7 January, 2004: Round objects

[ Home page | Web log ]

Ach, I shouldn't write anything more about this speed cameras nonsense, but this is particularly entertaining. Convicted criminal Idris Francis -- who, incidentally, was on the radio the other day crowing about his latest futile lawsuit -- is now claiming that I've been sending him paper mail in which I claim to,

have some sort of phsycological (sic.) flaw which makes you prefer snail mail to email.

-- well, what can I say?

Read the whole thing (reproduced below with its original typographical errors intact):

Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2004 14:23:33 +0000
From: Idris Francis <irfrancis@onetel.net.uk>
Subject: Your snail Mail
To: Chris Lightfoot

Dear Mr. Lightfoot

Over recent days you have accused me, in an email copied to at least one other, of dishonesty in my analysis of figures, of incompetence and have shown a high-handed supercilious attitude singularly at odds with the gaps in your understanding of these issues.

You have accused ABD of not having data which they did have, you have made totally invalid comparisons between the post 1993 period and earlier periods and in addition made a number of other statements which would be laughed out of a Form 3 arithmetic class.

For all of these reasons I told you some days ago that our correspondence was at an end. Yet, this morning, I received an envelope from you in which there were at least two letters, the first of which explained that you have some sort of phsycological flaw which makes you prefer snail mail to email.

I round-filed the contents without reading any further, as I have no interest whatever in your opinions, not least because it has become clear that you are not prepared to review them in any way when presented with conflicing evidence.

I continue the campaign, with others, confident that regardless of any trivial erros of detail or presentation, our analysis is correct, that most, if not all, speed cameras will be removed and that casualty trends will improve as a direct result.

Please do not waste any more of my time

Idris Francis

-- a stunning communication. I shan't rehearse the arguments on this issue again; Idris Francis is dishonest, the ABD are idiots, and I certainly wouldn't waste my time sending Idris Francis any letters. Though I wish some kind-hearted person would buy him a dictionary and a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves to improve his prose style.

(In general, of course, one shouldn't publish private email like this. But Idris Francis is clearly quite unhinged when it comes to this sort of thing; I've already had emails of the form

So you get email from Idris Francis too. You poor bastard.

from several correspondents, and it appears that at least one government department and numerous private individuals have him filed under `vexatious correspondents'. Perhaps if I publish his drivel he'll stop sending me it. We can but hope.)

Update

I have now received another email from Idris Francis, relating to the previous one. It reads: (again, typos as in original)

apologies - misread the name on the letter I binned. There being so very few people who have disagreed with me on any of these issues, having binned the letter and walked through to my computer, by the time Iarrived and looked through the emails to find the address, I chose yours instead of the correct one.

That does not however change anything else

I have now seen your foul web site and its references to me.

I am not amused. Your opinions are not only worthles, but you are a jerk of the first order

Over and out

I note that, unlike the previous email, he did not copy this email to the five-hundred-odd members of the `Unsigned Forms' email list. Again, I think this is an occasion to engage `surprise mode'.


Copyright (c) 2004 Chris Lightfoot; available under a Creative Commons License.