First of all may I take this opportunity to apologise to Mr. Fitzgerald. For some reason I had confused him with another poster, who had appeared on this forum briefly to make remarks of a kind which suggested very clearly that he was somebody else. Having performed a search this morning, I realise that I have got the wrong person and I very much regret my comments.My apology is extended to Dan Evans inasmuch as he clearly has not been "talking to himself" in this instance. However where Mr. Evans is concerned my apology ends there, because he is in my view by some margin the most unpleasantly mischievous and cowardly of my many critics on this forum.Unlike Dave Hughes, Alan Sheerins, John Connelly, Vanessa Smith, Paul Fisher, Andy Sibley, Simon Anderson, Adrian Lee, Mark Bowen, myself and others, Mr. Evans chooses not to lay his cards on the table and reveal precisely where he is coming from. In response to this he would argue that not everybody is actively involved in politics or follows a particular party line, and in this he would be right of course. However, I would invite anybody who might be tempted to accept his protestations of disinterested neutrality at face value to take a look back through his many postings over the past year or so. Anybody doing so will see an almost pathological obsession with the ICG and general and with myself in particular which is difficult to understand from a non-political resident of Brentford.Very often Mr. Evans will be absent from this forum for considerable periods, returning only to intervene in a discussion when there is a bit of ICG-bashing going on. We are then treated to the expert opinion of a man who admits he does not use his own full name and takes care never to give any indication of the area in which he lives or what it is that interests him in particular (other than football, his postings on which I admit I enjoy). He presumes to judge others whilst taking great pains to shield himself from scrutiny. This, in my view, is the hallmark of a bully and a true coward.His postings follow a clear pattern. When in a political discussion Labour Party contributors are taking a hiding he intervenes to protest that politics is taking over the forum and "they are all as bad as each other". When he perceives that the ICG is on the receiving end, however, he joins in.He recently presumed to intervene in the dispute between Simon Anderson and George Burrell, ostensibly to offer Simon his sympathy but in reality to try to stir the pot by implying that the threatening 'phone call apparently received by Simon had emanated from the same source as threats which he himself had allegedly received, with the obvious implication (thankfully missed by Simon) that George had been responsible. How George or anybody else would know how to contact "Dan" Evans one can only guess, as he goes to such lengths to hide himself away from the light of day.Mr. Evans also used his intervention in this particular dispute to introduce the totally dishonest suggestion that Simon's colleagues were ganging up on him. Anybody who had followed the whole unhappy episode could see that this was not the case, and that it was clearly a private dispute between two people which was being carefully stoked up with a series of mischief-making posts from a person/persons operating from behind various noms-de-plume.In the run-up to the recent local elections the clearly co-ordinated activities of Mr. Evans' and of a friend of his were particularly pernicious, and led to my withdrawal from the forum and my advice to other ICG members to do likewise (then dishonestly portrayed by Mr. Evans and friend as a "boycott") as the purpose of such activity appeared to have been entrapment and misrepresentation rather than honest debate. Anybody who knows me will be aware that I am prepared to engage in open debate with anybody at any time, but one cannot trade blows with a ghost.In spite of all the above Mr. Evans still has the front to presume for himself some kind of moral superiority over the "low standards" which he suggests are employed by myself and others who have the courage to operate out in the open. One can but marvel at the man's sheer audacity.Mr. Evans insists that he has no political affiliations or allegiances of his own, and I see no reason not to take him at his word on this. To me this just makes the man all the more contemptible, because the highly selective attacks which he repeatedly makes present no target at which to aim one's defence. This will be the last time I will honour this uniquely cowardly individual with a response, at least until he acquires the courage to show himself.
Phil Andrews ● 6861d