The written article contains photographs and reference links.

Related audio recordings:

Part One: The curious case of Ed the Techie (audio)

Part Two: A Strange Response (audio)

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie

Written versions of this series of articles:

Part One: The Curious Case of Ed the Techie

Part Two: A Strange Response

Part Four: The Devil’s Hour

Part Five: Court Jesters

Part Six: Cult Member

Part Seven: A Murky Channel

Part Eight: Old School Journalist

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Your support enables me to write these articles and is very much appreciated. Thank you.

“If Francis O’Neill is genuinely looking for answers and I’m not fully sure either way, he’s going to have to reassess his stance on the Manchester Arena bombing. Otherwise he appears to be part of an interlinked network of state operatives and actors who are engaged in psychological operations to manage and subdue the dissident class.”

In answer to my more recent article Closed Ranks, O’Loughlin took issue with my statement that I was unaware of anyone in the alternative media who had reacted favourably to my questioning of satirical cartoonist Bob Moran. She tweeted,

“You must have missed this article of mine on your Bob Moran research, Francis: https://aislingoloughlin.substack.com/p/we-were-all-lied-to-figuring-out I clearly haven’t vilified you for raising the issue. Why would you make yourself out to be the victim?”

In her article O’Loughlin endorsed questioning Bob Moran over his connections to X user, Ed the Techie, but as with the other alternative media figures who I named in my article, the import of Aisling’s piece was to question my judgement and integrity. She pointed attention away from my investigation of Bob Moran and towards the Manchester Arena bombing where she accused me of having, ‘blind spots,’ and reaching, “a false conclusion...based on ill-informed judgments. The very thing Francis O’Neill warns against.” O’Loughlin believes the official version of the Manchester event and I do not. O’Loughlin added that I was, “playing dumb,” with regards to her criticism of James Delingpole, and suggested I excused Delingpole from criticism in exchange for appearing on his podcast, concluding that, “raises questions about my integrity.”

O’Loughlin may not have been vilifying me but this was not at all a positive reaction to my investigation of Bob Moran. Before I criticised Moran, O’Loughlin had not written any articles about me.

The title of her article, “We were all lied to,” is the same as the title Moran gave to his painting of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. She based her accusation of me playing dumb, on an observation I made about Delingpole’s platforming of Miri Finch and me, giving him the appearance of authenticity. As O’Loughlin points out, this could be a ruse on his part, but she asserted this as fact and provided no supportive evidence that he was ‘counterintelligence,’ as she suggested.

On August 6^th I published my article A Murky Channel which addressed the behaviour of Delingpole and his assistant Andrew Warwick in response to my questioning of Bob Moran.

The following day, Miri Finch published an article about the media response to the death of Rod Liddle. She criticised Liddle for comments he made that apparently endorse paedophilia, and the media for overlooking these comments and celebrating him. Although Delingpole was not named in this article the issues Miri Finch covered apply directly and unfavourably to an article Delingpole had published about Liddle.

Rather than support our essays that were critical of Delingpole -O’Loughlin’s apparent bete noire, she responded by writing three disparaging articles on Miri and me for not being sufficiently critical of him. Ostensibly it seems O’Loughlin is concerned to expose Delingpole as having paedophilic inclinations and misleading his audience, but in practice she has used that concern to cast aspersions on Miri Finch and me. The focus of O’Loughlin’s three articles was not Delingpole but Miri Finch and me, and that focus was entirely negative. This seems a strange response to our recent work.

O’Loughlin seemed unaware that Miri’s article addressed Delingpole until it was pointed out to her, but if she was aware of this, it seems she felt it was necessary to react by portraying Miri as compromised. When I commented to make sure Miri’s article was understood by O’Loughlin, I received the same treatment, despite my recent work not being at all favourable to Delingpole.

The Delingpole question

Several months earlier, O’Loughlin had written about Delingpole’s Thinly Veiled Autobiography. She highlighted a passage in which Delingpole described his 19 year old alter ego being attracted to a 13 year old boy when he was on a trip to Africa. Delingpole has admitted that this story is based in fact and explained it as being his account of the sexual confusion he experienced on leaving boarding school. O’Loughlin has been keen for Delingpole’s story to be acknowledged as creepy and inappropriate by Miri Finch and me. It is. It is also stating the obvious to acknowledge that paedophilia is wrong.

Following the publication of O’Loughlin’s concerns the subject was raised with Delingpole by podcaster Ahmad Malik. Delingpole had previously repeated the tale as fact in the Telegraph. These outlets, the Telegraph and the Malik podcast have larger audiences than Miri and me. The exposé has been conducted and the facts exist in the public domain, yet O’Loughlin’s focus is now us. Why is it so important to her that we publicly endorse an exposure that has already been done? What is the goal here?

O’Loughlin says, “So according to Francis O’Neill’s logic if Delingpole puts it out there in a British newspaper of record for public consumption it’s no biggie. Looks like Francis is missing the point, on purpose. Again.”

Surely he knows that putting this stuff out in the newspapers is part of a larger agenda to normalise pedo behaviour using a softly softly approach.”

I do recognise that there is such an agenda and I never said it was “no biggie,” nor am I seeking to excuse Delingpole or the normalisation of paedophilia.

The pressure employed by Aisling O’Loughlin here seems to be something of a trap. If the case is that Delingpole is normalising paedophilia how do we prove that it was intentional? If the case is that he is a paedophile how do we convict him based on thoughts upon which he did not act?

If we are seeking to show that Delingpole is not to be trusted, how do we achieve that by focusing on him openly discussing his inner thoughts to his own detriment?

O’Loughlin also suggests that Delingpole is a spook who is misleading his audience but to substantiate all these accusations we require a more secure case. I have repeatedly asked O’Loughlin for this secure case. She has replied by saying,

So O’Neill has yet to secure a case against Delingpole. Really? There’s nothing a little bit suspicious about Delingpole’s operation that might warrant some investigation? I find that hard to believe and it raises questions in the direction of O’Neill’s integrity.

Here O’Loughlin seems to misconstrue what I said. I asked her for a secure case and she says I have yet to secure a case as though I am at fault, when it is her bringing the ‘case.’ I do not say that there is nothing suspicious about Delingpole’s operation or deny that it might warrant investigation as she seems to suggest. I have pointed out how easily her insinuations can be brushed off, which as an experienced journalist, she will know.

O’Loughlin questions my integrity because I have asked for evidence. I have asked her to apply the journalistic rigour she routinely demands of others. I don’t dispute the information or questions she has raised about Delingpole, I have merely pointed out that they are not proof of anything -which is why Delingpole can openly write and publish such pieces. This is presumably why she has not made any direct accusations herself. It would be helpful for O’Loughlin to provide a secure case for her insinuations, especially if she wants others to repeat them. Why does she, a seasoned journalist require anyone to make explicit claims where she does not, or to make her case for her?

It should be self-evident that paedophilia is reprehensible and repugnant. Why is it necessary for Miri and I to state the obvious? When Miri Finch acknowledged Delingpole’s comments were, “weird and inappropriate,” O’Loughlin’s response was not conciliatory. She followed up with further articles casting doubts on Miri’s integrity as well as mine. If O’Loughlin is acting in good faith with the best of intentions, why would she do this?

There seems to be an effort here to push Miri and me into one of two positions. One is to explicitly accuse Delingpole of misdeeds without sufficient evidence, thereby discrediting ourselves and our work. The other is that we do not fully engage with O’Loughlin’s demands and be portrayed as apologists for paedophilia.

Who is Aisling O’Loughlin?

In her own words, O’Loughlin says.

“I worked in the Irish mainstream media, um, let’s see for the best part of 20 years. I studied journalism, spent four years in DCU (Dublin College University) studying it... uh did local radio local newspapers then went on to read the news and report in a newsroom on national TV for six years and then spent around 10 years on a show called Xposé, uh, where we were out talking to celebrities on the red carpet, backstage all that kind of thing, and then did a column for the Irish mail on Sunday, and I also used to do their fashion pages, and then Covid hit and I thought, ‘right I’m not going along with this,’ and that was the beginning of well, I suppose you could call it independent journalism.”

Those not exposed to Irish media may have very little concept of the extent of O’Loughlin’s celebrity. She was a mainstream news reader and reporter before becoming the host of a popular entertainment show. Such was her renown that the births of her children were considered newsworthy, as was the illness of her partner, and her move to France, and her efforts to learn French. Her holidays and even her haircuts generated column inches in the Irish Independent.

It seems her UK equivalents are the likes of daytime TV presenter Holly Willoughby, GB News’s Beverley Turner and the Telegraph’s Allison Pearson, and writer Laura Dodsworth.

O’Loughlin’s career on TV3 entertainment show Xposé was summarised in 2012 as follows.

“Since joining Xposé as part of the original all female line-up in 2006, Clare woman Aisling O’Loughlin has interviewed a galaxy of stars, such as Dustin Hoffman, Denzel Washington, Peter O’Toole, Renee Zellweger, Dolly Parton and Noel Gallagher, to name but a few. One of her most memorable interviews involved stealing a kiss off George Clooney on the red carpet in London’s Leicester Square.”

“Aisling says, ‘One of my best memories of Xposé to date has to be interviewing Pierce Brosnan just outside Athens in Greece for the world premiere of Mamma Mia the movie. We did all the interviews outdoors with blue skies and sea in the backdrop and I anchored the show from the beach later that day. It was certainly a good day at the office.’”

Other famous people she is shown with in a highlight reel of her career include Leonardo diCaprio, Robert de Niro, Jennifer Anniston, Ben Stiller, Robbie Williams, Ed Sheeran, Colin Farrell and Anne Hathaway. It was obviously felt that O’Loughlin was trusted around prized propaganda assets who would show their true colours when required to coerce people to take covid shots.

Like Bob Moran, O’Loughlin received a sudden and unexpected opportunity on national media.

“She climbed the ladder the old-fashioned way, with stints in Clare FM, the Limerick Evening Echo and the Pat Kenny radio show. It was her father, Pádraig, originally from a farm in Ballyvaughan, who encouraged her to audition for TV3. After spending a few months “sitting on a filing cabinet”, she got an unexpected big break.

“Gráinne Seoige hurt her back, and before I knew it I was in reading the news,” she recalls. “It was a terrifying experience. But it was one of those opportunities where you say, ’I can’t say no to this.’”

Soon, Aisling was working as an anchor and reporter, covering everything from grisly murders to the latest arrival in Dublin Zoo before joining the Xposé team two years ago. And with the popular entertainment show regularly drawing 100,000 viewers, up against the Six One news, she has no time for snobs who dismiss it. “

“Aisling is Xposé’s beauty correspondent, covering the launch of every lotion and potion in Ireland. “I take it all with a pinch of salt, but I find it endlessly fascinating,” she says.

She also rubs shoulders with celebrities, recently stealing a kiss from George Clooney on the red carpet. “I haven’t shut up about it since!” she exclaims. Another highlight was interviewing Michael Flatley at his Castlehyde mansion. “He welcomed us straight away and had us in the kitchen eating sandwiches. Later on, we did the interview down in his private bar, and he was pouring pints half the night and wanted to stay up chatting. I was really impressed with him,” says Aisling.”

In public accounts of her personal life O’Loughlin has stated that marriage is not important. She left Ireland for France after having three children with Nicholas MacInnes, before the couple split up, although they continue to share the parenting of their three boys. O’Loughlin said she always knew that the father of her three boys would never be her partner for life.

In what O’Loughlin describes as their, ‘blended family,’ MacInnes has three older boys from a previous relationship, and has gone on to have a seventh child from a third mother. O’Loughlin said of this news that, “Our blended family just got more blended.” and she has since been reported as having a new boyfriend.

In 2014, when O’Loughlin was still with MacInnes he fell ill with leukaemia. His chemotherapy treatment made the news, as did O’Loughlin’s later conversion to veganism and her use of botox and willingness to get plastic surgery.

In 2016, while she was on maternity leave with her youngest son, O’Loughlin was axed from her job at TV3’s Xposé. The following year she said, “I don’t think I’ll ever go at that pace ever again. It was my 20s and early 30s. It wouldn’t suit me now.”

When O’Loughlin spoke out against the lockdown and vaccines her controversial views made news.

Her first Instagram post on the subject came on April Fool’s Day in 2021. Prior to that she had not posted in seven months although she had been posting ‘stories’ which disappear after 24 hours. In 2020 she only made three posts.

O’Loughlin received censure online from fellow presenter and single mother Maia Dunphy, who supported the injections and recommended people report O’Loughlin to Instagram saying, “This sort of misinformation is incredibly damaging and hugely irresponsible.” Dunphy also criticised O’Loughlin for her use of the slogan, “my body my choice.” By 28^th May, O’Loughlin was forced to deny being in the pay of a Russian sponsored PR company for her anti-vax position. On 16th June 2021 it was reported that she had been removed from Instagram. As with Bob Moran, O’Loughlin’s outspoken intervention against the scamdemic seems to have come when the propaganda had largely taken hold.

Prior to 2020, O’Loughlin’s media presence seems to have been in accordance with mainstream propaganda, promoting the agendas of the totalitarian social controllers. Her media presence was used to encourage news consumption, the idolisation of celebrities, the promotion of vanity interests, faith in conventional allopathic medicine, the dissolution of the family unit, the augmented reality of plastic surgery, veganism, and the abandonment of home and community. The end of her mainstream employment came as she was pregnant with her third child and beginning a new phase of life. As with questionable figures who opposed the lockdowns and vaccines in the UK, O’Loughlin’s stance and resulting censure was well publicised in the media.

It is not clear how she now makes a living. Of her TV work on Xposé she has said, “For how much work you do, the pay is not equal to the work.” After losing her job in 2016 she started up a lifestyle site called Exquisite which seems to have foundered. The last post on its instagram was in 2018.

In May 2018, two years after the discontinuance of her employment with Xposé, she was living in Lorgues in Provence, still wondering how to make ends meet.

“It was very sobering in the sense that I had to figure out what I was going to do, how I was going to make money, have my three kids,’ she said.

‘I still haven’t cracked the nut of how do you pay for everything and also be at home.”

She continued, “But I’m working on it, and funnily enough when you have a bit of faith in what you’re doing, a certain kind of alchemy and magic happens and you get gigs.

‘The few gigs that I get kind of make up for all of the work that I had been doing, but then I’m thinking “how am I going to continue this?
“’But if you have faith and continue to propel forward, there is a certain magic that has allowed me stay at home.’”

She has three children to support and the father of her children is a photographer with seven children from three households. From O’Loughlin’s comments in 2018 his financial input appeared to be insufficient to alleviate her worries.

It seems that since lockdown, O’Loughlin has solved her financial problems. When a commenter wrote that he had unsubscribed in response to a recent article about Miri and me, O’Loughlin replied, “Thankfully I’m not playing that game hustling for subscribers. Doesn’t make any odds to me if you stay or go. I’ll keep doing my thing one way or the other. This substack is not a commercial exercise.” This last statement is confusing as O’Loughlin describes herself as an independent journalist, and substack is one of the outlets where she publishes her work. Another is her channel on the video platform rumble where she shares similar content to her substack with 1,300 unpaying subscribers. She produces articles and videos and regularly engages in comment sections. She is a single mother of three who has to earn a living. If her activity as an independent journalist is not her doing so, what is? Where does she find the time for it?

In recent weeks all messages from the past five years have been deleted from O’Loughlin’s Telegram group. Delingpole also recently set his group to delete messages older than a couple of months. O’Loughlin claims to have been locked out of her group but it is unclear who deleted the messages or why they were deleted. The group was created on May 24^th 2021 and messages from that date up until 11^th July 2021 remain visible.

O’Loughlin’s contribution to the Truth Movement is marked by her determined stance on the Manchester Arena bombing, which she contends was not faked. As I wrote in 2024 in a series of essays examining farce flag events and crisis actors, entitled ‘Victims or Actors:’

Asserting her expertise and experience as a mainstream journalist, O’Loughlin rejects the possibility that the event could have been faked. Although O’Loughlin is right to demand journalistic rigour, in recent times people have discovered that experience in the mainstream media holds no currency in relation to the truth.

O’Loughlin rejects the notion of the “news as the fiction department.” Regrettably that is exactly what it is.

As we have seen, O’Loughlin’s experience of the mainstream media involved discussing beauty and celebrity for 10 years. Prior to that she “read the news and reported in a newsroom on national TV for six years.” We know that television news reporters are essentially parrots of propaganda. O’Loughlin was trained in journalism at university. Unfortunately universities are but co-opted institutions of miseducation. If any evidence were needed, the past six years have shown that academia is thoroughly compromised. The remainder of O’Loughlin’s journalistic experience involved working for local radio and TV. None of this experience involves serious investigative journalism that challenges state narratives. Has O’Loughlin provided original exposés of that nature? Like Moran she was late to oppose the lockdowns and like Delingpole she is slow to recognise controlled opposition. Despite 20 years working in media, she does not recognise, “the news as the fiction department.” It seems her exalted view of her own status and experience is misplaced.

In 2024 I wrote:

Suffice it to say that if we are going to apply the moral of ‘the boy who cried wolf,’ we must apply it evenhandedly. The mainstream media and its journalistic practices are no benchmark for what is true. When O’Loughlin says that she, “knows about certain standards,” from “when there used to be standards in newsrooms” we have to wonder when that time was, or whether those standards were high or low.

Nevertheless O’Loughlin adopts a hectoring tone and is condescending and dismissive of those who disagree with her, including those who were reporting the truth when she was still fawning over compromised celebrities who would later coerce the public into taking dangerous jabs. In contrast to O’Loughlin, many people -who were not working in newsrooms- had figured out that news was propaganda long before 2020. Despite her credentials O’Loughlin still hadn’t figured it as recently as 2024. It’s not clear if she has now. There seems to be very little that places her at the top of any hierarchy of genuine journalism.

Yet O’Loughlin sees the Manchester Arena incident, “as a litmus test to see who’s really serious about establishing the facts over speculation,” and portrays those who do not see her adherence to the mainstream narrative on that subject, as suspect.

“All those pushing the ‘no bomb, no victims’ line on the Manchester Arena bombing must be looked at with suspicion. Either they’ve believed the worst kind of evidence through naivety and groupthink or they’ve actively been trying to hoodwink people into a false conclusion for nefarious purposes. Yes it’s that stark.”

Although she criticises those who disagree with her for their lack of critical thinking she has posted illogical utterances in support of her position from questionable comedienne Abi Roberts. In one such contribution selected and shared by O’Loughlin, Roberts asserted that her view held value because of her own dubious arrest, and suggested those who questioned her arrest, and that of other prisoners (such as Lucy Connolly) would not believe Solzhenitsyn. She said the people who question such things were doing the, “job of the tyrants.” O’Loughlin’s ally Roberts recently posted to me a series of comments defending Bob Moran before deleting her substack. Since Roberts’s authenticity has been publicly questioned she has also deleted her twitter accounts and cancelled her comedy shows.

On the subject of the Manchester arena event, O’Loughlin is very confident that she will be proven correct, and it may be that the case will be used, as the questionable Sandy Hook school shooting was used, to discredit those questioning state narratives. In the US, Alex Jones was found guilty by default of defamation and causing emotional distress to families associated with the Sandy Hook story. Jones’s trial has similarities with Richard D Hall’s case in the UK. Both Hall and Jones appear to be actors involved in the fake news performance. Jones has even admitted to being, “a performance artist playing a character.” So, regardless of the outcome of their court cases it does not follow that the Manchester and Sandy Hook events were as presented by the mainstream media.

Also in 2024 I wrote,

Aisling O’Loughlin says of questioning alleged victims, “that’s bonkers,” but it is not if that is where the evidence leads. O’Loughlin may have woken up to the scamdemic but if she is only now learning of the nature of a public figure like Andrew Tate, what value can we place on her opinion of the illusory screen reality presented to us? She says that seven years have passed since the Manchester arena event and in that time it has not been proven that the victims are fake, but as we have seen this places an unfair burden on the investigator. Despite the many years of research that have passed since 9/11 the roles of passengers and airline staff in the hijackings and telephone calls are still not clear. The keys to the evidence are held by perpetrators who have not proven their own contentions.

The Manchester Arena incident is a polarising subject as it is a story in which children were reportedly injured and killed. The case provokes strong emotions -as a narrative designed to alter public attitudes and initiate social change would have to do. The Manchester event is being used to advance both Eve’s law -to prevent independent journalists questioning state narratives, and Martyn’s law -to increase intrusive surveillance of events involving as few as 100 people.

Sensitivities around the Manchester story could also conceivably be used to create division and distraction within the Truth Movement. Although O’Loughlin portrays those who disagree with her as suspect, a confected dispute would require suspect characters on both sides. O’Loughlin introduces the subject to unrelated discussions, as she did in response to my article The Curious Case of Ed the Techie and in response to my article A Murky Channel. A similar source of division within the Truth Movement and of disapprobation among the wider public is the theory that the earth is flat which O’Loughlin has openly espoused in the mainstream media.

The physical evidence at the Manchester arena suggests that no bomb exploded there. As I noted,

People lie but the physical evidence does not. At the very least this footage is worthy of further investigation. Aisling O’Loughlin is dismissive of it, saying,

“there are embedded investigative journalists on this side of the fence, they’ve been there a while, they have won the favour of people who might have seen through the covid hoax but their job is to mislead, and I would say with the case of Richard D Hall he misled his followers so that now they believe there was no bomb and no real victims on the night of the Manchester bombing.”

O’Loughlin is also one of the journalists who, ‘won the favour of people who saw through the covid hoax,’ but neither her opinion nor that of Hall’s, changes the evidence. It is just as notable that there have been, for a long time, mainstream journalists who are bought by the intelligence services to mislead people by pushing official narratives.”

In summary Aisling O’Loughlin is a former mainstream media journalist who emerged after the vaccine and lockdown propaganda had taken hold, to begin a new role as a dissident alternative media journalist. Her career in the mainstream media had involved peddling corporate news propaganda and vacuous celebrity worship. Wittingly or otherwise she seems to have been involved in the furtherance of agendas to erode the traditional Irish culture of which family and church were foundations. O’Loughlin cites this experience as giving her the status to direct the thinking of other dissident truth-seekers whom she addresses with contempt and derision. She takes a polarising stance on the subject of the Manchester Arena incident by labelling anyone who disagrees with her as suspect. In recent weeks she has sought to sow distrust of both Miri Finch and me in response to our articles addressing concerns about Bob Moran and James Delingpole. O’Loughlin’s manner is not conciliatory but antagonistic, not of one seeking alliance but of division.

Although she makes of him a nemesis, O’Loughlin’s career path has much in common with Delingpole. She has enjoyed media celebrity and the company of the rich and famous before retiring to a more rural lifestyle. Like Delingpole, Bob Moran, Tania Edwards, and Alistair Williams, along with other more high profile and dubious dissident figures such as Russell Brand, O’Loughlin has found God in the post-lockdown era. She claims not to rely upon her alternative media output financially but her straitened pre-lockdown financial situation seems to have alleviated despite her having no other apparent significant income. Her boasts of journalistic prowess do not appear to match her contribution to the Truth Movement. Who employs her? Why is this Irish woman so concerned with the opinions of English bloggers? Why is this high flown journalist concerned with the opinion of online conspiracy theorists whom she decries as having limited critical thinking abilities? She has three children to raise and a household to support, how does she have the time or inclination to engage in a series of smear articles or online spats? Her responses often seem disingenuous, misrepresentative or unnecessarily confrontational, and the contempt she shows towards potential allies seems incongruous with someone acting in good faith.

This essay follows on from this series of articles.

Part One: The Curious Case of Ed the Techie

Part Two: A Strange Response

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie

Part Four: The Devil’s Hour

Part Five: Court Jesters

Part Six: Cult Member

Part Seven: A Murky Channel

Part Eight: Closed Ranks

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1. Subscribing monthly here on substack

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3. Contributing in either way via bank transfer to Santander, account number 00758982, sort code 09-01-36, account name F X ONeill (please use your email address as a reference if you’d like me to acknowledge receipt).

Buy or commission Francis’s artwork:

The written article contains photographs and reference links.

Related audio recordings:

Part One: The curious case of Ed the Techie (audio)

Part Two: A Strange Response (audio)

Written versions of this series of articles:

Part One: The Curious Case of Ed the Techie

Part Two: A Strange Response

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie

Part Four: The Devil’s Hour

Part Five: Court Jesters

Part Six: Cult Member

Thank you for listening and many thanks to my paying subscribers.
You can help me to write more frequently by

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2. Making a one-off contribution via BuyMeaCoffee

3. Contributing in either way via bank transfer to Santander, account number 00758982, sort code 09-01-36, account name F X ONeill (please use your email address as a reference if you’d like me to acknowledge receipt).

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Whilst Moran has remained silent the wider reaction has given the appearance of a closing of ranks and the protection of a valued colleague.

From those who have no role in the alternative media I have also received supportive correspondence, in which some people have sympathised with me being under attack, but I want to stress that the purpose of these articles is not to complain or to correct any personal abuse. It is to highlight the disproportionate nature of the response to a simple question. This response has been almost wholly negative within the alternative media.

If we accept that the Truth Movement seeks to expose the workings of a control structure capable of locking down the world then we might expect that movement to be subject to outside influence and infiltration. It would follow then that everyone of note within that movement would reasonably expect to be subject to questioning. The fact that questions of Bob Moran have been almost universally rejected by alternative media figures is peculiar. What possible reasons could there be for this? Some of these commentators do not know Bob Moran, or at least not well enough to vouch for him. To what can we attribute their certainty and absence of curiosity?

One possibility is that identifying one significant infiltrator could expose others, both individuals and outlets, by tracing associations and cross-promotion, and ultimately it could lay bare a network that elevated Bob Moran to a position of prominence within the Truth Movement.

My article The curious case of Ed the Techie was published on the 5th June. and on 12^th June, Miri Finch posted a related and supportive article, Smears, scandals, and splitters. I followed up with an article entitled A Strange Response on 13th June.

The next day, when commenter Sakib Ahmad raised the subject of, The curious case of Ed the Techie and Bob Moran on Mike Yeadon’s solo channel chat, Yeadon responded, “I never bother to respond to accusations. I can’t be arsed.”

Ahmad replied, “What accusations? There aren’t any. Just a statement of facts.”

Again Yeadon was dismissive.“That’s fine, then there’s nothing to respond to. I thought it had been implied that Bob hadn’t responded.”

Ahmad pressed on.
“Yes, he has made absolutely no comment on the facts listed in Francis O’Neill’s article. Please Mike do read that article. It is long but quite interesting. Miri Finch’s latest article is directly related to it.”

Later that evening Yeadon answered more fully and of reading the article he wrote:

I have done. I found it unremarkable.

Yeadon finds it “unremarkable,” that Bob Moran should post an effusive eulogy about a man he had never met and with whom he had limited interaction.

I wonder if the two men are looking at the same circumstances through the same lens? I thought they probably didn’t.

Are there two ways to consider the oddity of Bob Moran celebrating someone he had never met, who played a role in an apparent psychological operation, and abused those, like Moran, who asked questions?

Given Francis’ own lens, I understand he might find Bob’s conduct incomprehensible.

What does Yeadon mean by my lens? What does he know of my perspective? He has never met me and to the best of my knowledge, he has never interacted with me or my work.
Seen through Bob’s lens, which I interpreted as solely an artist’s lens, his comments about the deceased take on a different complexion.

What complexion is that exactly? This talk of lenses and complexions is metaphorical but unsubstantial. What is the explanation for Bob Moran’s actions?

The mention of Moran’s artist’s lens follows a line of thinking that would be repeated later by Jake Fern and Jeremy Nell on UK Column, but what does a person’s profession have to do with their making a eulogy for someone they did not know? Is the word artist here being used to give the sense of unconventional behaviour by which everything is explained? Does it provide a sense of a rarefied person which mere mortals cannot understand? If so, Yeadon is not an artist so how does he have access to that understanding?

Yeadon says my perspective is different from Bob’s as he is an artist, with the suggestion being that I am not an artist. As I am an artist, this suggests unfamiliarity with me and my work, in which case what is being said about my perspective is based on ignorance.

I conclude that it’s unsafe to conclude anything from the incident.

It’s not an incident but the actions and words of Bob Moran that are being questioned. What is unsafe about that? We can conclude that this is a question Bob Moran cannot or does not want to answer. We can also conclude that it is a question Mike Yeadon does not want his audience to consider.

I tend not to obsess about these things, anyway.

The use of the word obsess suggests that the subject is being given an importance that it is not due, which is the same reason why James Delingpole’s assistant Andrew Warwick (aka Darley) called me autistic on a couple of occasions a few days before Yeadon’s comment.

Miri’s article points out that splitting and getting upset about others is normal, whether or not an individual is an infiltrator.

Here Yeadon cites the afore-mentioned article from Miri Finch as an authoritative source to dismiss disagreement between dissidents as squabbles, but in fact the import of Miri’s article was quite the opposite. Where she mentioned differences of opinion being normal this was to refute the idea that those asking uncomfortable questions should be obliged to fall in line with the dictates of designated leaders such as Mike Yeadon.

Miri wrote supportively of my investigation of Bob Moran and Ed the Techie and highlighted that such endeavours are portrayed falsely as squabbles or as splitting the Truth Movement. Miri wrote,

“For a movement that variously refers to itself as ‘the truth movement’ and ‘the freedom movement’, anyone claiming to be in it must, obviously, be deeply committed to the principles of both freedom and truth. That means fearlessly investigating the evidence, without fear or favour, and going wherever it takes you, no matter how jarring or uncomfortable the destination. It also means studying other people - especially those in any kind of ‘leadership’ or otherwise prominent position - and coming to your own conclusions about whether they can be trusted.”

Yeadon finished his message on the subject:
I don’t know if Bob is an infiltrator. All I know is that I’m not.
Best wishes
Mike

He then immediately added.

I disagree that Bob is required to do anything.
That obligation is your interpretation.
When others have traduced me, many people urged me to respond, claiming that, if I didn’t, it would be interpreted by many as conceding their claims.
I didn’t agree and used no time or energy on them.
That’s my choice.
I don’t owe anyone anything.
They don’t have to like it, but I’m not doing what I’ve done for “likes”, subscribers, monetary or reputational gain or for any other reason than to try to provide accurate information.

So Mike Yeadon declared himself fully supportive of Bob Moran’s stance. Neither man is obligated to answer any question and Yeadon suggests that unlike them, others are operating from financial motivations.

On the 24^th June I published The Funeral of Ed the Techie and on the 28^th June Miri published her article Operation Lockstep (’Truther’ Mix) in which she wrote of outside pressure to focus on subjects other than those of her choosing.

“I find that the more I focus on active, current operations (such as, currently, Ed The Techie, which is intrinsically connected to the ongoing Lucy Connolly op), the more the threats and the smears increase.”

On 28th June, Mike Yeadon shared Miri Finch’s article Operation Lockstep (’Truther’ Mix) and declared that he has not experienced being told what subjects to focus on, and how he generally opines on subjects in which he has some expertise.

I’ve not experienced this much at all, being told that Topic X ought to be an our current focus as the “Truth Community”. This is perhaps because I’m inclined to operate as a lone wolf most of the time.

All that said, I’m selective about what I write and (rarely, these days) talk about. The tests are that I have to regard the topic as important to the perpetrators and I must either be at near expert level in the topic or to have so extensively read up on the topic that I understand what the raw data signifies (eg fake climate change crisis). I generally lean towards sharing my conclusions at the bigger picture level, with the aspiration that some who I reach will shift categorically from uneasy and aware of limited wrongdoing to knowing that we’re under severe attack.

I largely agree with Miri AF’s approach to her campaigning, though not always the details.

Best wishes
Mike

The next morning Yeadon’s sharing of Miri Finch’s article prompted an angry response from Fiona Hine (aka Fiona Rose Diamond). Hine had not been mentioned by Miri.

On June 29^th Hine wrote,

To Miri AF, every single person who has an inkling or sniff of a profile is controlled opposition.

We can disagree or be inadequately equipped to debate or talk on certain topics. I certainly avoid a few, mostly due to my limited knowledge in certain areas! I’m slightly better versed on Palestine and Zionism and won’t stop calling it out for what it is. It’s not a hard one to call.

However, on Miri and the self-defeating, paranoid loop that fractures the truth movement from the inside...

“If you know their name, they’re in the game” doesn’t quite fly when millions know your name, Mike...
But Miri AF takes issue with me.

To Miri, anyone gaining traction or public attention in the alternative ‘freedom movement’ is just a puppet distracting the masses.

Miri’s ideology means that if you successfully get your message out to a large audience, you are immediately accused of being state-sponsored because you are successful…

I am sick of this paranoid internal poison that pits freedom seekers against one another. Believing that risking your entire livelihood for a cause makes you a ‘plant’ is a self-defeating trap. It turns what should be a unified resistance into toxic, petty infighting. Obscurity isn’t integrity. It’s just a lack of impact.

Staying small and ‘anonymous’ isn’t a sign of purity - it is a sign of doing absolutely nothing but criticise everyone else, on substack.

They don’t need to censor us when your paranoia does the tyrant’s job for them.

When you label every soldier a spy, as Miri AF does, you hand the enemy a bloodless victory.

On June 30^th, Yeadon responded,

“Fiona, I agree.

This is not unexpected position for Mike Yeadon to take as his name is well known enough to have given him a media profile during the lockdown and he will not want to be thought of as, ‘in the game.’

I find Miri worth reading but as I noted, I do not always agree with her. As I’ve said, with sadness and reluctance, a person can only be certain of their own motivations. I certainly don’t claim to know hers.

This is curious. Clearly it is possible to be tricked when one is unsuspecting but with sufficient evidence we can be certain about many things. Yeadon is presumably certain about his views on the lockdown and vaccines, and of their perpetrators.

Having said he cannot be sure of people, Yeadon then seems to be sure about Bob Moran and uncertain about Miri Finch, despite being a regular reader of her work.

A recent example of a potential storm in a teacup is their obsessing with “Ed The Techie” and Bob Moran. I like that the latter has made his opinion on them clear by not saying anything.

Yeadon presents questions of Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie as, ‘a potential storm in a teacup,’ when of course it could potentially be other things such as a means of exposing the infiltration of the alternative media and awakening people to the extent of the deception. Yeadon chooses to highlight only one of these possibilities.

He again characterises the investigation pejoratively, as an obsession, but speaks of Bob Moran positively, saying that he likes Moran’s silence -which could be viewed as a failure to be open and transparent. Although Yeadon asserts the opposite, Moran has not made his opinions clear by remaining silent. It is only clear that Moran does not like the questions he is being asked.

Further to the discussion, Yeadon added,

It’s rarely noticed but it’s entirely possible to be an agent without being well known.

The less well known people in this discussion are Miri and me. Yeadon does not present any evidence that suggests anything untoward about either of us. He suggests its rarely noticed but both Miri and I spend a lot of time noticing and reporting on infiltration and when we do some people dismiss our concerns, much as Yeadon is doing now.

The perpetrators have access to effectively unlimited Human Resources. So lots of poorly known people can certainly be highly effective wreckers of morale. Not that I would know who is that vs just being plain annoying.”

The implication here is that these unnamed less well known people are either wreckers of morale or just being plain annoying. There is no suggestion that they might be honestly pursuing the truth, which admittedly, could well be annoying to those involved in the upkeep of a deception.

Yeadon closed his message.
I don’t like the phrase “If you know their name….”. I realise she meant “Widely known” and not just “If anyone has heard of you”, but that subtlety is rather lost in the atmosphere of suspicion that phrase generates.

Fiona Hine (aka Fiona Rose Diamond) went on to say,

Thank you, Mike.
I’m just sick of the tedium of it all.
I’m not sure who Ed is, but Bob I absolutely respect.

Of Miri and me she says,

They’ve spent long enough on the attack, targeting myself and others. It is nothing but fucking tedious droning.

I would also argue that most agents aren’t well-known at all. They are the low-profile agitators who discreetly start the whispers and feed the anecdotal rumour mill to get everyone else talking. I have seen and met plenty of those people come and go over the years.

Do very high-profile, controlled operations exist? I absolutely believe so.... in fact, I am certain of a handful. But I try not to focus on them; my priority is the actual job at hand.

What I take issue with is the sheer relentlessness of the attacks based on nothing but personal dislike, jealousy, unfounded guesses and gossip. It is not research, and it is not fact. And it is far from just me who is being accused, lied about, and demanded to give explanations all because of a rumour someone heard, or an opinion someone wrote in an ‘article.’

Miri Finch would respond to these comments in an article.

Later on 30th June, again addressing the Bob Moran and Ed the Techie subject, Yeadon wrote,
“I don’t see it like many do.

It’s curious how many high profile people do not see the questions of Bob Moran the way it is seen by those with no media profile.

All I’m saying is once you impose a perspective which may be genuinely held on someone else you don’t know at all, you’re no longer where you might think.

In my case Bob Moran is not someone I don’t know at all as I have met him several times, so this criticism does not apply. No perspective is being imposed. Questions are being posed that could easily be answered. Nothing is being imposed upon anyone.

It’s way too little to throw Bobs work under the bus.

How is it possible to know this without knowing the answers to my questions?

He’s been almost silent for a few years.

This is false and intended to diminish the relevance of Bob Moran, and therefore of questioning him. Yeadon wrote this on June 30^th.

Moran had appeared on Delingpole’s podcast on 22nd April 2026.

He announced that Ed the Techie had ‘passed away’ on 27th April 2026.

He was performing in a stage and radio show in December 2025. He had an exhibition that year and was doing a book tour just before that.

Clearly Moran has not been almost silent for years.

I’ve no idea where his head is these days. I can’t build anything that he’s done which enables or facilitates the perpetrators aims.

The fact that Yeadon is not aware of how a possible infiltrator might be manipulating or influencing people is of no relevance to whether or not that person is an infiltrator. The women who became girlfriends of the policemen who infiltrated the Animal Rights movement did not know how they were being manipulated either.

Absent that, who he may or may not have associated with while being all but dormant as a major influencer, which he was in the early years of the fake pandemic is of low interest to me.

To say he was a major influence in the early years of the scamdemic is slightly misleading. By his own admission Bob Moran was late to speak out. He only became significant as an opponent of the scamdemic propaganda around the time of his sacking in October 2021, after the propaganda had taken hold.

Moran has not been dormant as a major influencer until this year. As with Andrew Warwick (aka Darley), Yeadon attempts to push Moran’s questionable associations into the distant past, but Moran’s association with Ed The Techie was a month earlier in April 2026, his performance with and support from Friends of Israel Patrick Fagan and Clare Craig was six months earlier, and his endorsement by John Mappin is ongoing.

Worth knowing I don’t have an active Twitter account and regard it as a modern equivalent to the worst school playgrounds. So I am unaware of the specifics you outlined. I can’t help being unaffected by that undoubted nastiness.

Yeadon attempts to portray the questioning of Bob Moran as a juvenile squabble with malicious intent.

My reading of the only thing I read by Bob recently was that against his prior stance, he had grown to make an odd connection with the guy who died, as a result of edits he made to Bobs artwork. When Ed died, Bob was genuinely sorry that an unusual sparring partner had gone from his life. I think at that time, Bob was already somewhat lost and unsure how to use his skills, as discussed with James Delingpole recently.

This explanation contradicts several of the numerous contradictory explanations that have been presented. One was that Bob Moran was making his cartoon for the sick friend he had never met when Ed died. The fact that Moran’s painting was of Ed’s funeral seems to contradict this version.

All this might plausibly have generated a perspective that is invisible to Francis O’Neill.

All this has not been invisible and in fact it has been considered in detail but perhaps Yeadon is not familiar with my work and knows only to reject it?

I don’t think Francis’ questions are unreasonable but equally I don’t think Bob is obligated to respond.

Nobody is obligated to respond but many other people, like Yeadon for example, seem impelled to respond on Bob Moran’s behalf. Moran’s silence on this subject gives the impression that he cannot respond for reasons unknown.

In 2020/21, when i was on Twitter, I decided never to respond to accusations, no matter that others claimed that not responding meant the accuser was correct. I owe them nothing. Believe whatever you want, was my reaction. I take badly to being manipulated. If Bob has similar instincts, you’re not going to get anything from him.

Is the suggestion here that someone is being manipulated? Bob Moran is being asked a question about his own actions. One of those actions was a gushing eulogy published in a public forum where posts routinely attract questions, and where Moran has never previously been reticent in engaging.

Find evidence of wrongdoing or get on with opposing real criminals, is where I am in Year 7.”

Yeadon seems to have decided upon the innocence of Bob Moran. He demands evidence but obviously direct evidence indicting infiltrators is hard to come by, and Yeadon appears to reject questions pertaining to circumstantial evidence.

Yeadon is one of the sources Bob Moran recommends for information on the scamdemic. Another is Clare Craig, the Friend of Israel who attended Bob Moran’s Christmas show despite his anti-Israel cartoons. Moran also recommends Sucharit Bhakdi who is a favourite of Abi Roberts -another staunch defender of Moran’s.

Yeadon has a twitter scandal in common with Bob Moran. After being platformed in 2020 by the likes of Talk TV and Julia Hartley Brewer, in 2021 the anti-lockdown position Yeadon had adopted was discredited by tweets he made early in 2020 on Muslim rape gangs operating in the UK. The vulgarity of these posts is striking. As with Bob Moran, Yeadon’s online behaviour undermined the anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine position he had adopted. Although Yeadon claimed the tweets were not his and he had been hacked, they were there when he first spoke out in 2020 as I personally scrolled through his twitter output and saw them, many months before they were used to cause a scandal. This is what Yeadon is referring to above when speaking in relation to Bob Moran, he says, “In 2020/21, when i was on Twitter, I decided never to respond to accusations, no matter that others claimed that not responding meant the accuser was correct. I owe them nothing. Believe whatever you want, was my reaction. I take badly to being manipulated. If Bob has similar instincts, you’re not going to get anything from him.”

Mike Yeadon’s comments on the question of Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie are part of a wider context in which I have been vilified for raising the issue. With the exception of Miri Finch and Leo Biddle I am unaware of anyone with a prominent profile in the alternative media who has expressed anything approaching neutrality, let alone support of asking the question. Among such people reaction has been wholly negative. The list of people who have in some way maligned me or offered support of Bob Moran includes James Delingpole, Delingpole’s assistant Andrew Warwich (aka Darley), John Mappin (Turning Point UK), Darren Denslow (formerly of TNT), Abi Roberts (formerly of GB News, TNT), Charlotte Binns (of Ickonic, and Mike Graham, formerly TNT), Tania Edwards, Jake Fern (UK Column, formerly of GB Resistance) Jeremy Nell (UK Column) Rachel Elnaugh-Love (formerly of BBC’s Dragon’s Den), John Porter aka Sgt Grumpy (a former police officer), Anna Rayner (aka Anna Naylor formerly of HART and the Together Declaration), and Graham Kemp.

Former mainstream journalist Aisling O’Loughlin has recently joined the chorus of criticism, this time in response to my criticism of Delingpole, claiming it was insufficient.

Do these people all share secret knowledge of a plausible answer to my question? Are they all secure in the knowledge of Bob Moran’s infallibility? Or is there another reason for their steadfast and sometimes abusive defence of the cartoonist? Are they all in some way connected? Are they acting out of mutual self-interest or obligation? Which of these possibilities seems the most plausible? None of them seem to be able to answer the question of Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie. If they were to do so honestly, how much would it reveal?

This essay follows on from this series of articles.

Part One: The Curious Case of Ed the Techie

Part Two: A Strange Response

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie

Part Four: The Devil’s Hour

Part Five: Court Jesters

Part Six: Cult Member

Part Seven: A Murky Channel

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The written article contains photographs and reference links.

Written versions of this series of articles can be found he

Part One: The Curious Case of Ed the Techie

Part Two: A Strange Response

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie

Part Four: The Devil’s Hour

Part Five: Court Jesters

Part Six: Cult Member

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The written article contains photographs and reference links.

Thank you for listening and many thanks to my paying subscribers.
You can help me to write more frequently by

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2. Making a one-off contribution via BuyMeaCoffee

3. Contributing in either way via bank transfer to Santander, account number 00758982, sort code 09-01-36, account name F X ONeill (please use your email address as a reference if you’d like me to acknowledge receipt).

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It is for this reason that we must be vigilant and keenly consider anomalous behaviour in the alternative media. If we, the look outs, are misled, then our crews go under.

“We are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”

For those of us who have rejected mainstream media, social media is where our minds might now be moulded by men whose names or intentions we do not know. Though tweets and comments may often appear inconsequential, these are the means oppressive government has of shaping our thoughts and opinions and thus our behaviours. This subversion of social media discourse was plainly seen during the lockdown era and it continues, though less obviously. Though it may seem superficially frivolous we must consider such online commentary to see how our minds are being directed.

Since I asked about the nature of Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie, I have met with an apparent closing of ranks. False friends within the Freedom Movement have discouraged inquiry and seemingly misled me. UK Column employees Jake Fern and Jeremy Nell have encouraged people to regard me as paranoid and mentally ill. Fern has been a persistent and abusive critic to the extent that he even apologised for the personal nature of his commentary before later resuming in the same defamatory vein. My complaint about UK Column broadcasts was met with hostility and unprofessionalism from former Equerry to the queen, Charles Malet. More recently, ongoing abuse directed at me in James Delingpole’s Telegram group spilled over to include insults aimed at Leo Biddle, Miri Finch and even Miri’s husband, Mark Finch. This abuse was initiated and encouraged by James Delingpole’s assistant Andrew Warwick (aka Darley). This foul discourse escaped censure where polite questions about Bob Moran resulted in numerous people (including me) being blocked from the group. To what can we attribute this double standard?

When I aired my concerns about Bob Moran on James Delingpole’s podcast on 28th April 2026, the conversation was published with an immediate disclaimer from Delingpole’s administrator, Andrew Warwick (aka Darley), that, “You definitely needn’t worry. It’s going to end happily, just you wait.”

On May 30th 2026: Andrew Warwick (aka Darley), added: “I’m fairly sure James will relay Bob’s explanation but don’t worry, Bob’s a good un.”

James Delingpole offered, “I’ve spoken to Bob. It’s all good. All will be revealed at some stage.”

On his substack Delingpole added, “Bob will be amused by this. He admires Francis - isn’t at all offended - and praised him for his bravery in attacking such a popular figure (ie Bob). This was not meant sarcastically.”

These comments pre-empted and prejudiced the podcast audience’s consideration of my views. They formed the beginning of a litany of excuses made by Andrew Warwick (aka Darley) for Bob Moran that he presented alongside reasons to shut down inquiry. These excuses have not been supported by any evidence.

1st June 2026: Andrew Warwick (aka Darley), concluded: “I think Bob got tricked.”

The fact is that Moran was not tricked. He provided a eulogy and cartoon for Ed the Techie, a man he had never met, and his description of Ed and subsequent explanation bore no relation to reality.

On June 7^th 2026, when my article The curious case of Ed the Techie was shared in James Delingpole’s Telegram group, Andrew Warwick (aka Darley) informed members of the group that:

I’ve had messages saying, that as Francis has lifted comments directly from the Telegram group it has made them uncomfortable about commenting. You already know what I think about this. I think it’s paranoid and an unnecessary attack on a good bloke (Bob).

Warwick objected to me quoting comments that he had made in a public channel. He characterised them as having been taken from a separate but related (nominally) private channel. This became a running theme which will be addressed below. Warwick presaged Jake Fern in describing my questions as a paranoid attack.

A user named Defying responded: The only logical extrapolation of Francis’ argument would be that he also is CO (controlled opposition).

The word, ‘also,’ seems to concede that either Bob or those conversing are controlled opposition.

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley) replied, Well that’s it. There seems to be a massive lack of wisdom in this whole debacle. In a series of comments Warwick adds.

Apparently it’s vitally important to sully Bob’s name for some reason/s.

The thing is, all it is – is insinuation. Without any actual incriminating evidence. So it’s essentially just muckraking.

This is all it will achieve. Friends will no longer be friends – to what end? It’s very sad.

From these comments it is clear that Warwick is seeking to curtail inquiry in favour of a predetermined conclusion.

Addressing me, Andrew Warwick (aka Darley) wrote: The thing is Francis. I actually know the answer to some of the questions you are asking but it’s not my place to say. I’d be betraying a confidence. So I can only reply in that manner.

I do enjoy your content but I think you’re wide of the mark in this instance and like I said, will just cause unnecessary damage.

Rather than share this information, even now two months on, this confidential answer and the explanation Warwick was, “fairly sure James (Delingpole) will relay,” remain unknown and the “unnecessary damage,” is allowed to continue.

Andrew Warwick aka Darley asserted: Francis and Leo have the right to ask. But also, Bob doesn’t have to reply.

Bob remains silent, but Warwick continues to feel impelled to defend him. Bob had initially replied to Mark Finch on X but his reply had made no more sense than his eulogy and cartoon for a man he had never met.

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley) changed tack, As per your own article. I think he (Bob) was tricked. As for the rest – I haven’t got a clue.

This explanation seems to contradict Warwick’s previous assertion that he knew, with certainty, the answer to some of my questions, but that it was confidential. Moments later he was able to share the more equivocal notion that he ‘thinks’ Bob was tricked. He went on to suggest another reason why questioning Bob Moran was not welcome.

Yes because Bob is a friend of James and plenty of people here have met Bob and liked him. So yes, it’s a kind of public forum but you’re also shitting on you own doorstep with this approach.

When it suited him, Warwick conceded that the group is a, ‘kind of public forum.’ Previously Warwick had led people to believe that this group was private and that I had taken quotes from it. Faced with the possibility that Bob Moran is not what he seems, Warwick discouraged discussion of the topic on the basis that Delingpole considers him a friend. This, despite the fact that a number of Delingpole’s friends are now generally thought to be questionable by those in the Telegram group. These dubious friends of Delingpole include Lawrence Fox, Andrew Bridgen, Toby Young, and Michael Gove, among others.

Addressing a group member who shared my concerns, Warwick said dismissively, Sophie, support Francis by all means but this is getting silly.

On the same evening Warwick provided further obfuscation and denial on related subjects.

Bob’s Friends of Israel

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley) demonstrated ignorance of the claims he was refuting. Bob Moran had made a couple of scathing cartoons which had alienated supporters of Israel and yet strangely Friends of Israel participated in and supported his Christmas 2025 stage show Pedants Revolt. Warwick told me,

I can’t recall from the article what the ‘friends of Israel’ link was but loads got taken in by those characters, as they were essentially sleeper cells until October 7^th. (in 2023)

Me; Read it again. I am talking about Friends of Israel who attended or took part in Bob’s Christmas show. (in 2025)

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley): Like musicians?

Me: Did you read my article or did you just rubbish it without doing so?

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley): I read it on Friday but I can’t recall it off by heart. What are you trying to achieve? Just boost your own following at the expense of others well being?

Me: If you’re going to answer your own questions what do you need me for?

Me: Behavioural scientist Patrick Fagan co-author of Laura Dodsworth who reported Bob’s kosher cartoon (to the police) appeared alongside Bob in his 2025 Christmas show. Another friend of Israel Clare Craig also attended Bob’s event.

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley): C’mon now, he doesn’t necessarily control who buys a ticket.

Me: Fagan was in Bob’s show. I literally just wrote this. He was in it. Taking part. In it.

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley): Yes but like I said, there were a load of the characters about that didn’t reveal themselves until later.

Me: This was six months ago. I literally just wrote this.

Andrew Warwick aka Darley: The Pedants Revolt with Tania?

AI

Andrew Warwick aka Darley was keen to downplay and dismiss Ed Chanter’s employment at an AI firm called Shaping Tomorrow which offers services to governments, national security bodies, and international organisations.

The Division excuse

Rather than establish truth and trust Warwick opined of asking questions that:

No, I think what it normally causes is splinters into ever smaller groups. People get emotional, then people get offended/scandalised. Friends don’t feel they can trust others anymore.

And this accusation. The people who have defended Ed and Bob are suspected shills and propagandists. sorry! But that’s actually mental.

Me: As I clarified, I was talking about those on twitter but also on substack.

I was referring to the X accounts who had abused those questioning the Lucy Connolly story and were now mobilised to shut down questioning of Bob Moran. On substack Abi Roberts had posted a series of comments defending Bob Moran in response to Leo Biddle and I discussing Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie. Roberts then deleted her substack profile, thereby removing her comments.

Painting sales above the going rate

Delingpole commented on substack of our podcast discussion that he, “didn’t like the stuff about Bob’s painting prices. Bob is a genius and deserves (and earns) every penny he makes.”

On Telegram Andrew Warwick told me in response to the same subject: Yes but this tbh – just reeks of you being envious of the success of his paintings. And I thought this quite below the belt. Taking aim at his income.

In contrast Bob Moran has publicly acknowledged that from 2023-2025 his paintings have sold well over the going rate and he has offered a seemingly implausible explanation.

So in one evening on Telegram Warwick characterised my questions of Bob Moran as being, envious, mental, getting silly, a paranoid and an unnecessary attack, done to boost (my) own following at the expense of others well being, and shitting on your own doorstep. He said that there was a lack of wisdom in this whole debacle, in which, apparently it’s vitally important to sully Bob’s name. People were not to question Bob Moran, because Bob is a friend of James and plenty of people here have met Bob and liked him.

Guilt by Association

The following day, 8^th June, I was again accused by Warwick of sharing private information and I countered that,

All the information you mention is publicly available

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley); Ffs! Read what I wrote. Are you autistic or something?

Sophie: Name calling is not very becoming, Darley. Resorting to name calling and slurs is a poor way to try and make a point or dismiss someone else’s point.

Darley: He can take it and stick it another of his articles.

The Privacy Issue

On the 9^th June Darley opined:

This guilt by association is woke commie thinking. The only issue I, James (I think) etc has with Francis’s article is the expectation that we will throw Bob under the bus based on accusations – James knows – are not true.

How did James Delingpole know these accusations were not true when by his own account until recently he did not even know who Ed the Techie was?

Me: I have never made that demand

Darley: You have as have others on here, supporting your inquisition. But you must have forgot. A bit like when you forgot that you took this post from this group and posted in your article. Which both you and Sophie denied.

Me: My screenshot is from the (public) channel. This is the channel chat.

In any case I am not sure how this proves I have demanded Bob was thrown under the bus.

Darley: This is why I said you lack wisdom. You can only see the thread you are pulling.

On June 11^th Andrew Warwick set the group to automatically delete comments after one month, a setting that would destroy a huge resource of half a million comments of shared information over several years. As with Abi Roberts deleting her substack and X accounts, it would prevent people accessing historic conversations. Before this happened I had forewarned Delingpole’s audience on his podcast that the deletion of comments was a much used tactic of those seeking to mislead. Warwick also set a timer so that users had to wait several minutes to reply.

Warwick claimed this change of the group’s settings was due to legal advice, as it had just been discovered that its privacy could not be guaranteed.

The privacy status of the channel was not new information as a year earlier a lengthy discussion of the privacy settings had taken place. In this discussion on June 12^th 2025 Warwick had asserted that,

“Yes the channel is public. So that’s replies to James’s thread topics.

But the ‘chat’ is private

So if post here, only the 554 can see it.”

But it was pointed out to him that the chat was not private. OldJennyWren wrote:

I didn’t. I just clicked on “discuss” at the top of the main channel and I could view the chat and then join.

Darley: Yes you’re right! I can see now. Sorry.

After this discussion in 2025 he then amended the group chat information summary to

Not as private as it should be, by all accounts!

A year later, in 2026, Warwick used the excuse of privacy to vilify me and to remove the group from scrutiny. On 18/6/26 Darley told the group that he’d like to shut the channels down and restart.

After I showed him the thread from the previous year in which the privacy settings were discussed and clearly stated, the relevant comments in that discussion were deleted. The number of comments in the thread were reduced from 256 to 181 meaning 75 were removed.

Similar deletions were to follow as the history of our recent discussions was curated.

Earlier, on the 11^th June Warwick had found a new reason to forbid questioning.

This is why I called you autistic. Because you can only see your “truth-seeking”. You don’t seem to consider any damage you may cause.

Bob is a member of this channel. I don’t know if he’s read everything but it can’t have been pleasant if he had.

Me: I think people have been far more unpleasant to me as you are demonstrating. If people had left it would be reflected in a decrease in the group numbers.

Warwick: You’re digging a hole. Just go.

In this exchange Warwick admitted deleting posts.

Warwick: I deleted some posts; such as “I’ve always found Bob slimey” etc. Your accusations just encouraged some people to say unnecessary stuff.

As with Warwick’s assertions that numerous anonymous people had complained about me for reasons of privacy, no evidence was seen of these posts.

As to whether Warwick was reliable, in discussing Ed the Techie he also claimed not to know who Lucy Connolly was, despite having posted about her several times previously in the Telegram group.

On the 19^th June, shocked at the bullying and the deceit, Telegram group member Sophie shared a message from Warwick that he had written immediately after seeing my article The curious case of Ed the Techie in which he wrote,

But you can’t really criticise Francis, even if it feels a bit unnecessary- because we do all say ‘question everything’.

Warwick responded, This if (sic) from the Friday evening before I’d spoke to James in the morning…After knowing that James had spoken to Bob and he’d relayed it was easily explainable (And I do trust James). I messaged you several times appealing for calm.

Sophie: I’m sure James didn’t tell you to say Francis was paranoid, autistic, unwise, mental and that anyone supporting the principle of investigating was low IQ. But yeh, I get it, you were told to shut the story down.

Nothing I shared was not calm. It was a very peculiar comment.

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley):

No, James gives me very little instruction. It was my opinion as an individual that described Francis in those terms and I think I was correct.

Sophie: So you say you flip flopped from saying Francis was justified in questioning everything to shutting the story down because you had spoken to James. But it wasn’t because of James. That makes total sense. It’s disappointing that you still think name calling is appropriate behaviour here.

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley): (1) I don’t think Francis is “autistic”, I think the way he engages and side steps answers is ‘autistic’ in manner etc

(2) And by ‘paranoid’, I mean the way he sees the negative in any evidence, with no quarter given to there being a rational explanation

3. ‘Lacking in wisdom’ – he isn’t very worldly-wise. His reading of situations – I see as inexperienced and naïve.

Andrew Warwick (aka Darley): Describe it however you like Sophie. Once James had told me it was bollocks, I accepted that. I do trust James.

Here Warwick gives the impression that he is subordinate to Delingpole.

Phonecall

On the 9^th June I received a phonecall from James Delingpole. This was after the initial flurry of exchanges on his Telegram group in response to my first article on the subject of Bob Moran and Ed the Techie. Delingpole attempted to explain away any suspicion of Bob Moran but like Warwick he was unfamiliar with what he sought to defend and so his explanations were illogical and he presented arguments that had already been disproven. Like Warwick he was unaware of Friend of Israel and Laura Dodsworth’s co-author Patrick Fagan appearing in Bob Moran’s show.

During this telephone conversation Delingpole expressed conciliatory views which I suggested he communicate with his assistant. It seemed to me that as Warwick’s employer, Delingpole was ultimately responsible for what Delingpole conceded was the regrettable behaviour of his assistant towards me in his Telegram group. Delingpole answered that he couldn’t tell other people how to behave.

Delingpole had asked me to keep the contents of this conversation private, but Warwick- hitherto a purported defender of privacy- introduced its contents into the Telegram group of 550+ people, which he had previously described as a, “kind of public forum.” Privacy was requested of me but not afforded to me, though it would be my preference to make such discussions of this topic public.

This is how Warwick described that phonecall – to which he was, presumably, not privy.

In an attempt to calm the situation down, via a phonecall, Francis demanded that James castigate me ‘as an employee’ of his laughing emoji

So as well as taking quotes for articles, doxing me, he also tried to get me in trouble with a client. I think calling him a few names is justified in this context.

The way this is phrased suggests that I angrily called Delingpole making demands. Delingpole phoned me and I merely suggested Delingpole communicate the conciliatory feelings he expressed towards me to his assistant.

Sophie responded to Warwick: I very much doubt he has tried to cause you problems with a client. If you knew Francis, you would know that this isn’t his modus operandi. He’s honest and authentic and only motivated by sharing the truth. That’s why your lies and misinformation are so jarring. And as for that phone call, that was well after you called Francis names. And why wouldn’t Francis address the name calling and wonder why that wasn’t addressed and the whole group were steered to see that as acceptable.

Darley: Cool story, maybe a new articles worth.

Me: I mentioned your unprofessional conduct to your employer. He apologised for you and claimed to have no responsibility or control for how his employee speaks to his clients and podcast guests.

Darley: Ffs, you are seriously thick

Warwick apparently finds the suggestion that he is an employee of Delingpole’s, funny, and responds to it that I am thick. Perhaps this is because Warwick is self-employed and he prefers to refer to Delingpole as his client rather than employer. Perhaps there is a different arrangement and my lack of awareness of it is what piques Warwick’s ego and causes him to call me thick? In any case, Warwick is apparently paid for work that includes editing and posting podcasts, and the administration of Delingpole’s website and social media.

Rather than Warwick’s behaviour being restrained, following this conversation I was blocked and removed from the James Delingpole Telegram group. Sophie was also kicked out.

Members of the Telegram group then began to notice that comments were being removed. Comments made by Sophie, me, and people supportive of our position were deleted and a carefully curated version of events was presented. A false story of the reasons for our ejection from the group was then presented. It reads like scene from Animal Farm.

22/6/26 In the following week Darley warned people in the group of a zero tolerance approach to discussion of Bob Moran and Ed the Techie that he justified by it being the week of the funeral of Delingpole’s father who had died age 91.

July

On 22 July 2026 when questioned about my removal from the group, James Delingpole commented:

I hate having to chuck people out. It’s not my style at all. But sometimes you have to in the interests of protecting yourself or the group. And I have to say I am sometimes gobsmacked by some people’s – people you thought were intelligent, friendly, simpatico, onside, etc – inability to grasp the concept that when someone invites you into their home you don’t announce to them how shit their curtains are, and then later wipe your bottom on them in case your host failed to get your important message.

Every time I hear this ‘free speech’ phrase being bandied about that’s what I think: ‘How DARE you mind when I wipe my arse on your curtains!’

Read the room. Don’t wipe your arse on the curtains

The man who, when discussing his abusive assistant, had told me that he could not tell people how to behave, was now explaining why he had kicked long-term members of his group out for voicing their opinions. The man kicking out his supporters, is the same man who has repeatedly told his audience that he is able to set aside what he perceives as the genocide of the covid era to remain friends with its perpetrators such as Michael Gove. He has a similar magnanimous attitude to Toby Young who he sees as supporting an Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Delingpole equated my polite defence of my articles from smears in his telegram group to, ‘wiping your arse on the curtains.’ This vulgar and inaccurate representation encouraged further slights on me from regular contributors in his group.

Orinoco Wellington added: O’Neill was taking posts from here and putting them in his hit pieces. He was basically doxxing people – publishing their real names when they had chosen to use a pseudonym. Doing everything he could do (sic) cast aspersions on good people based on the most flimsy of ‘evidence’. All while playing the victim.

I’m glad he’s gone.

Orgsy offered: He’s a shit-stirrer no doubt – who he dox? Im not sure that is the reason he was extracted. I didn’t read much of his stuff so didn’t really notice. He’s so insignificant it really doesn’t matter?

Orinoco Wellington: Darley for example – putting his full name in his hit pieces – why do that unless you are trying to be malicious?

The charge of exposing Warwick’s identity is another spurious accusation as his name is listed on Delingpole’s website and he has been publicly mentioned by Delingpole.

23/7/26

In contrast to removing people for their opinions, Delingpole encouraged foul-mouthed disparagement of me.

When LkHD wrote: You can read all of Francissy’s crap on subshit and other commentators crap like Arseling O’strapon and Jake’s counter arguments and all the comments from people that had to put there tuppence in.

The crappy drama wasn’t wanted here. It’s as simple as that.

Delingpole responded that: You get a lifetime’s immunity from banning for this comment, and reacted with an applause emoji. Warwick contributed a fire emoji.

25/7/26 Warwick was now describing me as insidious and sinister and expressing his upset for Delingpole, a grown man and seasoned journalist, because people were questioning him for his own actions on the Telegram channel. Warwick’s justification for my dismissal was changing from insensitivity to the host and his friend Bob Moran, to breaking house rules, to a cynical attempt to drive traffic to my substack, and then all three transgressions combined. Again Warwick cited anonymous group members as backing his suppression of free speech and insulted anyone with concerns about the situation.

26/7/26

Darley: Francis was asked, multiple times not to bring his salacious commentary of Bob, a good friend of James’s and a channel member, onto this forum. He ignored this and worked with Sophie to engineer engagement for his articles repeatedly. People stopped posting because it was off-putting, others left because of Francis’s lack of respect for privacy. After a whole week of this, he had to go. Plenty of members messaged me, saying I’d done the right thing but they didn’t want to say on here – because of the venom Francis holds to those who question him. Peace was restored and the only people who keep bringing it back up are the twats that congregate in Francis’s comment sections.

26/7/26

Delingpole struck a self pitying and ironic note.

JD: The last few months have been a truly horrible experience. I mean, obviously, having my Dad die didn’t help. But what has really shocked me is the way that people with whom I’ve been friendly, whom I invited into my confidence and thought I could trust, and people generally with whom I’ve been so open about who I am and where I’m coming from and what I believe, should swipe at me and smear me and make insinuations about me as if I’ve got some hidden agenda and I’m not who I say I am. I really don’t know what to do because it’s so grotesquely unfair, so Kafkaesque.

27/7/26

Warwick continued with his false claims, this time asserting that my concerns about Bob Moran had been artificially amplified: My annoyance is with the fact the Francis/Bob situation has clearly been engineered, with artificial engagement used to amplify it. Once that happens, it’s only natural to question the motive of anyone trying to reinvigorate it.

31/7/26

These claims did not pass without question. Although some of those who spoke up were removed from the group, as recently as July 31^st a commenter called Clare challenged the status quo:

So why are you even bothering replying?? This is so strange, yet this is what you do all of the time. Like border force!

I fully grasp the situation & the longer things go on, the more obvious it is. Shall I pop off now, or do you want to keep sniping?

Warwick replied without a hint of irony: Because these criticisms of James are dishonest and unfair. And someone should say something when someone is unfairly maligned.

Accused of inauthenticity and using prescribed, ‘lingo’, Claire retorted: I have no ones lingo or script. I don’t care what you think of me, I see you as a bully boy, & that is all. Others will be afraid to comment. But they can see.

Darley: I will reiterate, for the millionth time, Francis wasn’t banned for “calmly asking questions about Bob” - he was banned because he (and his friends) were asked not to keep promoting his articles on he channel. It was about showing decency and humanity towards a friend of James’s and a member of the channel. This seems to be lost amongst many, sadly.

I was not asked anything about posting my article. I was never warned or told why I was removed from the group. I shared a single article about the Bob Moran/Ed the Techie story only once. That was in the public channel beneath my podcast with Delingpole in which the subject was discussed, for viewers who wanted more details. I did not see anyone else being asked not to post my article. When I was in the group it was posted only once in the channel (by me) and once in the chat by Sophie.

1/8/26

Delingpole and Warwick’s public defamation of me encouraged further obscenities.

LkHD: I think Francissy is a drama queen and full of shit, but hey he’s just a guy asking questions.

20:23 Neil: Is he both of those things or just one of them?

LkHD: Full of shit drama queen. State asset

Darley answered this abuse with sarcastic encouragement, mimicking the comments of group members who had expressed concerns at the apparent censorship:

I’ll probably get booted off for saying this but I’ve been mulling over that time Francis calmly asked simple calm questions calmly about David Icke’s wife’s genital warts and I feel compelled to say, I am shocked to the core at the reaction for just asking simple calm questions. What happened to question everything?!? If I subscribed, I would unsusbscribe right now and you would all be sorry. Call yourselves awake?!!?!

Darley; Have you see Francis’s articles btw? They are really good. He asks really calm questions calmly.

LkHD: Read all of them. Asks really important questions about evil villain 3o3 in a calm reasoned manner.

All 5 or 6 of them, not at all like an inbred collie with different coloured eyes attacking car tyres as they go past on a Welsh country lane.

Darley: I’ve read a couple. I do actually like how at the end of his article – he asks/ repeats his incisive, pertinent question again- like he’s fkn Colombo or summat. Very funny

LkHD: He’s a fucking spaz and I never liked him .There you go , I’ve said it . Don’t like MI5i. Mark Felch or Leo poodle either. Don’t care , gut feeling and its wat it is.

LkHD: Shit , I might have said something wrong and get banned. I don’t do group think.

Spearless: I love your nicknames (Laughing emoji). Leo poodle (three laughing emojis)

LkHD: Well he is , they’re pathetic. Just fear doom mongering.

Here LkHD responds with insults that extend to Leo Biddle, Miri Finch and her husband Mark. Delingpole and Warwick allow the commenter to describe their podcast guests, as a fucking spaz, a poodle, and Miri as MI5i. Miri’s husband who does not have a public role as a blogger or podcaster, was afforded a particularly revolting term.

The commenters joke that they might be banned but although Warwick was engaged in this conversation, they know that talk of censure is a joke as there is an obvious and prevailing double standard. As administrator, Darley removed people from the group who voiced dissent or even added a ‘like,’ emoji to a comment of mine. Ironically, one of the concocted charges he had levelled at me was that, “Your accusations just encouraged people to say unnecessary stuff.” Bizarrely the whole confrontational dynamic had arisen because Delingpole and Warwick could not tolerate offending the sensitivities of Delingpole’s friend Bob Moran. Yet here Delingpole tolerated the abuse of other friends and later excused it.

Apparently, in James Delingpole’s Telegram group, disgusting abuse is acceptable but polite questions are not. Why is this? The abusive comments continued.

Orinoco Wellington: Careful...Leo is the hard man of the group

rjwool here describes Miri as a ‘lesbian,’ and Leo and I as ‘homos.’

rjwool: Left to right...homo...lesbian. Did I pass the test

Similarly these comments received no censure from Delingpole or Warwick.

When these comments were raised with Delingpole on X, he dismissed them as those of a drunk,

“the person would have been drunk when he wrote it because he does like a drink. But I wouldn’t say it was representative of the chat.”

In fact it is quite representative of the chat and its owner and administrator because the person who made the comments was told by Delingpole that for a similar abusive line, You get a lifetime’s immunity from banning for this comment.

Yet after Delingpole made this response the insulting comments ceased on Telegram and the regular accounts in Delingpole’s group who make them were quiet. These commenters do not appear to be active on X but if they had become aware of the complaints on X one would expect irascible drunks to pass comment. Instead, once it was made clear to Delingpole that their comments in the Telegram group were being relayed to those they were insulting, they fell silent as though they answer to a central command.

On his podcast I had warned Delingpole’s audience of the tactic of unknown figures on the internet being used to bolster individuals and to guide perceptions.

Responding to a suggestion made on X by Delingpole that she might return to the Telegram group, Sophie posted a summary of the dishonesty and bullying she and other members of the group had received for questioning Bob Moran. Sophie posted on 1st August and at the time of writing, Delingpole has yet to reply.

Who is Andrew Warwick?

Andrew Warwick describes himself as an Art Director and Motion Designer. He makes websites, animation projects, illustration commissions, and creates brand identities, “whether it’s an album cover, a book design, a logo, or an entire online world.”

His high profile clients include propaganda outlets the BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, Vice, and Bloomsbury. In the 2020s he has made videos for the Guardian celebrating their investigative journalism, Putins’s obsession with Ukraine, and on why weather app forecasts do not agree.

Warwick’s clients include, “big-name publishers, fashion labels, and record companies.” So questions arise. Why does he spend an inordinate amount of time on James Delingpole’s Telegram channel? Why is he so preoccupied with my opinion of Bob Moran? As his ‘client,’ James Delingpole made a point of emphasising when I appeared on his podcast, I am a relative ‘nobody,’ -a substack writer with a small following. Why is Warwick so concerned about my opinion?

Conclusion

Once again we find that the question of Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie provokes an unusual and antipathetic reaction. Andrew Warwick (aka Darley) who was by his own account hitherto well disposed towards me and my work, has become hostile and abusive, encouraging and overlooking still more repugnant commentary than his own. In contrast, those who politely disputed his opinions, have been removed from the Telegram group he administrates, along with dissenting comments, enabling him to present an inaccurate and misleading version of events to the group’s 550 members. Warwick claims he is working at Delingpole’s behest, and indeed he and other prominent influencers in the group have fallen silent since complaints about their disgusting abuse were aired to Delingpole on X.

Delingpole has apparently taken responsibility for the ejection from his group of people such as myself, for the crime of publicly airing independent views. This is seemingly at odds with his stated ‘hero’s journey,’ of, ‘following the truth wherever it may lead.’ These ejections and censorship belie his claim that he cannot control other people, a claim made to excuse himself of the abuses of his assistant Warwick. They are also in contrast with his willingness to forgive the heinous crimes alleged of his friends Michael Gove and Toby Young. In the hierarchy of the unforgivable does questioning Bob Moran outrank genocide?

The repulsive abuse permitted of Delingpole’s other friends is in stark contrast with his stated aim of avoiding upset to his friend, Bob Moran.

Warwick’s attacks on me and my investigations as, “autistic, mental, stupid, silly,” and, “lacking in wisdom,” are of a piece with the disparaging comments of Abi Roberts, Charlotte Binns, Jake Fern, Jerm Warfare, Charles Malet, Anna Rayner (aka Naylor), Abi Roberts, Charlotte Binns, Darren Denslow, John Mappin and Rachel Elnaugh-Love. Delingpole’s vulgar analogy that the questioning is akin to, “wiping your arse on the curtains,” fits the trend and as such becomes suggestive of a co-ordinated smear campaign by those desperate to avoid answering the simple question of Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie.

This essay follows on from this series of articles.

Part One: The Curious Case of Ed the Techie

Part Two: A Strange Response

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie

Part Four: The Devil’s Hour

Part Five: Court Jesters

Part Six: Cult Member

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Buy or commission Francis’s artwork:

18th July 2026

Dear directors and shareholders of UK Column,

This is an open letter which I have posted on substack here: https://francisoneill.substack.com/p/uk-column

I am writing to you in relation to your broadcasts The Truth Movement is a Cult of Wednesday, 15th July 2026 and But Is AI Art, Art? of Thursday, 16th July 2026, which featured your employees Jeremy Nell and Jake Fern. This is an open letter which I have posted on substack here: https://francisoneill.substack.com/p/uk-column

In this programming, the presenters discussed my recent essays in which I question the nature of cartoonist Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed Chanter, a man known online as ‘Ed the Techie.’

Jeremy Nell openly states, “I know nothing about Ed the Techie I don’t even know who that is.”

Jake Fern also admits that, “he’d not met Ed...and knew of him only after he died.”

Nell and Fern then disparage any questions about the man they know nothing about.

As part of their discourse Jake Fern goes on to repeatedly describe me as, “paranoid,” and, “mentally ill,” before saying that I am exhibiting, “strong evidence of mental illness,” with which Jeremy Nell agrees.

Could you please let me know of Jake Fern and Jeremy Nell’s medical qualifications in making such a diagnosis? If they are in possession of the relevant qualifications is it normal practice for such a diagnosis to be made without a clinical examination of the subject? My understanding is that UK Column purports to be a media outlet and not a medical one. Is it usual practice for your employees to perform individual medical diagnoses on your public broadcasts without concern for the confidentiality of your patients, and for any subsequent possible negative consequences?

I know you will have observed the many journalistic flaws in the broadcasts mentioned, which seem in opposition to the ideals of truth and freedom of inquiry that any independent media outlet might wish to uphold. Not least of these were the foul language used whereby I was characterised as, “being a dick,” and my work as, “throwing shit.” In many ways these programmes and their presenters fall beneath the journalistic and ethical standards UK Column has set for itself. I am sure you would not want people supposing that your employees are being tasked with defending people who have financial backers in common with your own.

Kind regards,

Francis O’Neill

21st July, 2026, 17:22

Dear Francis,

Thank you very much for getting in touch.

‘As part of their discourse Jake Fern goes on to repeatedly describe me as, “paranoid,” and, “mentally ill,” before saying that I am exhibiting, “strong evidence of mental illness,” with which Jeremy Nell agrees.’

May I ask that you provide exact timestamps (making sure to specify which video), in order that I can be sure I am reviewing what you believe has been said, please?

All the best

Charles Malet

21st July 2026, 19:43

Dear Charles Malet,

Thank you for your response. Please find the timestamps you requested below. Some of these were included in my open letter on substack, and should not be difficult for you to find using the transcripts of UK Columns videos that are available online. There were many more disparaging remarks in the programmes but I have limited this selection to the discussion of paranoia and mental illness and the bad language, made in reference to me, which I mentioned in my original letter.

I hope this helps you. Please let me know if there is anything else you require.

Best wishes,

Francis O’Neill

‘The Truth Movement is a Cult’ of Wednesday, 15th July 2026

14:25 Jake Fern discusses paranoia

18:38 Jake Fern discusses paranoia

15:24 Relating to these references to paranoia, JF says “I’ve got a certain situation in mind,” and introduces my name.

20:17 Jake Fern: “feed the paranoia”

24:53 Jeremy Nell: “I know nothing about Ed the Techie I don’t even know who that is.”

25:02: Jake Fern:“not met Ed...and knew of him only after he died.”

32:33 Jake Fern: “being a dick”

33:47: Jake Fern: “throwing shit.”

38:20 Jake Fern: “paranoid nonsense by Francis”

‘But Is AI Art, Art?’ of Thursday, 16th July

23:54 Jake Fern: “mentally ill,”
24:10 Jake Fern: “objectively paranoid mindset”

24:58 Jake Fern: “I have to say that is mental illness,”

25:11 Jeremy Nell: “I think I might agree.”

27:44: Referring to a background point I made in my essay Jake Fern asks:“Is that healthy? Is that mental?”

35:03: Discussing a new topic, Jeremy Nell says referring back to the discussion of me, “that’s also a mental illness.”

23 Jul 2026, 08:58

Dear Francis,

Thank you very much for providing the detailed timestamps.

Your open letter is a misrepresentation of the recordings. At no point are you described as paranoid or mentally ill or, indeed, in any of the other disparaging terms you have itemised. It is made extremely clear by both speakers that the conversations are general and not specific. Certainly, there are parts of the conversations which are driven by material you have written, and that material is subjected to some critique.

With regard to the mention of your name, I would caution you that people in glass houses should give some thought to the throwing of stones.

If not to self-promote, what possible reason would you have for publishing your letter to Substack in the first instance, rather than coming directly to the UK Column editorial team with your (unfounded) concerns?

All the best

Charles

23rd July 2026, 19:28

Dear Charles Malet,

Thank you for your reply.

In ‘The Truth Movement is a Cult’ of Wednesday, 15th July 2026 Fern refers to this, “paranoid nonsense by Francis”

In the ‘But Is AI Art, Art?’ of Thursday, 16th Jul, Fern refers to “an objectively paranoid mindset,” and uses as an example claims he attributes to me and finishes, “I have to say that is mental illness.” Jeremy Nell agrees with this unqualified diagnosis.

Should you be in any doubt as to what is being communicated Jake Fern makes it explicit in the comments to when he responds to the suggestion that it was,
“Unfair to call Francis paranoid though.”

Fern writes, “Francis fits the definition of paranoia. Most objective observers I think would agree on that. Here’s a fun experiment that I haven’t done but try it... Choose an artificial intelligence model and put all five of Francis’s articles about Bob in. Ask it if the author could be clinically diagnosed as paranoid. I bet it comes back affirmative. And remember that in those articles there is no mention of major ‘conspiracies’ that would flag it’s inherent bias. It will work based solely on how observations are framed and interpreted.”

Best wishes,

Francis O’Neill

31st July 2026, 12:02

Dear Charles Malet,

Could you please let me know in the next 24 hours if you are planning to respond to my email of 23rd July?

Best wishes,

Francis O’Neill

31st July 2026, 12:55

Dear Francis,

You got in touch with regard to content published by UK Column, in the first instance. On 23 Jul, you widened the goalposts by referring to “comments”, which are not published by UK Column.

I have nothing to add to my original response, except to say that you have clarified the point yourself: it is the “nonsense” which is being described as paranoid. You are not being described as paranoid in any material published by UK Column.

With regard to the discussion relating to “mental illness”, you cannot seriously be suggesting that you are the only person on earth to have said or done any of the things referred to, can you?

All the best

Charles

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Buy or commission Francis’s artwork

Before we consider the extensive examples of Jake Fern’s efforts to discredit valid questions, we might first look at that from which he seeks to distract. When considering Bob Moran’s eulogy and cartoon for someone he had never met, I drew attention to the fact that Moran’s cartoons had been selling for prices considerably higher than the going rate. Bob Moran received a salary from the Daily Telegraph until his sacking in October 2021. He then received a salary from the Canadian Democracy Fund for the whole of 2022. According to his website he took £1,128,000 from the sales of 108 paintings made between 2021 and 2024. This is an average price per cartoon of £10,444. Moran received additional income from sales of prints, books, and tickets to his events.

In an essay of 9^th June, 2026, entitled patronisingly, Joining Dots for Dummies, Jake Fern wrote, “Then we get a whole load of bitter musings on how much money Bob’s artistic talent has brought him. Sour grapes? O’Neill himself paints and has failed to make an income from his art, whereas Bob is someone who has made outstanding and hugely respected work that has articulated the shared outrage and sadness of millions of people. His unique output has made him very collectible. No great mystery there.”

Yet on 7^th Jan 2025, on Fern’s, ‘A Thousand Words,’ podcast, Bob Moran had informed Fern that,

“Sometimes I would sell an original painting at the paper, maybe like, you know, two or three times a year, so a politician or politician’s sibling or whatever, someone who worked for them, would buy an original for 3 or £400 ...And then in the last few years there have been people trying to collect my originals who are quite wealthy and that, you just have like a couple of them competing at one time and the price is -I mean art is crazy isn’t it? It’s really stupid how this money works with art, but I started selling the originals for quite a lot of money and that’s, you know, that’s been my only income really.”

Here Moran confirmed my observation that he has been selling his paintings for inflated prices and sought to provide an explanation. He failed. Even at the higher price he mentions of £400, a buyer concerned about competition could have bought in advance all 108 paintings Bob Moran produced between 2021 and 2024, for £43,200. The two allegedly competing buyers could have shared half of Moran’s output each for £21,600. These figures would have been less than what Moran charged for single cartoons.

Instead we are to believe two buyers entered into a bidding war to their own cost.

How would this bidding war have been conducted? The usual procedure for an artist selling his work is for a buyer to approach and request to purchase a work. If the sale price is met the artist sells. There is usually no third party present to make a counter bid.

Moran’s conversation with Fern took place in Brighton, the home of Ed the Techie. Moran never mentioned him. Later Fern would tell Jeremy Nell that:“I’d not met Ed...and knew of him only after he died.”

To date, the only posts Jake Fern has made on substack for purposes other than self-promotion have been about me and my questions pertaining to Bob Moran. Fern has presented three essays on the subject, two of which were mostly written by AI. He has only written one other essay and that was apparently to defend himself from accusations of lack of payment and that he was, “causing problems for (young journalist) Emma Dunwell.” Fern says that in recent years he has become less interested, “in current affairs or even alternative current affairs,” saying, “I’m just not that interested in a way,” (see 4.40). He told Robin Monotti,

“When I was younger and feeling like I had to change the world you know I had to change someone’s mind and…that kind of Evangelical almost sense of, ‘I have to convince this person that 9/11 was an inside job,’…and then of course you realise, as you said, I think you can’t change anyone’s mind and it’s not your place to.”

The notion that we are not to change minds is a recurring theme in Fern’s discourse but he seems to make an exception with the topic of Bob Moran. Fern is also concerned to convey that, “it’s probably not that many who are consciously controlled,” and to dismiss suspicions about controlled opposition.

When Jake Fern recently raised the topic of Bob Moran with Jeremy Nell on UK Column, Nell responded, “Ed the Techie or something,” followed by,“Francis O’Neill or something,” suggesting that Nell did not know anything of either me or Ed. Later in the conversation he confirmed, “I know nothing about Ed the Techie. I don’t even know who that is.” Despite knowing nothing about it, in the second part of their conversation when Fern again raised the topic, Nell said, “It’s so stupid. I’m sorry. Every time this conversation comes up, I cringe.” When Fern concluded that my writing is suggestive of an, “objectively paranoid mindset,” and, “mental illness,” Nell laughed and said, “I think I might agree.”

Nell’s conclusions are based on his confessed ignorance and as such can be dismissed. Fern’s amateur and remotely conducted psychiatric diagnosis can also be disregarded. In contrast to Fern’s outrage, James Delingpole had previously stated of my questions, “Bob will be amused by this. He admires Francis - isn’t at all offended - and praised him for his bravery in attacking such a popular figure (ie Bob). This was not meant sarcastically,”

Why is Jake Fern so exercised on behalf of Bob Moran when Moran himself is silent? Delingpole is closer to Moran than Fern but Fern contradicts Delingpole by saying that questions about Bob and Ed are, “causing a family unwarranted stress.” Elsewhere Fern acknowledged that Moran has not spoken of the situation so it is not clear how he knows that the family is suffering stress or how he is in a position to arbitrate over whether questions (and potential related stress) are warranted.

Responding to comments on his article, Fern likens asking Bob about his relationship with Ed the Techie to writing, “an article accusing you of being a kiddie fiddler but if I had no evidence to back it up then I’d just be being a dick wouldn’t I?”

Speaking to Jacqui Deevoy on 24^th June 2026, Fern again defended Bob Moran saying, “I can’t just come on to you, Jackie, and say, you know, I hear you’re a paedophile. Would you like to defend yourself? You know, it’s like, that isn’t just asking a question.”

From this we are to understand that asking Bob Moran why he made a cartoon for someone he never met can be equated with accusing him of paedophilia. Yet contradictorily, another of Fern’s criticisms of 15^th July 2026 is that “what wasn’t in that article was a single accusation of anything that Bob’s done wrong.” So Fern is equating not accusing Bob of doing anything wrong with accusing him of paedophilia.

He had previously asked Deevoy, “Like, can you point to something that Bob has done and say, “Ah, yes, that explains why he’s pushing, you know, Zionism or something like that.” You know, at least have a kind of reason. But if you can’t, if you can’t even point to anything, then you, just what’s the, I don’t get it?

Fern seems to have overlooked the suggestions I made about Moran on July 4th that his Kosher cartoon, "inflamed tensions rather than… asking how much of what we have been told about the events of October 7^th, and what has followed, is actually true…(It) encouraged the portrayal of critics of the Israeli government as ‘anti-Semitic, anti vaxxers,’ engaged in an age old ‘blood libel.’

I also noted that Moran’s public spat that led to his sacking from the Telegraph had been used to discredit opposition to the injections as extremist. We can add that if we set aside partisan considerations his cartoons are often puerile and repulsive and unlikely to win friends.

On 18th June 2026, Fern suggested that when listening to Bob Moran, “We use our discernment. We take each claim on its own merits and evaluate it accordingly. If Adolf Hitler gave me good advice on how to paint a watercolour, I wouldn’t dismiss it because of his politics.”

Here he appears to be comparing Bob Moran to Hitler. An unfortunate but perhaps helpful comparison in the light of unorthodox history.

Jake Fern states, “My position has of late been that I’m kind of not even bothered if someone is an agent.”

Apparently it makes no difference to Fern if someone’s purpose is to mislead. He continues,

“If people are not acting from a position of sovereignty they will make bad decisions and will fail to be discerning. They will be led by ego, the need to be accepted, habit etc etc. This will happen whether or not they are being ‘guided’ by agents.”

Would knowing the truth have made no difference to the animal rights activist women with whom police infiltrators entered into relationships and fathered children before abandoning them? Like those police infiltrators Ed the Techie has been accused of being an agent provocateur who encouraged actions that led to arrests. Surely knowing someone is a liar is helpful in evaluating their motives and words?

Apparently not, according to Fern. He says, “I’m not a raging Zionist just cos I listen to Alex Jones or whatever.”

Of those who, “look at Klaus Schwab and they’ll feel... like I can’t listen to him. I’m going to be conditioned or I’m going to be brainwashed,” Fern remarks, “you know that’s not a sovereign state of mind.”

He adds that, “The classic example is David Icke. Yeah. He’s 90% truth and then he throws in the lizard shit, you know? It’s like, I don’t care.”

So, according to Fern’s paternalistic approach it is possible for ‘sovereign’ people like himself to listen to Alex Jones and Klaus Schwab and David Icke but my output requires Fern to stage repeated interventions to protect lesser mortals than himself. Fern and Nell make it clear that they can entertain that the world could be run by lizard people with Fern saying, “I can put the lizard shit on the ‘maybe’ pile,” but the idea that Bob Moran might not be what he seems is, “stupid,” makes Nell, “cringe,” and suggests, to Fern and Nell, “mental illness.” In contrast the pair make allowances for Bill Gates.

Even before the controversy over Moran, Fern has had to address suspicions of him voiced by his audience. Speaking to Abi Roberts in January 2026, he acknowledged, “People sort of accuse me of, in the comments people say, ‘Oh, he’s he’s always subtly putting down the truth.’ (He laughs) So like, so like, I’m not at all. I’m just trying to be -”

“Not even subtle.” quips Roberts.

“I’m not subtle about it,” he repeats.

“Not subtle at all,” Roberts affirms.

“I’m not subtle about it.”

“No.”

In terms of evidence that a funeral for Ed Chanter took place, this is the best that Fern (or anyone else) has been able to provide.

Who is Jake Fern?

Jake Fern first came to media attention as a dissident when he was arrested for holding a gathering of 50 people at a community centre in Providence Place, Brighton during lockdown on 13^th November 2020. In August 2021 he was fined £220 but the fine was eventually dropped.

Before this time Fern informs us that he grew up in Birmingham where as a student he spent a year on an art Foundation course in Bourneville, before going on to Brighton where his aunt lives to do a conceptual art degree which he describes as ‘a Marxist cult.’

“I didn’t realise that I wouldn’t pick up a paintbrush for the next three years at the time, and I didn’t realise I was going to be indoctrinated into a Marxist cult either.”

As he completed his course in 1997, he read David Icke’s book The Truth will set you free and after the paradigm change effected by the book, he says, “I had a massive nervous breakdown and my world sort of collapsed.”

Fern told Ahmad Malik that his breakdown was further catalysed by being cursed.

“And then I graduated and then there was just a point where I was actually in Birmingham on a bus and some woman put a curse on me and at the time it felt like the worst thing...she showed me a Tarot card and mumbled something on the bus...I felt slightly aggrieved because there were some kids at the back of the bus who were taking the piss out of her. And she sort of turned around and thought it was me....she sort of did this, she did nothing. It had no power what she did. But it it was a mirror to my rudderlessness, my, my not knowing. It was like, you know fuck all, there. And it was bang and I was like, shit! And I was panicked. So I had a panic attack and I had to get off the bus to go and find her so that I could... of course I was completely confused. I thought it was an external thing. It wasn’t an external thing. So that whole process, yeah, I was very intense for about a year.”

(As an aside we might consider this suggestion of the occult. We have seen that Tania Edwards recently wrote of owning a, “West African magic book written in blood, bound in human skin, with death pockets front and back,” that her godfather gifted to her when she was a child. Fern lives in Brighton which happens to be the home of the architect of modern witchcraft, Doreen Valiente. The first blue tourist plaque honouring a witch was unveiled at her former home on the summer solstice in 2013. Ed the Techie also lived in the the Brighton area, as does Matt Campbell, the man with his hair styled as devil horns who was pictured with Bob Moran, supposedly at Ed’s wake. Fern’s podcast guest Richard Vobes is also from the area. When speaking with Bob Moran, James Delingpole is another man who, rather unusually, claimed to have been cursed).

Following his breakdown Fern found solace in a ‘cult.’

“After the collapse ...I found myself in what some people called a cult in the end And I was in it for 10 years and I have no regrets about getting involved. And it seems I would almost agree it was quite good. I mean, it was hardcore, like hard physical work, you know, punishment and all this kind of stuff.”

“ I got involved in a sort of what some people have called a cult. It was a, I don’t know what it was to be honest now, but it was a strange setup...And part of it was being sent off to Africa. I did three trips. The longest was two and a half years. I ended up five years in total.”

Fern lived and worked unpaid in Nepal for six months, South Africa for a year and then lived “5 hours south of Khartoum,” in Sudan for five years, staying for a year, a year and half, and then two and a half years with a combined total of six months off in between (see 24.25). He lived in a mud hut alongside Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees and Sudanese villagers in a place where there were no other westerners, necessitating that he learned Arabic.

The details of Fern’s life following his return to England and his exit from the cult are sketchy. If he graduated in 1997 and spent a year recovering from a breakdown followed by ten years in a cult, that would bring us to 2008 when Fern is recorded as playing in a band in Brighton. He also performed in bands when at college. In 2012 his band HollowMoon recorded an album called Closer than the Blood, which included a track called 33rd Floor, 33 being a freemasonic number in which Bob and Tom Moran seem to be unusually interested.

When lockdown started, Fern tells us,

“I lost my job that I was doing, photoshop retouching for a drinks company and that all dried up and then had six months of bounceback loan to live on and had some paints in the loft and I started painting and then started selling pretty quick. I mean I painted all my life but that was the push to really turn professional if that’s the right word.”

Why wouldn’t it be the right word? Also if turning professional was that easy, why had he not done so before?

“I’d had a studio. I’d sold some paintings for um a greetings card company. So, I was doing still lives and I’d done some portraits. Uh, one which I was really pleased with and then I couldn’t afford to keep the studio. So, I lost the studio and then I had a child and then we had a house and then I had nowhere to paint.”

He had not made a living from painting earlier because before lockdown he had encountered the usual financial difficulties of supporting a family. From lockdown onwards these difficulties seemed to evaporate.

“I left uni and didn’t didn’t paint for a long time. Um and then yeah, as I say, it was covid that really got me back on track.”

He told Charles Malet that, “I’d painted all my life” but elsewhere he joked with Trevor John, “I went to Brighton and did a conceptual course and that was it. I never painted again.”

He described losing a studio before having a child, a son who is described as being aged seven during lockdown, and, “seven and then covid hit.” When lockdown began he says his paints were, “in the loft” (presumably at home), and he began painting with watercolours at home because “oil paints are very smelly.”

We can surmise from this that Fern graduated in 1997, had a breakdown for a year, joined a cult like organisation for ten years during which time he lived in Africa and did unpaid hard labour. He returned in 2008, and at some point rented a studio which he surrendered because he, ‘couldn’t afford,’ it when his son was born in 2013, after which he had ‘nowhere to paint.’ At some point after 2013 and before 2020 he found employment doing photoshop retouching for a drinks company. So he could only have seriously applied himself to painting for the five years between 2008 and 2013.

Fern speaks openly about college, his breakdown and his experience with, ‘the cult,’ and about these topics he is exact with time, dates, names and locations but the years 2008 to 2020 are an indistinct gap in his story. His artwork first appears on social media in 2020.

When he was arrested during lockdown on Friday 13^th November 2020, he says it was at ‘the studio.’ The media reports the arrest as being at a community centre so presumably he had already hired a workspace during the lockdown period -another expenditure for the unemployed artist supporting his family. Lockdown restrictions would have presented challenges to finding a workspace as would working in a community centre -even without inviting 50 people and sabotaging one’s precarious new livelihood.

Prior to lockdown Fern had been sending his son to a private Montessori school which usually cost, “about £1500 a term,” although Fern was, “getting a deal,” perhaps as a low income family? Or perhaps he is well connected?

Fern relates of his painting that initially,

“I was working for a forger, legally, legal forging mostly.” This appears to be a joke of some sort.

“I met a forger, a local forger who a lot of people might have heard of. His name is David Henty. And it turned out we had quite a lot in common about how we see the world. And we were doing some work together, all above board, all legal, but we were doing some copies, we call them master copies rather than forgeries... and that’s just when you, you know, you’re copying well-known works of art.”

David Henty is a forger convicted in the 1990s who in 2014, “was investigated by The Telegraph newspaper and admitted selling over one hundred forgeries on eBay.” It is not clear why this did not result in prosecution.

In 2023 Fern joined forces with Henty in a partnership called The Righteous Brothers. They combined graphic and painted art to make satirical topical paintings based on book covers, that were exhibited in 2025. Also in 2023, Fern achieved local press coverage for a provocative painting of prince Charles.

Fern’s focus became portraiture and in 2024 he began a podcast called A Thousand Words in which he interviews amplified dissident figures whilst painting their portraits. His show was immediately platformed by alternative media outlet ResistanceGB and received sponsorship from Knights Bullion, a company affiliated with the Royal Mint that also sponsors the Light Newspaper.

Fern’s second sitter was Jacqui Deevoy who, as the story goes, then provided Fern with her address book. Prominent dissident figures in the cross-promoting network such as David Icke, Bob Moran, Matt le Tissier, Richard Vobes, Robin Monotti, Kate Shemirani, Piers Corbyn, Tess Lawrie, Tania Edwards, all soon followed. Fern had previously met both Icke (circa 1998) and UK Column’s Brian Gerrish and Mike Robinson (circa 2010). A number of these people including Bob Moran and Tania Edwards turned out again for Fern at an exhibition at Hope Sussex where they were presented with their paintings.

That those with large followings gain little advantage from appearing on small podcasts is recognised by Fern when he says of my invitation to Bob Moran to speak with Leo Biddle and me,

“After being treated the way O’Neill treated Bob the only rational response in my opinion would be to tell him to go **** himself. Of course he wants Bob on his show.. Bob’s a relatively big name. O’Neill isn’t.”

Fern’s conversation with Jeremy Nell was entitled, “The Truth Movement is a Cult,” and the cover image showed him covering one eye. There certainly seems to have been a closing of ranks in response to questions about Bob Moran.

A rising star?

Fern’s star has clearly been in the ascendant. He was a finalist in Worthing Portrait Artist of the Year in both 2021 and 2022, and was selected for the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and Royal Institute of Oil Painters exhibitions in 2022.

In 2024 Fern was selected to exhibit with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. He showed a painting of Andrew James in His Studio, saying in the catalogue that Andrew James contacted him after hearing a podcast and that they, “quickly became friends,” because they lived near one another. Andrew James is an established member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and New English Art Club.

In 2025 Fern was again selected to exhibit with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and won the Sussex Portrait Artist of the Year Award. He finished the year with an exhibition of his Thousand Words portraits at The Truman Brewery that was again attended by many of his prominent sitters including Tania Edwards, Abi Roberts and UK Column’s Charles Malet, Mike Robinson and Brian Gerrish.

By the time Fern interviewed Bob Moran in December 2024 he was telling his audience that the producer of the hugely competitive Sky Portrait Artist of the Year television show had called him asking him to participate.

“I’ve got friends who took part in the Sky Portrait Artist of the Year competition and the producer got in touch saying you know if you apply, you know, we’ll definitely look at your application and I was like ‘oh that’s quite nice that he’s actually, you know, messaged me personally.’”

When discussing this story Fern felt confident enough in his application that he went on to publicly criticise the TV show for its selection, saying the winning portrait had been won by an,

“early 20s good looking, queer, LGBQ thing, he looked great, you know, but the portrait was appallingly bad,” Fern added that, “I commented, if that had been a 60-year-old straight white male that had produced that painting he would have been laughed at. He wouldn’t even (have) got past the first round so it’s so prejudiced and yet the irony is that they think they’re, they probably don’t, but you know, they present themselves as being, you know, we’re with the prejudiced ones.”

Of his podcast portraits, Fern excused the quality of his work by acknowledging the obvious and inevitable difficulties inherent in attempting to paint a portrait whilst conducting an interview. He told former army officer and police detective Charles Malet on UK Column,

“When I had to start responding to, you know, and actually being an interviewer, I realised actually how difficult it was to concentrate. But what it sort of does is, I make the joke that the charm of the podcast, in a way, is the fact that I’m doing neither thing as well as I could do if I was only doing one of them. So I’m not interviewing as well as I could be. I’m sort of losing track and getting distracted slightly. And I’m also not doing the portrait as well because I’m kind of, so there’s a bit of drama and tension there and, you know, is he going to pull it back? Has he made that mistake or whatever?”

The purpose of the conversation was to promote Fern’s podcast as a welcome addition to the output of UK Column, so in case viewers were wondering why UK Column was adding admitted second rate interviews to their programming, Charles Malet immediately reassured viewers of the quality of both the paintings and the interviews.

It seems clear that no artist with a pride in his work would attempt to make portraits without being able to focus on the task. The podcast format has the appearance of an idea from someone who is not an artist. Fern attributes the concept to his wife Victoria Jayne Ball, but for some reason he has pursued it and now makes the case that simultaneously interviewing and painting more poorly than those tasks would be done independently is somehow more interesting.

He tells Emma Wall on It’s A Curious World (see 8.00)

“People say, ‘do one thing and do it really well.’ Well, the kind of nature of, ‘A Thousand Words,’ is that I do two things not as well as I could do and it’s kind of the beauty of it. So it’s quite odd really so I don’t paint as well as I could because they’re moving, I’m moving. I’m not concentrating, I’m getting distracted, and I can’t interview in the same way that I would if I was just sitting down with someone, but both of those things lend themselves to being almost more interesting…and then the painting is always a bit like, for people to watch is probably quite interesting because they can sort of be a bit dodgy looking, you know, because I’m getting distracted, you know, they don’t always look that good, you know, and people probably thinking how’re you gonna make anything of that, you know?”

It is difficult to understand how making sub-par paintings can be satisfactory to the artist unless of course the art is not the objective.

Since Fern started painting during lockdown his trajectory has been upward and uninterrupted. When he had an idea for a podcast, GB Resistance platformed it and Jacqui Deevoy provided contacts. Amplified figureheads obligingly gave their time and the show received ready sponsorship. UK Column then took up the Thousand Words podcast. A testimonial given prominence on Fern’s website reads, “Jake is brilliant. Highly recommend.” Tania Edwards.

In case this progression looks a little too seamless, Fern is now circulating a story of division in which he is said to have fallen out with ResistanceGB figures and others such as Sandi Adams.

“Sandi Adams is accusing me of harassment at the moment. It’s a groundless, annoying, childish accusation but I don’t think she’s an agent. In fact I still believe she’s a good person who has been manipulated by other damaged individuals who may or may not be agents (I doubt they are).”

As an insight into the amount of money his podcast garners, Fern informs us that when he moved to UK Column he offered the ResistanceGB filming crew £660 per episode before agreeing £800. A Youtube commenter asking if Fern is now being paid £2,000 per episode has not been answered by UK Column. Fern’s wife responded to deny it but no further clarity was given as to the amount. Fern’s UK Column shows are also interspersed with advertisements for his paintings.

Fern is also lead singer in a band called Victorious which performs at dissident festivals and was for a time associated with the Defiance record label whose artists his podcast promoted on ResistanceGB. Also with Defiance are the Blockheads for whose single, ‘Liberty,’ Bob Moran made a cartoon of the same name.

Outside the dissident network, it seems that such is Fern’s rising celebrity that the producer of Sky Portrait Artist of the Year has invited him to participate in their flagship art programme and he has been befriended by a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Fern’s recent success contrasts starkly with his artistic efforts before lockdown but is somehow not reflected on social media where Fern has 188 followers on Substack. 1307 on instagram, 1,400 on facebook, and 476 on X.

Fern’s ascendance in a highly competitive artistic field is similar to that of Bob and Tom Moran’s. Speaking of being a cartoonist for a major newspaper Moran recounted to Fern, “I understood how unlikely it was to actually get a job because… there aren’t that many jobs that exist…there’s probably 15 people in the country at any one time who do it regularly so, and also once people have a job like that they tend to stay until they’re in their mid 80s and either die at their desk or eventually get booted out.”

Moran told Mark Meets on GB News that, “I heard that there was an opening at the Telegraph, so I just sent an email on the off chance and I got to go in and do a sort of trial and that was that,” but his story to Jake Fern differs slightly when he says,

"eventually this job came up at the Telegraph and one of the other cartoonists had put in a word for me you know, saying, ‘oh you should you should give this guy a try,’ and I got called in and that was in 2011 and I sort of started out just doing a couple a week or might have even been a couple every fortnite for them and I stayed there for 10 years.”

Mental Health

Speaking of his breakdown Fern becomes tearful at his remembrance of realising the fairly obvious insight that, “You can’t go to bed at night knowing that you’ve lived a lie, you know? It’s like you have to be authentic.”

He says of his breakdown that, “I went through such hell,” and that is was “really scary” and that “it went pretty crazy.”

So one might expect him to have some sympathy for someone else he suspects of having problems with mental illness.

He says of me that,

“I know people are concerned for his mental health and increasingly it seems to be warranted.”

“My observation that Francis is suffering from mental illness to some degree is not being used to win an argument. It’s simply an observation.”

“I don’t think Francis is a bad egg but I do think he’s spiralling into diagnosable paranoia. I would guess that he has an innate weakness in the area of empathy/sensitivity/intuition and if their (sic) is an imbalance there the mind can take over and blind you to reality.”

Not only does he purport to think I am mentally ill but he seems to be determined to make sure as many other people as possible know of his amateur online diagnosis.

Since making the comments above, he has invited UK Column viewers to take part in the “fun experiment,” of asking AI whether it would diagnose me with paranoia. Fern is a man supposedly interested in liberty and truth who is asking a computer to diagnose whether another man should be condemned for insanity. Is that not insanity?

He says,

“There’s definitely delusions of grandeur. To think that there is a plot to discredit him as elaborate as he claims is totally loony toons. If anything, his chaos causing insanity would be seen as a bonus for the PTB.”

Whilst actively discrediting me he describes the idea of people plotting to discredit me as, ‘loony toons.’ Fern’s use of language is completely lacking in concern and sensitivity -especially for someone who claims to have gone through hell with a nervous breakdown.

“It all reeks of misplaced self importance and attention seeking to me,”

he sniffed, before going on to use the totalitarian tactic of dehumanisation.

“O’Neill’s piece is certainly more detached and void of emotion than mine. Almost inhuman in parts. I would seriously question your claim that he is just asking questions in a reasonable and respectful way. He isn’t. He’s throwing shit around like a child who isn’t getting enough attention and hoping that some of it sticks.”

“He seems so detached from humanity that he’s prepared to throw s**t at anything just to see if any sticks. It’s shameful.”

“I think there is some psychological motivation here that has betrayed a deep lack of integrity and they will self destruct. I almost feel like they want to self destruct… to go out like martyrs in a blaze of glory, the only real truth seekers in the universe, hacked down by hypocrites and grifters… :)”

Conclusion

Jake Fern seems to be unusually exercised by my questioning the true nature of Bob Moran. He has engaged in a concerted effort to discredit my mental state and to convince others that my questions stem from paranoia. In making these emotive and unfounded claims he employs the tactics of which he accuses me and seeks to distract from both the evidence I present and the answers to the questions I pose.

It seems therefore that he has a personal interest in this matter. What could this be? When we examine the available biographical evidence on Fern we find that his artistic career has taken an unlikely and dramatic upward turn since lockdown. He has been supported by the cross-promoting network of appointed dissident figures who are given prominence in the British alternative media, and he has been platformed by those media outlets. These figures have included Bob Moran and his creative director, Tania Edwards. Opportunity, employment, awards and sponsorship have come to Fern in a short space of time in a highly competitive field, in much the same way Bob and Tom Moran found recognition in their sought after professions. The three men all seem to have a strange interest in the number 33.

Fern positions himself as an arbiter of truth and often exhibits a condescending and critical attitude to his audience and the wider Truth Movement. Prior to his recent emergence in that movement he had not attained the material success he is now being awarded. By his own admission Fern’s paintings and interviews are sub standard and yet both are celebrated and rewarded. Though he claims to have undergone a painful mental breakdown his descriptions of someone he regards as having mental health issues demonstrate an unusual lack of empathy. His criticism is often contradictory and illogical. As such his claims to be motivated by truth, compassion and humanity ring hollow and it is challenging to believe he is operating in good faith.

Again we might ask, ‘what is the nature of Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie?’

This essay follows on from this series of articles.

Part One: The Curious Case of Ed the Techie

Part Two: A Strange Response

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie

Part Four: The Devil’s Hour

Part Five: Court Jesters

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I am writing to you in relation to your broadcasts, ‘The Truth Movement is a Cult’ of Wednesday, 15th July 2026 and ‘But Is AI Art, Art?’ of Thursday, 16th July 2026, which featured your employees Jeremy Nell and Jake Fern.

In this programming, the presenters discussed my recent essays in which I question the nature of cartoonist Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed Chanter, a man known online as ‘Ed the Techie.’

Jeremy Nell openly states, “I know nothing about Ed the Techie I don’t even know who that is.”

Jake Fern also admits that he had, “not met Ed...and knew of him only after he died.”

Nell and Fern then disparage any questions about the man they know nothing about.

As part of their discourse Jake Fern goes on to repeatedly describe me as, “paranoid,” and, “mentally ill,” before saying that I am exhibiting, “mental illness,” with which Jeremy Nell agrees.

Could you please let me know of Jake Fern and Jeremy Nell’s medical qualifications in making such a diagnosis? If they are in possession of the relevant qualifications is it normal practice for such a diagnosis to be made without a clinical examination of the subject? My understanding is that UK Column purports to be a media outlet and not a medical one. Is it usual practice for your employees to perform individual medical diagnoses on your public broadcasts without concern for the confidentiality of your patients, and for any subsequent possible negative consequences?

I know you will have observed the many journalistic flaws in the broadcasts mentioned, which seem in opposition to the ideals of truth and freedom of inquiry that any independent media outlet might wish to uphold. Not least of these were the foul language used whereby I was characterised as, “being a dick,” and my work as, “throwing shit.” In many ways these programmes and their presenters fall beneath the journalistic and ethical standards UK Column has set for itself. I am sure you would not want people supposing that your employees are being tasked with defending people who have financial backers in common with your own.

Kind regards,

Francis O’Neill

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Show Notes.

Hook and son raw milk testimonial regarding hay fever.

Diamine oixidase (DAO) enzyme.

‘Ann Widdecombe suspect caught on CCTV’ from the Sun newspaper.

‘Moment Ann Widdecombe suspect caught on CCTV ‘with wooden stick’ hours before ex-MP was killed’ -video from the Sun.

Quest aired ‘Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House,’ on 2nd of July 2026 showing her front door garden conservatory gym library and kitchen in full detail.

‘Ann Widdecombe shames VDL over vaccine failure ‘Donkey of a politician!’ -Daily Express.

Interview with Ann Widdecombe and Craig Revel Horwood -‘This Morning.’ 12th Nov 2012 (12 11 12).

‘The Catholic Church is a force for good’ -Intelligence Square, 20th Feb 2013.

‘Anne Widdecombe Catches a Fright!’ -The Sooty and Sweep show, Wizz Friends. 3 Nov (3 11 21) 2021.

‘Ann’s Bit on the Side tale,’ -Celebrity Big Brother, 5th Feb, 2018.

‘Have I Got News For You,’ Youtube, clip published, 23rd Oct 2014.

‘Ann Widdecombe: My Mortality, Death Penalty & Heaven For Dogs,’ Andrew Gold, ‘Heretics,’ 21 Jul 2025.

‘When Louis Theroux Met Anne Widdecombe Part One,’ BBC Studios, 3rd March (3 3) 2008.

Leo’s thread on X showing Ann Widdecombe’s seamless transition from ‘politics to panto.’

Support:

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When I first questioned Bob’s, and the wider, online reaction to the reported death of Ed the Techie, Tania Edwards was one of the people who contacted me to disabuse me of my suspicions. This was a curious intervention for reasons that will be outlined below.

In my previous article I mentioned that both Bob and his screenwriter brother Tom have experience performing, with both brothers having played in a band and Tom having worked as a stand up comedian. Bob’s creative partner in recent years is also a stand up comic. Tania Edwards is a seasoned performer who, “was always acting and writing since (she) was a child,” and completed her training with a master’s in text and performance from Rada and King’s College. The RADA course, “empower(s) performers and actors to boldly and imaginatively approach theatre-making,” to, “devise new and original theatre and performance,” and to,“be empowered to play a revitalising role in the theatre-making landscape and consider the role of theatre-makers and performers in cultural leadership.”

Edwards also undertook a writers Programme at the Royal Court Theatre and so it is clear she is familiar with acting, improvising and making up stories. Her job involves adopting a persona and staying in character.

A funny affair

From December 2024 onwards, Abi Roberts, Charlotte Binns, Julie? McCammon (aka The Jules), Lisa Robinson (aka Shouty Mum) among others led me to believe that Bob Moran and Tania Edwards were having an affair. Some of them impressed upon me that I should confront Moran about this -despite the fact that the people urging me to do so were his friends whereas I had only met him and briefly spoken to him a few times. The idea of this ongoing affair was then reinforced by people seemingly unrelated to the first group of witnesses -Anna Rayner (aka Anna Naylor) and Dan Shanks of Go Flow plumbing, (aka ‘Dan the Plumber,’ to Abi Roberts’ podcast audience).

Tania Edwards has publicly declared that, “as everybody knows I am going through an acrimonious divorce.” If they did know, it was because it was a story the RADA trained performer had told. Tania Edwards’ website is a celebration of Bob Moran and her work with him, which in 2024 included devising, writing, and organising, a stage show (Artpocalypse), and editing and publishing a book (of Moran’s cartoons), before organising his book launch and tour. She followed this in 2025 by curating his solo exhibition and writing and recording a six part radio show followed by a live performance featuring both Moran and his father, Tom snr.

As I wrote previously,

Bob Moran and Tania Edwards’ Pedants Revolt live show of December 16th, 2025, was notable in that it included a cast of people playing themselves on stage before an audience of the Truth Movement. These included Bob Moran, Tania Edwards, Bob’s father Tom Moran snr, and behavioural scientist Patrick Fagan, with musical accompaniment from Anna Rayner (aka Anna Naylor).

It also included banker Graham McGirr and well connected gardener, Colin Forde.

Grahame McGirr is a banking risk executive who recently left his position as interim chief risk officer at Metro Bank before officially starting. He has previously worked at notable institutions such as Northern Rock, Barclays, and the Co-operative Bank.

Music was also provided by Moran and Edwards’ regular collaborator Paul Handley, one time, “keyboard player for the rock band-LIAR, where he toured and supported with many A-list bands for 3 years.”

At his Book launch, Bob notably did not thank his wife. Instead he praised Tania as he did online, where he wrote, “As with my live show, I once again owe a huge debt of gratitude to the tornado of energy and intellect that is Tania Edwards who has done so much to help bring this to fruition.”

After his exhibition in June 2025, Moran tweeted,

“Very particular thanks to @taniaedwards, without whom - as with my other ambitious projects - it wouldn’t have happened. Tania’s style, enthusiasm, taste, wisdom, champagne drinking skills, humour, and organisation really made this show something very special.”

Included in that tweet are the two images that were hung in the window of the gallery during the exhibition. One is of a wolf in sheep’s clothing (that is not currently found on Moran’s website) captioned, “We were ALL Lied to,” and the other is of a skinny dipping couple entitled, ‘Liberty.’ This latter image was first published by Moran on Valentine’s day in 2025 and I was encouraged to understand it as a depiction of Bob Moran and Tania Edwards. The wolf in sheep’s clothing image was posted on Valentine’s day in 2023.

How would it be advantageous to an intelligent woman going through an acrimonious divorce to obviously parade her infidelity? What jilted husband would fail to notice such time and attention being lavished by his estranged wife on another man? Or by the other man on his wife? What intelligent man or woman would think publicly parading an affair would enhance their status as moral leaders of a Truth Movement?

Bob announced Ed the Techie had passed away on 27^th April. I questioned the reaction publicly on April 28^th and on the 30^th I made a couple of memes about it which caused outrage among state narrative enforcing operatives online. Early on the morning of May 2^nd, Tania Edwards contacted me.

She suggested that I had ‘probably’ met Ed at Bob’s book launch or another of Bob’s book events. This was not the case as I had only attended the launch (at Tania Edwards’ invitation) and Ed was not there. It seems strange that Tania could not remember if, when, or whether, she, Bob, or I, had met Ed, given the importance Bob has since attached to him, and given that this would have been the first meeting of Bob with his close friend, Ed. From other excuses made for Bob’s eulogy of Ed, it is clear that the Bob never met him, in which case neither did Tania.

Leo Biddle and I discussed our questions and concerns about Bob Moran in a podcast on 5th May, and on 13^th May 2026 Tania Edwards posted a promotional picture of Bob Moran’s book on substack.

On 30^th May 2026, James Delingpole published the podcast in which I discussed Bob Moran. I was informed that comments were being made about it on Delingpole’s substack to which I might like to respond. On the evening of 31^st May, I subscribed to Delingpole’s susbstack in order to be able to see and answer the comments. The following morning Tania Edwards replied to me in defence of Bob.

Edwards’ interventions may seem like the straightforward support of Bob Moran from a friend but they were curious for a couple of reasons. Firstly they came at a time when Edwards was supposedly withdrawing from using social media -and even all screen based media. She told James Delingpole on 23^rd April 2026, “I’m conducting experiments and not looking at anything.” and

“I don’t watch anything anymore.” On April 21^st she wrote ,

“A few years ago, four and a half to be precise...I was (almost) done with doomscrolling on Twitter,” again suggesting she had now largely given up on social media.

Secondly I had been given to believe that Bob Moran had ended his alleged affair with Tania Edwards following the Pedants Revolt show of December 2025. Supposedly the stress of performing publicly with Edwards alongside his father, had caused him to cease all contact with her without explanation. Edwards played into this idea with a comment in her first podcast appearance since the Pedants Revolt show, when she told Ahmad Malik,

“Well I don’t think I’ve ever loved like I love now. You know, with everybody’s weaknesses, I don’t think I’ll have faith in another person as long as I live, not the faith I had before.”

These social media interventions in defence of Bob Moran would be strange actions on the part of a jilted lover. It is said that ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,’ yet instead, my straightforward questions provoked more of a reaction from a woman supposedly scorned.

The inexorable conclusion is that Bob Moran and Tania Edwards were not having an affair. It seems that the belief that they were doing so was deliberately disseminated to obscure the true nature of their working relationship which might otherwise have attracted more pertinent questions. The appearance of an affair may also have been a trap to entice accusations for which there was no foundation and thereby discredit anyone prepared to criticise these appointed thought leaders. It may have been intended to provoke anyone moral and confident enough to be outspoken.

In among her messages to me in defence of Bob, Tania sent me a photograph of a book which she insisted I read. Titled as ‘Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked,’ the summary of the book details that it exposes, “the use of Freemasonry and kindred secret societies for antichristian war” and the “control of (freemasonry’s) hidden inner circle over all revolutionary organisations.” The book is a series of lectures that were originally titled, The War of Anti-Christ with the Church and Christian Civilization.

Another volume Tania Edwards has mentioned in a recent essay is a, “West African magic book written in blood, bound in human skin, with death pockets front and back,” that her godfather gifted to her when she was a child. She also suggested that her library contained, ‘a demonology dictionary.’

Before the apparent death of Ed the Techie, on 23rd April 2026, Tania Edwards appeared on the James Delingpole podcast. In an allusion to revelation of the method and subversive elements in society, Delingpole reminded the listener that, “They always tell us.” In response Tania told us how she and Alistair Williams had recently performed at a Freemasonic venue in Bath, the Old Theatre Royal, which she described as a masonic lodge, in which the green room contained a consecrated altar. This had caused some disquiet among the audience members attending the comedy show. When asked about Alistair’s reaction to the notion of performing in a Freemasonic temple she reported that the supposedly devout Christian had no misgivings. She added, “I actually think he looked more uncomfortable in a church,” and ostensibly speaking about comedy, “I think it’s weirder to do it in a church.” She was then unable to contain her smirk until Delingpole noticed and they both laughed.

Alistair later gave Delingpole his version of the same event. Delingpole volunteered (coincidentally at 1:33:11), “I gather that you are now supporting the freemasons,” to which Williams responded by dismissing any concern about his association with an organisation that is a perceived enemy of Christianity and humanity, and considered responsible for much of the oppression of the last few years and longer. He expressed ignorance of the masonic nature of the Old Theatre Royal saying there was,“no mention of that on the bloody email or anything.”

Delingpole reminded him that the venue was one that he and Tania had chosen. If this is the case, as it appears to be, then as the comedians arrange their own venues and tour dates, there is very little chance of their being unaware of the nature of the venue. Its masonic nature features prominently in internet searches and on the theatre website, which includes guided tours and a masonic museum.

Delingpole asked, “Presumably it had a black and white tiled floor?”

Williams replied, “I don’t think it had that but it was very creepy.”

It is difficult to miss the black and white tiled floor when viewing the 150 seater room on line, and presumably it is equally as obvious in reality.

Delingpole continued that there will be people thinking,
“You think Alistair is a Christian?”

Alistair laughed and Delingpole finished,

“...like Russell Brand is a Christian as well, right? Did you see the venue he and Tania chose?

Delingpole found this very funny and then invited curious conspiracy theorists to investigate the Gematria significance of Alistair Williams’ name. Williams seems to know what is being referred to and responds, “incriminating stuff.” It is not clear to which Gematria code Delingpole alludes, but using the English Sumerian cypher the name Alistair Williams produces 1122.

Alistair Williams’ adopted church where he works as a chef is the Merland Rise Church in Tadworth. A promotional image for the church contains a black and white checker board pattern. Its logo seems to show a sun and the website and church seem to have a purple theme.

The Church was originally called Tattenham Corner Evangelical Free Church but details about its founder are not available. A similar internet blank is drawn on the background of Williams and Edwards, although Edwards has published the forename and a couple of photos of her husband as well as a photo of her mother modelling in a swimsuit on the Kings Road in Chelsea in 1967 (the seated lady on the right).

On 1st July 2025 Williams explained to his online audience his belief that the Israeli - Palestine conflict was inevitable as it had been prophesied by God. Taking the modern political state or government of Israel for that of the Israel of the Bible, he explains that

“God prophesies and says that, you know, at some point the Jews will return to the land. And that prophecy was completed after the Second World War when the nation of Israel was made to exist again, right in the spot where God said that it would. And what God also prophesied in the Bible was when this happens, the land will not know peace until Jesus returns. So what I want you to realise is that God prophesied all this thousands of years ago that war would be raging around this country since it’s been restored -which happened at the end of Second World War to the time Jesus returned. And the next prophecy in line by the way so you can watch when it happens is that all the nations of the world will turn against Israel. So, I just want you to to realise, whether you’re a believer or not, that when the whole world seems to be focusing in on a war around this Palestine, Israel, Canaan, whatever you want to call it, I just want you to know that that is exactly what God said would happen in the Bible thousands of years ago.”

In a video of 22^nd September 2025 Williams asserted that,

“the leading group that embodies the spirit of the anti-christ in the world today is Islam. And this is not something that’s controversial.”

“The reason why this country is having so many problems is because we’ve turned away from God and our country is being given over into the hands of the foreigner. It’s a judgement of God.”

“Guess what the solution to this is? The solution to this isn’t to get heavily involved in politics and become a right-winger and start going, ‘it’s the small boats, it’s the brown people.’ That’s what they want you to do because this problem is caused by turning away from God. Guess what the solution is? That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. It’s turning back, repenting, turning back towards God.”

Williams then portrays Muslims as threatening the Jewish community.

“There’s been a rise in Anti semitism.

Oh, gee. I wonder why that is. I wonder if there’s any sort of demographic of people that we’ve imported into London that have a real problem with Jews. Huh.

I wonder why that could be.

And the Jewish community said, “Look, we’ve not been attacked, but we just don’t feel safe.”

In his videos, Williams tells his followers that the conflict in Palestine is pre-ordained. It would follow that any effort to question it would be futile. The comedian points the finger away from the Conservative and Labour Friends of Israel who are bankrolled by Zionist lobbyists, and who implement upon the UK the open border policies of their paymasters that Williams bemoans. There seem to be efforts to expand the Israel-Palestine, Jewish- Muslim conflict into Britain and Europe, and pit Christians against Muslims on behalf of Jewish supremacist Zionists. As Youtube user @graemereid4643 commented on Williams video, “Maybe christians and muslims should stop fighting each other and look at who wants them to.”

Williams’ video and Bob Moran’s ‘anti-semitic’ cartoons align perfectly with this perceived goal by encouraging polarisation and hostility. As with Bob Moran’s association with Friends of Israel, Patrick Fagan and Clare Craig, we again find, in Williams, a friend of the cartoonist with polar opposite views to him on the Israel question. Perhaps on their long car journeys to comedy gigs Bob’s friend Tania never discussed such subjects with Alistair.

Speaking to James Delingpole, Tania Edwards muses on the possibility of infiltration of the Truth Movement. Of controlled opposition she says,

“We are the controlled opposition as in, in ourselves, when we start to put our faith in people which is not where we should be putting it, we don’t understand that even people are tools that sometimes will act as a tool to change somebody else and sometimes someone will be a tool to change us and it’s because you are not supposed to idolise people.”

She continues,

“The ones that are obviously put there for you to distract yourselves with, I would suggest are probably erm (controlled opposition)– what the hell is the point of Catherine Austin Fitts unless she’s supposed to demoralise everyone.”

She points out that the same kind of manipulation employed by the mainstream can also be employed by the alternative media,

“It’s obviously programming, yeah, but why do we imagine that someone on our side (here she makes air quotes with her hands), why do we imagine that someone like that would be given that kind of platform with those kind of contacts, those kind of resources, and not also be there to program us?

Of those who resisted the coercion to take the covid injections she asks,

“How would you corrupt us? You would just give us new heroes to gossip about. You would just poison our well, basically. You haven’t poisoned our body so how do you poison us now?”

Tania Edwards explains being not particularly outspoken and not appearing on television in opposition to the injections by saying,

“The second I step on your show it would look like there is a conversation to be had and I did not want to be part of the illusion of a conversation about whether or not we should murder children.(Delingpole laughs) I did not want to be part of it as though, ‘it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.’”

The logical extension of this argument is silence in the face of tyranny. Edwards goes on to conflate this argument with a refusal to test and mask in order to appear on television.

As always in our investigations into possible infiltration of the Freedom Movement we are limited by our reliance on circumstantial evidence. Still, the accumulation of a confluence of such evidence can ultimately eliminate the possibility of coincidence. Identifying one infiltrator raises questions as to who has facilitated their ascension to prominence. In the case of the unanswered questions concerning Bob Moran, we can look both for dogs that barked and those that did not. Who has obstructed straightforward inquiry or failed to exhibit a natural curiosity? To what can we attribute this unwillingness to discover the truth? Is there a hidden organisation or ideology that connects the people in question? If so, where might we see hints of its existence?

When Sonia Poulton conducted a livestream at Bob Moran’s Paradigm exhibition in 2025 she surprised a fellow interviewer in the gallery with tales of her unlikely previous career as a hiphop music journalist. Delighted with the man’s surprise, the watching Tania Edwards quipped, “It’s a small club and we are in it.” Poulton replies, “Yes, we are in this particular one.”

We have to consider the possibility that we are being told the truth in jest by a coterie of jokers and performers. Without intimate knowledge of a performer and their intentions how can we know when they are playing a role? If we do not know that we are encountering an act how do we identify it? We are hamstrung by our decency and our willingness to give people the benefit of the doubt, but perhaps we must start to be less accommodating and recognise the anomalies of the wolves who adopt our clothing.

This essay follows on from this series of articles.

Part One: The Curious Case of Ed the Techie is here.

Part Two: A Strange Response is here.

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie is here.

Part Four: The Devil’s Hour is here

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It has been claimed that Moran is being found “guilty by association,” but this is not possible unless those with whom he associates are guilty, in which case, why the association? Why would Moran lavish praise upon Ed Chanter? Ed was heavily involved in propping up the fake Lucy Connolly narrative and was aggressive and abusive of those, like Moran, who dared to question it.

Circumstantial evidence has been seized upon and rejected as ‘coincidence.’ Is it coincidence that Moran signs his name using two capital letter B’s, ‘BoB,’ (in a way that resembles the significant freemasonic numbers, 33 and 101), and that he incorrectly claims is the only way, ‘Bob,’ can be written? Is it a coincidence that his installation artwork ‘Gotcha,’ is priced at £33,000? Was it a coincidence that tickets for his show at Dingwalls in Camden were priced at £33? When Moran chose to vent his post-lockdown frustrations in an ill-advised tweet that caused his sacking from the Telegraph, was it a coincidence that he chose to do so in the direction of ,“a high-profile media personality and alleged doctor, who was highly instrumental in enforcing Covid tyrannies, up to and including writing a fictional novel on the subject, which was passed off as a “memoir” and turned into a blockbuster ITV series.”

It seems unlikely that all of these eventualities should coincide. Even if this combination of strange occurrences is indeed coincidental, that does not explain Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed Chanter.

There are many associations and coincidences I have not yet detailed, but as I am being condemned for relying on such evidence regardless, perhaps we might consider a few more.

One of Bob Moran’s two brothers, Tom, is a screenwriter who has a curious interest in the number 33. In fact he describes it as an obsession. His series, ‘Devil’s Hour’ of 2022 depicts a character who awakens every night at 3.33am. The character’s forename, Lucy, is suggestive of Lucifer. The character’s full name, Lucy Chambers, provides another Lucy C, similar to the media character Lucy Connolly who Bob’s online friend Ed the Techie vigorously defended from questions. In gematria the initials LC provide the number 33. The name Lucy derives from the Latin word, ‘lux,’ meaning ‘light,’ with Lucifer being the ‘light-bearer,’ and light having important significance to freemasons.

Esotericfreemasons.com explains that

“Freemasonry, at its heart, is an allegorical system designed to take a good man and make him better. This journey is often described as a quest for “Light,” a powerful metaphor representing truth, knowledge, and spiritual enlightenment.”

Pillars and Principles, A Masonic Thought Leadership Blog, (PP), adds,

“At its heart, the Craft is centered around the search for “light”—a rich metaphor encompassing knowledge, spiritual understanding, and the inner awakening that leads one to truth. This pursuit of light is not merely intellectual; it is deeply personal and profoundly transformative. It calls not just to the mind, but to the heart.”

At the series premiere of Devil’s Hour, Tom Moran described the significance of the number 33 and various associations attributed to it, but omitted to mention its importance to freemasonry. When questioned, the screenwriter included in his hopes for the show that it would give people, “hope about our capacity to overcome the darkness with love and light,” a hope redolent of the freemasonic credo, and again in gematria the two L’s can be made to give 33.

(The masons seem particularly fond of repeated letters and of literary or numerical repetition or palindromes such as, 11, 22, 33, LL, 101, and perhaps BoB. In gematria there are a variety of different numerical codes. The simplest involves ascribing a number to a letter of the alphabet so that for example A,B,C would equate to 1, 2, and 3. In this code L, C becomes 12, 3. Adding the digits 1 and 2 creates 3 so LC might be read as 33.

Another code attributes the numbers 1-9 to the letters A-I but when double figures are reached the numbers rise in tens, so the numbers 10-90 are attributed to J-R. In this system L and C become 30 and 3).

Tom Moran’s Devil’s Hour project was reported to be in development in 2019, long before the lockdowns caused an increased awareness of the significance of the number 33. It is likely then that Bob Moran knew of the associations of the number 33 since at least 2019, if not before, which opens up the possibility of him knowing about it when he was devising his trademark signature. “The series, (which was) announced at 3.33AM in the UK, is executive produced by Hartswood bosses Steven Moffat and Sue Vertue, the creative forces behind Benedict Cumberbatch’s BBC Sherlock series.”

When appearing at the Oxford Union, Steven Moffat ostentatiously made a triangle with his hands, a symbol often performed by Donald Trump.

Bob Moran and his brother Tom had their talents recognised at a young age by national newspapers. At 25, after starting at the Guardian, Bob became the youngest cartoonist to achieve a regular slot at the Daily Telegraph and won “numerous awards,“ including ones, “from organisations such as The Foreign Press Association and The Cartoon Arts Trust.” In 2014, The Guardian made Tom Moran at 26 its first self-published book prize winner which resulted in attention from the Washington Post. A year later Tom Moran picked up more baubles when he was named as one of the BAFTA Rocliffe New Comedy Writing Forum winners for his sitcom, Printheads and received the AMC-Channel 4 Drama Co-Development Award for his sci-fi pilot White Rabbit. His upward trajectory continued with a number of published books, screen writing for TV shows, and after the interruption of lockdown he returned in 2022 with his first TV series Devil’s Hour.

Bob enjoyed similar success, recounting that,

“I had got myself to the point at the Telegraph where I was actually on a full staff contract which I had always been told when I joined -they said, ‘no cartoonist will ever be fully employed by a newspaper again,’ and they’re not generally, it’s true, and I’d managed to wangle it somehow so that from 2018 onwards I was on staff, so I had a salary, paid holiday, pension, all the things that somebody like me now would never expect.” When the scamdemic was inflicted, this rare deal put Bob Moran in a position where he had something to lose by speaking out -he could be sacked.

To illustrate the competitiveness of the profession, and his good fortune in securing a job at the Telegraph, Bob Moran told Mark Meets on GB News that, “in 2010 i was at the point of giving up on the dream of being a political cartoonist and I’d actually enrolled to do a teacher training course and that summer the Guardian cartoonists, when they were on holiday, got a few people who were interested to do some cover. So I did that, really enjoyed it and then the following March I heard that there was an opening at the Telegraph, so I just sent an email on the off chance and I got to go in and do a sort of trial and that was that. That was the beginning of my time there.” It’s not clear how Moran heard “there was an opening at The Telegraph,” but it was fortuitous.

Bob and Tom’s younger brother Patrick is a taxidermist of whom Bob says, “He's not trying to be famous I suppose in the same way we have.”

Although Bob mentioned on December 31^st, 2024 that his brother is a screenwriter, his relationship to Tom Moran is studiously underplayed. Tom Moran’s family background is not publicly stated and the relationship between Bob and the Hollywood screenwriter is not widely known. This is strange when one considers that the unlikely success of the brothers in two competitive industries would in itself be a story, regardless of how Bob Moran’s views were portrayed after lockdown. One might expect the brothers’ notoriety to have at least prompted a question from a journalist as to one brother’s views on the other’s work or political position. The silence in the mainstream and alternative media in this respect is notable. The brothers’ own silence on the subject is curious. When Bob Moran has publicly discussed the significance of the number 33, he has never thought to mention his brother’s interest in it that is the basis of Devil’s Hour. Even if Bob was protecting Tom from condemnation by association with him, Tom’s success in 2022 might have been expected to provoke comment or questions.

In his show ‘Artpocalypse,’ Bob describes how, after overcoming initial worries about the scamdemic, he was in the highly unusual position that his family was unified in their opposition to the lockdown.

“I’m very lucky that all my family, my wife, my brothers, their wives, my parents, all saw things exactly as I did.” and that,“I kept talking to my brother every night.”

Speaking to Jake Fern he recalls of his brothers and his parents that, “ We were all basically in agreement from the beginning, I was very lucky in that sense.”

“I’d have conversations with my brothers early on most evenings about why it was all so mad and wrong.” It is curious then that having seen the stance his brother made, Tom was able to allow it to pass without comment, or being asked about it, when in 2022 they were both public figures.

Following Tom Moran’s The Devil’s Hour, its child star, Benjamin Chivers, achieved prodigious success at an even younger age than the Moran brothers and immediately went on to star in Guy Ritchie’s, The Fountain Of Youth alongside Natalie Portman.

“He is one of the latest child actors to emerge from obscurity into a prominent major starring role. Benjamin’s first ever acting job was playing Isaac in The Devil’s Hour, a gripping Amazon Prime crime thriller where he co-starred alongside Dr Who icon, Peter Capaldi.”

Chivers was also recognised by prize-givers.

“The National TV awards nominated Benjamin for the 2023 Rising Star Award, following his debut performance as Isaac with Jessica Raine and Peter Capaldi in the Amazon Prime TV series, “The Devil’s Hour” (2022, 2024).

This was subsequently followed by one-to-one scenes with Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby as the young Eugene Beauharnais in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, for Apple TV (2023). In 2024, having filmed an episode of Dr Who (BBC/Disney), Benjamin was cast in a lead role as the musical prodigy, Thomas, in the Apple TV movie, Fountain Of Youth, alongside Natalie Portman and John Krasinski, directed by Guy Ritchie.”

One of the TV series Tom Moran wrote episodes for prior to lockdown was called The Feed which, “takes place in London in the near future,” and follows, “the British family of Lawrence Hatfield, the man who invented an omnipresent technology called The Feed. Implanted into nearly everyone’s brain, The Feed enables people to share information, emotions and memories, called mundles, instantly. But when things start to go wrong and users become murderous, the family is driven apart as they struggle to control the monster they have unleashed.”

This is redolent of planned neuralink ‘brain chip’ technology advanced by agenda front man Elon Musk, and of Yuval Noah Harari’s opinion that men are “hackable animals.” The Feed enters into the realms of predictive programming -a subject I wrote about that drew criticism from Bob Moran’s friend Abi Roberts.

Another writer for The Feed series is Channing Powell who makes the prophetic aspect of the TV show explicit in a Daily Mail report, and for whom a publicity shot shows her covering one eye. Separately she is shown at the Comic Con (CC), the logo of which is also one eye.

Bob Moran and Tania Edwards’ Pedants Revolt live show of December 16th, 2025, was notable in that it included a cast of people playing themselves on stage before an audience of the Truth Movement. These included Bob Moran, Tania Edwards, Bob’s father Tom Moran snr, and behavioural scientist Patrick Fagan, with musical accompaniment from Anna Rayner (aka Anna Naylor).

Bob Moran and his brother Tom are both performers. Bob performed as singer and a guitarist in a band that played at weddings and parties. Tom also performed in a band and like Bob’s RADA trained right hand woman Tania Edwards, he has worked as a stand up comedian, setting up the Laugh out Loud (LOL) Comedy club at university and performing at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

In an episode of the Pedants Revolt entitled ‘Panem et Circenses aka The Pub Quiz,’ there is an appearance from Lucy Morris who appears to be a representative of Curtis Brown, an agency that lists Bob Moran’s brother, screenwriter, Tom Moran jr, as a client.

As well as featuring a cameo from Laura Dodsworth’s co-author Patrick Fagan, Pedants Revolt was attended by another Friend of Israel, Dr. Clare Craig (C C). Craig’s recent book was edited by Anna Rayner (aka Anna Naylor) and both women were very active in HART, the Health Advisory & Recovery Team chaired by Craig that opposed the scamdemic measures and works to influence government policy. Also involved in HART were Bob Moran and his sister-in-law, Tom’s wife Jemma. Although their relationship was mentioned when HARTs internal communications were leaked in October 2021, this is another of Bob Moran’s family connections that is largely unknown. The leak was a cause of concern for members of HART and it is clear from it that the Moran family connection would have been known to those in the group and to any journalist subsequently interviewing Moran.

“The HART chat logs also reveal that the organisation has impeccable media access through freelance PR manager Jemma Moran, sister-in-law of Telegraph cartoonist Bob Moran. As HART’s media coordinator she has tried to gain publicity for the group with the BBC, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Talk Radio, and many others – often with considerable success.”

In the Byline Times’ reporting of the leak Bob Moran is described as a signatory of UsforThem and a member of HART -with whom the report notes that Laura Dodsworth was closely connected. The report uses Moran’s online behaviour towards Rachel Clark to discredit opposition to the injections as extremist.

“On Tuesday 28 September…Telegraph cartoonist Bob Moran took to Twitter to call for NHS palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke to be verbally abused “for the rest of her worthless existence.”

“Moran’s outburst is a prominent example of how an ongoing campaign against vaccines suggests an effort by pandemic disinformation groups to infiltrate mainstream institutions, with the potential to foster new forms of extremism. Yet both the organisations he is affiliated with – UsforThem and HART – appear to have attempted to lobby government, parliament and media, including the JCVI.”

Freelance journalist and digital Marketing Manager Jemma Moran now works as a Parliamentary private secretary to MP Esther McVey. McVey was working as a presenter for controlled TV outlet GB News when it platformed and promoted Bob Moran in 2022.

Along with Charles Walker, Desmond Swayne, Steve Baker and Christopher Chope (CC) , McVey was one of the few MPs who voted against lockdown.

Baker, Walker, Swayne, and McVey all went on to recommend the vaccine. Although Chope took up advocacy for the vaccine injured he did not oppose the injections themselves.

Later on, in 2022, McVey interviewed Boris Johnson for GB News on the occasion when he denied being very ill in 2020 despite having then being portrayed as being on death’s door.

McVey’s career does not seem to have been harmed by her anti-lockdown stance as,

“in the November 2023 British cabinet reshuffle, McVey was appointed Minister of State without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office by Rishi Sunak, reportedly tasked with “leading the government’s anti-woke agenda” as a “minister for common sense.”

It seems strange that when a member of HART, Bob Moran would not publicly mention the work of his sister-in-law and her colleagues. Perhaps he didn’t want HART to be found guilty by association with him, but then why associate with them at all? While Moran’s views have now evolved to the point where he questions the accepted wisdom around viruses, both his pro-Israel friend Clare Craig and HART seem firmly entrenched in the orthodox medical paradigm. In stark contrast Bob speaks of,

“the years of relentless bullshit they spouted about a deadly virus and safe and effective jabs”

and

“the idiotic and dangerous idea that there was a pandemic of a novel respiratory virus that required some kind of response.”

Of Jay Battacharya, who professes belief in a similar medical paradigm to Clare Craig, Bob Moran wrote,

“He’s not an idiot. And at this point, only a properly thick person could assert that there had actually been a pandemic of a deadly virus. A smart person, by this stage, ought to have figured out that even if viruses exist, a respiratory virus pandemic is a scientific impossibility. But as I said, he’s not that dumb. So he, like all the others, is now just saying what he’s been told to say, knowing that it’s complete horseshit.”

A similar jarring discordance is found between the views of Craig and her editor Anna Rayner (aka Anna Naylor).

Similarly, HART’s many ardently pro-Israel members place Jemma Moran in an awkward position given her close affiliation with the group and her family ties to Bob. It’s not clear what Jemma’s views are in relation to the Israeli-Palestine conflict but when speaking of his family in December 2024, Bob made no mention of any disagreement over Israel or any other post-lockdown issue. On the other hand, Jemma’s involvement with Esther McVey clearly conflicts with Bob’s abandonment of the Parliamentary system and his scathing public exhortations encouraging his followers not to vote.

A selection of his numerous tweets on the subject reads,

“The simplest way to explain why I don’t think anyone should vote in the election is that I think the entire concept is a totally insulting absurdity.”

“Don’t vote at all. Doing anything else is an endorsement of a system that wishes to destroy you while openly mocking you.”

“Even just receiving a slip of paper through your letter box, from a criminal cartel of child-murderers, telling you they give you permission to go down to the village hall and vote for somebody, is one of the most degrading absurdities imaginable.”

“If you step into that booth and make a mark on the paper, whether you vote for a main party, an independent OR spoil the ballot, you are recognising and giving your energy to a system that is designed to enslave and destroy you. This system has just terrorised you for four years. It has taken away your freedoms. It has killed your loved ones. It has lied openly and relentlessly, in order to commit the worst crime in human history. Now, it seeks to humiliate you further by inviting you to pretend you’re not living under a tyrannical regime. The only way we can possibly begin to make things better is if enough people abandon the childish fantasy that we live in a democracy. Don’t. Vote.”

Was his influence being exerted to cause dissidents to neglect the only political power they can wield?

It is also difficult to understand how members of the organisation Friends of Israel could attend one of Moran’s stage shows following his polarising ‘Kosher,’ cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu eating a dead baby. Made in condemnation of the Israeli vaccination policy and military excesses in Gaza, it was perceived by opponents as reinforcing anti-semitic tropes and provoked calls for police investigation from Laura Dodsworth – the co-author of Bob’s fellow cast member, Patrick Fagan.

Was antagonism over this cartoon deliberately fomented to polarise existing divisions between dissidents and consumers of mainstream media, between left and right, and between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli factions? Was it orchestrated to help create the conditions necessary for the curtailment of online discourse? Was it a means of portraying opponents of the lockdown and vaccine as ‘anti-semitic?’

Superficially the cartoon contributes to the media amplified Israel-Palestine conflict but it fails to address the important question of how much of the recent news reporting is false or faked. Bob Moran was late in voicing his opposition to the lockdown and vaccine narratives. The propaganda had taken hold and vaccines were already administered by the time he was sacked in October 2021. Moran was later still in questioning the foundational stories of those interventions -the apparent falsehoods in the covid and virus paradigms. Similarly, by addressing the Israel and Palestine conflict in the way that he did, he inflamed tensions rather than questioning the foundation for their recent upsurge by asking how much of what we have been told about the events of October 7^th, and what has followed, is actually true.

However sophisticated Moran’s explanation of his ‘Kosher,’ cartoon might be, it encouraged the portrayal of critics of the Israeli government as ‘anti-Semitic, anti vaxxers,’ engaged in an age old ‘blood libel.’

In identifying subversion in the Freedom Movement we are unlikely to be provided with direct evidence. Any sophisticated deceit would necessitate the avoidance of such obvious revelation. Criticism for the examination of circumstantial evidence can thus be disregarded. We can justifiably ask how likely it is that Bob Moran should sell tickets for £33, artwork for £33,000, have a signature that resembles 33, that the number 33 should be associated with the forces he purports to oppose, and that then his screenwriter brother should base his debut television series on the same number. We can ask about the unlikely scenario of the Moran brothers being employed, successful, and award-winning in their two separate, highly competitive fields in their early twenties, within five years of leaving university. We can note others on their projects on a similar fast track to success, the symbols their colleagues employ, and we can observe the under-reporting of the connection between the two brothers and wonder why that is the case.

We can question the likelihood of Bob Moran’s friends being those whose views so diametrically oppose his own that he publicly vilifies their positions. Why would those who might regard his Kosher cartoon as anti-semitic be seen publicly endorsing his stage show -and even performing in it? Why is he associated with and supported by medics whose views he decries as idiotic? Why does he so publicly savage the notion of voting when his sister-in law works as a Parliamentary secretary for an MP? Again why is the link between him and his sister-in-law so understated? The more inconsistencies and unlikely coincidences that accumulate the more the circumstantial evidence provides an answer of substance.

This essay follows on from this series of articles.

Part One: The Curious Case of Ed the Techie is here.

Part Two: A Strange Response is here.

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie is here.

Thank you for reading and many thanks to my subscribers.
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Ed Chanter was reported to have died on April 27th when Bob Moran announced his death with a fulsome eulogy and a commemorative cartoon. The following day Ed Chanter’s X account was used, apparently by his family members, to announce that, “Ed's funeral and a celebration of his life will both be held in Brighton in June. He wanted to extend an invitation to his "X" friends.”

To the best of my knowledge no further public announcement was made regarding the funeral.

Ed had been a regular guest on a podcast called (instructively) Chasing Dissent, which was hosted by a former police officer named John Porter (aka Sgt Grumpy). On May 3rd during their first broadcast after Ed’s death, John Porter and his co-hosts David and Benn warned people about looking into Ed’s background and connections. Wearing a shirt with a Mickey Mouse design, Benn said of those asking questions that they were, “stupid and their brains have turned to mush,” that, “they’re jealous…because they’re a bunch of morons,” that they were, “literal fucking retards,” before exclaiming, “fuck these people!”

In the days that followed John Porter appears to have been busy producing AI content. On June 10th he posted an AI video that is described as a “breakdown (of) retired Sergeant Grumpy’s devastating review of Francis O'Neill's dossier on Bob Moran.” It’s not clear where the viewer can find the original, ‘devastating review,’ that AI, ‘breaks down,’ but then it is also not clear that the Sergeant is retired. The next day Porter posted a song entitled, ‘Francis and Leo,’ and one dedicated entirely to , called, ‘Jungle Kang.’ Predictably the lyrics relate that I have, “gone mad,” and suggest (as James Delingpole did to me on his podcast), that Leo is an animal, “lover,” - a puerile and obvious jibe that is the first recourse of Leo’s online antagonists. Of our suspicions, the chorus informs us inevitably that, “it's all in your head.”

Porter has long made use of AI for his videos and three years ago his co-host Ed Chanter used it to make art when he programmed it to paint Brighton Pier in the style of Van Gogh. In stark contrast, Chanter’s effusive friend Bob Moran is vocal in his hatred of AI.

On June 17th, John Porter and his friends produced nearly 6 minutes of live streamed video from a pub to which they claimed to have retired after Ed Chanter’s funeral. In the video, John Porter turns the camera to introduce David, Benn and Vaughan, and later calls out to someone called Adam to get a round of drinks. He takes the opportunity to say that people have, “seen us in the flesh. People looking us up and down going, ‘They’re real. They’re real. They’re real. They exist. They’re not shills. They’re not agents of the state. They’re not government.’”

Mid-way through the video a woman interjects to say,"Oh, also Bob Moran was there even though he blocked me." John Porter laughs and then affirms, "Yeah, he was there." Benn offers, "I don't think he came here," (meaning to the pub) to which John Porter answers, "No, but he was at the funeral."

Although John Porter mentions Ed Chanter’s family and friends they do not feature in the video, nor do any of Ed’s other purported online friends. John Porter and his friends all appear jovial and wearing casual clothes. Benn is wearing another shirt with a Mickey Mouse design.

The following day, June 18th, 9/11 activist Matt Campbell posted a photograph of himself with Bob Moran with the caption, “Great to meet you @bobscartoons at a beautiful day’s celebration of @edthetechie’s life.” Twitter accounts, notable for their attacks on those questioning the Lucy Connolly narrative, chimed in. Nat wrote, “It was indeed a beautiful celebration of @edthetechie’s life - I think he would have loved it. I’m so glad I was there to honour his memory and that I got to meet both you and Bob. And @ndndn!” Graham Kemp added, “It was truly a lovely and moving celebration, hearing so many people tell their personal experiences of how he enriched their lives. I learned a lot about him and the affection and respect he attracted.”

I asked Bob Moran if he could confirm that the photograph was taken after Ed’s funeral on June 17th 2026.

This provoked a response on substack from Anna Rayner (aka Anna Naylor) who asked me to confirm that it was me in a video in which Ahmad Malik asked a question at a Together Declaration event in 2022. I confirmed saying there was no dispute over the location, time, or people, recorded in that video. Anna Rayner has previously declared, “lord knows some of us worked to disabuse him of this bollocks,” in reference to private efforts she and others made to influence my thinking.

Prior to these public offerings Anna Rayner (aka Anna Naylor) had been very keen to maintain a private persona, having worked behind the scenes both at HART and as Alan Miller’s hidden hand at Together. Where I was happy to answer Anna Rayner’s questions, Bob Moran maintained his silence.

The photograph of Bob Moran supposedly at Ed Chanter’s funeral is taken in curious circumstances. Bob Moran had never met Ed, nor had he ever visited Ed when Ed was dying, but he had now apparently driven several hours to Brighton from his home in Somerset to attend Ed’s funeral. Moran was photographed in some kind of bar wearing casual clothes, and laughing alongside a man who has his hair styled into devil’s horns.

When I pointed out these anomalies, the gaggle of social media accounts that vigorously attack those who question state narratives such as those around Lucy Connolly and Ed the Techie, became quite exercised. They explained that Bob Moran had attended the funeral, “but went back to where he was staying afterwards to get changed for the pub.”

In John Porter’s video it was said that Moran hadn’t gone to the pub after the funeral. John Porter is said to have consumed at least three pints and to be "half cut." He looks around and says, "people won't be here much longer, they are obviously losing interest." At this point we are asked to believe Bob had still not got changed, despite regularly appearing in the pub after events over the past few years without changing his clothes. Why Matt Campbell and everyone in Porter’s video are in casual clothes is not explained.

Matt Campbell is an activist who reports that his brother Geoff died in the North Tower on 9/11. Campbell is currently seeking to crowdfund £275,000 in legal fees to have the UK courts conduct a fresh inquest into his brother’s death. When he first appeared publicly with his hair styled into horns in a video published on September 11th, 2021 I questioned him as to why he had done so and he said, "watch The Unspeakable (a documentary film) and it is clear." In the film, when Campbell first appears, he says, “Yep, my hair. It’s just, it’s where I’m at right now. Frustrated and pissed off with current events. but in particularly, you know, my fight for the last 20 years. And so it’s just, yeah, it’s where I’m at. A little bit like this (gestures insulting V signs) up to the system.”

Campbell’s explanation for his odd behaviour is no clearer than those offered by his friend, Bob Moran for his. As with Moran the nature of Campbell’s relationship with Ed Chanter is unclear. On X they had only one brief recorded exchange, with Campbell writing only, “Living our best summer ever,” in sarcastic reference to exaggerated media reports of hot weather.

In the photograph with Moran, Campbell wears a T-shirt labelled “One nation under a groove. Parliament. Funkadelic.” Funkadelic was a band led by George Clinton. Clinton was influenced by the Process Church of the Final Judgement which was,

“Founded in 1966, (by) former Scientologists Mary Ann MacLean and Robert de Grimston (who) conceived of a quasi-sect espousing the doctrinal idea that human personalities were made up of four divine character elements being Jehovah’s strength, Lucifer’s light, Satan’s separation, and Christ’s unity. Considered the “Great Gods of the Universe”, each Process member was instructed to embrace two of the four divinities to realise their spiritual identities in rejection of the conforming pressures of society.”

Campbell’s hairstyle is certainly, “in rejection of the conforming pressures of society.” Another of Moran’s friends, John Mappin, is a scientologist. Mappin was recently the subject of a soft ball interview by Sandi Adams in which he recounts the unlikely story of how he bought Camelot Castle from a freemason, and closed the deal without lawyers in forty-five minutes. Mappin adds that the mason continued to manage the property for Mappin after the sale, thus easing him into his new role. Mappin’s interviewer Sandi Adams has also been celebrated by (now UK Column employee) Jake Fern who painted her portrait in his Thousand Words series which includes Bob Moran, Tania Edwards, James Delingpole, Abi Roberts, and David Icke. Jake Fern has become a prolific and abusive critic of mine for my questioning of Bob Moran.

As my questions remain unanswered, I have been ejected and blocked from James Delingpole’s telegram groups, both from a nominally private chat group of 550 members and a larger public one (that has now been made private). Delingpole’s assistant Andrew Warwick (aka Darley) has removed from the group anyone posting similar questions, or any comments or emojis supportive of those questions.

The relationship of Bob Moran to Ed Chanter is no clearer than it was two months ago. Instead more inconsistencies and more questions accumulate. Where was the funeral announced? Who decided which online friends were to be invited? How were they contacted? Why did Bob Moran attend the funeral but prior to that, not visit his dying friend?

Why were all the supposed attendees in casual clothes? Is the photograph of Bob Moran grinning for a photograph in casual clothes actually taken at a funeral? Commentators have observed that Matt Campbells’ photograph does not appear to be taken at the same location as John Porter’s video. There is bright sunlight in John Porter’s video in which he said people wouldn’t be there much longer. It is claimed that Bob Moran arrived shortly afterwards at around 5.30pm but Moran is pictured in electric light at nightfall (the sun set at 9.21pm in Brighton on June 17th).

No family or friends or indeed any other people are shown in Moran’s photograph, and other than John Porter and his colleagues, no other funeral attendees are identified in Porter’s video. We have no evidence that any of the people behind the online accounts who claimed to attend, did so. Like Moran, why would they attend the funeral of someone they never met? Did Moran drive hours to attend the funeral and then avoid the people at the wake? Why indeed would Moran want to socialise with people (like Ed and his friends) who were so abusive towards those questioning Lucy Connolly -as Moran did? Lucy Connolly, who claimed Ed as one her “original twitter crew,” apparently did not attend, nor apparently did Johnny Vedmore who had claimed to have once met and stayed with Ed.

In short we have no evidence that Bob Moran attended the funeral of Ed Chanter, nor in fact do we have any evidence that any such funeral took place. If the photograph was not taken at a funeral, what is the nature of Bob Moran’s relationship with Matt Campbell? Moran has declined to provide a simple yes or no answer as to whether the photograph of him was taken at the funeral in question, and has instead allowed the squawks of an online menagerie to speak for him. They and he have been unable to provide a simple answer to the question that remains outstanding which is, what is the nature of Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie?

It would be easy to disregard John Porter in his role as Sgt Grumpy and to view his chaotic videos, his puerile AI songs, and the drunken prattle of him and his Mickey Mouse cohorts, as infantile or imbecilic. Similarly we might view it as immaterial whether Bob Moran attended a funeral, or whether he was associated with a reportedly dead man who had diametrically opposing views. These things do not seem important in and of themselves. We could easily regard dispute over such details as unnecessary and trivial. Indeed, it is clear from his chosen pseudonym of Sgt Grumpy and by his behaviour, John Porter’s whole purpose is to give the impression of clownish and inconsequential trivia to such subjects. We are to be given a sense of bickering and foolishness. Yet what is being hidden behind this smokescreen of confusion and inanity is an unseen network of influence that is being used to manipulate and mislead. If infiltrators occupy leadership roles and positions of trust then they are ideally positioned to influence our thoughts and actions when our minds are receptive and our guard is down. If they occupy spaces that might otherwise be filled with someone genuine then they take up hours of watching and listening time in countless minds. They validate, celebrate, and protect, other frauds in the network, displacing those who are authentic and discarding the pursuit of truth.

In recent years this network locked down and injected the whole world. For those who recognise that fact, the front lines of the information war have now moved from the mainstream to the alternative media. We are well aware that the 77th brigade and other state operatives have been tasked with subverting online discourse. As we might recognise the presence of a predator in the ocean from schools of fish leaping from the water, we might recognise the hidden hand of the control network in the commotion created by its online contributors. It is said that the devil is in the details, but it is in the details that we identify both the truth and the devils. To find them we must see past any commotion.

This is Part Three of three articles.

Part One: The Curious Case of Ed the Techie is here.

Part Two: A Strange Response is here.

Thank you for reading and many thanks to my subscribers.
You can support my work by

1. Subscribing monthly here on substack

2. Making a one-off contribution via BuyMeaCoffee

3. Contributing in either way via bank transfer to Santander, account number 00758982, sort code 09-01-36, account name F X ONeill (please use your email address as a reference if you’d like me to acknowledge receipt).

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This discussion took place before I had written my recent articles on the ongoing questions raised by Bob Moran’s celebration of unremarkable X user, Ed the Techie.

You can watch the discussion free here on rumble and listen without advertisements here on podbean.

Thank you for reading and many thanks to my subscribers.
You can support my work by

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2. Making a one-off contribution via BuyMeaCoffee

3. Contributing in either way via bank transfer to Santander, account number 00758982, sort code 09-01-36, account name F X ONeill (please use your email address as a reference if you’d like me to acknowledge receipt).

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I raised my questions as to the nature of Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie in discussion with Leo Biddle, and in a podcast with James Delingpole. After doing so I provided context for my questions in a detailed article entitled The Curious Case of Ed the Techie which I published on 5th June, 2026.

Predictably, rather than having my questions answered I have received a deluge of disparaging comments, an avalanche of abuse, and an onslaught of opprobrium.

Significant among the responses was one from John Mappin, whom I mentioned in my essay when providing background information on Bob Moran. I had questioned Moran about this unlikely friendship in the context of misgivings about Mappin as recently as June 2024 and Moran had defended his friend.

After my article Mappin took to X to make a confusingly written post in support of Moran in which he referred to him as, “the modern reincarnation of Hogarth.” Mappin has a quarter of a million followers on X and is closely linked with Trump, Farage, Laurence Fox, Candace Owens, George Farmer, and Rupert Lowe among others suspected of being prominent Controlled Opposition figures. By way of contrast I have 5,000 followers on X and this was the first time he had ever engaged with anything I have said, written or done.

I asked if he was writing in code and he again replied to say, “Bob is a good man. One of the best artists of our generation. We are proud to know him.” I then pointed out the conflicting nature of Moran and Mappin’s public opinions.

“It seems like you don't have much in common, you're connected to all the things Moran purports to oppose: Trump, Q, Farage, TPUK (masonic connections), Reclaim, Candace +George Farmer (Chatham House connections), and scientology (Moran presents as Christian).”

Mappin’s posts were responded to by another amplified X user, Darren Denslow who goes by the name Darren of Plymouth and has 127 thousand followers on the platform. Denslow had previously warned me about questioning the Ed the Techie story and insulted me for doing so despite previously describing me as a “top man.” In replying to Mappin, Denslow described my inquiries as, “the rantings of madness, it is with great sadness to see Francis fall like this. He was described to me as a hostage. It seems like this.”

Another unlikely response came from someone not mentioned in my article, Rachel Elnaugh-Love. She implicated Miri Finch and James Delingpole in a “character assassination,” and referred to those questioning Bob Moran as “idiots.”

Elnaugh-Love is the founder of UK gift company Red Letter Days and a former panellist on BBC 2’s show Dragons’ Den. She left when her business failed and she was unable to fulfil investments promised in the first two series. She had also been an outspoken and ‘inflammatory’ opponent of the lockdowns and vaccines. Her related efforts to set up a 70 acre community farm in the Peak District and run for parliament were high profile failures.

Denslow’s post was endorsed by an X user named Graham Kemp who had distinguished himself by vehemently opposing questions of the Lucy Connolly narrative. Kemp is associated with Abi Roberts and Charlotte Binns, the latter of whom works for Ickonic. Like Bob Moran, the Ickes urge people not to vote, thus encouraging dissenters to be a disorganised and malleable contingent. Other X users that were significant in their attacks on those questioning Connolly, have reappeared to target me with mockery and abuse.

Jake Fern took to his substack to write an unflattering piece about me and my article which he described as, “Francis O’Neill throwing a bag of weak piss at Bob Moran.” Fern is, by his own account, a man who left university, ‘with a First Class Honours in how to BS and play the game.” Since lockdown Fern states that he has, “put all my energies into portraiture and as soon as I made that decision the commissions came flooding in.” He works for UK column to produce a podcast in which he talks to guests while painting their portraits. In doing so he gives prominence to selected people from the UK alternative media. Among others his guests have included Bob Moran, Tania Edwards, Abi Roberts and James Delingpole. In recent days Fern seems to have made writing about Moran and me something of a full time occupation.

Fern suggests that I have been disrespectful towards a friend. Personally I see the truth as more deserving of loyalty than any sacred cow but in fact, although I was friendly towards Bob Moran in the way I would be with most people, I only saw him at events. When I attended his events it was usually because I was invited by Tania Edwards. The one event for which I paid for my ticket was the show Moran performed at Dingwalls in Camden in London. Tickets were priced at £33.

Someone who has publicly endorsed Fern’s hit piece is Anna Rayner, who was formerly Alan Miller’s right hand woman at the Together Declaration. She said Fern, “absolutely nails it,” and commented of me that, “lord knows some of us tried to disabuse him of this bollocks.” Indeed they did and over a long period of time. As she has brought this into the public domain I can relate that she tried to do so by providing nonsensical stories by way of explanation. One being that Moran spent the week prior to Ed’s reported death making a painting for him. This was the week in which Moran told Delingpole he had not been painting. The painting is one that he could complete in a day. It was a painting of Ed’s funeral. James Delingpole would later repeat this explanation saying that Moran made the painting (of Ed’s funeral) to cheer Ed up.

The outrage and disappointment of Bob Moran’s friends at my questioning of him contrasts with his reported amusement. Jake Fern published his article on 9th June but on 30th May, James Delingpole wrote in relation to his podcast with me that, “Bob will be amused by this. He admires Francis - isn’t at all offended - and praised him for his bravery in attacking such a popular figure (ie Bob). This was not meant sarcastically.”

As a commenter named Sophie wrote in reply to Fern,

“If we want truth we should be brave enough to expose anyone, whether a friend or not. And if people want to rebut Francis’ evidence they can do that without resorting to name calling. We’ve seen that name calling tactic before to shut people down. It’s just more blatantly obvious now. But it’s great for exposing people, including those that defend the name calling.”

James Delingpole’s immediate response to the podcast in which I aired my concerns was to phone me and suggest that he had pressed the wrong button and that the recording may have been lost. Then he said, “but then you’ll think I’ve done this on purpose.” The podcast has since aired but with disclaimers that questions of Bob have been happily resolved. This is not the case.

I wrote my essay after the podcast. When the article was shared in James Delingpole’s Telegram group I responded to criticism politely but firmly. Delingpole’s assistant Andrew Warwick (known as Darley) variously suggested that me or my comments were, mental, sad, lacking in wisdom, envious, and autistic. As administrator, Darley removed people from the group who voiced dissent or even added a ‘like,’ emoji to a comment of mine. One person was removed for simply writing the word ‘projection,’ to describe Darley’s insults.

It became apparent to me that Darley was not even familiar with the contents of my piece. Eventually Delingpole commented to declare that the questioning was ‘wrong.’ When he later addressed the subject, it was clear to me that he had not engaged with my article. Both Darley and Delingpole were ignorant of my mention of behavioural scientist Patrick Fagan, and the recency of Moran’s association with Fagan and other figures mentioned. They also made explanations and arguments that had been answered or contradicted what is known.

Darley changed the settings of the Telegram Channel Chat group so that messages would be deleted after one month and set a timer so that users have to wait several minutes to reply.

All of this seems to be in contradiction to Delingpole’s professed notions of following the truth wherever it may lead, avoiding sacred cows (which he describes as the ‘not Kate Bush’ tendency to overlook the failings of one’s favourites) and requiring the kind of (signed in triplicate) evidence that is almost impossible to achieve of secret state machinations.

So far I have been told various reasons to explain away Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie and to deter me from questioning it. These include that

-Bob Moran made the painting of Ed’s funeral while he was alive as a gift to cheer Ed up

-Bob Moran was working on the painting of Ed’s funeral a week before Ed died.

-Bob Moran may have met Ed but it is not clear if or where this occurred.

-Bob Moran does not have to explain himself -although he has already tried to but what he said was factually incorrect.

-Bob Moran may have misread or skip-read a post and then made a cartoon and eulogy.

-Bob Moran was tricked.

-Bob Moran is amused and praises me for my bravery in questioning him.

-an explanation will be offered at some stage.

Since I published my article a great many words have been written and posted. Many of them have been unflattering, unnecessary, and unhelpful. Some have been obfuscatory, some misleading, and some false.

Many people, some of them notable figures in the UK alternative media have sought to demean me or my article in some way. My articles do not usually generate this kind of attention. In stark contrast to this response Bob Moran has remained silent, allowing his friends to attack on his behalf. This gives the appearance of co-ordination and a closing of ranks.

Unfortunately nothing that has been written has provided a legitimate explanation of Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie.

This is Part Two of three articles.

Part One: The curious case of Ed the Techie

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie is here

Thank you for reading and many thanks to my subscribers.
You can support my work by

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Show notes

Network of Sikh organisations confirming murder weapon was not a kirpan

US simultaneously worried about kirpan threat

Ireland simultaneously worried about George Floyd-esque murders

Judge's sentencing remarks to Vikram Digwa

Telegraph timeline of Henry Nowak’s murder (might need paywall remover)

Leo's 7 part thread on the initial response to the ‘sellebrity’ endorsed narrative of Nowak murder.

Leo on the symbolism of the still ‘demon claws’ photo released in connection with the murder of Henry Nowak

Grok's optimistic assessment of Henry Nowak’s ability to communicate with the reported injuries.

Video of Henry Nowak’s killer, Vikram Digwa, threatening people during a road rage incident with the same knife he later used to kill Henry.

Support:

Thank you for watching and many thanks to my subscribers.
You can help support this work by

1. Subscribing monthly here on substack

2. Making a one-off contribution via BuyMeaCoffee

3. Contributing in either way via bank transfer to Santander, account number 00758982, sort code 09-01-36, account name F X ONeill (please use your email address as a reference if you’d like me to acknowledge receipt).

Buy a candle to support Leo’s Conservation work

Buy or commission Francis’s artwork:

Your support is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Subscribe now

Show notes

My article ‘The Curious Case of Ed the Techie’ which contains all relevant links and images.

Support:

Thank you for watching and many thanks to my subscribers.
You can help support this work by

1. Subscribing monthly here on substack

2. Making a one-off contribution via BuyMeaCoffee

3. Contributing in either way via bank transfer to Santander, account number 00758982, sort code 09-01-36, account name F X ONeill (please use your email address as a reference if you’d like me to acknowledge receipt).

Buy a candle to support Leo’s Conservation work

Buy or commission Francis’s artwork:

Your support is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Subscribe now

Lucy Connolly and Ed the Techie: A timeline.

30th May, 2025: I submit an online form on the UK Government website asking for confirmation of the prison in which Lucy Connolly is being held and requesting her prisoner number.

28th June, 2025: in a discussion with Miri AF and Leo Biddle I publicise the fact that I have made this request.

3rd July, 2025: (34 days after submitting my enquiry), I receive a prisoner number and a form with a signature from Lucy Connolly stating that she is willing to disclose her location to me.

8th July 2025: I write to Lucy Connolly.

12th July: Comedian Alex Belfield (who had himself apparently been released from jail on June 12th 2025) publishes a tweet making Connolly’s prisoner number publicly available and inviting people to write to her.

July 13th 2025: User of social media platform X (formerly twitter), Ed the Techie, makes Lucy Connolly’s prison number and address publicly available. Ed the Techie and Alex Belfield have waited to do so until a few weeks before her release on 21st August 2025. She had been sentenced on 17th October, 2024.

15th July 2025: Ed the Techie abuses those questioning the Lucy Connolly story

15th July 2025: X user Martin asks, “Why would a random internet pal be trusted to dish out her prison number for funky pigeon cards? Surely this would be done by the family or a close friend of many decades not Ed the Techie who's supposedly only ever been in touch via text based services?”

Bob Moran and Ed the Techie: A timeline.

27th April 2026, 7.46pm: Bob Moran announces the death of X user Ed Chanter (known as Ed the Techie) with a eulogy and a personalised cartoon in commemoration of the reported death. The post receives 190 comments in tribute.

28th April 2026: Ed the Techie’s X account is used, apparently by his family, to announce his death at 5.37am the previous day. 191 commenters pay their respects.

28th April 2026, 10:10pm Lucy Connolly claims Ed as one of her “original twitter crew.”

28th April 2026, 10:28pm: I question the disproportionate reaction to Ed’s death.

28th April 2026,1:17pm: General Ripper on X asks, “Can anybody explain what made Ed the Techie such a great character and why so many people are mourning his apparent death? Also, why are they mourning the death of what is essentially an online X character? Why are they not using his real name?”

29th April 2026, 1:23pm: Mark Finch asks, “Who's Ed the Techie? The only time I ever heard of him was when he was calling those discerning enough 2 question the Lucy Connolly bullshit "maggots" & "fucking cunts". Why the unprecedented gushing? "One of our original Twitter crew"...What?!!”

29th April 2026, 5.30pm: Charlotte Binns replies to Mark Finch in defence of Ed the Techie and suggests Bob Moran “can back me up on this.” Moran answers the summons and attempts to explain his relationship with Ed the Techie.

30th April 2026: Charlotte Binns shares a photograph of herself with Lucy Connolly

30th April 2026: I publish memes about the disproportionate reaction to the death of Ed the Techie.

2nd May 2026: Jacqui Deevoy posts on X that Graham Atkinson, known as the Red Pill Phramacist has died. Deevoy’s post receives 11 comments.

2nd May 2026: James Delingpole publishes a podcast with Bob Moran that was first uploaded to his website on 22nd April 2026

2nd May 2026: One of Bob Moran’s close friends messages me to tell me that Ed the Techie had attended Bob Moran’s book launch or a book signing and that I had met him. I had only attended the launch and had not met him. Both Ed and Moran’s relationship with him are conveyed as unremarkable. Ed was apparently not significant enough for the location and event of Moran’s only meeting with him to be accurately recalled.

3rd May: I ask Bob Moran to explain his comments regarding Ed the Techie.

I do not receive a reply.

3rd May 2026: In their first podcast since his death, Ed’s friends, including former police officer Sgt Grumpy, spend the opening 15 minutes warning people about questioning Ed the Techie.

5th May 2026: I publish episode 14 of The Big Picture in which Leo Biddle and I discuss Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie.

6th May 2026: James Delingpole tweets of Ed’s podcast, “Am I going to have to force myself to watch one of these videos so I can see who this tragic dead person was?”

Delingpole’s close friend Bob Moran had clearly never mentioned his brilliant dying friend Ed the Techie, despite having a two hour conversation with Delingpole as Ed was dying.

19th May 2026. X user Carey Sue asks, “Hey Bob, bit confused about your post regarding Ed the techie and why he warranted his very own Bob Artwork. Was he really such an inspiration?”

27th May 2026. I retweet Carey Sue’s unanswered question.

31st May 2026: Another of Bob Moran’s friends tells me that Moran was working on the painting for Ed in the week before Ed’s death on Monday 27th April. Moran coincidentally finished the painting as Ed was dying, and the next of kin then decided to release it. Contradictorily Moran told Delingpole on Wednesday April 22nd he was in the middle of a creative crisis and hadn’t been painting. He was also able to produce similar cartoons for the Telegraph in one day.

In any event we might ask why Moran would paint a picture of Ed’s funeral to give to Ed before he died. Are all those depicted in the image, Trump, Johnson, Zelensky, Homer Simpson, a muppet, and Ed the Techie, to some extent, fictional characters?

1st June 2026. I ask Bob Moran, “Would you like to join Leo Biddle and me to talk about this?”

Contradictory Values and Opinions

13th July 2025. Ed the Techie attempted to vouch for X account @Twat_the_Nat who was criticising Miri Finch for questioning the Lucy Connolly story. @Twat_the_Nat refused to answer Miri as to whether or not she/he worked for the police. Ed tweeted, “Oh fuck off Miri, I don't have time for your paranoid nonsense.”

18th July 2025. Ed wrote, “To those who think Lucy isn't a real person, eat shit retards.”

25th July, 2025. Ed the Techie declared, “I'm so fucking sick of these maggots. If you think Lucy Connolly is a fake person then unfollow me, block me or otherwise get the fuck out of my existence. I don't have time for you fucking cunts any more.”

21st August 2025. Bob Moran states that he considers the Lucy Connolly story to be “a complete load of nonsense, phoning-it-in propaganda.”

Apr 4, 2025 2026. Ed praises Daily Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson, “Well done @AllisonPearson Excellent article and we need to get Lucy TF out of prison, immediately”

Bob publicly reviles Allison Pearson, his former employers The Daily Telegraph, and the political party Reform, but he celebrates Ed the Techie who aligns with their support of Lucy Connolly. In fact Ed seems to have been a protagonist in, rather than a dupe of, the Lucy Connolly story.

Supporters of Connolly also include Dean Schiavi (of Tradewinds, the fake holiday company), Bernie Spofforth (who claimed to take a non existent holiday with Tradewinds), Dan Wootton, Andrew Bridgen, and Richard Tice. Allison Pearson also promoted Tradewinds.

As well as Allison Pearson and Lucy Connolly, Ed the Techie promoted Hugo Talks, Robert F Kennedy jr, Peter McCullough, Del Bigtree, Tucker Carlson, Robert Malone, Joe Rogan, Anna Brees, Tess Lawrie, Abi Roberts and Dr Zelenko but he hated .

Where Bob Moran expressed disdain for Andrew Bridgen, Ed the Techie volunteered excited support of the politician. Ed was clearly engaged in the political system that Moran vehemently rejected by urging people not to vote.

Like Bob Moran and Andrew Bridgen, Ed the Techie initially supported lockdown and posted on Instagram in support of the ‘Clap for Carers,’ propaganda drive. Unlike Bob, Ed believed in the fake Trump assassination attempt, and that Trump upset the establishment.

On his podcast Ed and his friends examined a range of unlikely theories (claiming for example that there were bases on the moons of other planets) but strangely, Ed vehemently drew the line at questioning Lucy Connolly.

Ed Chanter worked for a firm called Shaping Tomorrow which describes itself as “a unique AI-driven continuous horizon scanning and foresight service that provides organizations with strategic intelligence to inform policy, act on opportunities, mitigate threats and become more resilient to emerging change.”

It offers services to governments, national security bodies, as well as international organisations that include, “spotting the forces that could upend your industry before they hit.”

It gives customers, “the chance to lead rather than follow,” and claims, “uncertainty becomes less threatening when you can see and manage risks clearly. You’ll know which risks matter most, how they might unfold, and what you can do about them.”

Moran is a vociferous critic of AI, declaring it to be of low quality and easily recognisable. This attitude could encourage a false sense of security should more advanced AI technology exist and be used against the public.

Ed said of his role that, “Shaping Tomorrow is a series of ongoing technical challenges - and opportunities to make ideas a reality.”

Ed was suspected of working for the police after anti-vaccine protestors in a group he had helped form, were encouraged to storm the offices of the MHRA in Canary Wharf in 2021, in a demonstration that led to ten arrests.

Common Values

Bob Moran wrote of Ed the Techie:

“He was one of the funniest, kindest, and most consistently right among our ragtag band of online troublemakers.

Ed was one of those rare diamonds who managed to come through the last six years without abandoning any values or principles - always understanding what was good and right - and, just as importantly, never losing his sense of fun.”

Who were this “ragtag band of troublemakers,” and Lucy Connolly’s “original twitter crew?”

Moran also wrote of Ed,

“Once or twice over the years, I felt that Ed and I saw the story slightly differently.
However, I never once felt that we did not share the same core values. I never once saw him contradict any of his moral principles.”

Explaining his attachment to Ed, Moran wrote,“What I have a problem with is people taking up morally disgusting positions as a result of believing a story, whether I think that story is real or fake.”

How does this square with Ed’s “morally disgusting,” abuse of Miri Finch and people like Moran who questioned the Lucy Connolly story? Bob Moran apparently does not know of Ed’s support of Lucy Connolly and praise for Allison Pearson. Similarly, in his support of Daily Telegraph writer Allison Pearson, Ed does not appear to know of Moran’s publicly declared antipathy to her and the newspaper that sacked him.

This suggests that they were not close friends or that Bob Moran is lacking integrity.

When Moran writes, “I can still respect someone for believing a story that I think is bullshit,” this does not make sense. Nobody respects somebody for believing false stories, though we are sometimes able to respect others in spite of them doing so. Moran is an articulate man. Perhaps he made an error. Even so, this statement does not correspond with his usual online behaviour in which he shows no respect but instead contempt for those who believe state narratives such as those around the lockdowns and vaccines. His unequivocal and uncompromising manner is after all what led to his sacking from the Daily Telegraph.

Unremarkable and unfunny

Bob Moran forbids modification of his cartoons but Ed the Techie would add to each artwork a candle with a cartoon of Volodymyr Zelensky’s face on it. That this was defacement or vandalisation was acknowledged by Ed referring to it as ‘vlandalism.’ Bob Moran is a highly intelligent man who doesn’t suffer fools, so it’s surprising that he thought this was acceptable and even amusing. A recent reasonably clever modification of one of Moran’s artworks was ignored by the cartoonist.

Elsewhere Moran has said, “It's intensely irritating that somebody has taken my artwork, and attached a message and a gag that is not mine....I think it's reasonable for me to get annoyed about random internet users butchering my stuff and then sharing it as their own creation.”

He has previously stated, “I don't know why people do this - I'm making it all free to use, I only ask that you don't mess with the original image.”

For years Moran’s policy has been, “You're welcome to share my work in its original form as much as you like but please do not edit and manipulate it to your own ends.”

Yet Moran made an exception for Ed whose interaction with him online was limited and superficial.

Bob Moran’s friends of Israel

16th December 2025: Bob Moran and his father Tom Moran snr, featured with Tania Edwards in a live recording of their show Pedants’ Revolt. This performance was attended by Friends of Israel, Dr. Clare Craig and behavioural scientist Patrick Fagan -despite Bob’s infamous ‘Kosher’ cartoon and his depiction of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as Saturn.

Fagan has written a book on behavioural science and nudges with Laura Dodsworth in which they “…uncover (the) most deceptive techniques and expose the hidden tactics used to influence you, from social media to subliminal messages.”

In 2024, Fagan’s co-author, Laura Dodsworth, reported Bob Moran’s ‘Kosher’ cartoon to the Met police, writing, “I hope that @CPSUK and @metpoliceuk are investigating the cartoon and tweet.”

Patrick Fagan (platformed by GBNews and Bloomberg) took part in the performance on stage alongside Moran. Fagan was formerly Lead Psychologist at Cambridge Analytica which improperly harvested data from millions of Facebook users for political advertising. He is now Chief Scientific Officer at behavioural science consultancy Capuchin of which Rusere Shoniwa observes “everything about Fagan’s nudge company smells like a packed cow-shed on a hot summer’s day” and that “Dodsworth’s and Fagan’s anti-nudge charter looks like a triple bluff on nudging.”

Along with another of Fagan’s friends, Allison Pearson, Dodsworth is on the board of directors for the British Friends of Israel. In 2021 Moran had appeared on stage alongside another of the directors, Francis Hoar, when they teamed up for a debate about Digital ID hosted by .

Laura Dodsworth also championed the Lucy Connolly story. Patrick Fagan’s friends Pearson and Dodsworth are both friendly with Bernie Spofforth who sold masks, and like Lucy Connolly, claimed to be arrested for tweeting after the alleged Southport stabbing. Bernie Spofforth publicly offered to speak with Leo Biddle and me and then blocked us online. Pearson has also claimed to be investigated by the police for tweeting.

Bob’s Book

After the Pedants Revolt show the performers retired to a venue called Satan’s Whiskers.

There had been another curious choice of venue for Bob Moran’s book launch on 13th October, 2024 which was held at The Travellers Club, at 106 Pall Mall in London.

“106 Pall Mall was built to enable the Club members to entertain their guests, visiting Ambassadors, leading politicians and Prime Ministers, and members of the Royal Family, all of whom continue to visit the Clubhouse to the present day.”

When I queried this Moran told me it was because they couldn’t secure any other venue due to the controversy around his views. Moran thanked Baron Nicholas Monson “without whom the wonderful reception to celebrate the book's launch would not have been possible.”

Moran’s book comprised of a collection of his cartoons from 2020 to 2024. The first illustration in the book features the words ‘Controlled Opposition,’ twice, SHILL! written in block capitals, and the imperative, “Trust No-one!”

“Sheep in wolf’s clothing,” is written above, “with a wolf in wolf’s clothing.”

Moran’s capital letter signature of BOB has been a cause for concern to the extent that he has publicly addressed its resemblance to two 3’s around the number 101, both of which have masonic symbolism. Moran explains that he signs it that way because “there aren’t really any other ways of writing Bob,” when clearly it is not necessary to write it all in capital letters.

At his exhibition entitled Paradigms, that ran 23rd May- 2nd June, 2025, at CasildART Gallery, Moran included an installation entitled ‘Gotcha!’ priced at £33,000.

Flying monkeys

Amplified twitterer and producer of Ickonic and the Mike Graham show, Charlotte Binns, was quick to defend both Ed the Techie and Bob Moran from questions. She then blocked Miri, Leo, and me on X. She was asked whether she thought Lucy Connolly was a genuine freedom fighter and ducked the question. Moran’s friend Charlotte Binns publicly endorsed a false allegation of sexual harassment against me and then denied doing so, presumably after forgetting she had previously admitted to it.

After Leo and I posted our discussion of Bob’s relationship with Ed on substack, trained actor Abi Roberts posted numerous comments in defence of Bob Moran. She has since deleted her substack account and comments, having previously deleted her twitter account. Sgt Grumpy and Ed were friendly with Abi and both repeatedly appeared on her TNT show.

Like Ed, Abi has been celebrated in a cartoon by Bob Moran, as has James Delingpole.

An X account named Seraphina also vouched for Bob and Ed on X before deleting her account. Graham Kemp, an associate of Binns and Roberts, was another of the foul-mouthed and abusive defenders of the Lucy Connolly storyline. Kemp received an intriguing book dedication from his friend, Bob Moran, and posted in remembrance of Ed.

28th May 2026: I spoke with James Delingpole on his podcast and related some of the details provided here. During the conversation he expressed his concerns about Darren ‘Daz’ Nesbit of the Light Newspaper. Prior to Ed’s reported death Darren had defended Bob Moran from suspicions that he was associated with Marcel Jahnke whose funding of alternative news outfit UK Column has recently caused controversy. In contrast with Nesbitt’s defence of Moran, Delingpole related that Daz had publicly written of him that, “Delingpole is classic MI5, and very odd, in a not good way.”

Ed’s friends

3rd May 2026: Amplified X user Darren Denslow (aka Darren of Plymouth) defended Ed the Techie and said of me that, “his behabiour (sic) lately can only be described as a bit nuts, He has been warned, but he continues down a path that will ultimately make him even more irrelevent (sic) than he already was, as for MIRI - never heard of them.”

This came a few weeks after Denslow said I was a “top man,” but only days after I questioned Bob and Ed the Techie.

Denslow asserted that the, “controlled op narrative… is counter productive and often wrong,” and said of Miri Finch and me that, “it has now become very boring - they are pariahs attacking dead people,”

Bob Moran, Darren Denslow, and Darren Nesbitt have John Mappin as a mutual friend. John Mappin promotes the political parties Reform and Restore, and helped launch Turning Point UK which is funded by the Koch brothers. He has connections with Trump and at one time flew a Q flag from his Camelot Castle (CC 33) where he hosted gatherings for amplified people associated with the anti-lockdown movement from the social circles around GB News, the Together Declaration and Talk TV/Radio.

Mappin is friendly with and introduced Candace Owens and George Farmer, the latter of whose father has connections to Chatham House. Mappin was also a friend and funder of Charlie Kirk and launched Turning Point UK at the Royal Automobile Club which is owned by the the Grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of England, Prince Michael of Kent. He is an evangelising scientologist and has acted professionally in films.

As mentioned, Bob Moran does not suffer fools gladly. Both Ed the Techie and Mappin are the type of characters who seemed designed to be seen as such. It is very difficult to understand what Moran has in common with them.

On April 30th, another of John Mappin’s friends, former page three girl turned internet influencer Leilani Dowding was pictured with Lucy Connolly and Charlotte Binns. Binns is employed by Ickonic, and Mappin and David Icke are friends.

Paying Moran a few bob :

The cartoons Bob Moran sold between his sacking in October 2021 and the closure of his exhibition on 2nd June 2025 are listed on his website and the total sales amount to £1,213,000. This does not include any income from prints, books, or from tickets sold for Moran’s shows and events. £1,125,000 came from paintings made between 2021 and 2024.

In addition, throughout 2022 Moran was also paid by the Canadian Democracy Fund in a, “zero editorial influence deal, to produce three cartoons a week and make them free to any publisher in the world.” He retained the artworks from which he could make sales or prints. The CDF paid is funded by anonymous donations and Moran’s salary has not been disclosed.

It seems that Moran has repeatedly been paid significantly more than the going rate for comparable work. There are two comparisons we can make. One is to the prices commanded by current practising political cartoonists such as Chris Beetles whose prices are £1750 with some works at £2750. Another comparison is to Old Master works on paper at auction. This latter category of drawings are finite, widely recognised as historic artefacts, and provide a time tested investment. These sell at a range of prices similar to those of Moran’s.

In 2018, it was reported that cartoonist Matt Pritchett of the Telegraph was paid £650,000 per year which was estimated at approximately £2,500 per cartoon. Pritchett was paid £200,000 more than the editor which suggests something of the importance of the cartoonist to mainstream outlets. Individual works by Pritchett sell on the open market for £250.

Since 2021 Moran has sold 110 cartoons at an average of £11,027 per sale with a highest sale of £75,000. Moran has achieved these sales despite his work only being of appeal to a dissident audience. We might ask if we were to auction a Moran painting on eBay whether demand is such that we might achieve similar prices?

When a politician is paid a disproportionately high amount for an after dinner speech or a corporate consultancy role, we might question why. When pop stars and actors are richly rewarded it is often assumed that they have a role in social conditioning.

Undercover Influence

In my experience those characters that appear among us to mislead or discredit the search for truth often follow certain rites of passage and display common characteristics. They sometimes drop down to us from higher up in the established hierarchy of the mainstream media, politics, or authorities, and retain a sizeable presence in the mainstream or social media.

They often undergo a high profile and embarrassing rite of passage that severs them from the mainstream and validates their position as a persecuted dissident. Often their own behaviour in this conflict is questionable and gives plausible cause for their exile to those who oppose the views they profess. They might cite sympathetic reasons of emotional distress or grief to mitigate their actions. The effect of their censure is to serve as a cautionary tale to deter others from speaking out.

Such agents can be abrasive and caustic with those unfamiliar with or opposed to the views they espouse, creating hostility and a barrier to engagement and understanding. Their stance is polarising and adversarial.

They do not introduce new information but instead focus on historical psychological operations the function of which has already been achieved. They are slow to the truth and adopt it only when the lies become untenable. They often invoke what Miri Finch has called a ‘conspiracy tax,’ in which their followers are encouraged to part with their money. They do not suffer personally or professionally in the manner of a genuine dissident.

In this context we can consider, among others, the cases of Russell Brand, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, Andrew Bridgen, Lawrence Fox, Fiona Rose Diamond, Debbie Hicks, Abi Roberts, Lucy Connolly, and Ed the Techie.

Bob Moran was sacked by the Daily Telegraph following his Twitter spat with supposed NHS Doctor and alleged state actor Rachel Clarke when he said “She deserves to be verbally abused in public for the rest of her worthless existence. They all do.” He was forced to make an apology in which he emotively cited the ill health of his child.

Yet it appears that Moran had reason to oppose his dismissal. In June 2025, when the Daily Telegraph’s Allison Pearson publicly described fellow writer Miri Finch as a “mad cow,” for her views on Lucy Connolly, Bob Moran’s former employers insisted that Pearson’s comments were beyond the scope of their censure.

Moran has focused primarily on attacking those politicians, media and medics publicly responsible for lockdowns and injections. By his own admission he was late to oppose the measures, having first made cartoons in line with government and media policy (see 43 mins). Like Abi Roberts he emphasises the moral rather than criminal import of lockdown though immorality is perhaps less subject to legal consequences.

The targets of his satirical lampooning are largely the visible political and media puppets of the system, no different from targets offered by the mainstream media. Moran recognises the superficial role of these puppets saying recently, “I can’t spend the rest of my career just drawing marionettes.”

That Moran has long been aware of such puppetry is evidenced from his comments on voting since at least 2022. His rejection of voting continues despite the successes highlighted by Miri Finch of the block voting of organised groups such as Muslim communities.

When asked to share his website details on James Delingpole’s podcast Moran said, “At the moment everything’s more or less stopped,” and he has surrendered his blue tick on X meaning he is no longer afforded the privileges of a paid subscription to the site.

Current timeline

Since airing my concerns on James Delingpole’s podcast on 28th April 2026, the conversation was published with the disclaimer from Delingpole’s administrator, Darley, that, “You definitely needn’t worry. It’s going to end happily, just you wait.”

May 30th 2026: Darley added: “I’m fairly sure James will relay Bob’s explanation but don’t worry, Bob’s a good un.”

James Delingpole offered, “I’ve spoken to Bob. It’s all good. All will be revealed at some stage.”

On his substack Delingpole added, “Bob will be amused by this. He admires Francis - isn’t at all offended - and praised him for his bravery in attacking such a popular figure (ie Bob). This was not meant sarcastically.” This contrasts with the concern and anger voiced to me by Moran’s friends.

1st June 2026: Darley concluded: “I think Bob got tricked.” The fact is that Moran was not tricked. He provided a description of Ed the Techie that bore no relation to reality and he has been unable to substantiate it.

James Delingpole’s father has recently died. Bob Moran paid his respects in the usual way with a couple of warm consolotary lines. In recent times other well known people in the UK freedom movement have been reported to have died. These have included Anna de Buisseret, Cathleen Fox, and Graham Atkinson (who was better known as the Red Pill Pharmacist). None have received the over the top response afforded to Ed the Techie, and none have provoked an effusive passage of prose or an artwork from Bob Moran.

What was the nature of Bob Moran’s relationship with Ed the Techie? No explanation has been provided and my concerns and questions remain unanswered.

This is Part One of three articles.

Part Two: A Strange Response is here.

Part Three: The Funeral of Ed the Techie is here

Thank you for reading and many thanks to my subscribers.
You can support my work by

1. Subscribing monthly here on substack

2. Making a one-off contribution via BuyMeaCoffee

3. Contributing in either way via bank transfer to Santander, account number 00758982, sort code 09-01-36, account name F X ONeill (please use your email address as a reference if you’d like me to acknowledge receipt).

Buy or commission Francis’s artwork:

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Francis O’Neill and PsyOps of the New World Order

Artist and investigator speaks to Common Knowledge about a range of Psychological Operations enacted by governments across the world, with special attention to C19, 9/11 and Hillsborough.

Sources mentioned:

Jonathan Sumption, Desmond Swayne, Peter Hitchens, Charles Walker push the jabs

Visitors to the Oxford anti-lockdown outreach gazebo

Hillsborough Ripple Effect documentary

Videos of the demolition of the World Trade Centre on 9/11

A comparison of the demolition of the WTC on 9/11 with controlled demolitions

Footage of the controlled demolition of 47 storey WTC Building 7 in 6.5 seconds.

An article on the relevance of WTC Building 7 including numerous links

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