TRANSCRIPT WITH LINKS TO CRITIQUED MATERIAL

INTRODUCTION

On 31^st October 2022, the BBC broadcast an episode of Panorama called Disaster Deniers: Hunting the Trolls in which (quote) “the BBC’s disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring hunts the disaster trolls who target survivors of terror attacks in the UK and reveals new research about the popularity of these beliefs.” The climax of the show is a scene in which the BBC’s intrepid “specialist disinformation reporter”, Marianna Spring, accompanied by a beefy cameraman, goes on a troll hunt to Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. The “troll” they are hunting is Richard D. Hall, who was manning his stall at the indoor market that day. An excited Marianna makes a ham-fisted attempt to do a “Cook Report” job on Richard. The scene falls flat when it becomes clear that her accusation that he is profiting financially from the “Disaster” that befell the 2017 Manchester Arena attack victims amounts to nothing more than the fact that he’d written and published a book on the subject which was on sale at his market stall.

I first stumbled across RichPlanet TV in 2016, and soon became hooked, working my way through all that the videos in the archive. For me, it was a treasure-trove, and every time I delved in, I came away having learnt something new… and not once was I pressured or guilt-tripped into coughing up a single penny for any of it.

By the time of the Panorama “Disaster Deniers” programme, I was familiar with Richard’s work on the Manchester Arena Incident - I’d watched his lectures and films on the subject and even bought his book… but, in truth, compared to all his other investigations, this one didn’t interest me all that much, and it didn’t stand out as particularly shocking or revelatory.

The BBC’s hounding of Richard in 2022, and the subsequent long-drawnout Lawfare case against him, caused me to wonder why the Establishment would go to such lengths to attempt to discredit him over this particular piece of work. And so, I began to scrutinise the Ariana Grande Manchester Arena incident of 22^nd May 2017 myself… and was amazed by what I found. 

I’ve decided to share my findings through a series of videos, beginning with a run-through of my method of research. The Manchester Arena Incident has generated an avalanche of publicly available material, so much, in fact, that any attempt to sort through and make sense of it is a daunting task in its own right. It has taken many hours for me to start to feel that I have gained a foothold, and I hope that what I’ve learnt might be useful to anyone out there who wants to examine the evidence for themselves.

Most of the evidence I use comes from the UK Statutory Public Inquiry known as the “Manchester Arena Inquiry” or MAI which took place between September 2020 and June 2023. If you try using a search engine to find out what the Inquiry was all about, it is weirdly difficult to pin anything down - there isn’t even a Wikipedia page about it – but I’ve found a way to access the material. Here goes.

INTRO TO FIRST DEMO:
The date is 28^th August 2024, and I’m going to give you a demo of what happens when I attempt to search for documents that were presented as evidence to the Manchester Arena Public Inquiry.  But first I’m want to show you a paragraph from this document which is a guide to the Inquiries Act 2005, written for the House of Commons Library by Neil Johnson, dated 25^th July 2024.

3.4 Openness and transparency

"There is a presumption in section 18 of the 2005 Act that members of the public will be able to watch the inquiry, either in person or via a broadcast. This section imposes duties on an inquiry as to the disclosure of documents and evidence to members of the public. The chair must take reasonable steps to secure that members of the public are able to obtain or view a record of evidence and documents given to the inquiry."

I’ll click on the link to get Chapter and Verse of Section 18... “Public Access to Inquiry Proceedings and Information” which says that “the chairman must take such steps as he considers reasonable to secure that members of the public (including reporters) are able—“to obtain or to view a record of evidence and documents given, produced or provided to the inquiry or inquiry panel."

Last year, while watching the Rich Planet TV film “Manchester on Trial” I became intrigued by CCTV images from the City Room which appeared to show “fumes of some sort.” As part of my own investigation, I wanted see if I could find any reports of what could be seen on the CCTV cameras by staff as the Manchester Arena incident unfolded, so I'll take you through a couple of examples to show how to find documents stored in the archive.

[SEE FILM FOR TWO EXAMPLES]

Link to National Archives, Manchester Arena Inquiry

CONCLUSION

I’ve found that searching the archive is a bit like trying to find something in a cluttered attic. You might go there to find a particular item, and draw a complete blank, but while rummaging around you can uncover any number of interesting and unexpected treasures. For instance, while searching for the Witness Statements for Miriam Stone, I found the hand-written log of another member of staff, Michelle Ramsbottom, who was in the Control Room with her at the time. This gives a vivid picture of what happened to the staff in the Control Room at the moment the incident happened, and during the twenty minutes or so that followed.

After reading this, I wanted to know where the Sierra Control Room was situated within the Arena. The location had not been presented to the inquiry because it was deemed operationally sensitive, and so I thought it was unobtainable… but then I tracked down Michelle’s Witness Statement and found a detailed description of its precise location… so now I know.

Now, I was going to share this information with you, but then I thought better of it because I know that it should’ve been redacted from the statement for security reasons. So, if anyone from the Security Services or Home Office is watching this, you might want to find and redact that particular piece of information.

Speaking of the Home Office, I’ll finish by sharing this email exchange I had with them earlier this year.

Using the Wayback machine, I’ll show you how the gov.uk page looked back in Apriltion of the fumes.
This link to the defunct Manchester Arena Inquiry was still available, but all of the documents had been archived by this stage, and the link was returning an error, so I tried to report this by clicking the “Report a problem with this page” button on 4^th April 2024.

The following day I received this reply... [SEE FILM FOR STRING OF EMAILS]

So, it seems that as a result of my badgering, the link was removed and replaced with this… “Read about the inquiry on the National Archives” website.

Well, nice try, Mr Foley, but your web team screwed up because they’ve linked to the wrong archive.

Now, you might think this looks like a deliberate attempt by the Home Office to memory-hole the Manchester Arena Inquiry archive, but I’d put money on it being a run-of-the-mill SNAFU. I spent 10 years working for a council, and I know how these public sector things happen. Inquest/Inquiry, what’s the difference? And besides, who cares?

But in any case, I actually count getting any reply at all as something of an unexpected achievement.

So, that concludes my guide to the evidence. I am now working on a series of videos in which I present the evidence I’ve found.

Thanks for watching.