How NOT to deal with a protester, LOL

**bb1** Tue Sep 24, 2013 2:07 pm

http://news.sky.com/story/1145764/iain-dale-scraps-with-protester-at-conference

Iain Dale Scraps With Protester At Conference
Iain Dale, a protester and the protester's dog end up in an unseemly tangle after their clash on the Brighton seafront.

[video]

Blogger Iain Dale has scuffled with an anti-nuclear protester during interviews outside Labour's party conference in Brighton.

Mr Dale was trying to stop Stuart Holmes disrupting a publicity drive for Damian McBride's memoirs as they staged a series of interviews on the seafront.

The blogger is also the publisher of the former spin doctor's controversial memoir Power Trip, which has overshadowed the party conference this week.

He grabbed the pensioner's rucksack and physically hauled him out of the way as Mr McBride recorded an interview with ITV's Daybreak.

The pair grappled on the pavement as the interview continued, with Mr Holmes' dog eagerly joining in the fray and barking.

The terrier - which had a placard saying "No Nuke's" on its back - seemed to misplace his loyalty though, and jumped up to bite his owner on his bottom.

Mr Holmes attempted to make the best of the situation, holding up his own banner to photographers busy recording the scrap.

After a few moments, the pair separated and dusted themselves down, and he continued trying to edge his way into view of the cameras.

Writing on his blog later, Mr Dale said he had been waiting in his car ready to drive Mr McBride to his next interview when he spotted the protester.

He said he was holding a placard and "filling a lot of the screen and totally distracting from the interview".

"I did what any self-respecting publisher would do, got out of the car, ran across, got him in an armlock and pulled him out of the shot.

"He started resisting and we ended up in an unseemly tumble on the ground ... I was determined this idiot shouldn't disrupt what was an important interview for my author."

He added: "He threw a punch at me but missed, and the only injury was when the man's dog bit him on the bum."

Mr Dale joked that he knew he "shouldn't have had three Weetabix this morning" and "now you can see why my publishing company is called Biteback".

He insisted he did not regret the altercation.

"Everyone has an inalienable right to protest, but no one has a right to make a continual nuisance of themselves and interrupt interviews like that," he said.

Mr Holmes has been protesting outside party conference venues for the last 30 years and thought the media had been gathering to interview Ed Miliband.

He said he had been keen to confront the Labour leader after being "totally blanked" by him at the TUC conference in Bournemouth.

"I was not ruining the interview. I was just in the background. I was not saying anything," he insisted after being quizzed by Sussex Police.

"This giant of a guy turned up and grabbed hold of me. I struggled free and in the process we ended up on the floor. Someone chucked my hat over the top and I had to go down and get it."

He indicated he was unlikely to take legal action, but would discuss it with his solicitors and "think it over".

"Nobody got injured - well, he might have a few bruises," he added.

The clash provoked an outpouring of jokes - and some criticism - on Twitter.

One poster called Matt Provost wrote: "@IainDale A.) You had no right to lay a finger on him. That's assault. B.) He has every right to be a nuisance and to stand where he likes."

========

Dale has, naturally, guaranteed that the protester has now got more publicity than he could ever have dreamed of. rofl