How the Jewish Chronicle and the Zionist Press Turned My Acquittal Into a Conviction

 I was found NOT GUILTY of harassing Megan McCann, Patrick Smith and Labour’s Vile Disputes Team but Guilty By the Yellow Press

In October 2020 I was asked to attend an interview by Brighton Police. The interview was voluntary but, having a clear conscience, I was happy to attend. The matter that concerned the Police was a series of friendly emails that I had sent to Labour’s Disputes Team.

I would be the first to admit that my language, ‘fuck off and die’ ‘scumbags’ etc.was colourful and, in normal circumstances, abusive. However, when compared to the actions of the Disputes Team, who literally did tell people to fuck off and die when they sent their Investigation/Suspension/Expulsion letters to people, regardless of their circumstances and who, in some cases, literally did die, my words were an understandable response.

What was the background to my correspondence with members of the Disputes Team? Well it is laid out in the statement of Witness C.

C is a 74 year old woman. She has been a member of the Labour Party since the age of 16, well over half a century. In her own words:

In 2015… I “discovered” Jeremy Corbyn & was soon deeply committed to supporting his vision, promoting it actively on that platform. On 24^th August 2016 Iain McNicol suspended my membership in the name of The Labour Party, for breaking some rule I never knew existed.

Out of the blue ‘crooked McNicol’ suspended C for, in reality, supporting Jeremy Corbyn. Many of us were in that position.

C has had Bipolar since her early teens and took early retirement on health grounds. It was, as she says, a time of ‘unstable mental health’. Throughout this period C was ‘mentally very unwell, near suicidal’. Like many people she was reinstated on 16th December 2016 after a telephone conversation with Sam Matthews. On 28 March 2017 C was autoexpelled for having said something complimentary about George Galloway, which was taken to mean she had supported another party. Of course if Labour members said nice things about Boris Johnson nothing would have happened. C was expelled, without any hearing at all.

It was the day in which her long-term partner told her he was terminally ill and her ‘mental health took a dive’. She described how:

I appealed, repeatedly, but Sam Matthews in the name of the Party was at first abusive then ignored me, for years

When someone has spent nearly all their adult life in the Labour Party it becomes a home and place of support. For people like Mathews and McNicol to expel such people at the drop of a hat for supporting a candidate, Corbyn, whom they didn’t approve of, was despicable. Nonetheless C was reinstated on 1st October 2019 after a formal interrogation via conference call with an NEC member chairing & various others making up the panel. C described it as ‘gruelling’.

Throughout this time, as a result of lobbying from her friends, the Disputes Team was more than aware of the state of C’s mental health.

C was not alone. Carl Sargeant, a Minister in the Welsh Assembly, had committed suicide after being suspended without warning. Pauline Hammerton, who was 80 years old and a member of the Labour Party for decades, as well as being Secretary of Manchester Socialist Health Association, died a week after being summarily expelled. As Vox Political put it: ‘Deaths mount as people buckle under the strain of false accusation.’

Dorset Eye, described how:

Pauline Hammerton, a long-term Labour activist from Hulme in Manchester, was fast-track-expelled from the party on the 4th of February for supposed ‘anti-Semitism’ – in reality, just for her support for the Palestinian people, who are being slowly crushed by Zionist occupation.

Pauline was found dead just seven days later. She had been left distraught by her expulsion, and although the cause-of-death has not yet been confirmed, the suspicion is that she suffered a haemorrhage brought on by the shock.

The false allegations of anti-Semitism against anti-racists by racists like Tom Watson and McNicol, was nothing less than evil. Unfortunately Corbyn went along with this abominable treatment of his supporters instead of speaking up. See Expelled for Supporting the Palestinians on the 7th February (‘anti-Semitism’ in Labour Newspeak) Found Dead One Week Later

By the time C was reinstated her partner had died. She described how she ‘suffered great mental health decline following the defeat in the 2019 General Election’. On 20^th May C was prescribed anti-depressants. On 7^th July C was informed that she was being investigated for ‘anti-Semitism’ i.e. support for the Palestinians. This despite the Disputes Team being more than aware of C’s fragility.

By this time I was part of what C calls her ‘support network’. I was outraged by her treatment and on 9 July I sent an email to the Disputes Team, including McCann. In my email I wrote:

C is elderly, has been a member of the party most of her life and does not need utter filth and tory scum like you to harass her.

So FUCK OFF AND LEAVE HER ALONE OR ELSE

My language was entirely justified by the behaviour of the reptiles who inhabit the Disputes Team. The Prosecution, McCann and Patrick Smith, the Head of Disputes, later tried to claim that they were unnerved by my ‘Or else’. As I told the Police, who developed a tin ear, ‘or else’ did not mean I was going to go up to Labour Party HQ and sort them out physically but that I would expose them to some publicity. Which is what I am doing now!

I was so disturbed by the behaviour of the Disputes Committee, which seemed to be deliberately courting tragedy for C, that I sent a second email with the line ‘Now fuck off and die’. In the circumstances it was too polite.

On 28 October the Police interviewed me and weren’t in the least concerned about the harassment of the Disputes Team. They were worried by the tone of my emails. So on 29 October I penned an email to the Disputes Team, including McCann.

I began: ‘In June and July I sent some of you a series of emails.  I am told by the Police that these made you upset.  Good.’ I considered members of the Disputes Team as desk killers who were not in the least concerned about the effect of their ‘Investigation Letters’. Their only concern was to purge as many decent socialists as possible from Labour. using bogus ‘anti-Semitism’ charges. I also said that

‘If your allegations against me were to come to a trial I would want to call you as a witness in order to ascertain what due diligence you did in Pauline’s and other elderly peoples’ cases before sending your scurrilous missives.  Of course the answer to that is none.

Quite unbelievably the Head of the Disputes Team Patrick Smith, took offence at my telling him that if there was a prosecution, then I would want to call him and other members of the Disputes Team to give evidence! I suppose, in retrospect, that it is understandable that liars who would put Boris Johnson to shame, were afraid of having to testify on oath! Smith said:

I believe here he is threatening to call whoever he has sent emails to court, which I feel is an attempt by him to intimidate us into not supporting a police prosecution .

Smith also objected in his witness statement to my use of the term ‘bastards’ to describe him and his fellow creatures in Disputes, though any reasonable person might think that I was being far too polite:

He goes on to then call us ‘bastards’ before asking us to inform him of how many cases we have under way for fast-track expulsions and how many Jewish members from the Labour Party are suspended or under Investigation. I and my team find the use of the term ‘bastards’ as clearly intended to cause offence to the reader that being all members of the Disputes team.

I also had two other witnesses lined up, both of whom had been expelled from the Labour Party for ‘anti-Semitism’.

Witness A in her witness statement wrote how she had received a Notice of Investigation in May 2018 but heard nothing more for 9 months. On 7 February 2019 she received additional charges and just over 2 weeks later she was suspended. She described how she wrote a lengthy response refuting all the allegations and how she awaited notification of the date of the National Constitutional Committee Panel. Prior to Corbyn and Jennie Formby’s introduction of the fast track expulsion procedure, people who were facing expulsion had the right to a hearing. In A’s own words:

In the event any semblance of natural justice in the Labour Party has been abandoned and I was expelled, without access to a hearing, in October 2019

Unfortunately, thanks to Formby and Corbyn, the right to a hearing had been abolished at the September 2019 Labour Party conference. It was supposed to be for ‘egregious cases’ but it has been used for virtually all cases since then. Corbyn literally fashioned the weapon that Starmer has taken up with such relish, not least against him.

Witness A described how:

From May 2018 when this process began up until this year has been one of the worst times in my life. I have suffered repeated bouts of anxiety for which my GP prescribed anti-depressants. I not only had my reputation traduced but suffered repeated vile online abuse and harassment.

Witness A went on to describe the arbitrary and unjust nature of the Labour Party disciplinary process, which targets those on the Left whilst excusing any amount of abuse from the Right. Cllr. Pamela Fitzpatrick has described similar behaviour in Harrow:

While the Labour Party vindictively pursues cases against certain people it protects others, irrespective of how abusive and threatening their behaviour…. 

It cannot be acceptable for a political party, knowing the highly deleterious effects its actions may have on physical and mental well-being, to shift responsibility for that care to GPs or the Samaritans.

Labour Party staff continue to hide under a cloak of anonymity, ignoring serious complaints made to them, replying to some while studiously ignoring others. While they do so they permit the abuse we experience to continue.

Over 15 women have submitted complaints with evidence of abuse and harassment, against a particular Labour Party member.

At least 5 women in Brighton & Hove, including an elected representative, have made a number of complaints with screenshots as evidence, regarding the abuse and harassment they have experienced to Sussex Police. Another complainant to the police provided evidence of threats and intimidation to his family, yet despite this catalogue of complaints, Sussex Police has repeatedly refused to take action.

I am deeply shocked and cannot help but wonder on what basis the police and CPS have chosen to pursue the case against Mr Greenstein, whilst studiously ignoring the serious complaints made by myself and others? Frankly, it is not surprising that the public is losing respect for both the police and justice system when it is so clear that there is no longer protection nor equality of treatment for all.

Witness B gave similar evidence.

I am writing to make clear that unnamed Labour Party members of staff in the disputes team are themselves the ‘harassers’ of ordinary members of the Labour Party.

Out of the blue, on 18 May 2020, I had a letter from The Governance and Legal Unit. The letter was not signed by any individual. The letter informed me I was suspended from the Labour Party. The evidence prayed in the letter was one tweet from November 8, 2019. The tweet said, “The 99% of people will have the best friend in Chris Williamson as an MP who, if re-elected, will work for them.”

I was very upset by this suspension referring to one, seven month old tweet.

The letter said, “The Party would like to make clear that there is support available to you while this matter is being investigated.”  Of course, the “support” was not available from the Labour Party itself. What follows are suggestions of whom I might contact – My GP, The Samaritans, Citizens Advice. During the pandemic, my GP was closed, Samaritans were stretched and my guess is that Citizens Advice were closed too. The disputes team were simply being insulting and trying to cover their own backs with this advice.

The next I heard from the disputes team was a letter 02 June 2020 expelling me from the Labour Party. Again, the letter was not signed by an individual, just The Governance and Legal Unit. There was no comment on my reply to the suspension letter, in fact, I have no idea if anyone ever read it. I was simply cast out the Labour Party, with no offer of appeal, and this time there was no advice about where I might seek support….

I made a subject access request to Labour on 22 May 2020. What I found from my SAR was that members of the GLU/disputes team had conspired with LOTO/Keir Starmer to go through my social media to find something to expel me for. They hunted for evidence on May 18, 2020, in the middle of a pandemic.

I can see from the redacted email exchanges between GLU/Disputes and LOTO that at 13.00 on 18 May a staffer finds the offending tweet about Chris Williamson, “I believe this tweet warrants auto-exclusion…”.

13.04 Reply, “ Good spot. I think that it definitely qualifies as support for a candidate standing in opposition to an official Labour candidate. Would appreciate the thoughts of others though.”

13.07 Reply, “Heya. Yes I agree. It appears to be clearly supporting him to be re-elected as an independent MP against a Labour candidate.”

13. 48 Reply, “I agree. Can we get a suspension letter out with that evidence today? I guess we give seven days for the reply. Thomas”

14.03 Reply, “Would you be able to draft a suspension letter, based on that one piece (redacted) today, and send to me and (redacted) to check?”

14. 26 Reply, “Sure. I’ll do that now. Regards.”

There are further exchanges of emails as the ‘team’ discuss what questions to pose to me in the suspension letter.

Anonymous staff in the disputes team, trawled my social media, on orders from LOTO (who were ordered by a third party [the Board of Deputies named in my SAR), in order to find something to expel me for. I am not sure how one would characterise such an organisation, but behaving like the Stasi does come to mind.

Since I received my SAR and discovered what went on between the disputes team and LOTO I have sent at least six emails to the Labour Party, none of which has been given a reply. I have included the substance of my emails in the two screen shots below.

I have the evidence of a confected expulsion by largely unnamed individuals, an expulsion confected in the middle of a pandemic, and no possibility of redress for the injustice.

You cannot imagine how frustrating it is to have no named individual to contact and the disempowerment of sending emails into a void, emails with significant legal concerns about procedure and data protection. Emails which are never answered.

If the Labour Party GLU/Disputes and Complaints Teams acted in an ‘above board’ manner, consistent with natural justice, perhaps people like Mr Greenstein would not be provoked into sending them emails these teams deem harassment. These anonymous people hold all the ‘power’, they are not able to be held accountable for their behaviour, and I can assure the reader/s of my statement that I feel far more harassed and abused by this team of people than they can ever feel reading a few emails calling out what they do and how they conduct their business.

20 February 2021

Witness B described a sinister operation whereby the Board of Deputies supplied a list of who they wanted expelled to Starmer’s office and they passed it on to the GLU. The GLU then searched B’s social media until they could find something they could expel her for.

The final witness statement was from Megan McCann who used to work for Disputes. When I wrote my emails I was not to know that she had transferred jobs within Labour’s bureaucracy. Judging by her witness statement she is on the far-Right of the Labour Party.

She said ‘I felt angry that Mr GREENSTEIN had seemingly identified me from a document on the internet and then thought it appropriate to seek me out and find my email and email me direct.’ This is untrue. I have been sent dozens of letters of investigation over the years by Labour Party members bewildered at the false and confected accusations against them. Up until a certain point of time, letters had a name and email address on them identifying a particular staff member dealing with their case. That is how I identified McCann as being a member of the Disputes Team.

McCann found my salutation, ‘Dear Racist Scumbags’ as ‘deeply offensive, and quite aggressive’ but accusing thousands of Labour Party members of ‘anti-Semitism’ is not offensive or aggressive?

It is a lie that I have ever ‘worn tee-shirts or produced posters with staff names on’. But what is one lie among many?

McCann said ‘I don’t know Mr GREENSTEIN well enough to know what threat he would pose’ but she does know me well enough to know that I am ‘an extremist and so are a number of his friends and supporters. They are fanatical about their ideological beliefs.’ Of course to the likes of Megan McCann anyone who is a socialist is an ‘extremist’.

McCann is not above using the fact that she is a woman to suggest that I was targeting women in particular. In fact I was targeting any member of the Disputes Team, regardless of sex. She wrote:

This email was awful and I found it really upsetting and I felt exasperated. As this email was directed to females I found the language used particularly offensive.’

These snowflakes are so concerned about language and subliminal attitudes but when it comes to sending out threatening letters, to people who are elderly or vulnerable, most of them women, they have no such concerns. This is bourgeois feminism at its best (or worst).

Apparently David Evans ‘telephoned me for a welfare check to see how I was’. Touching. I wonder whether he has ever phoned a Labour Party member to find out how they are after receiving a letter from McCann or her fellow abusers?

McCann found my final email ‘exhausting’. My 3 witnesses found their ‘investigation’ letters (itself a lie since there were never any genuine investigations) a damn sight worse than exhausting.

On page 13 of her witness statement McCann says she ‘believes’ that I have worn tee shirts with staff’s name on them. By page 15 this becomes ‘I’ve seen with Mr GREENSTEIN wear a t-shirt with people’s names on.’ This is quite remarkable because on page 12 she says ‘I have never met this male and have had no dealings with him personally, however I was aware of his existence.’

So despite never having met me or having had any dealings with me, she is certain that she saw me wear tee shirts with the names of members of staff on them, even though she wouldn’t have recognised me! This is the quality of evidence for which people are being expelled.

What this demonstrates is that Megan McCann is a liar who is prepared to perjure herself and lie about anything and anybody. That was why she fitted in so well with the Disputes Team.

All the stuff about feeling nervous opening her emails or being afraid of people handing out leaflets in case I was amongst them can be taken with a shovel full of salt. Dispute Staff and Regional Staff are so used to lying about members of the Labour Party that they think nothing of giving evidence on oath which is also a tissue of lies. Her sole intent was to see me convicted of the offence of ‘non-violent harassment’ itself a minor charge not carrying a custodial sentence.

I have no doubt that her whining witness statement emphasising how hurt and vulnerable she was was crafted with fellow staff members.

McCann’s final statement that ‘I was the whistle blower against the party for its conduct in handling anti-Semitism complaints. I wonder if this is part of the reason why Mr GREENSTEIN has emailed me.’ explains her motives perfectly.

Actually I was unaware of McCann’s grubby little role in extorting members’ money (which Starmer handed over in order not to derail the EHRC Report). However my choice of McCann was fortuitous as she is a nasty little red baiter.

You can read McCann’s lying statement at your leisure as it gives an insight into the mentality of the average witchhunter.

The hearing of my case was supposed to be on July 7 and McCann, eager to perjure herself, had travelled down all the way from the Midlands to appear in person whereas Patrick Smith was going to give evidence by video. It was to turn out to be a very frustrating day for her, as the CPS had badly timed the case management resulting in the magistrates deciding that they didn’t have time to hear the case! Hence they postponed it till November for a full day’s hearing.

However by November agreement was reached between my solicitor and the Crown Prosecution Service that the latter would offer no evidence in return for which I would agree to what is called a Restraining Order that I would not contact the Disputes Team, try and enter Labour Party premises, contact McCann or Smith or use ‘expletives, abusive or offensive language’ in any communication with the Labour Party.

A fifth condition that I should email the Labour Party if I intended to demonstrate outside their premises was dropped at my insistence. In other words I was acquitted and found not guilty. How therefore did the Zionist press and Brighton and Hove News report it?

The Jewish Chronicle headline was ‘Tony Greenstein ‘handed restraining order’ and a subheading ‘Anti-Zionist activist reportedly charged with two counts of harassment in connection with various emails sent to the party’. No mention of the fact that I was acquitted of these 2 charges! No doubt the anonymous JC reporter forgot that he wasn’t in Palestine where being charged with something is tantamount to being found guilty (if you are a Palestinian).

The Jewish News article was by my favourite Zionist ‘journalist’ ‘Liar’ Lee Harpin whose main claim to fame, besides being arrested for hacking other peoples’ phones when at the Daily Mirror, is that he has never written an article without at least one error in it.

The JN article was headed ‘Tony Greenstein restraining order stops him from contacting Labour disputes team’ and the subheadline was ‘Expelled Labour activist and ‘notorious antisemite’ handed two-year punishment, charged with two counts of harassment’. Except that a Restraining Order is not a punishment. It is an agreement not to do something you are unlikely to do anyway! Again there was no mention of my acquittal. Zionist propagandists seem to lie in harmony. The agenda was obvious.

I said that Liar Lee has never written an article without at least one mistake and sure enough he wrote: ‘Greenstein had originally pleaded guilty to the charges back in March.’ That’s news to me and I expect to the CPS too.

There was no mention of the fact that I was acquitted as that would have defeated the whole purpose of the story which was to convince its readership that I had been found guilty of something. And given the stupidity of the average Zionist they don’t need much convincing!

What Harpin doesn’t know he simply invents. The Jewish News is not bound by any press regulator, neither IPSOS nor IMPRESS. In other words it is unaccountable to anyone and can lie its head off.

In the Brighton and Hove News, a local online rag with 1 reporter, its editor Jo Wadsworth, there is a headline Expelled Labour member given restraining order preventing contact with party’s complaints team. Actually the Restraining Order prevents contact with the Disputes not Complaints Team. There are also 3 poisonous readers’ comments which are counterbalanced by a fourth reader who points out what should be obvious.

The article itself is vile, pointing out that I was wearing a Free Palestine badge. Wadsworth is to journalism what Harold Shipman was to geriatric medicine. In other words a scab journalist writing for a news media that no one reads!

This whole episode has been an interesting insight into the mentality of the Disputes Team and their paranoid vision of the world and their opponents in the Labour Party, who are uniformally branded ‘extremists’.

I am of course forbidden from contacting Ms McCann and Mr Smith so I won’t be sending them copies of this blog! I would ask people not to send it on as that might be construed as me having indirectly tried to contact them!

Tony Greenstein