Lewis Holden says that he has received a stream of vicious emails from monarchist eager to call him a liar. Just another nasty case of the pot calling the kettle black?
Earlier this week I was taken to task for making a few factual errors in response to claims made by the Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. I admitted to these mistakes in a later post published at Independent Australia, however, none of them changed the substantive points I made.
Instead of responding in a mature manner and accepting that it was an honest mistake, I've been subjected to a stream of e-mails from monarchists pointing to the article as if it's gospel. In a way, this kind of proves my point: whether I'm wrong or right doesn't matter, the gleeful repetition of the claims shows the underlying agenda was never to show that republicans make mistakes like every other human - it was to continue to dog whistle and wallow in issues long since passed from the minds of the public. There was no response to my claim that Professor Flint fabricated a statement by Republic's Graham Smith. In law they call that admission by omission.
So here, for your reading displeasure on a Friday, is what we have to deal with:
Subject: [General information] ACM reference Mr Holden
On 6 October 2010 09:01, <xxxxxx.xxxxx@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
xxxxxx xxxxx sent a message using the contact form at
http://www.republic.org.nz/contact.
4 October 2010 - http://www.norepublic.com.au
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 16:47:18 +1300
Subject: Re: [General information] ACM reference Mr Holden
From: info@republic.org.nz
To: xxxxxx@hotmail.co.uk
Hi xxxxxx,
Thank you, yes I have seen the article and responded to it here:
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2010/republic/david-flint-yesterdays-man/
Cheers
LJH
On 7 October 2010 16:48, xxxxxx xxxxxx <xxxxxx@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
Dear Mr Holden,
Thank you for the link to your non-response. It confirms our suspicions.
Regards, xxxxxx
Subject: Re: [General information] ACM reference Mr Holden
From: info@republic.org.nz
To: xxxxxx@hotmail.co.uk
Hello xxxxxx,
Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. I went through each of the allegations one by one, and admitted to making mistakes on some of the claims. However, the substantive points remain the same. Is that what you meant?
Regards,
Lewis Holden
On 7 October 2010 16:53, xxxxxx<xxxxxx@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
Dear Mr Holden,
The article confirms that your hatred of our Royal Family is based on lies, & you are a liar.
The 'substantive' point Mr Flint was making was that you cannot be trusted.
You have shown that time & time gain.
Regards, xxxxxx
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 16:58:36 +1300
Subject: Re: [General information] ACM reference Mr Holden
From: info@republic.org.nz
To: xxxxxx@hotmail.co.uk
xxxxxx,
No, I haven't been shown to be a liar, nor have I made any lies. I make mistakes - that's what I said in my response - and I admitted to them. None of the mistakes I made change the substantive points I was making. Moreover Professor Flint manipulated what I said, and statements made by Graham Smith to a Chinese radio station. For example, he said I claimed that the exclusion of the words "president" and "republic" by the ARM in their submission on the 1999 referendum Bill never happened. I didn't say anything of the sort. I simply explained why the words were excluded. The ARM changed its submission a day later, so it was hardly a major issue. If they'd held out for a week he might have a point, but they didn't and he doesn't. Also, FWIW I don't hate the Royals. I just don't want them to be our head of state.
Regards,
LJH
On 7 October 2010 17:02, xxxxxx <xxxxxx@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
Holden,
Stop lieing. I have read Mr Flint's article & it shows you're a liar.
It doesn't matter what you say, youre an anti-monarchist lying republican.
Regards,
xxxxxx xxxxxx
On 7 October 2010 17:11, Lewis Holden <info@republic.org.nz> wrote:
Dear xxxxxx,
Clearly nothing I can say will change your mind at this point. The idea of myself as a liar is clearly very attractive to you. Despite what you say I'm not an "anti-monarchist" nor do I hate the Royal Family. In a way I feel sorry for them, they're trapped in an irrelevant institution for life as is your thinking.
Regards,
Lewis Holden
