Stef Lewandowski
Create something every day

(Iguana by Sean McGrath on Flickr)

According to Member of the European Parliament Roger Helmer and friends including self-proclaimed submarine warfare advisor to Thatcher, Brian Gerrish, there is a conspiracy happening across Europe to bring about a “New World Order” where a group of all-powerful seven-foot-high lizards will seize power of all that we hold dear, using nothing other than professional development training provided by a charity called “Common Purpose”, and engaging in a little corruption, mind-control and (most bizarrely) paedophilia along the way

Normally I wouldn’t comment on straight up idiocy like this, but apparently I’ve been picked up on these guys’ radar and I just thought this could be a fun insight into what happens when all these wonderful online social media tools (blogging, youtube and so on) we’re so fond of can actually turn around and bite us.

First contact

The first I heard of Common Purpose was a couple of years ago when I was invited to speak at one of their events. Basically, what Common Purpose do is bring together ‘potential and existing leaders’ from a variety of backgrounds across the UK and through a mix of visits, workshops, exercises, talks and events, they help them to develop their leadership skills - make them more effective, open them up to different ways of thinking, break down barriers between industries, enable them to have a network across multiple disciplines, and so on. Good stuff in this modern age, in my book.

Leadership

But when you start using the word ‘leadership’ in anything you do, you’re bound to start getting a few weirdos interested in what you have to say - I find it funny that a few years ago, when it was called ‘management’ nobody would have given a damn. And that’s what’s happened to Common Purpose, apparently, and not in a good way at all.

Here’s a comment that appeared on my blog and that was emailed to me too:

Why does a charity organisation such as Common Purpose operate under the Chatham House Rule?

Common Purpose is a secretive, New Labour and Brussels funded, Marxist-led, ‘Trojan Horse’ operation which is undermining British society to pave the way for the take-over of Britain by the European Union Collective of Communist Purpose (EUCCP), also known as the EU Police State.

You are a member of a 5th column movement. You should be ashamed.

My first reaction was a bit of a giggle. Within about five minutes it was pretty clear that the commenter was Brian Gerrish, author of most of the anti-Common Purpose content that appears to be online, and someone who uses his connection with Plymouth Chamber of Commerce in pretty much all of his ‘lectures’.

The man also claims to be a submarine warfare expert, an important person on Plymouth Chamber of Commerce and publishes his own happy little newsletter. In the latest one he has headlines including “Sign of the Serpent” and “The Seat of Satan, Moved to Berlin” for instance.

When social media goes bad

When I googled Common Purpose I realised that this wasn’t just one commenter, there was something pretty strange going on - most of the results were from some pretty far out sites including the BNP, UKIP, “expose” videos on Youtube and then pages of conspiracy theorist sites including the wonderfully insane Mr David Icke.

Here’s a video of the thrust of what these people are on about:

In essence, the argument goes as follows:

• There is a group of seven foot tall lizards called the Illuminati who secretly run the entire world from some kind of underground lair. (Nice! Spectrum is Green!)
• As part of their job they actually run the European Union, and to achieve their aim of taking over the UK in its entirety they helped set up Common Purpose.
• Common Purpose recruit people, brainwash them and then get them into positions of power in each city in the country with the aim of removing power from the respective city councils. (Including Birmingham - hence the email to me)
• In a few years time, the whole of the Europe is actually run by this brainwashed network and a “New World Order” is ushered in.

No this isn’t a dodgy sci-fi film script - these guys actually believe it!

That’s the fun part. The not-so-fun part is that the loons have actually been making smart use of viral marketing techniques and producing video content, blogs and documents that have rapidly spread around the web.

We now have a multitude of YouTube video clips - one with a fanastic diagram apparently taken from an ‘official Common Purpose document’ with a list of ‘target groups’ for the organisation that apparently includes “crooks”. You couldn’t make it up.

They’ve done a good job of spreading their ideas around. Congrats.

In comparison, Common Purpose have been a little behind the curve - no blog, no youtube, no fancy stuff - just the training. The result is the opposite of what we’d say is ‘good’ about social media - negative stories abound, and yet Common Purpose have no way of rectifying the situation without feeding the fire themselves.

So, what’s my problem with this? I have a few questions:

What does this have to me? If you have a problem with an organisation, give them a call. Don’t start harassing guest speakers. And don’t do it anonymously - that’s just lame.

But much more importantly:

• Why does MEP Roger Helmer think it’s acceptable to be part of this movement?
• Is it acceptable for an MEP to chair a video presentation making such wild allegations against a charity?
• What does Plymouth Chamber of Commerce have to say about their embarrassing city son Brian Gerrish? Happy for him to carry on using their name?

But most worrying of all was this line I found in one of the documents that is floating around that Mr. Gerrish has written:

Common Purpose specifically targets children from the age of 13, and more recently age 4, for sex or leadership and citizenship training. Yes, it is active in schools, and again the average parent has no idea.

Sorry, hang on. Common Purpose targets children of the age of 4 for sex? Are you kidding me?

So finally - does MEP Roger Helmer’s party think that supporting a “Seven Foot Paedophile Lizards Run Birmingham” viewpoint is on-message?