The joy of enemies II

I noted the other day the welcome disappearance of one of my numerous crank correspondents, who calls himself (possibly accurately) Jonathan Burgess. I can't claim to have wondered what had happened to him, and you certainly won't be interested either, but a reader kindly draws my attention to what Burgess did next. As it involves another of my enemies, it provides material for another post on the seasonal theme I introduced yesterday.

Burgess is an admirer of the racist faker David Irving. He started writing to me variously and indignantly a couple of months ago, after Irving had urged readers of his website to write to me to complain about something or other. I identified Burgess, on the strength of his efforts, as a follower of Irving and, ex hypothesi, a racist. Burgess immediately wrote to me again. Here is what he said:

Do you not think that it is just a little bit disgusting to invent vicious and groundless charges against me, and then to publish these wilful and malicious lies on the internet?

I ask you publicly to withdraw the following:

1.) Your assertion that I am 'a follower' of David Irving, or one of his 'band'.

This is simply untrue: I have never met Mr Irving. I have never worked for (or with) him. I have never made any kind of donation to him. I have never attended any meeting, speech, or function organised by Mr Irving - or at which he has otherwise been present.

2.) Your assertion that I am a racist. This is not just untrue, it is a very serious libel.

You have no grounds for making this vile slur on my good name other than pure 'guilt by association' (i.e. he has read a couple of his books, therefore he must be a 'disciple' who sits at his feet and imbibes his whole world view.)

Do you think that this kind of facile logic would stand up in a libel court, Mr Kamm?

I have always abhorred racism in every form. If you do not withdraw these hurtful lies, I shall have to investigate what legal avenues are open to me. I say 'have to', because I simply cannot allow you to libel me as a racist.

I considered Burgess's complaints carefully and exhaustively for a couple of seconds. I sent him the name and address of my estimable libel lawyer, who has represented me with ferocious success against two previous complainants of equal whining absurdity. (Note that I have written about only one of these, the pro-Milosevic blogger and vulgar fraud Neil Clark, as the other had the comparative prudence to make himself invisible immediately on hearing from my legal representative.) I then extended to Burgess the courtesy of again describing him on this site as a follower of David Irving and a racist. I have heard nothing from him since apart from a piece of doggerel comparing me to a phallic sexual instrument.

That exchange took place on 4 October. I didn't note this at the time but David Irving made the following observation on his own website the same day (I won't provide a link to a racist's site, but you can take it that I'm quoting Irving accurately and in full):

October 4, 2007 (Thursday) Windsor (England)

Oliver Kamm has blithely libeled one of my fans in his online blog. The fan asks me for advice, and I advise him what protocol to follow. Kamm threatens him in his last lines: "I should give you due notice that if any costs are incurred by me as a result of your behaviour, then I shall immediately apply for an award of those costs against you."

Kamm is wrong. His newspapers lawyers may well advise him to apologise ("make amends") before things get worse. His behaviour is truly odious.

My gratification at being described as odious by a Holocaust denier is alloyed only by my wonderment at (a) his belief that the site you're reading is an arm of a newspaper and that my lawyer is that newspaper's agent, and (b) the stupidity of his declared fan, Jonathan Burgess, who I had understood was objecting to my having identified him as such. There seems little more I can say except that Jonathan Burgess is a follower of David Irving and a racist, and I cordially advise him to disappear once more into that diseased intellectual milieu.