Among many people tweeting lies about me, @NickyAACampbell, @GaryLineker and @Rylan yesterday was someone called @AndyPlumb4
I do not know who Andy Plumb is, but a defamation lawyer advised me that what he did on Twitter yesterday is the quickest way to lose £20,000. I messaged Andy to that effect:
His response was bravado:
But it seems that Andy has upset a lot of people on Twitter, because quite quickly I was told exactly who he is....
...although I didn't expect @AndyPlumb4 to be the one who announced his own address to the world:
Had he apologised and deleted his tweet immediately that would have counted hugely in his favour. But it was a full day before I noticed his timeline had been quietly altered:
Yet there was no apology to me. Just this bizarre explanation:
It's really not “perfectly normal behaviour,” Andy.
You have a lot of followers who will have read and spread your damaging lies. I let loads of stuff go on here — but not this. I'll be in touch soon.
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STATEMENT
Thank-you for such kind messages about my libel action against Joey Barton. I can confirm it is now concluded and I am satisfied with the result. Mr Barton has now paid out more than half a million pounds in my case alone.
There seems to be some confusion about the stages of the case. The below is to explain the numbers. I have no further beef with Mr Barton, who has a series of ongoing legal problems to deal with. While defending my libel action, he also became a convicted wifebeater.
My damages in the case were £110,000. These were paid last year, and Mr Barton made the agreed public apology. But my costs in bringing the case were between 180 and 190k. Mr Barton pledged in court to pay the costs, then chose to argue that the figure was too high.
Small announcement. I’m stopping my cycling videos. The trolling just got too bad. They have had well over 100 million views but in the end the anger they generate has genuinely upset me.
A regular theme has been the desire to see me crushed by a truck. Any cyclist knows this is a very real danger.
I can take criticism — for example, this made me laugh.
A quick 🧵 that might warm your heart a little. Below you can see the “Lady in Red Plasterer” last night, along with @itn news anchor @NinaHossain (I should say that the Lady in Red, @NaimaBenmoussa3, is on the right 😉).
2. So Naima is a plasterer with red hair. But there's much more to her story. A year ago one of my producers, @RebeccaHBM@BBCRadio2, saw this photo in the Buxton Advertiser.
3. A brief article told how Naima, herself a victim of rape and domestic abuse, had been called to repair the home of a young mum, Suzanne, whose violent ex had smashed up the place on the way out (this is often the last thing an abuser does). buxtonadvertiser.co.uk/news/people/ne…
I'm not at home at the moment, so these guys just served an “anti-vaxx writ” on my wife instead. They are angry at the BBC’s #CovidVaccine reporting. They were polite, for which I'm grateful, but coming to my home on a Sunday? And I'm a little unnerved by the heavy breathing too
I have only just seen this: if my wife hadn't accepted the “anti-vaxx writ” on my behalf, this group waiting near my house would then have “taken the whole street.” The original video shows street name and house number really clearly.
Always happy to engage but not like this.
These people are perhaps a little more scary than they are first appear. #CovidVaccine
Journalists of the future. Chatting with the @PalatinateUK team @durham_uni yesterday. So great to see people who are totally committed so young. Sorry to Amelia who got cut off on the left of frame.
The event was organised by the great @TCHL who I've know since the last century and who I was delighted to see is settling into his new job as Master of @South_CollegeDU, Durham's newest college. Tim’s been a BBC editor and editor of @TheScotsman and he will be ace in this job
No city in the world more beautiful. How lucky was I to spend three years of my life here?
(@HatfieldCollege, '83 to '86).
Thread. Here's what happened when I brought together a very old thing and a very new thing.
The old thing — it's not me — is a penny farthing bicycle. 1/
The penny farthing was invented in 1880. The large front wheel was necessary because, although mass steel production had allowed spokes to be built for bike wheels, as yet they didn't have bicycle chains and therefore gears. 2/
Okay that's the old thing. The new thing is this. 3/