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Members' Home Addresses

I agree. That despicable manoeuvre was carried out in full knowledge of the fact that my use of the nom de plume had been explicitly approved by the electoral registration officer. In any case, I had always accurately stated my real name on the voter registration form when signing it, while clearly indicating that the different name on the register was an agreed nom de plume. Terry Scriven did not even have the decency to inform me of what he had done, but at once telephoned a local reporter in order to use the press to twist the knife that he had aimed at my back. Fortunately it missed its target, as the following report in the Lymington Times, dated 16 August 2008, makes clear. The headline is "Chief Constable Scorns Call for MP Investigation" and the story reads as follows:""A political rival who reported a New Forest MP to the Police for the way he registered to vote has been blasted by the Chief Constable for wasting officers' time. Liberal Democrat Terry Scriven—who will contest the New Forest East seat at the next General Election—had complained about a discrepancy in Conservative MP Julian Lewis's habit of using a false name on the electoral roll, to keep secret where he lives for security reasons. But Mr. Scriven's action was scorned by Hampshire's top policeman, Paul Kernaghan, who rejected his request for an investigation and said Dr. Lewis had acted 'in good faith' on the advice of the District Council officer in charge of electoral registration. Mr. Kernaghan wrote to the MP: 'I sincerely hope that [Mr. Scriven] will decide to move on, as it is my personal view that this "complaint" does not enhance our collective respect for democracy and the electoral process.'"" [Hon. Members: "Hear, hear."] I am glad that colleagues agree. Mr. Kernaghan continued:""The employment of scarce police resources to investigate whether or not a technical breach of the legislation had taken place would be a total waste of effort and not in the public interest"." After that outrageous episode, I realised that I was dealing with an extremely unscrupulous individual. Some of the publicity surrounding Terry Scriven resulted in my being contacted by people who had previously suffered at his hands. Three were from the military police, but I cannot report what they said in language permissible in this Chamber. It boiled down to the fact that Terry Scriven's conduct had shown him to be a devious and two-faced bully who operates in the dark and never owns up to what he has done. My experience has confirmed that assessment in every respect.He blatantly refuses to answer any questions put to him about his own conduct, his sole response being to accuse me of trying to "intimidate" him by posing such questions. That is irony indeed, coming from a man who has to date put in no fewer than 16 freedom of information requests to the House of Commons, 12 of which directly relate to me and my staff. He has refused to say, inter alia, why he used the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request—unsuccessfully—the address of my flat in London, given his repeated statements of support for my campaign against the disclosure of MPs' home addresses. He has also refused to say why, when he tried to have me investigated by the police, he told the Lymington Times reporter that he had done so but did not tell me, or why he complained, also unsuccessfully, to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards about my parliamentary caseworker, but did not tell her about this. He would not say why, when he complained to Sir Neil Thorne about the frequency of my participation in the armed forces parliamentary scheme—the AFPS—this was yet again done behind my back. Sir Neil is admired in all parts of the House for setting up and running the AFPS. On 16 March this year, he wrote to tell me how much disruption Scriven's vendetta was causing. Sir Neil states:""Since my last correspondence with him, it has come to my notice that Mr. Scriven has been in touch with at least six different officials about the Scheme…although I am not directly affected, those who are being asked to respond to these numerous questions about the AFPS are being deprived of time which they ought to be able to spend on operational matters. As you"—" that is me, Julian Lewis—""seemed to be the target of Mr Scriven's original questions, I wonder if you can throw any light on what is the basis for this barrage of further enquiries about the Scheme? Until now, the Scheme has enjoyed unparalleled cross-party support and I am frankly concerned that someone seems intent on trying to disrupt or in some way undermine it in pursuit of some personal political objective."" The only advice I could give Sir Neil was that this manic and disruptive activity was part of a consistent pattern of behaviour that I have pieced together with the help of those who have encountered Terry Scriven in the past.