in some Parliamentary circles, and the expenses stories only bring into focus an existing dangerous situation. MPs cannot truly represent us if they do not identify with us. For some, that ought to mean actually living (well, their main residences) in their constituencies. I notice in this scandal that a few don’t even do that.

But in the midst of this, something encourages me. It has been a common refrain among some of those exposed by the reporting to claim that everything they did was ‘within the rules’. I find it heartening that the public generally has not swallowed this as a reasonable defence. If the rules allowed such extravagant claims, then the rules are wrong. As I read what is going on here, the promising sign is that our society will not accept a defence on the grounds that MPs fulfilled the letter of the law. People are looking for an attitude that keeps the spirit of the law. Often I think our society is pretty sick: that strikes me as a healthy sign. If we follow this through, we shall seek not only reform of MPs but of the Fees Office, given that some have reported how it encouraged MPs to see the Additional Costs Allowance as an allowance to bolster their paltry £64,000 salary, rather than a limit of allowable expenses.

If we are to react healthily, though, we must ensure that not all MPs are tarred with same brush. Church leaders know all about that problem. To many in the outside world, I am either fleecing the flock (have they seen my tattered ten-year-old car?) or interfering with children. We have to keep level heads and not assume that ‘they are all at it’. My own MP, Simon Burns, has made large claims but nowhere has it been suggested that he has lacked integrity. (Contrast that with neighbouring MP Sir Alan Haselhurst, a deputy Speaker and possible replacement for Michael Martin as Speaker. His garden upkeep has cost £11,000.)

And integrity is a watchword for both public and Parliament at this time. Every case must be judged according to the evidence, not according to a desire for revenge or to meet a political agenda. It’s not about either party meeting a minimum standard, but longing to be the best people we can possibly be, as Rowan Williams said in a commentary in The Times.

Yet if that is to be the case, one big unanswered question for me is to wonder about the motives of the Daily Telegraph in reporting this day by day. They are known as a Conservative newspaper, yet having started by picking out Labour politicians, they have exposed Tories as well. Is that evidence of neutrality in the pursuit of truth? It would be good if it were. Is it just a professional desire to sell papers? Or is it something else? I don’t know.

However, I do notice that one MP who has been aggrieved by their coverage, the Conservative Nadine Dorries, has raised particular suspicions against the Barclay brothers who own the Telegraph. No sooner has she made allegations about them and the UK Independence Party than her blog disappears, with fingers pointed at the Telegraph. Tim Montgomerie reproduced the offending paragraph at Conservative Home on Friday. A Plaid Cymru blogger has suggested that timing is everything in this row. These expenses would have been reported publicly in July. Why report now? There are elections (including European ones) in June. If the Barclay brothers are as fiercely Eurosceptic as some have claimed, and if it’s also true they don’t consider the mainline parties Eurosceptic enough, you can see why Dorries would make her point about securing support for UKIP or the evil BNP. Certainly there has been widespread opinion expressed that disgust at the expenses scandal will lead to protest votes in favour of the smaller parties.

(In this respect, mainstream politicians should take comfort both from Rowan Williams’ Times article linked to above, where he calls us to move on, and his joint statement with John Sentamu, where he urges people not to vote for the BNP. And – in case you hadn’t gathered by now – I refuse to link to the BNP.)

Whether Dorries is right, I do not know. It is all based on circumstantial evidence, and I don’t really buy the shtick that used to appear on her blog along the lines of “I’m just a Scouser” or “I’m just a former nurse”. If that were all she were, she wouldn’t have made it to Parliament. Will she end up on Celebrity Big Brother? But for so long as the Telegraph and the Barclay brothers stay mum, suspicions will remain. The Telegraph is right to call for transparency from MPs, but that means it should itself be transparent.

Which means there is a right and proper place in this debate to consider not only the integrity of MPs and – as I have argued – the public, but also of the press. A fortnight ago, Bishop Nick Baines called for journalists to reveal their expenses, receipts and diary records. He said:

They might not be ‘public servants’, paid from the public purse, but they wield enormous power and don’t usually disclose their influences.

Don’t hold your breath.

And he has a point. It’s the integrity question again. If you accuse somebody of a misdemeanour, you’d better be sure you’re not guilty of it yourself. It has been only too easy, as I’ve shown above, to establish a case that some MPs have behaved hypocritically. Unpopular as it may seem, then, a Christian message at this time is not only to denounce injustice, but for all parties (not just political ones) to examine themselves. Logs and specks in the eye, that sort of thing. ‘Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner’ should be central in all our thinking at all times, but especially now.

UPDATE, Tuesday 26th May: I now gather that Nadine Dorries’ blog is back, minus the controversial post. Thanks to David Keen. She remains deeply critical of the Telegraph, and not just from her own personal experience. However, the more this particular individual incident goes on, the more you wonder whether the Barclay brothers are aping Mark Brewer and Nadine Dorries gets the Dave Walker rôle.

UPDATE #2, Wednesday 27th May: The BBC reports this morning that HM Revenue and Customs are to investigate those ministers who claimed personal accounting costs against tax, to see whether the law has been broken.

A Revenue and Customs spokesman told the BBC: “It’s a general principle of tax law that accountancy fees incurred in connection with the completion of a personal tax return are not deductible.

“This is because the costs of complying with the law are not an allowable expense against tax. This rule applies across the board.”

Exactly what I was saying above.

Furthermore, David Grossman of the BBC television programme Newsnight undertook some investigations. One quote from the piece regarding his work:

Mr Grossman said representatives of Foreign Secretary David Miliband had given a “confused” reply to the claims.

It suggested that because he had paid accountancy fees out of his taxed income, before receiving the money back from the Commons authorities, “there was no liablility”.

“We put that point of view to a tax economist who, quite frankly, just laughed,” Mr Grossman added.

It stinks.

David Keen writes:

The ‘Bloggies’ – Christian Web and New Media awards – are now open for nominations. I’ve taken the liberty of nominating this blog for ‘Best Use of New Media in a Christian Campaign’.

Phil’s blog is very much the hub of the SPCK campaign, but there’s much more going on. Many of us who are involved have never met face to face, but through blogs, email, Facebook, online petitions, Google Groups, and even Twitter we’ve built a network of supporters from several countries, and in the last 2 weeks there has been a mini-avalanche of remarkable results from the pressure that the campaign has brought to bear:

• Durham Cathedral have served notice on the Brewers to leave the premises
• The Charity Commissioners have taken control of the assets of the Society of St. Stephen the Great.
• Following the CC action, an out of court settlement with unfairly dismissed staff may now be possible
• and Dave Walker is back to blogging about the SPCK story. Mark Brewers initial ICBM (inter-continental bullying manoevre) seems to have backfired spectacularly in the intervening 10 months. Welcome back Dave.

I have a slight quibble about the Bloggies, in that anyone using new media effectively will, hopefully, be using more than one website to do it. The online SPCK campaign – which effectively began as Dave Walker’s ‘Save the SPCK’ campaign on The Cartoon Blog – has diversified into several ‘new media’ as it has evolved. Any campaign simply using one platform probably shouldn’t get past first base!

If you’d like to nominate the SPCK/SSG campaign too, please do! Here’s what I put in the ‘additional information’ box:

David Keen blogs at St. Aidan to Abbey Manor, and has just joined the team on SPCK/SSG News, Notes and Info.

Phelim McIntyre writes:

As some of you may be aware the Christian Resources Exhibition and the Christian Booksellers Convention were under the same roof. I had the joy of bumping into Dave Walker (of Cartoon Church), Clem from Christian Marketplace and many publishers and booksellers. So what was it like from an SPCK/SSG viewpoint? Putting aside that for many the combination of the two events was a failure there was a HUGE sense of relief. I have never been hugged or shaken by the hand by so many people.

The news of the industrial tribunials being sorted, marching orders at Durham and the Charity Commission acting is, as one person put it “the light at the end of a very long tunnel”. Yes there are more battles going on, some of which I can’t mention because silence is the better part of discretion – but I can say that the dam is about to break.

As someone who, with Dave W, Dave K, Matt W, Phil Groom, Singleblog and others (you know who you are) has been at the forefront of speaking with the press (I was one of the naughty people who sent documents to the papers when I was at SPCK), networking ex-staff, blogging and so on I have been asked was it worth it? The answer is yes. Justice must be done. So to all of you who have not been told this but have been campaigning – consider yourselves shaken by the hand and hugged.

Some one did suggest that we organise a firing squad for the Brewers Grimm but changed their mind as a firing squad would be too quick. So someone suggested that as they see us as heretics we treat them as heretics and burn them at the stake. I see some Brewer effegies this coming Novemeber.

The Church Times has reported the news here http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/75134. This is a subscriber only page this week but will probably be readable next week. Christian Marketplace will also have something soon.

Just a final word from someone at CRE/CBC. “Don’t give up until they (the Brewers) are finished”. As I said, more is happening which we hope to be able to blog soon.

Phil Groom writes:

Today, March 27th 2009, marks exactly one year on from the day Dave Walker posted about the closure of the former SPCK bookshops in Bristol, Cardiff and Carlisle, courtesy of J Mark Brewer. I hear the sound of one hand clapping: J Mark Brewer, we applaud you; but we’ll leave it to your brother Phil to affirm you.

Of those three shops, only Cardiff has been saved, and that no thanks to Mr Brewer.

Dave’s full post reposted below, retrieved from ‘Cease and Desist‘:

THURSDAY, 27 MARCH 2008
Bristol, Cardiff and Carlisle SSG / SPCK shops to close
Several people have posted in the comment thread below about the closure of the Bristol and Cardiff SSG (former SPCK) bookshops.

This from Richard:

SPCK Bristol has closed for good. I walked past the shop this lunch time, went up to the door to read the sign and saw Mr Phil Brewer peering out at me. He waved heartily, I waved heartily and then I moved on. Rapidly. No point in having a conversation. Nothing really to say. Well, not that would be constructive. The shop was being packed up and that’s an end to it all in Bristol.

The keys were left with Wesley Owen over the weekend and when Mr Brewer went to pick them up I gather he mentioned that there was no intention to open up in Bristol again. That may or may not be true.

What a sad end to nearly 200 years of Christian bookselling by SPCK in Bristol.

I am told that the Cardiff shop is to close on Monday. Cardiff was the only SSG shop in Wales.

Update (Thursday 27th 9.30am) : The forthcoming closure of the Carlisle shop on Monday the 31st March has also been confirmed.

Update (Monday 31st) : News and Star: Cathedral bookshop to close
 

Dave Walker's Blog Spanner

Dave Walker has managed to get hold of one of the old blog spanners used by Google’s software engineers before they discovered the internet — quite an amazing find and it only cost him £1.49 on ebay.

I remember the one my grandfather had — used to attach it to his dustbin and whenever he lifted the lid (it was one of the old metal bins, not the big plastic wheelie-bin things they use today) his neighbours would gather round and go “ooh” and “ahh” over his garbage, then leave comments for the bin men (it was always men in those days). Great fun — the bin men would then pass the comments on around the neighbourhood and by the end of the weekly collection cycle they’d work out whose garbage had attracted the most comments and give out certificates that you could stick onto your bin.

Trouble with the original model was that it didn’t have the swivel head you can see in Dave’s, which meant the garbage would sometimes snag on it: could get quite messy and attracted all sorts of unmentionables.

Once they fitted the swivel heads, though, you could tighten things up more: the real garbage, the stuff people wanted to talk about, went straight in the bin whilst the boring stuff — well actually, nobody ever worked out what happened to that: it somehow got separated out and people could just get on with sharing their garbage properly. Eventually it all made its way to an incinerator or a landfill site, depending on where you lived, but then the internet was invented and someone came up with fibre-optic cable and it all finds its way there instead now, where quite a lot of it gets recycled via Google.

I’m not sure what Dave’s planning on doing with his spanner: I expect he’ll tell us before long; but I have a sneaking suspicion (and I’ve left him a comment to say so) that he’s going to try to use it to boost his technorati rankings. It won’t work, of course, because technorati have moved on from blog spanners, though I’m not sure what they’re using instead — probably some sort of algorithm that no one else can make sense of.

Apparently you can still use blog spanners on twitter, though, so if you manage to get hold of one, don’t bin it: share it. And whatever you do, don’t attach it to or use it to do anything with your bike. Some people on Dave’s blog are saying that’s what it’s for, which is absolute bunkum. You can trust me on this: I’m a blogger.

Num só post duas maravilhas…

A vida é tão simples e nós fazemos de tudo para a complicar. Pois há um senhor que relata momentos da sua vida e partilha pensamentos com uma intimidade e simplicidade inatingíveis para o comum dos mortais.

Dave Walker,

Para ler aqui.

Para ver aqui…

This took too long, however, i did feel it worth mentioning. Worship night was great, shout out to Dave Walker and his crew for giving up their time and talents to give us a great worship experience. One of Dave’s ideas was to have a foot washing station. I’ll be honest, Aaron and I were hesitant. We agreed, but then we didn’t believe many, if any, would want to do it. Props to Aaron and Dave who described its function and metaphors greatly. We put out one tub thinking, “no way there will be a line for foot washing, we will only put out one tub.” Pfff, we were wrong, there was a line! It was wild and really cool to see God’s people serving one another in one of the oldest, most scriptural ways.

I enjoyed running sound and watching people worship at times, it is a very freeing experience. i loved having a full glance at the room so that i could see all the stations at work: Journaling, Prayer Garden, Scripture reading, Foot washing, Confession. It was a great night to take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy God’s presence. You could push your own walls at your own pace to experience God in different ways. I think the worship nights have worked well for ACF, and I hope they continue them. It is a great change of pace and sometimes its good to simply worship Him for who he is. Obedience was a great theme of one of the prayer times, I personally, think we all need to pray for that more.

Phil Groom writes:

Today, 6 months on from Dave Walker’s announcement of his Cease and Desist letter from J Mark Brewer, we mourn Dave’s silence; but whilst that silence may be golden to J Mark Brewer and his cronies, our eyes still see. 

It was fun to shop at the SPCK ... until J Mark and Philip W Brewer wrecked it.

Here’s how Dave told what happened, courtesy of Stephen at Cease and Desist:

TUESDAY, 22 JULY 2008
‘Cease and desist’ demand from Mark Brewer
This morning I was sent a ‘cease and desist’ demand from Mark Brewer relating to the posts I have made about the former SPCK bookshops. The demand says ‘Confidential – not to be redistributed or posted’, so I am not posting the text.

The demand says that if I do not remove all SSG-related material by noon today, July 22, 2008, an injunction will be sought against me and legal action taken for damages for libel.

I have therefore removed all of the SPCK/SSG posts on this blog, as, although I believe I have not done anything wrong I do not have the money to face a legal battle. The removal of these posts is in no way an admission of guilt.

To say I am not happy about the decision I have been forced to take here is an understatement. I feel as if I have let many people down who have relied on this site over the last year or more.

I am not allowing comments on this post, though I can be contacted as usual. I cannot of course stop you writing about this elsewhere.

And we did.

(Thanks to the Tremeloes for this post’s title)

Phil Groom writes:

Today, January 21st 2009, marks exactly 6 months to the day from when J Mark Brewer sent out his first Cease and Desist message in an attempt to silence the bloggers before his spurious bankruptcy filing was raked over in the Texas courts.

Fortunately for me but unfortunately for him, I was on holiday at the time, cruising the Thames on a narrowboat: the first I heard of it was when Clem Jackson, my Editor at Christian Marketplace, left a message on my mobile to tell me that the Bruisers, sorry, Brewers (never could spell), were getting uppity and threatening him, Dave Walker and myself with libel action unless we took down certain pages from our respective websites.

With no internet access there was nothing I could do anyway and I wasn’t inclined to cut my holiday short simply to respond to Mark Brewer’s attempts at intimidation — but I’ve told the story up to that point before so rather than retell it here, I thought I’d simply repost his first Cease and Desist letter here, in full, to allow us to compare what he wanted with what we’ve delivered:

From:   Brewer@bplaw.com
Subject: Demand to Cease and Desist
Date: 21 July 2008 18:04:17 BDT
To:   Phil Groom, Clem Jackson

Sirs:

I just visited your site dedicated to the destruction of my personal reputation and that of Saint Stephen the Great/Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust.  I am absolutely appalled and devastated by what you have written as well as by what you have encouraged and allowed to be posted on your various sites – especially after your last written communication to me, below which ended “Assuring you of my prayers.”

You have successfully blocked my efforts to get my and SSG’s side of the story out.  You have done this with your sites and Mr. Walker’s with whom you obviously collaborate.  No matter what I say or do not say, the three of you continue your relentless attacks on me and the charities.  You have now broadened your attacks to include my wife, my daughter and my religion.  You will obviously stop at nothing.  You must, therefore, be stopped.

When I do not respond to your vile and defamatory words, you pretend that you are such an important person that ‘how dare anyone not answer you.’  When I do respond, you hold me up to even greater ridicule and invite others to do the same.  I am dumfounded that any Christian ethos purportedly allows one to do that.

You now are doing your best to interfere with the Charitable Trust’s efforts to salvage what remains of the business of the bookshops, scornfully mocking these efforts at every turn.

This is not right and you have gone way too far.

Your statements are false and I categorically deny them – both for me, my family and SSG/SSGCT.  Nearly all of them are defamatory per se.

I therefore am going to say this as clearly as I can:  I am a private individual and I value my privacy.  I am not a public figure such that you have the right to drag my name and my family’s names through the mire.  I do not consent to you contacting me about your alleged enquiries.  I do not consent and object to you maintaining websites about me, SSG, SSGCT, ENC Management, my brother, my wife, or my daughter.  I do not consent to you posting blogs on the internet.  I do not consent to you defaming me to any other party or person by “sharing” your false allegations.

 Legal Demand
I hereby demand that you cease and desist from doing any of these things any more.  I specifically demand that you deactivate your webpages, websites and/or blogsites devoted to me, my brother, my family, SSG and/or SSGCT IMMEDIATELY.  These include:

1. http://spckssg.wordpress.com/tag/mark-brewer/
2. www.unicorntreebooks.blogspot.com/
3. http://www.christianmarketplace.org.uk/engine.cfm?i=45&cmid=4091
4. http://www.christianbookshops.org.uk/news.htm#ssg060208 (Betrayed by the Brewers: Lies, Damned Lies and St Stephen the Great)
5. http://www.christianbookshops.org.uk/spckdonate.htm (Support SPCK’s Booksellers, and the Phil Groom administered “fund”)

If you do not do so; i.e., remove your websites by noon GMT July 22, 2008, I will seek an injunction against you, your colleagues, associates and companies.  I also will take legal action against each of you for damages for libel.  In that event, I will also subpoena all records relating to the persons whom you have allowed to post defamatory material on your website in order to add them as defendants.

Mark Brewer

You’ll find my original responses to Mark’s allegations and demands in the following series of posts:

• Mark Brewer says, “Remove this page. Immediately.”
• Other pages Mark Brewer says I must take down
• “these things” which Mark Brewer says I must stop doing

It’s interesting looking back: up to this point, I hadn’t been collaborating with anyone. But I am now — not with Dave Walker, sadly, but with dozens of other bloggers; and whilst I was reporting relatively light-heartedly before, I think it’s fair to say that I’ve become relentless since: both the very opposite to what Mark wanted.

As for Mark’s wife and daughter, up to this point I hadn’t even been aware of their involvement; but I am now — and I can find no words adequate to describe my feelings about the kind of man who drags his own wife and daughter into the sort of double-dealings and dishonesty we’ve now witnessed.

Meanwhile, of course:

1. We have more pages than ever tagged “Mark Brewer”;
2. The Unicorn Tree Books Blog is still going strong;
3. Whilst the specific Christian Marketplace report Mark took exception to has gone, there are plenty of others still there;
4. My report Betrayed by the Brewers: Lies, Damned Lies and St Stephen the Great is still there — with a follow up;
5. And the Support SPCK’s Booksellers page and fund remain open…

All in all, it strikes me as a fairly spectacular own goal for Mr Brewer. So I’ll say it again: if you’re reading this, Mark, and you’d like me to Cease and Desist, there are three initial steps you need to take:

1. Pay your former employees
2. Pay your suppliers
3. Withdraw your threats of legal action

But now there are some further steps:

4. Give your ill-begotten gains from the sale of the Exeter shop to SPCK;
5. Cease and Desist from your plundering of the former SPCK bookshops;
6. Give (as in freely, without expecting any sort of remuneration) the shops to people who, unlike yourself, can be trusted to run them with honesty and integrity according to a Christian ethos.

Six steps for six months: seems reasonable to me; and then there’s the small matter of making a donation to the Save the SPCK Booksellers fund yourself, Mark, by way of reparation for demanding its removal… 

I’m not sure if any of you had the pleasure of watching Pete Peterson on CNN this weekend (IOUSA), but his insights were quite astounding.

The special program on the United States federal debt and deficit included noted investor Warren Buffett, former Federal Reserve Chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, former U.S. Treasury Secretaries Paul O’Neill and Robert Rubin, Dave Walker, President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former U.S. Comptroller General; Alice Rivlin, noted economist and former Director of the Office of Management and Budget; and Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby.

Peterson noted that overspending still dominates the lives of U.S. citizens. Americans save less than 1 percent, the lowest of any developed country. The Chinese save 35 percent of what they earn. Singapore, Chile and Australia, he notes, have mandatory savings – outside of government control.

He concludes that there should be stronger incentives to save, because without savings America has no future.

watch an abridged version here: IOUSA

De droom van iedereen die een eigen blog opstart is om iets of wat bekend te worden, en roem of respect te verdienen door wat hij doet. Men wilt een BB (een bekende blogger) worden als het ware.

Die opdracht is volgens mij niet zo simpel om te vervullen , maar als je de tekening van Dave Walker moet geloven is het juist het tegendeel.

Dave’s cartoons are distinctively British, where he he appears in various publications, his own books, and online at The CartoonChurch.com while in other circles he is known as the perpetrator behind the Dullest Blog in the World.   The last post was March, 2006, but Dave recently discovered he had 1800 comments awaiting moderation.

A recent independent report performed by Intergy Corporation for Pasadena Water and Power summarizes the results of a recent field test performed at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, California. The purpose of the field test was to determine energy reduction in the hotel’s guest rooms using a GreenSwitch Energy Control System. The GreenSwitch system is designed to control energy consumption in hotel rooms based on the room’s occupancy status.

The system determines if a hotel room is vacant or occupied by inserting the room key in the GreenSwitch, and based on this occupancy condition, the system automatically shuts off controlled lights and sets the operating range of the in-room HVAC system to an occupied or unoccupied condition. Four rooms were chosen to be monitored. Two were retrofitted with GreenSwitch and two were used as control rooms. The results documented here are based on comparing rooms 161 (GreenSwitch Equipped Room) and 165 (Control Room). The HVAC usage was analyzed over a period of twenty-five days. The GreenSwitch equipped room used 36% less energy for HVAC than the control room. With the implementation of GreenSwitch technology is all 380 rooms, the hotel could save 681,849 kWh annually. The kWh reduction monitored during the test period correlates to similar studies which have shown savings between 25% and 45%.

GreenSwitch will be represented by Magnum Energy Solutions LLC and the GreenSwitch Group, and will attend the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show in New York, November 8-11 2008 in booth 3084

About the Company:

Magnum Energy Solutions LLC., is a leader in providing engineered energy efficiency management and protection to Hotels, Commercial and Residential markets. Because energy is the second largest expense for hotels and commercial buildings, GreenSwitch technology was an instant success saving 25% to 45% of energy costs. The transition to the consumer market was a logical next step in the evolution of GreenSwitch. The system is completely wireless and may be retrofitted in an existing home or added during new construction. GreenSwitch can even control out buildings and barns over 100 yards away. For more information about Magnum Energy Solutions visit www.magnumenergysolutions.com or www.greenswitch.tv

What up.  Before I go any further I want to point you in the direction of a nice little appreciation article on Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath which turns 35 years old today.  That’s kind of staggering when you think about it.  I mean, I saw Ozzy in a cell phone commercial just yesterday…Metal’s come a long way, I suppose.

Here’s a little Sabbath factoid I had no idea about: Ozzy originally quit the band in 1977 and then rejoined the band in 1978 after a change of heart.  During this period though, Sabbath actually replaced him with singer Dave Walker who had been in Fleetwood Mac at one point.  Walker got exactly one performance with the band and thanks to the brilliance of the internet we can all listen to it right here:

So Dave Walker would be to Black Sabbath what George Lazenby is to James Bond.  Thankfully, mercifully, when the band later fired Ozzy in 1979 they replaced him this time with Ronnie James Dio – which according to their Wiki page was actually none other than Sharon Osborne’s suggestion.  Who knew? By the time I got into metal as a kid Dio was already doing his solo thing and Black Sabbath to me was always about the classic line up with Ozzy.  But, man, there are some great Dio era Sabbath tunes.  Not only that, listen to this track they recorded a year ago for the compilation release The Dio Years called “The Devil Cried.”  It’s insane:

Dio is sixty-six years old (600 more to go, dude!) and he can still sing like that.  Amazing.  Of course, now I feel like I have no choice but to roll this gem:

Love that song. Anyway, I actually intended to focus on something a little more recent in this post but YouTube’s being weird now so I’ll save it for another day.

Until then…

Phil Groom writes:

Thanks to David Keen, who sent the following message to all members of the ‘We Support Dave Walker’ facebook group this morning. I’ve added some [footnotes] linked to the relevant posts and listed below.

Dear everyone,

It’s 4 months ago – 22 July – that Dave Walker received his legal threat from Mark Brewer and was forced to take down his SPCK posts [1]. If you have a blog, you might want to mention that today.

As you may know, Mark Brewer has been fined by the US courts for bringing a time-wasting court action for bankruptcy [2], and we now hear that his company is being investigated by the Charity Commissioners [3]. These are all matters Dave would have reported if he had not been bullied and threatened. 

If you’d like to do something supportive, you can sign a petition to Durham Cathedral to ask them to intervene over the SSG bookshop they host: http://spckssg.wordpress.com/petition/ [4]

Latest developments are online at http://spckssg.wordpress.com/, very interesting leaked email gone up in the last few days [5]. 

And finally, still no reply from Mark Brewer to the letter I sent (twice) on our behalf [6]. Very disappointing. He expects Dave to respond within a few hours, and yet doesn’t even bother to answer us within a month. Disgraceful.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Dave. Truth and justice will win, it’s just taking longer than we’d hoped! 

David Keen

1. ‘Cease and desist’ demand from Mark Brewer
2. Transcription of Court Documents: Order for Motion to Compromise Controversy and Final Decree
3. Charity Commission Replies: Formal Inquiry In Progress
4. Rescuing Britain’s Christian Heritage: Durham Cathedral Bookshop
5. Durham Cathedral Bookshop: A Case Study in Dealing with Debt – Philip Brewer Style
6. A Letter to Mark Brewer

We Support Dave Walker - 500 Members, 19 Oct 2008

Cartoon de Dave Walker.

If you weren’t there, i am sorry.

But it was pretty awesome. A dear friend of mine, Dave Walker (went to high school together, Delco-Christian baby!) came up to lead worship in our first worship experience evening. The room was dark and full of carpet and low on chairs. we had different forms to worship in stations around the room. Journaling, prayer garden, confession in front of the cross, scripture reading, communion. Dave is very good at engaging people, being real with people, being genuine in his worship, and drawing people in to the presence of the Lord. I felt like it was just what ACF needed. Something different. something a little uncomfortable. not all songs we know so we could focus on words and let them soak over us, it’s not always all about singing. I know i had a great time of worship and i was running sound! It was sooo cool to see people experience God in all these forms: kneeling at the foot of the cross, praying and talking with others, journaling, singing. it was all very encouraging. God definitely moved in the room and in my life. Dave gave me a confidence as a worship leader to pursue God with all you have, express that in your worship, and not worry a second about what people might think about you for it. I felt very set free just by watching him worship and lead people. It is very easy to rely on peoples thoughts for worship team things, and yet that never addresses the hearts that may or may not be right and in a place of yearning to worship when they come through the door. My heart needs to want to worship first and foremost. Thanks Dave, for setting me free and allowing me to not worry about the criticism or complainers or anything stopping me for just worshiping the Lord. This is His fellowship and campus. I pray we can be drawn in closer to Christ through different forms of worship as we press on from here! great night!

We Support Dave Walker - 500 Members, 19 Oct 2008

The following letter was sent to Mark Brewer this morning, signed by David Keen and seven other representatives of the “We Support Dave Walker” Facebook Group:

Dear Mr. Brewer

We are writing on behalf of 498 supporters of cartoonist and blogger Dave Walker, a group which includes bishops, national journalists in the UK and US, lawyers, clergy, and concerned members of the public. 

We would like to ask you please to contact Dave Walker and withdraw the demands made in the ‘Cease and Desist’ letter which you sent him in July. Your letter, as far as we know, instructed Dave to remove all his posts about the recent history of SPCK bookshops or face action for libel. With the pressures of the impending Lambeth conference, and a very short deadline given by yourself, Dave complied. He commented at the time: “I have therefore removed all of the SPCK/SSG posts on this blog, as, although I believe I have not done anything wrong I do not have the money to face a legal battle. The removal of these posts is in no way an admission of guilt.”

Many of us have read the posts concerned, and are surprised, to say the least, that they could be called libelous. Indeed, the first three posts make no mention at all of yourself, the Society of St. Stephen the Great, or anyone associated with you. The 4th post reports your takeover of the bookshops with the comment “this is splendid news.” Another post is a simple link to your SSG video on YouTube. Other items include verbatim reports of your own statements, and in the simple post on the death of Steve Jeynes, dozens of people used the comments to expressed their grief and condolences to Steve’s family. 

Dave is a reasonable man, and if all critics were as fair as he is the world would be a better place. If you were able to reconsider, and point out specific statements and claims you were unhappy with, we are sure Dave would be happy to correct them where appropriate. This is the normal process of debate on the internet, and in real life, and follows the strong tradition of free speech for which our countries stand and are rightly proud.

So this is a polite request from all of us: please contact Dave Walker, advise him that your ‘cease and desist’ communication no longer stands, and let him report freely. 

Yours sincerely

Rev. David Keen and seven other signatories representing the ‘We Support Dave Walker’ group

• Google search for this letter’s opening sentence

Sites Featuring this Letter (Most Recent First)

• Better Late: Exploring Orthodoxy, 18/10/2008 (B)
• And another one…: the maturest student in the world, 16/10/2008 (B)
• An Asbo for Dave Walker: asingleblog, 14/10/2008 (B)
• Dave Walker and Mark Brewer: Jeremy’s Journey, 14/10/2008 (B)
• Letter to Mark Brewer: spckwatch, 14/10/2008 (B)
• Are you listening Mark Brewer? Scatter Cushions, 13/10/2008 (B)
• The Sorry, Messed-Up Saga of SPCK and SSG: Dave Paisley, Disaster Area, 13/10/2008 (B)
• J Mark Brewer, please listen up! One Blog, One Lord, 13/10/2008 (B)
• letter to the mark brewer: Jody, The Radical Evangelical, 13/10/2008 (B)
• An open letter to Mark Brewer: Real Ale Fanatic, 13/10/2008 (B)
• Letter to Mark Brewer from the Facebook we support Dave Walker group: Jane Stranz, Of life, laughter and liturgy…, 13/10/2008 (B)
• Supporting Dave Walker: Chris Taylor, stillbreathing.co.uk, 13/10/2008 (B)
• Please Cease and Desist with the Cease and Desists: Sub Ratione Dei, 13/10/2008 (B)
• A Letter in Support of Dave Walker: Matt Wills, A very ordinary title for a blog, 13/10/2008 (B)
• Supporting Dave Walker: Atelier-Beads: Around the Worktable, 13/10/2008 (B)
• Dear Mark Brewer: Jonathan, The Red Pill, 13/10/2008 (B)
• Supporting Dave Walker: Mike Peatman, Purple Words on a Grey Background, 13/10/2008 (B)
• Open Letter to Mark Brewer…: Malcolm Chamberlain, 13/10/2008 (B)
• A Letter to Mark Brewer: David Keen, St. Aidan to Abbey Manor, 13/10/2008 (B)

Dave Walker: I have been blocked from making facebook notes

Phil Groom writes:

Strange but true: facebook have issued their version of a C&D against Dave Walker. Apparently he posted too many notes. “How many notes?” you ask. Seven. Er, yes: seven, as in 7, as in rhymes with 11 but is 4 less…

“Gosh,” you say, “what was he doing? Was he on speed to post so many notes in rapid succession?”

Actually, it took him an entire month. 30 ÷ 7 = 4.29. On average, one note every four and a quarter days, although he did post two (yes, two: truly shocking!) on October 1st. And that, it seems, was too fast for facebook…

This time, thank heaven, Dave hasn’t simply deleted everything he’s ever said about facebook and nor has he deleted his facebook profile. But if you share my sense of bemusement about what the facebook admins are playing at, I suggest you head on over there and:

1. If you’re not already in it, join the We Support Dave Walker group
2. Show Dave some facebook love by writing on his wall
3. Write a song about it
4. Send facebook some feedback asking them to remove Dave’s block

But please be polite about it: remember that facebook, like WordPress, is a free service. Aggressive reactions are likely to be counter-productive. For my own part, my message to facebook is, “C’mon guys, please: get up to speed!“

Maybe the Brewers have taken over facebook the way they thought they’d taken over Amazon? Will facebook block me for stirring things up? Watch this space…

Phil Groom writes:

Yes, still briefly, but nonetheless, as I said last time, credit where it’s due: this time, at long last, to Pauline Edwards. In her own words:

I HAVE BEEN PAID,
A great big THANK YOU to Phil Groom, Asingleblog, and everybody else who has stood by me. The one good thing that has come out of this is, this is not just a blog, it has become like a family, and I am still standing by everyone else, who are still waiting for there wages. A big THANK YOU to this blog, without this blog, I never would of known of what was going on. Mr Brewer, I am a women of my word, and I will let Acas know I have been paid, and will drop the case. Mr Brewer can you pay all my fellow brothers and sisters as well?

I’d love to offer you a longer lasting sign of respect, Mark, but as Pauline herself points out there’s the question of all her “fellow brothers and sisters as well”. Phelim McIntyre poses much the same question:

Hurray! A small victory but a victory at least. Now what about all the other employees owed wages/holiday pay and goodness knows whatever else financially? What about all the suppliers owed money? What about the landlords who are owed rent? What about other bodies owed money? Any chance of Mr Brewer paying them?

Your call, Mark. Your opportunity to salvage something of your reputation and, perhaps, the reputation of Brewer and Pritchard, PC, which you’ve been taking down with you…

I’ve said this before but I think it bears repeating: there are three main things I’m looking for out of this fiasco:

1. Payment for your workers
2. Payment for your suppliers
3. Withdrawal of your threats of legal action against Dave Walker, myself and the various other people to whom you’ve sent ‘Cease and Desist’ messages

Another thing I’d like to see, of course, would be for you to recognise that you and your brother, Philip, simply don’t have the appropriate business acumen or people skills to manage a chain of Christian Bookshops. Once you acknowledge that, the way is clear to start giving (yes, giving) the remaining shops and stock to people who do have the expertise needed.

And let’s face it, running a chain of Christian Bookshops was never really what you wanted, was it? You wanted to establish a series of outposts for your Orthodox mission movement: the bookshops and their staff never actually had a chance, did they?

Do me a favour, please, Mark: face up to the truth and make me redundant. Make this blog redundant. Make the poverty of your workers and suppliers history.

Finally, for now, a special note of appreciation and thanks to ‘a concerned party’ for letting us know that Pauline’s payment was on the way despite the trauma and nightmare of facing Hurricane Ike. May all who read this spare a moment to think of and/or pray for all those affected by that tragedy.