When apologies are due.
Hello
Having only just read another forum I note an obvious error has been made on my part,may I therefore offer my full apologises to all parties concerned for my mistake .
Hello Brian,
Your timely apology, as soon as you realised you mistake is a responsible and sensible thing to do.
Unfortunately the Cavalier Club does not share your responsible attitude and I have been forced, for the second year running, to withdraw from the Club committee election.
Very briefly, the Cavalier Club circulated a defamatory statement that both the committee, and the writer, knew was a lie to over 1,000 people.
They have removed the untrue statement from the latest official Club documentation ( and why would they do that unless they knew it was untrue? ) but they have ignored my request that they inform the members that it is not true at the same time.
The whole saga has been protracted and quite complicated, so I have decided to start a blog which will allow me to explain the breeders attitude to talking about health issues in dogs.
I hope that over the weeks I will be able to explain the reasons why I gave an interview to the film Pedigree Dogs Exposed, and explore my relationship with a Club that seems more intent on punishing me for breaking the unspoken rule of silence, than with working to improve the future of our beautiful, but very health compromised, cavaliers.
Below is an excerpt from my email to the Cavalier Club Secretary...
"You will be aware that last year I stood for the committee and was elected unopposed. This led to key members of the Club threatening to resign and, as I did not want to see the Club unable to function, I withdrew my nomination.
This year there were more nominees than vacancies. I had hoped that I would be elected to the committee by members votes, so that it could be demonstrated that the majority of Cavalier Club members, in a postal vote, supported my stand on cavalier health and it was their wish that I should serve on the committee.
However, I now feel I cannot continue with my candidature, as in doing so it would appear that I have condoned the unfair and improper way this committee election has been run.
I am withdrawing my name from the list of candidates because I believe that the election process has been flawed by the irregularities that have made it necessary to set three different AGM dates, increase the stated vacancies from 4 to 7, and then to 8, and necessitated the printing of two sets of ballot papers.
I believe that I was personally disadvantaged by the circulation of a defamatory statement to over 1,000 members, and this was either deliberate manipulation, or gross incompetence, by committee members that knew that the statement contained untrue information.
Whether deliberate or not, this falsehood in official club documentation will have prejudiced my chances of being elected to the committee.
The removal of the defamatory statement from the AGM agenda, and the substitution of a revised page, is clear indication that the Club recognises that publication of the falsehood was wrong.
The refusal to inform all the membership that the statement was incorrect, before they voted again, means that the Cavalier Club has failed to provide a level playing field for all candidates.
The conduct of the committee members, in allowing a discriminatory sentence about being "sufficiently fit, in body and in mind" to be included in another Candidate's statement, is also of concern to me as a disabled person, and to many of the members that supported my nomination.
I will be submitting a complaint to the Kennel Club about the manner in which the Cavalier Club committee conducted this election".