At about midnight last night, just as I was about to go to bed after a long day mainly taken up with writing letters to schools and councils about their illegal propagandising of four-year-olds, I was doing some "winding down scrolling" on Facebook (as you do - I had switched to night mode and everything), when I got a rather nasty little shock (and then ended up not going to bed for about two more hours whilst I stewed in indignation - I even put day mode back on...).

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article sharing my thoughts on the "Don't Pay UK" movement, which, to sum, seems quite clearly an establishment scam designed to destroy people's credit ratings (thereby making it impossible for them to either rent or buy homes) and forcing the energy companies to be nationalised (because the establishment despises private business and wants everything run by an all-powerful state). Other news resources, like Unity News and UK Column, have also similarly cautioned about the "Don't Pay" movement.

I stated in my article, and have reiterated many times since, that I can't afford the energy bills either (and wouldn't pay them if I could, on principle), so would just be paying what I can afford, and advised others to do the same.

So, it was quite the shock to see a discussion on a friends' public page (where he had shared my "Don't Pay" article), where a FB 'friend' was accusing me of being a psy-op "to get everyone to carry om being f***ed up the arse with energy bills".

Let me tell you, as a writer, there is nothing more absolutely infuriating than people who criticise our articles without bloody reading them, and it happens all the time. "omfg so you don't support Don't Pay and think we should give the energy companies all our money??!"

Yet what my article actually says (emphasis added just to make it really, really clear) is: "Needless to say, millions of households simply cannot afford this hike, of which mine is one, so we've already made the decision to just continue paying what we always have - £90 a month - but by standing order, rather than direct debit.

"This already has us in debt with the energy companies, but we quite simply cannot afford any more... I'm not going to tell anyone what to do, and if you can't afford to pay your energy bills, then certainly, don't pay them (especially if you or your family are going hungry to pay them). But I would advise extreme caution with the Don't Pay movement, and strenuously encourage always doing your due diligence before getting involved with any new movement - especially one that is instantly high-profile, gets exposure in the mainstream press, and doesn't have a single verifiable name behind it."

That is what my article actually says, so nobody who had actually read it could possibly come to the conclusion that I am advocating the, er, particularly graphic action from the energy companies that my "friend" outlined.

A new antagonist then joined the thread and declared that I "trash every protest and any direct action" which this person, "Anna Smith" (definitely not a fake name) finds "quite suspicious", and that I'm only popular because "pied pipers always are". The original commentator ("liking" these slurs against me) then replies:

"yeah everything is so confusing these days. I just know that she has been so helpful with the kids and lawyers letters etc."

So someone who publicly declares they have used my resources to help their family (and has almost certainly contributed nothing to me in return) nevertheless decides to publicly accuse me of being a psy-op, whilst agreeing with comments that I "trash every protest and direct action" and am a "pied piper". Thanks, friend. It really is the bloody case that no good deed goes unpunished.

The allegation that I "trash every protest and direct action" (please see photo below of me at one of the several protests I have attended) seems to derive from a tedious little episode 18 months ago, where - when protests were actually briefly illegal - I advised caution with attending them, since they carried a very real risk of arrest, and arrest is not trivial. Police can and will forcibly take a DNA sample without consent for a start (they do not require your name or any cooperation from you to do this).

I did not say people should not attend them and went to a major London one myself (see picture below), I said they should not be cavalier about being arrested, as many were, (believing that stating to the police “I stand under common law” or “I do not consent” would stop you being arrested, which it does not).

I support people making the choice to be arrested if they are going into that choice with their eyes wide open, which many were not, hence I advised caution. I got HUGE kickback from this at the time, including being accused of being “controlled opposition”, yada yada, and some got so aggressive towards me (one particular antagonist publicly threatened me with all sorts, including litigation), friends said they were worried for my safety. Anyway, that eventually blew over, but now this “outrageous” opinion of mine has been dredged up again because I oppose the Don’t Pay scam.

(Me (with red sign) and my friend E at the big London protest in summer 2020.)

Of course, most people have completely forgotten all the real details of this particular episode from 18 months ago, so when "Anna Smith" (please let us re-emphasise once again that this is definitely not a fake name) boldly - and publicly - claims I "trash every protest and any direct action", then some people clearly believe her. Including my own supporters and those who have used and benefitted from my work.

Now, if I was as "popular" as "Anna" claims that I am, e.g., was making anything like a living from my contributions, I wouldn't particularly care if anonymous cowards on the internet want to cast stupid aspersions.

But I am not and therefore these kinds of things make me feel slightly, just ever so slightly, INCANDESCENT WITH APOPLECTIC RAGE. Just a bit. There is this relentless (and HUGE) misconception that, because I am relatively well-known in this movement, this is translating into some sort of conventional success for me, e.g., I am making significant money from it.

While I am extremely grateful to all those who have contributed to my work (especially since many who use it don't), my monthly income from all my output stands at less than one half of my rent, which can be qualified if you visit my Patreon account, where my monthly income is public. There are two listed options for donating to me on my site, Patreon and PayPal, with donors roughly split between the two, so I get about that again through PayPal, and the occasional one-off donation (and - very grateful as I am for these - I cannot use them in any forecasting or budgeting as I have absolutely no idea when or whether they will come in, and certainly many weeks go by when they do not).

Trying to research, write and edit high quality articles (usually at least three per week); make letter templates available; read and respond to correspondence (often from people in awful, desperate situations), promote all this output across multiple platforms so people see it (getting harder and harder as the ban hammer comes down more and more often - currently banned from Facebook again), as well as the new huge time commitment in running my new resource, Informed Consent Matters, has me working around the clock - definitely more than the hours one would typically put into a "normal" day job - and yet I am earning dramatically less than were I to give it all up and stack shelves (or go back to good old call-centres).

This is a difficult reality to deal with, not just for the obvious practical reasons (I simply cannot sustain this level of output making such a small amount of money and will have to make some hard decisions come October), but because it feels so profoundly imbalanced - that if I give so much, I should receive something roughly comparable in return, at least enough to have a basic comfortable life - and all I ask supporters to do is donate the price of a cup of coffee a month. That's it (and sincere thanks again to those who do, or who have contributed previously). However, as for all resources that run on a donations model rather than a paywall (which I am committed to not having, even though it would be the far wiser decision financially), the vast majority of readers don't donate. Less than 5% do.

This being the reality I am grappling with, it is just galling beyond belief to be told I am a pied piper and an infiltrator and a psy-op, because it implies I must be rich! That's why people would do all of that, because shady wealthy benefactors are bankrolling them to do so (as is so obviously the case with Don't Pay UK), but I earn less than one quarter of minimum wage, and so to be accused of being a rich, devious plant is just... just... well: like I said, when I'm making a comparable income to infiltrating pied piper shills, then I won't complain about being compared to them.

(On a related note, when Mark and I launched our new resource, into which we have ploughed hundreds of pounds in in terms of website costs, plug-ins, printing, etc. - costs we are nowhere yet remotely close to recouping - we were accused of being cynical profiteers who were obviously vastly wealthy "because of all your public speaking engagements". Neither Mark nor I has ever done any public speaking, of any type, ever, and on the small number of occasions I've been offered such an opportunity, there's certainly been no money attached. Nevertheless, these insane ideas that having a modest social media presence means you must be unfathomably wealthy and therefore should work for free, appear to be absolutely epidemic.)

The bottom line is this: please try and use both your brain and your basic human decency when making public comments about people who have helped you (and maybe think twice about making said comments on the personal pages of their real-life friends?). It has been my experience that anyone who becomes known as a "helper" can often have their own humanity forgotten by those they are helping, with the "helper" just seen as a machine to fix others' problems, not a thinking, feeling human being with limits and needs of their own.

Let's be clear that I really do want to help. Hopefully that's pretty clear at this point - and happily I've had some great experiences with people I've worked with (you know who you are and thank you). But all relationships must be symbiotic and it's not right for me to just give and not receive (and receiving abuse doesn't count...). If my resources have helped you, and if you would like me to keep producing articles, letters, and others resources, please do make a small monthly contribution to ensure I can .

(Patreon is monthly by default, and PayPal can be made monthly by ticking the 'make monthly' box). All contributions are really appreciated.

And as for you, "Anna Smith" (artist's impression in main image), I'm still waiting for you to list all your many and various great contributions to the movement, under your real full name, of course...