I recently had an interchange with an old-school journalist, Chris Birt. The core subject was trust (and trusts) but we came at it this one from a different angle. Enjoy!
The Context
Chris made contact with me a while back. It went something like this:
“You wrote a book by John Ingley a few years back and apart from saying a few negative things about me, you also said that you’d never met me. I’m down your way on occasion. How about we meet up and fix that?”
“Sure!” I said. “Anytime, anywhere but make it useful and let me know what you want to know.”
Chris recently told me a little more which I published . . . “What I tell you is private and not for publication. Please remove it and in the process [justification after justification followed]. I’ll look you up when I get down your way”.
The Moral/Internet Law
So I replied:
Your request to remove something – No. It is unethical to do so. The correct way to do this is to write more, not to do as you ask. The Terms re: ROR detail this more clearly why.
Being a little older than most, Chris obviously is not aware of this rule that has come in simultaneously with the Internet. With removals you indicate that you can play with the truth, and it is easy to stand accused. Nowadays we do an UPDATE or COMMENT or BLOG AGAIN if we have changed data or views, we never (well, rarely) delete!
Chris continued to show his age, valuing accuracy over attitude, so I told him:
Your opinions re: the value of my blog are welcome but I disagree. We clearly have differing opinions on some matters.
This is a polite way of saying, “Nah! You’re wrong!” I continued:
You are obviously a journalist and your reputation is important to you and while some of this may be [p]ut down to John’s ill health or others’ influence
butJohn’s take on you and your style was John’s. He grew on me in terms of credibility and I do agree on his assessment of you personally. Is there another side? Of course!
Chris told me much about who he was and how important it was to find and speak the truth. He also told me to tell him his questions were getting too much, so I reassured him.
All your questions – no problem.
Chris asked me from where I got the calculations from regarding Maisey Demler’s wealth, especially when I mentioned a million dollars. In fact it was much more than that but nobody knows exactly because of their use of trusts. So I explained this to him briefly:
Wealth – Ron and I calculated this from what we knew at the time of writing the book and it totalled (from memory) some $960k at least, over $900k – since then I have seen approx double this value as a total but nobody really knows because of the nature of trusts. Any value less than this must omit trust wealth of which Maisie and eventually Len controlled, if not owned as trustee. Many years ago (40+yrs ago) I asked a friend how the uber-rich “did it” and an older politician told me it was with trusts. Maisie was no slug and was a very rich lady-banker indeed. To think her control was limited to what she owned personally and that she didn’t use trusts is naive in the extreme! John was onto this as you will well know.
Trust & Trusts
The use of trusts, particularly blind trusts is common in the world of wealth. What a trust is, is an entity like a company in which the trustees own and control assets for the benefit of others. This has tax implications and creditor implications, but on a death a will usually ascribes assets to a TRUSTed person to manage those assets IN TRUST for the beneficiaries. Blind trusts simply conceal who the real decision-makers are behind companies, friends and others – like lawyers.
The key here is TRUST. That’s where Len Demler got it over his wife, through altering her will. Trust broke down, or should have broken down and this was Jeannette Crewe’s downfall as she copped her father’s ire.
Trust is always at the heart of good business – we trust another to cough up the goods when we fulfill our part of the deal. This is why systems that hide things will always struggle against those who trust each other. It is also why people (like Chris Birt) who have learned over the years that they can never trust others, struggle to get it when we all shoot straight! We trust each other to tell it like it is and do not try to control information.
“Let it all out!” is our motto … something the older generation really struggle with!
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