UPDATE 23.1.23
Subsequent to the statement below, early in January 2023 I received word that the former leader of the Freedom Alliance was refusing to hand over to the new Executive Officers unless I was expelled from the Party.
Despite this being denied by Jonathan Tilt, within hours I has been expelled from the Freedom Alliance.
Go figure!
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS…
The good news is that I have subsequently joined forces with the former deputy leader of Freedom Alliance Dr Lynn Irving (also forced out of the Freedom Alliance last year) together with amazing Julie Tasker (soon to be standing for election as Mayor of Mansfield) ~ and we have co-created a new political party Liberation Opportunity Vitality Empowerment. The LOVE party.
If this resonates we invite you to join us via our new website www.love-party.co.uk
o
29 December 2022
I am writing this statement in response to an outrageous and utterly defamatory attack made upon me on 28 December 2022 by Jonathan Tilt, former Leader of the Freedom Alliance.
I joined the Freedom Alliance in October 2022 in response to a clarion call put out by Miri A Finch in one of her blog posts. I did not know any other Freedom Alliance members when I joined ~ I made the leap in good faith and with an open heart.
I both signed up as a paying member and offered (via an email to the Nominating Officer) to stand as a Freedom Alliance candidate for my local constituency Derbyshire Dales.
There were no formal nomination procedures to go through; Jonathan Tilt called me personally and welcomed me in. We discussed doing a public launch which I suggested for January 2023 and he said no, let’s do it sooner ~ so we agreed upon 17 November 2022.
It was obvious to me immediately (as an experienced entrepreneur who has previously created a market-leading brand) that the Party’s marketing collateral was very poor. Given little support from within the Party I asked a designer who I have worked with in the past to create some promotional leaflets for me. As nature is important to me I felt it essential for these to be as eco-friendly as possible and so had these printed by YouLovePrint. The cost of this entire project ~ design, print, as well as the cost of hiring Bakewell Town Hall as our venue for the public launch ~ was borne by me personally.
As soon as the promotion for the event went live I started receiving emails warning me about problems within the Party. Here are some of the extracts from those emails:
“I am writing with a strong warning with becoming involved with this party as I feel this is likely to damage your reputation in the future.”
“Myself and colleagues were previously involved with [Freedom Alliance] at a high level but discovered the party is completely corrupt and actually working against the freedom movement. They have also been reported to the electoral commission for financial irregularities.”
“I offered my help with the Freedom Alliance party, which at that time was in its infancy….Discussions were being made about a leader… at that time I even suggested you as I was completely invested in the party and wanted the party to succeed.”
I am on the receiving end of similar controversial communications all the time (alleging that so-and-so is controlled opposition etc. etc.) ~ so, as a believer in the Common Law maxim “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”, I asked those sending me the emails for EVIDENCE in support of their allegations.
In the interests of transparency, I also forwarded these emails to Jonathan Tilt ~ as I believe that it is important for those accused to be aware of what is being said about them.
I was added to the Freedom Alliance Steering Committee Telegram Group and started to get to know all the others involved in the Party. Jonathan put out a call for the Party’s Constitution to be reviewed and I offered to be part of that group, which was being led by Jane Lord (who I believe is a qualified solicitor).
The Public Launch Event at Bakewell Town Hall went well with about 60 people in attendance. I was especially delighted to see so many in the audience from various Freedom Movement groups my partner Dean and I have been involved in from across Derbyshire ~ there were people there from Bakewell, Buxton and Wirksworth Stand in the Parks, as well as the Buxton, Leek and Chesterfield Freedom Movements ~ plus one attendee who is a regular on ‘The People Speak Out’ fortnightly Zoom meetings who had made the pilgrimage from Yorkshire.
(Contrary to Jonathan Tilt’s recent statement, only a handful of those in the audience were from Cressbrook, and only one person walked out ~ in direct response to Jonathan stating that he did not believe Covid existed!)
Many of those in the audience went across to the Queen’s Arms pub afterwards where there was lively and engaged chatting and much friendly ‘Freedom Movement’ camaraderie until closing time at 11pm.
You can watch the event here: https://youtu.be/nPm2PX7hCpc
Meanwhile, problems were continuing to mount within the Freedom Alliance Party…
Just a few days later, two members of the Executive Committee resigned after Jonathan and the Chairperson Kaela had attempted to push through a Vote of No Confidence in them. These departing Executives (Di Meecham and Lynn Irving) issued public statements expressing concern about the way the Party was being run, in particular because Jonathan and Kaela had lead a decision to withdraw from proposed merger negotiations with the ‘Alliance for Democracy and Freedom’ Party without consulting the Members.
I later attended my first Zoom meeting with the Steering Committee, chaired by Adrian Oliver where there was something of a post mortem on the departure of Lynn and Di.
It was Adrian who suggested to this meeting that there be some ‘energy work’ to align the group ~ which he offered to host. This desire to introduce the power of metaphysical principles to assist us in finding alignment was certainly echoed by Julie Tasker and later Chris Quartermaine (who are both alternative therapists/energy workers), as well as myself.
Jonathan Tilt’s claim that I made a ‘forceful suggestion that the Party de-register as a political party and become some sort of spiritual movement’ is as utterly bizarre as it is wholly untrue!
The next major Party event was the Chester by-election on 1 December where our hastily recruited candidate Chris Quartermaine received just 91 votes. And meanwhile, in the Steering Committee, we were being encouraged to quickly find candidates for forthcoming by-elections popping up in other parts of the country.
At which point I relayed Albert Einstein’s famous quote that the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over, hoping to get a different result !!!
“Why don’t we harness the momentum which is already there within the Freedom Movement via all the Stand in the Parks, Freedom Hubs and Liberation Groups already running and recruit candidates en masse?” I suggested.
As I started to speak out about the possibility of re-organising our efforts in a much more effective way I then came under vicious attack by Alan McManus. “If you don’t like the Party the way it is then leave!” was the essence of his ultimatum ~ echoing exactly the dictatorial style which so many other former members had cited as their reason for no longer wishing to be involved. I then made the point that if we were standing against ‘The System’ and WEF principles then surely we should not be echoing their dictatorial Command&Control style!
At which point, exasperated, I stated my intention to resign, and that I would draft a public statement explaining the reasons why.
I then received several private messages of encouragement and support from other members of the Steering Committee asking me to reconsider, along with a text from Jonathan asking me to delay making any public statement until after I had spoken to him.
On the morning of 8 December I received a call from Jonathan stating (amongst other things) that he was exhausted, not seeing his family enough, had been looking for a way out of Freedom Alliance for some time and that he intended to resign. I asked him to reconsider, suggesting that the Party could surely be run in a way that took pressure off him, but he said that his mind was made up.
Later that evening, the FA Steering Committee Telegram Group was suddenly placed on ‘slow-mode’. I made a comment, but noticed that I then could not make another comment for 60 minutes…
The announcement then came through that Jonathan plus 6 other Exec Committee members were resigning en masse.
Not only was I utterly shocked at this sudden departure, it seemed to me that the restriction on the ability of the remaining members to comment/discuss this mass resignation was quite deliberate. The Telegram group was then deleted completely later that evening ~ along with most of the other Freedom Alliance Telegram groups ~ depriving us completely of our ability to communicate.
Next day, a hastily created new Telegram Group was put together by the two remaining execs James and Earl of which there were only 17 members (rather than the 57 as previously). We then discovered that Alan McManus had taken it upon himself to create a separate new Telegram group, to which I was very specifically not invited.
On 12 December there came another Public Statement, issued by former Nominating Officer Denise Boot on behalf of the departing 7 Executives, to the effect that as only 2 Executive Members were remaining they could not form a ‘quorum’ under the Party’s constitution (which requires 3) and therefore the Party was unable under its Constitution to appoint temporary officers to replace the key posts of Leader, Nominating Officer and Treasurer (which are required by the Electoral Commission).
Therefore the outgoing Execs would need to manage the voting in of the new Members of the Executive to replace them!
(I was certainly not involved in any discussion nor vote regarding the nomination and appointment of Neil Hopwood, James and Cath as the new Leader, Nominating Officer and Treasurer and can only assume these discussions took place via the other Telegram group or some other communication mechanism which I am not part of.)
We were also advised that the Party’s website would be taken down by 16 December ~ which I expressed surprise at because I could see payment for IT services in the Party’s accounts ~ meaning that surely the website was a Party asset and could not be deleted at the whim of an outgoing Exec?
At this point I wrote to the Electoral Commission asking that they intervene to ensure that the Party transition was handled smoothly with minimum disruption.
In the event, the website was indeed deleted ~ along with all the Party’s email addresses ~ essentially preventing our ability to attract and register new members.
I believe that a database has been passed across to the new Exec but it apparently only contains a few hundred names, even though Jonathan himself stated that 1,000 members had joined the Party in the first year alone.
I am now astonished to read (in Jonathan Tilt’s recent Public Statement) the accusation that I am somehow to blame for the Party’s demise!
When I received those first emails warning me not to get involved with Freedom Alliance and that the Party was controlled opposition I simply did not believe them.
However the bizarre sequence of events, combined with this vicious public attack on me personally, suggests that there is something much more sinister going on here than the actions of a bitter man…
This has the feel of a deliberate and co-ordinated attempt to not only destroy the Freedom Alliance Political Party but also to undermine my credibility as one of those who has consistently spoken out against ‘The System’ since my first video ‘Rachel Speaks Out’ in September 2020.
However, far from crushing me, events like this only have the effect of re-doubling my determination to keep on speaking out and to stand up in the face of all such bullying and intimidation.
Whilst I believe that there is certainly a co-ordinated attack underway in an attempt to divide and destroy the Freedom Movement, nonetheless it is up to us to stand strong and stay focussed on co-creating the Future we DO want for ourselves, our children and all future generations.
I will always be a stand for Truth, Freedom and the Power of the People.
Love
Rachel x
29 December 2022
