Richard Bartholomew

Notes on media, culture, conspiracy theories, religion. Anti-grift.

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

Dan Wootton's status as "a complete clown" (and worse) has been known for a long time, yet it's never inhibited Richard Tice from going on his show. https://t.co/a6PtRLlmeW

[Matt Goodwin @GoodwinMJ]

You are a complete clown, Dan. You’ve spent months slating anybody who genuinely wants to save this country by running into the abyss. Now you are left with 3,000 votes & nowhere to go. I’d say online clicks is not offline votes but seeing as you are clearly paying for online bots you don’t even have online clicks! Sad!

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

NEW POST: Old Hurst Zoo Incident: Police Confirm "White British" Suspect Due to Misinformation https://t.co/z7j2VM6nJM

[stefanstern @stefanstern]

She hasn"t lost her touch then.

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

Reform UK's embrace of Ant Middleton at Makerfield - being photographed with the candidate and with @GoodwinMJ - was always a bad idea but is now shown up as even more shameful.

[Harvey Proctor @KHarveyProctor]

Lady Diana Brittan asks an important question in today’s @Telegraph: if someone’s reputation is destroyed, their home searched, their career ended & their family subjected to years of anguish by malicious lies, why are they not recognised as a victim by the criminal justice system?

I welcome the @DavidLammy’s response to our joint letter, but the central question remains unanswered: will those falsely accused by people convicted of perverting the course of justice finally be recognised within the criminal justice system?

Until then, the forgotten victims remain forgotten.

@FACTukorg

https://t.co/iRcUrk2C9Z

[Socialist Opera Singer @OperaSocialist]

This video sums up why Reform will never win a General Election.

They spend so long in their far-right online echo chambers that they think people like June Slater are popular "celebrity" figures.

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

Confident assertion from Ant Middleton without evidence that the perpetrator is an immigrant, and that it is just one such incident. Reform UK thought it was sensible to make this person part of their Makerfield campaign.

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

This is a high-profile news story, yet a professional journalist refers to it as if it's some rumour she's vaguely heard about and is trying to confirm. The effect is to give the incident a spurious air of mystery and cover up. https://t.co/0Klu3hv1NS

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

Is this correct?
A small child is thrown into a crocodile enclosure by a man who was no relation to him?
The little boy is in Addenbrokes hospital.
Horrifying.

[Gyll King Post Skip Diplomacy @GyllKing]

We have reached such a peak of deranged lunacy in the U.K. that this morning there are people praying that a man who threw a child into a crocodile pool is a colour they can weaponise.

[SAFF @SAFFtweets]

More fundie agitpropists used by #RogerCook to falsely accuse innocent men and persecute 1000s of #Pagans so that he could earn his big wedge at CTV. Almost EVERYONE involved in his 'Devil's Work' was a Sectarian activist pushing LIES which Cook promoted.

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

@SarahForRuncorn

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

#AccidentalPartridge - Reform MP Sarah Pochin urges the England football team to "keep winning" because when England loses its matches "the instances of dometic violence go through the roof". https://t.co/2bedaPeVVs

[Sarah Pochin MP @SarahForRuncorn]

For the sake of women’s safety we need England to keep winning 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

NEW POST: Media Addresses the Keir Starmer "Rent Boys" Smear https://t.co/uFkmC9Uw8u

[Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden]

So it was remarkably convenient that less than 15 minutes after the culprit was arrested, and before the arrest was made public by the police,that an account on X describing itself as a British “patriot” reported it was an "angry unpaid rent boy"

This was the start of the spread

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

And here's Dave Atherton spreading the false "rent boy" story about the Keir Starmer arson last year and rejecting claims of Russian involvement

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

Atherton isn't just some online outlier - he gets regular fringe-right media appearances and is often photographed about London with figures who either represent or are allied with Reform UK, including Nigel Farage's associate Lois Perry https://t.co/Rbgksr6z3G

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

Dave Atherton poses as "in the know" without producing the goods. 400,000 views for a post performatively messaging Surrey Police about supposedly having evidence pertinent to the Epsom rape investigation. Why didn't he phone, use their contact form or visit his local station?

[Matthew Sweet @DrMatthewSweet]

Something dystopian about the US correspondent of a UK TV channel falling for a story as obviously fake as this. It wouldn't happen anywhere but @GBNEWS. @beverleyturner peddling falsehoods. Again. A glimpse, perhaps, of a post-public broadcasting landscape where lies flourish.

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

@vikare06

[Aidan James @mcandidate]

getting done for this in 2026 is phenomenal, you have to say

[Richard Bartholomew @Barthsnotes]

@ScarredForLife2 I know it was a parody, but imagining a UFO abduction storyline in a soap opera is taking things too far.

[Master_Debunker @Master_Debunker]

✴️ FEELINGS OVER FACTS ✴️

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report lacks serious credibility as a rigorous, objective, or authoritative inquiry. It functions primarily as a political advocacy document rather than a neutral fact-finding exercise. Here are my findings.

- It is a private, self-appointed project chaired by a sitting MP with strong, pre-existing views on immigration, multiculturalism, and the specific issues covered. It has no statutory powers, no government backing, no independent panel of experts or judges, and no ability to compel witnesses or evidence. Official inquiries (e.g., Jay Report, Telford Inquiry) operate under formal terms of reference with legal authority; this one does not.

- Crowdfunded by a self-selecting donor base. Raised £600k from over 20,000 donors explicitly framed as British patriots. This creates obvious selection bias and incentive problems. Transparency exists on the associated website, but funding from aligned supporters undermines claims of neutrality.

- Heavy reliance on speculative and disputed national extrapolations. The headline claim of at least 250,000 victims since the 1950s originates from loose extrapolations by Lord Pearson (House of Lords, 2018–2019) scaling up Rotherham figures. Independent analyses (e.g., Full Fact) have repeatedly flagged this as methodologically weak and unsupported by comprehensive data. Official sources consistently note poor national recording and avoid such precise high-end totals. The report presents it as established fact.

- Theological causation claims exceed the evidence. Sections attributing the phenomenon primarily to the Influence of Islam (citing specific Quranic verses, hadiths, supremacism doctrines, etc.) represent ideological interpretation rather than empirical criminological analysis. Official inquiries identify cultural attitudes, clan networks, misogyny, and opportunity structures in certain communities as key factors. They do not frame core Islamic theology as the driver. This overreach shifts the document from inquiry to polemic.

- Selective focus and lack of balance. Strong emphasis on one perpetrator demographic (Pakistani Muslim men) in group-based CSE, while giving minimal weight to data limitations, other offender groups, broader child sexual exploitation patterns, or countervailing evidence. Official reviews acknowledge overrepresentation in specific prosecuted cases but stress poor data quality and the risks of overgeneralisation. The report's framing amplifies one narrative.

- Advocacy tone and emotive language. Mixes formal report structure with highly charged rhetoric ("evil," "demonic chapter," "barbarism," calls for maximum penalties including death in places). Political accusations against named figures (e.g., Starmer, Khan) are presented in accusatory terms rather than balanced analysis of institutional failures documented in prior reports.

- Anonymised, untested testimonies with no adversarial process — Survivor and whistleblower accounts are powerful and consistent with known cases, but they are anonymised and collected in a non-statutory setting without cross-examination, corroboration requirements, or legal safeguards typical of official inquiries or criminal proceedings. This limits verifiability.

- No independent verification or peer review. It draws on existing public inquiries and media but adds its own scaling and interpretive layers without external methodological scrutiny. Claims of 149 districts and nationwide patterns since the 1950s rest on compilation rather than new rigorous fieldwork.

Bottom line: The report has value in amplifying survivor voices on a genuinely serious and historically mishandled. However, its methodological weaknesses, partisan leadership and funding, speculative statistics, and ideological framing mean it does not meet the standards of a serious, credible inquiry. It is best read as a political intervention rather than a definitive or neutral source.