Latest news with #DavidLindsay
Times
11-07-2025
- Times
Me and my stalker: online hate, antisemitism and a death threat
An obese, arthritic man in his late forties shambled into Durham crown court in May for sentencing. David Lindsay, a self-styled political commentator, was jailed for six months for harassment, stalking and ten breaches of a restraining order. He had conducted a long campaign of vilification against Angie Richardson, a former safeguarding officer for the Roman Catholic diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. This may seem a parochial matter. In truth, Lindsay is an extreme case of an online troll and fantasist. He has caused people distress and fear well beyond his locality, and the law appears powerless to stop him. He provides a parable of the dark side of the digital age. This is his story. Lindsay is unmarried and lives with his mother in the village of Lanchester, Co Durham. His life is dominated by writing a blog, usually thousands of words a day and well into the night. He has conducted years-long campaigns of denigration and threats towards many people in public life and some who just happen to be neighbours who've angered him. Lindsay is a Catholic convert. He alighted on Richardson after she attempted to investigate complaints against him from a number of parishioners concerning his conduct towards their children. Lindsay did not reply to inquiries, and Richardson thereafter found herself the target of invective and worse. Lindsay told her to 'watch her back', referred to her as 'Satan's concubine' and claimed she was possessed by demons. He also fabricated an anonymous letter purporting to be from a young person who had been sexually abused by Richardson in childhood and sent it to the Catholic diocese. The methodology is familiar to me because, though we have never met, I too have been a target of Lindsay's sustained abuse. While dimly aware of him before, I have closely observed his activities since 2015, when I received an anonymous antisemitic death threat that I concluded he had authored. Over years since, I've struck up a friendship with Richardson, who has agreed to be named for this article, and spoken with others who've encountered Lindsay. Lindsay is outwardly a figure of respectability. He's a graduate of Durham University, where he read divinity. Among his contemporaries was Manveen Rana, the Times Radio journalist. Fellow students and former tutors recall him as eccentric in manner and dress but genial and with a dry wit. • 'The time it took to charge my stalker was ridiculous' Lindsay did not thrive academically; he read much, but not the texts assigned for his degree. His autodidactic approach has persisted. His blog espouses an unusual melange of far-left politics, social conservatism and religious zeal, born of extensive research but — at least on issues I know about — minimal understanding. He is a conspiracy theorist, claiming that Margaret Thatcher colluded with the IRA to fake the 1984 Brighton bombing, and that Jimmy Savile was posthumously framed by the establishment because of his Catholicism. Some of his writings express deep hostility to Jews, women and gays. I have found no evidence that Lindsay has had employment since graduating. But he did at one time serve as a parish councillor in his village and (according to his blog) harboured ambitions to be a Labour MP before being expelled by his local party. The high point in his life appears to have been when, for a few weeks in 2009, he wrote a blog for The Daily Telegraph. Blogs were then in vogue. The Telegraph recruited several writers to contribute these on a freelance basis. Its blogs editor was Damian Thompson, now an associate editor at The Spectator and a former editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald. Thompson noticed voluminous comments contributed by Lindsay to Telegraph articles and took a calculated risk in offering him space 'above the line' too. It proved a disaster. Lindsay had claimed to hold an academic post at Durham University and a doctorate. Neither of these things was true and his copy — as Thompson puts it — was crazy and full of mistakes. Lindsay was sacked from this unpaid position after a few weeks. His explanation, vented at length on his personal blog for years thereafter, was that the Telegraph had taken orders from Israeli intelligence and that he was a 'Mossad martyr of the Daily TelAviv-egraph'. His seeming vendetta against Thompson has never ceased, and was promptly supplemented with one against another journalist: me. In his quest to become a figure in the world of letters, Lindsay would write to dozens of journalists at a time, often under aliases but always with a distinctive prolixity that betrayed his authorship, declaring the genius of his work. He sent us the text of a self-published book on politics and theology, challenging us to write a response. I made the fatal error of replying, advising that this approach was unlikely to provide a way into a career in journalism, but offering tips on how best to couch his arguments in a way that might capture the attention of the comment editor of a newspaper. In some corner of his mind, Lindsay concluded I must be in league with Thompson in conspiring to deprive him of the success he deserved. Ever after, he has treated us alike and denounced us in concert, though Thompson and I write for different publications, cover different subjects, hold differing opinions and have never even met. It was that spurious linkage that made me conclude Lindsay had probably been the author of the death threat against me. It was sent by post to The Jewish Chronicle, for which I then wrote a regular column, claiming that a contract had been taken out on my life. The newspaper alerted me and I informed the security department of The Times, which took it seriously and acted promptly. I was advised on ways to ensure my safety and the security of my home, and for a long time the post room screened my incoming mail. Thompson then revealed on Twitter he had received a death threat, sent to the offices of the Catholic Herald. It was the same letter, in the same words, enclosed in the same type of envelope (though Thompson is obviously not Jewish, I guess he may still be an agent of a Jewish conspiracy). I saw the tweet and concluded the threat could probably only have come from the one person who maintained we conspire to thwart his professional success. I told Thompson and we reported it to Durham police. They did their job with exemplary thoroughness, but it turned out there were no fingerprints or other incriminating evidence. The anonymous author had done an efficient job. I thereafter read Lindsay's blog avidly. His threats piled up. He urged the assassination of Thompson and of Adam Wagner, a prominent Jewish KC, and of me. He claimed that Luciana Berger, then a Labour MP facing down antisemitism within her local party and now a peer, had secured a safe seat by offering sexual favours. He likened the Labour leader of Durham council at the time, also Jewish, to Adolf Eichmann, and imagined in pornographic detail his physical flagellation. • 'Police laughed at me when I reported my stalker' Lindsay's impunity could not, and did not, last. In 2019, Durham police received an anonymous letter threatening the lives of all 57 members of the Labour group on the city council. Lindsay had overreached: his fingerprints were on the envelope. He was arrested and charged with malicious communication. There followed a long delay before he came to trial owing to a bizarre scheme to derail it. Lindsay faked a letter purporting to be a terrorist threat to his own life, and emailed it to a confederate in the United States, who on Lindsay's instructions then sent it by post to Durham's chief constable and local clergy. Lindsay demanded that charges be dropped and that the police interview Thompson and me to determine whether we had had a hand in the threat. The trial, inevitably, took place. In July 2020, Lindsay pleaded not guilty to charges of malicious communication and attempting to pervert the course of justice. The jury took under an hour to unanimously find him guilty on both counts. The judge, terming Lindsay an 'eccentric loner', described the offences as bizarre yet said the convictions were based on 'overwhelming evidence'. He sentenced Lindsay to 16 months, suspended for 2 years, with 300 hours of community service and an indefinite criminal behaviour order. The suspended sentence failed to deter Lindsay, whose behaviour worsened. He went on trial again the next year, pleading guilty on three charges of harassment. His targets were Richardson and another local person, then working for the Labour Party. Lindsay made numerous derogatory references to this second victim's stepson, who has special educational needs. This time he was sent to prison for 12 months. The respite was brief. On his release, Lindsay claimed he had been pressured into a guilty plea and that prison staff, including the governor and a prison psychologist, had agreed he was innocent. He also alleged I had paid an inmate to murder him, but that this fellow prisoner had returned the money to me on realising what a splendid fellow Lindsay is. The harassment of Richardson began all over again, with the predictable outcome of a further prison term. A local political activist received a death threat during last year's general election campaign; I have read it and it bears striking similarities to Lindsay's bombastic prose style. The idées fixes of those who believe the world is against them and act on that impulse can be all-consuming. It is not a pathology only of the digital age, yet the internet gives wings to conspiratorial fantasy. And there are human victims of such behaviour. Lindsay is unusual only in the extent rather than the fact of his monomania, and the means by which he expresses it. Believing he is entitled to recognition, he has embarked on a quixotic campaign for influence among opinion formers. Lindsay has lately campaigned for the Workers Party, led by George Galloway and the former Labour MP Chris Williamson. My own relations with both these figures are extremely poor, but I don't believe they have encouraged or embraced Lindsay in any way. On the contrary, Lindsay approaches many people who have no reason to be aware of his background. His methods typically include composing round-robin letters to newspapers and inviting public figures to append their names — generally politicians, academics and journalists of pro-Brexit and either left-wing or socially conservative views. Perfectly respectable people, including the former Labour leadership contender Bryan Gould, have been inveigled into co-operating. Others, I have since ascertained, have had their names added to these letters without their knowledge or permission. Even The Times published one, during the 2015 Labour leadership campaign, with the names of Lindsay and several academics endorsing the economic policies of Jeremy Corbyn. Whenever I've seen such letters, which Lindsay proudly reproduces on his blog, I've written to his alleged associates to point out his record of criminality and extremism. Without exception, they've been astonished by the information. Gould entirely unnecessarily blamed himself for being too trusting and apologised to me. There is a precedent for such shenanigans. In a brilliant short book titled The Professor and the Parson (2019), Adam Sisman recounts how the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper was first impressed by the blandishments of a fantasist — who claimed to be a man of the church who had been cruelly treated — and then, on realising the deception, kept tabs on him for decades. I have likewise taken it as a duty to follow Lindsay's twists and turns, all conducted from his bedroom in his mother's house, to ensure that innocent people don't get hurt and that anyone he approaches is made aware of his obsessive hatreds and long criminal record. The question inevitably arises of Lindsay's mental state. Though I have made it my business to know Lindsay's output better than anyone — and it's weird stuff — I have suppressed an inclination to speculate on whether he is ill, as even psychiatrists rigorously resist any temptation to diagnose remotely. I'm hence relieved the defence raised the issue of Lindsay's admitted obsessive behaviour and disclosed he is receiving psychological therapy. The judge expressed a wish that the treatment continue when Lindsay is released from prison. I have no professional competence in this field, but I once experienced severe and prolonged mental illness and know how bleak the world can appear when in the grip of cognitive disorder. For me, the best remedy, along with psychological treatment, was to find a renewed purpose in living. Years ago, when I offered to help Lindsay in his quest to enter journalism, I concluded a more fruitful aim would be for him to take up voluntary work. To find fulfilment in helping others might be open to a man who has failed by conventional standards, yet has intelligence and decades ahead of him. In the meantime, the sort of behaviour I've described will continue to blight people's lives. Despite its manifold benefits, the digital age provides malcontents with a megaphone. The victims of online harassment should not suffer in silence, nor be overlooked, and perpetrators should be granted no tolerance.
Japan Times
13-05-2025
- General
- Japan Times
As world heats up, U.N. cools itself the cool way: with water
Deep in the bowels of the U.N. headquarters, a pump sucks in huge amounts of water from the East River to help cool the complex with an old but energy-efficient mechanism. As more and more people want to stay cool in a planet that is steadily heating up, energy experts point to this kind of water-based system as a good alternative to air conditioning. But in many cases they are hard to set up. The system has been part of the New York complex since it opened in the 1950s, chief building engineer Michael Martini said during a tour of the cooling equipment. The system, overhauled with the rest of the complex from 2008 to 2014, cools the U.N. center using less energy than a conventional air conditioning system. U.N. policy is to bring the air temperature down to about 24 degrees Celsius, or 75 degrees Fahrenheit. In summer in New York, the river running beside the U.N. headquarters — it is actually a salt water estuary — stays much cooler than the surrounding air, which can reach 100 degrees. So cooling the building eats up less energy. As many as 26,000 liters per minute (7,000 gallons) of water flow through fiber glass pipes to the complex's cooling plant, which uses it and a refrigerant gas to produce cold. The system has two independent loops to prevent contamination of the water that flows back into the river at a higher temperature, said the head of the cooling system, David Lindsay. A boat on the East River passes United Nations Headquarters in New York. | AFP-Jiji Looking at the gleaming glass tower of the U.N. headquarters and the dome of the General Assembly, you would never know that the East River serves this purpose for the U.N. and is more than just part of the scenery. The U.N.'s New York headquarters is not its only building that depends on water. In Geneva, its Palais de Nations features a cooling system that uses water from Lake Geneva. And the U.N. City complex in Copenhagen, which houses 10 U.N. agencies, depends on cold seawater that almost eliminates the need for electricity to cool the place. This a huge benefit compared to the estimated 2 billion air conditioning units installed around a world. With the number of air conditioners due to increase so as to help people who are more and more exposed to dangerous temperatures, energy consumption for the purpose of cooling has already tripled since 1990, says the International Energy Agency, which wants more efficient systems. Examples of these are centralized air conditioning networks using electricity, geothermal systems or ones that use water, like the U.N. complex in New York. This latter system "has not been deployed as much as it should be for the issues we face today," said Lily Riahi, coordinator of Cool Coalition, a grouping of states, cities and companies under the aegis of the United Nations. Water supply pipes are seen at the Chiller Plant at United Nations Headquarters in New York. | AFP-Jiji Some big organizations have been able to run such systems on their own, like the United Nations or Cornell University in New York State, which relies on water from Lake Cayuga. But for the most part these systems require a lot of coordination among multiple stakeholders, said Riahi. "We know it's technically possible, and we know actually there are many cases that prove the economics as well," said Rob Thornton, president of the International District Energy Association, which helps develop district cooling and heating networks. "But it requires someone, some agent, whether it's a champion, a city, or a utility or someone, to actually undertake the aggregation of the market," he said. "The challenge is just gathering and aggregating the customers to the point where there's enough, where the risk can be managed," Thornton said. He cited Paris as an example, which uses the Seine River to run Europe's largest water-based cooling grid. These networks allow for the reduced use toxic substances as coolants, and lower the risk of leaks. And they avoid emissions of hot air — like air conditioning units spew — into cities already enduring heat waves. But hot water from cooling units, when dumped back into rivers and other bodies of water, is dangerous for aquatic ecosystems, environmentalists say. "This challenge is quite small, compared to the discharge from nuclear plants," said Riahi, adding the problem can be addressed by setting a temperate limit on this water.
Malay Mail
12-05-2025
- General
- Malay Mail
The East River keeps the UN HQ cool in New York — can this decades-old system help other cities too?
NEW YORK, May 12 — Deep in the bowels of the UN headquarters, a pump sucks in huge amounts of water from the East River to help cool the complex with an old but energy-efficient mechanism. As more and more people want to stay cool in a planet that is steadily heating up, energy experts point to this kind of water-based system as a good alternative to air conditioning. But in many cases they are hard to set up. The system has been part of the New York complex since it opened in the 1950s, chief building engineer Michael Martini told AFP during a tour of the cooling equipment. The system, overhauled with the rest of the complex from 2008 to 2014, cools the UN centre using less energy than a conventional air conditioning system. UN policy is to bring the air temperature down to about 24 degrees Celsius, or 75 degrees Fahrenheit. In summer in New York, the river running beside the UN headquarters — it is actually a salt water estuary — stays much cooler than the surrounding air, which can reach 100 degrees. So cooling the building eats up less energy. As many as 26,000 litres per minute (7,000 gallons) of water flow through fibre glass pipes to the complex's cooling plant, which uses it and a refrigerant gas to produce cold. The system has two independent loops to prevent contamination of the water that flows back into the river at a higher temperature, said the head of the cooling system, David Lindsay. Looking at the gleaming glass tower of the UN headquarters and the dome of the General Assembly, you would never know that the East River serves this purpose for the UN and is more than just part of the scenery. The UN's New York headquarters is not its only building that depends on water. In Geneva, its Palais de Nations features a cooling system that uses water from Lake Geneva. And the UN City complex in Copenhagen, which houses 10 UN agencies, depends on cold seawater that almost eliminates the need for electricity to cool the place. This a huge benefit compared to the estimated two billion air conditioning units installed around a world. Why so rare? With the number of air conditioners due to increase so as to help people who are more and more exposed to dangerous temperatures, energy consumption for the purpose of cooling has already tripled since 1990, says the International Energy Agency, which wants more efficient systems. Water supply pipes are seen at the Chiller Plant at United Nations Headquarters. — AFP pic Examples of these are centralised air conditioning networks using electricity, geothermal systems or ones that use water, like the UN complex in New York. This latter system 'has not been deployed as much as it should be for the issues we face today,' said Lily Riahi, coordinator of Cool Coalition, a grouping of states, cities and companies under the aegis of the United Nations. Some big organisations have been able to run such systems on their own, like the United Nations or Cornell University in New York State, which relies on water from Lake Cayuga. But for the most part these systems require a lot of coordination among multiple stakeholders, said Riahi. 'We know it's technically possible, and we know actually there are many cases that prove the economics as well,' said Rob Thornton, president of the International District Energy Association, which helps develop district cooling and heating networks. 'But it requires someone, some agent, whether it's a champion, a city, or a utility or someone, to actually undertake the aggregation of the market,' he said. 'The challenge is just gathering and aggregating the customers to the point where there's enough, where the risk can be managed,' Thornton said. He cited Paris as an example, which uses the Seine River to run Europe's largest water-based cooling grid. These networks allow for the reduced use toxic substances as coolants, and lower the risk of leaks. And they avoid emissions of hot air — like air conditioning units spew — into cities already enduring heat waves. But hot water from cooling units, when dumped back into rivers and other bodies of water, is dangerous for aquatic ecosystems, environmentalists say. 'This challenge is quite small, compared to the discharge from nuclear plants,' said Riahi, adding the problem can be addressed by setting a temperate limit on this water. — AFP
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
As world heats up, UN cools itself the cool way: with water
Deep in the bowels of the UN headquarters, a pump sucks in huge amounts of water from the East River to help cool the complex with an old but energy-efficient mechanism. As more and more people want to stay cool in a planet that is steadily heating up, energy experts point to this kind of water-based system as a good alternative to air conditioning. But in many cases they are hard to set up. The system has been part of the New York complex since it opened in the 1950s, chief building engineer Michael Martini told AFP during a tour of the cooling equipment. The system, overhauled with the rest of the complex from 2008 to 2014, cools the UN center using less energy than a conventional air conditioning system. UN policy is to bring the air temperature down to about 24 degrees Celsius, or 75 degrees Fahrenheit. In summer in New York, the river running beside the UN headquarters -- it is actually a salt water estuary -- stays much cooler than the surrounding air, which can reach 100 degrees. So cooling the building eats up less energy. As many as 26,000 liters per minute (7,000 gallons) of water flow through fiber glass pipes to the complex's cooling plant, which uses it and a refrigerant gas to produce cold. The system has two independent loops to prevent contamination of the water that flows back into the river at a higher temperature, said the head of the cooling system, David Lindsay. Looking at the gleaming glass tower of the UN headquarters and the dome of the General Assembly, you would never know that the East River serves this purpose for the UN and is more than just part of the scenery. The UN's New York headquarters is not its only building that depends on water. In Geneva, its Palais de Nations features a cooling system that uses water from Lake Geneva. And the UN City complex in Copenhagen, which houses 10 UN agencies, depends on cold seawater that almost eliminates the need for electricity to cool the place. This a huge benefit compared to the estimated two billion air conditioning units installed around a world. - Why so rare? - With the number of air conditioners due to increase so as to help people who are more and more exposed to dangerous temperatures, energy consumption for the purpose of cooling has already tripled since 1990, says the International Energy Agency, which wants more efficient systems. Examples of these are centralized air conditioning networks using electricity, geothermal systems or ones that use water, like the UN complex in New York. This latter system "has not been deployed as much as it should be for the issues we face today," said Lily Riahi, coordinator of Cool Coalition, a grouping of states, cities and companies under the aegis of the United Nations. Some big organizations have been able to run such systems on their own, like the United Nations or Cornell University in New York State, which relies on water from Lake Cayuga. But for the most part these systems require a lot of coordination among multiple stakeholders, said Riahi. "We know it's technically possible, and we know actually there are many cases that prove the economics as well," said Rob Thornton, president of the International District Energy Association, which helps develop district cooling and heating networks. "But it requires someone, some agent, whether it's a champion, a city, or a utility or someone, to actually undertake the aggregation of the market," he said. "The challenge is just gathering and aggregating the customers to the point where there's enough, where the risk can be managed," Thornton said. He cited Paris as an example, which uses the Seine River to run Europe's largest water-based cooling grid. These networks allow for the reduced use toxic substances as coolants, and lower the risk of leaks. And they avoid emissions of hot air -- like air conditioning units spew -- into cities already enduring heat waves. But hot water from cooling units, when dumped back into rivers and other bodies of water, is dangerous for aquatic ecosystems, environmentalists say. "This challenge is quite small, compared to the discharge from nuclear plants," said Riahi, adding the problem can be addressed by setting a temperate limit on this water. abd/ico/eml/dw/jbr
New Straits Times
12-05-2025
- General
- New Straits Times
Dealing with heat, UN cools itself the cool way: with water
DEEP in the bowels of the UN headquarters, a pump sucks in huge amounts of water from the East River to help cool the complex with an old but energy-efficient mechanism. As more and more people want to stay cool in a planet that is steadily heating up, energy experts point to this kind of water-based system as a good alternative to air conditioning. But in many cases they are hard to set up. The system has been part of the New York complex since it opened in the 1950s, chief building engineer Michael Martini told AFP during a tour of the cooling equipment. The system, overhauled with the rest of the complex from 2008 to 2014, cools the UN centre using less energy than a conventional air conditioning system. UN policy is to bring the air temperature down to about 24 degrees Celsius, or 75 degrees Fahrenheit. In summer in New York, the river running beside the UN headquarters – it is actually a salt water estuary – stays much cooler than the surrounding air, which can reach 100 degrees. So cooling the building eats up less energy. As many as 26,000 litres per minute (7,000 gallons) of water flow through fiber glass pipes to the complex's cooling plant, which uses it and a refrigerant gas to produce cold. The system has two independent loops to prevent contamination of the water that flows back into the river at a higher temperature, said the head of the cooling system, David Lindsay. Looking at the gleaming glass tower of the UN headquarters and the dome of the General Assembly, you would never know that the East River serves this purpose for the UN and is more than just part of the scenery. The UN's New York headquarters is not its only building that depends on water. In Geneva, its Palais de Nations features a cooling system that uses water from Lake Geneva. And the UN City complex in Copenhagen, which houses 10 UN agencies, depends on cold seawater that almost eliminates the need for electricity to cool the place. This a huge benefit compared to the estimated two billion air conditioning units installed around a world. With the number of air conditioners due to increase so as to help people who are more and more exposed to dangerous temperatures, energy consumption for the purpose of cooling has already tripled since 1990, says the International Energy Agency, which wants more efficient systems. Examples of these are centralised air conditioning networks using electricity, geothermal systems or ones that use water, like the UN complex in New York. This latter system "has not been deployed as much as it should be for the issues we face today," said Lily Riahi, coordinator of Cool Coalition, a grouping of states, cities and companies under the aegis of the United Nations. Some big organisations have been able to run such systems on their own, like the United Nations or Cornell University in New York State, which relies on water from Lake Cayuga. But for the most part these systems require a lot of coordination among multiple stakeholders, said Riahi. "We know it's technically possible, and we know actually there are many cases that prove the economics as well," said Rob Thornton, president of the International District Energy Association, which helps develop district cooling and heating networks. "But it requires someone, some agent, whether it's a champion, a city, or a utility or someone, to actually undertake the aggregation of the market," he said. "The challenge is just gathering and aggregating the customers to the point where there's enough, where the risk can be managed," Thornton said. He cited Paris as an example, which uses the Seine River to run Europe's largest water-based cooling grid. These networks allow for the reduced use toxic substances as coolants, and lower the risk of leaks. And they avoid emissions of hot air – like air conditioning units spew – into cities already enduring heat waves. But hot water from cooling units, when dumped back into rivers and other bodies of water, is dangerous for aquatic ecosystems, environmentalists say. "This challenge is quite small, compared to the discharge from nuclear plants," said Riahi, adding the problem can be addressed by setting a temperate limit on this water.
