Peter Reynolds Watch The Leader of CLEAR | Cannabis Law Reform
CLEAR Cancel Annual Conference
Author: James Collins
CLEAR is going to hold their AGM in September. There will be speakers, and entertainment and real people in a real place! This is unprecedented … oh, no it isn’t.
CLEAR has threatened to have an AGM before. They said they would have international speakers, entertainment, and a world-class venue. They set a ticket price and asked for people to submit materials for presentations. It sounded like it was going to be a pretty incredible event.
What happened in the end? Absolutely nothing happened, exactly as some of us expected. CLEAR, due largely to a well-designed website provided to them for free by a party Peter Reynolds is now suing, presents itself as a real cannabis law reform organization. They aren’t though. CLEAR is Peter, his two buddies, and a handful of Facebook followers who don’t have the gumption or means to actually get to a meeting in the first place. Never mind selling tickets; CLEAR couldn’t pay people to show up even if they could afford to do so.
It’s one thing that the AGM was cancelled in 2012. The amazing thing is that they kept the announcement posted despite the fact they lacked the follow-through to carry it out. They don’t even have the discipline to take down the notice for an event they couldn’t pull together! It isn’t like they have a great deal on their agenda to attend to. They don’t hold public events, or do much of anything other than act as a news-mirror site and publish lousy blogs at totally irregular intervals.
You can expect that announcement for the 2012 AGM will finally get taken down. Peter often responds directly to articles posted here and attempts to sanitize the past. It’s a shame for him that we here are computer savvy enough to take a screenshot.
It does beg the question: Where does Peter Reynolds get off calling other people lazy stoners? CLEAR is about the laziest excuse for a political party that has ever existed. Even fanatical groups of idiots like the EDL can get a few supporters out in public to embarrass themselves. CLEAR can’t even fill an entire table at the local pub. They apparently lack the rudimentary skill set to rent a public space, send out notices and invites, and then go there at the same time as the people they invited.
We’re not talking about a national convention with thousands of people here. This is on the scale of a mediocre birthday party for fuck sake!
They’re promising another AGM now, in much the same vein as the last one. They have presented some rather diminished expectations for this one. No more will there be “international speakers”, entertainment, pretty girls dancing excitedly, a clean venue you would be proud to attend at, or anything of substance at all. One can see if they manage to meet even these reduced expectations it will boil down to Peter drunkenly pontificating to a handful of people in a bar.
That isn’t an Annual General Meeting – that’s Saturday night at any pub across the entire United Kingdom, and indeed much of the world. It wouldn’t be an “annual” meeting anyway, because in several years CLEAR hasn’t actually had a single meeting, much less annual meetings. Even their executive committee meetings are Skype chats!
Yeah, Skype chats. CLEAR is exactly as sophisticated as a clutch of pre-adolescent girls gossiping about who has the worst haircut in school. This is what Peter Reynolds calls “meaningful engagement of the political process”; a conference call on a free online chat service. Get your kids to head down to the Electoral Commission to register – they now apparently qualify as a political party.
There is another way to determine if CLEAR has the resources, didn’t they just publish the accounts? Yes, indeed they did, have a gander dear reader at the CLEAR Cannabis Law Reform accounts. They have doubled the price of admission, and still taken in half the money. That would suggest that people are joining the party at the rate of 25% that seen last year. Actually, their membership fee totals have gone down, so obviously people are not even paying for the renewal of the membership they already have.
They couldn’t manage an AGM in 2012, but expect you to believe they will pull it off in 2013 with fewer funds than they previously had. I will state with absolute certainty that there won’t be a meeting this year either. It’s like everything Peter Reynolds does – long on boasting and promises and very, very short on actual delivery.
Peter is claiming growth and expansion, but his followers are shrinking in number faster than functional cassette drives and analog cell phones. They took in all this money, failed to itemize their expenses, and then don’t have enough left over to rent a small room somewhere for a single day! They post announcements of grand things to come in order to drive donations into the bank, but the grand schemes of CLEAR never seem to materialize. They claim to be more professional than other groups, but they don’t have the same level of sophistication that a knitting circle does. Half a dozen elderly women actually manage to get themselves into the same place to knit – members of CLEAR drink alone.
How do you expect Reynolds to organise a conference now that he is so busy trying to sue (in Court) several cannabis campaigners for publishing their opinions on his vile and outrageous blogs and statements and his disgusting treatment of other cannabis campaigners?
How do you expect CLEAR to organise a conference when their annual financial report to the Electoral Commission (see above for link) show that they left themselves with just about £150, not even enough to fight a local election – and elections are what the party is supposed to fight?
How do you expect CLEAR to organise any effective campaign when their glorious now-“president” is surrounded by two or three others each with their own motivation?
What does surprise me is that some members still put up with this nonsense and still, seemingly pay their fees – even though, looking at the CLEAR accounts it seems that all the money they gained from membership and donations was spent on “office” and “campaigning”.
I wonder if CLEAR board would have the bottle to give out more details.
I only ever heard Derek Williams speak twice and it was pretty dreadful; the on-line event, if it actually happens, will be the Peter Reynolds show (which is why he’ll pick speakers that are so bad that they will make him seem good) – and will there be an opportunity for campaigners or even members to respond openly and freely on line – I doubt it – even though the clear team still claim they are trying to represent the interests of all users?
All users that agree with them and put up with Reynolds abusive style.
There are a few clips on youtube of Mr Reynolds talking, he sounds pissed in most of them.
CLEAR will never put a conference on, nobody credible would speak at it and not many people would go.
Thankfully there are other cannabis reform organisations in the UK that are capable of getting their act together and putting on successful events with interesting and respected speakers.
The telephone box should be perfect for the CLEAR AGM, since it is just big enough to fit inside Peter Reynolds and Derek Williams, plus there is a handy little shelf in there to help them powder their noses. sniff sniff