(Iguana by Sean McGrath on Flickr)
According to Member of the European Parliament Roger Helmer and friends including self-proclaimed submarine warfare advisor to Thatcher, Brian Gerrish, there is a conspiracy happening across Europe to bring about a “New World Order” where a group of all-powerful seven-foot-high lizards will seize power of all that we hold dear, using nothing other than professional development training provided by a charity called “Common Purpose”, and engaging in a little corruption, mind-control and (most bizarrely) paedophilia along the way
Normally I wouldn’t comment on straight up idiocy like this, but apparently I’ve been picked up on these guys’ radar and I just thought this could be a fun insight into what happens when all these wonderful online social media tools (blogging, youtube and so on) we’re so fond of can actually turn around and bite us.
First contact
The first I heard of Common Purpose was a couple of years ago when I was invited to speak at one of their events. Basically, what Common Purpose do is bring together ‘potential and existing leaders’ from a variety of backgrounds across the UK and through a mix of visits, workshops, exercises, talks and events, they help them to develop their leadership skills - make them more effective, open them up to different ways of thinking, break down barriers between industries, enable them to have a network across multiple disciplines, and so on. Good stuff in this modern age, in my book.
Leadership
But when you start using the word ‘leadership’ in anything you do, you’re bound to start getting a few weirdos interested in what you have to say - I find it funny that a few years ago, when it was called ‘management’ nobody would have given a damn. And that’s what’s happened to Common Purpose, apparently, and not in a good way at all.
Here’s a comment that appeared on my blog and that was emailed to me too:
Why does a charity organisation such as Common Purpose operate under the Chatham House Rule?
Common Purpose is a secretive, New Labour and Brussels funded, Marxist-led, ‘Trojan Horse’ operation which is undermining British society to pave the way for the take-over of Britain by the European Union Collective of Communist Purpose (EUCCP), also known as the EU Police State.
You are a member of a 5th column movement. You should be ashamed.
My first reaction was a bit of a giggle. Within about five minutes it was pretty clear that the commenter was Brian Gerrish, author of most of the anti-Common Purpose content that appears to be online, and someone who uses his connection with Plymouth Chamber of Commerce in pretty much all of his ‘lectures’.
The man also claims to be a submarine warfare expert, an important person on Plymouth Chamber of Commerce and publishes his own happy little newsletter. In the latest one he has headlines including “Sign of the Serpent” and “The Seat of Satan, Moved to Berlin” for instance.
When social media goes bad
When I googled Common Purpose I realised that this wasn’t just one commenter, there was something pretty strange going on - most of the results were from some pretty far out sites including the BNP, UKIP, “expose” videos on Youtube and then pages of conspiracy theorist sites including the wonderfully insane Mr David Icke.
Here’s a video of the thrust of what these people are on about:
In essence, the argument goes as follows:
- There is a group of seven foot tall lizards called the Illuminati who secretly run the entire world from some kind of underground lair. (Nice! Spectrum is Green!)
- As part of their job they actually run the European Union, and to achieve their aim of taking over the UK in its entirety they helped set up Common Purpose.
- Common Purpose recruit people, brainwash them and then get them into positions of power in each city in the country with the aim of removing power from the respective city councils. (Including Birmingham - hence the email to me)
- In a few years time, the whole of the Europe is actually run by this brainwashed network and a “New World Order” is ushered in.
No this isn’t a dodgy sci-fi film script - these guys actually believe it!
That’s the fun part. The not-so-fun part is that the loons have actually been making smart use of viral marketing techniques and producing video content, blogs and documents that have rapidly spread around the web.
We now have a multitude of YouTube video clips - one with a fanastic diagram apparently taken from an ‘official Common Purpose document’ with a list of ‘target groups’ for the organisation that apparently includes “crooks”. You couldn’t make it up.
They’ve done a good job of spreading their ideas around. Congrats.
In comparison, Common Purpose have been a little behind the curve - no blog, no youtube, no fancy stuff - just the training. The result is the opposite of what we’d say is ‘good’ about social media - negative stories abound, and yet Common Purpose have no way of rectifying the situation without feeding the fire themselves.
So, what’s my problem with this? I have a few questions:
What does this have to me? If you have a problem with an organisation, give them a call. Don’t start harassing guest speakers. And don’t do it anonymously - that’s just lame.
But much more importantly:
- Why does MEP Roger Helmer think it’s acceptable to be part of this movement?
- Is it acceptable for an MEP to chair a video presentation making such wild allegations against a charity?
- What does Plymouth Chamber of Commerce have to say about their embarrassing city son Brian Gerrish? Happy for him to carry on using their name?
But most worrying of all was this line I found in one of the documents that is floating around that Mr. Gerrish has written:
Common Purpose specifically targets children from the age of 13, and more recently age 4, for sex or leadership and citizenship training. Yes, it is active in schools, and again the average parent has no idea.
Sorry, hang on. Common Purpose targets children of the age of 4 for sex? Are you kidding me?
So finally - does MEP Roger Helmer’s party think that supporting a “Seven Foot Paedophile Lizards Run Birmingham” viewpoint is on-message?
Related posts:
- Common Purpose - The Entrepreneur’s Game Yesterday I was playing a ‘dragon in the den’...
- Common Purpose - Matrix Programme - Track the Money Day 16th January 2007 – 3.00 pm – 5.00 pm Matrix...
- I have my first conspiracy theory ‘filez’ on me [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="Photo by Erin! on Flickr"][/caption] For...
- Yay for Created in Birmingham! A joint Guardian Media Innovation Award What a nice way to start the week -...
- Broadcast magazine feature on digital media in Birmingham I was interviewed a couple of weeks ago for a...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
32 Comments
Stef, thanks for blogging about this. As someone who has just completed their “Matrix” leadership programme, and not once been asked to a) run for office b) groom children for leadership or sex or c) even vaguely become active in ANY political cause, let alone a Marxist one I am stunned.
It’s difficult: Common Purpose have a small staff and if you are not Web 2.0 “savvy” I think it can seem all a bit daunting to start countering this type of stuff. I am always very surprised to see just how many for profit and not for profit organisations haven’t got their head around the many communications options now open to them.
Also is it for Common Purpose to speak out, or for their graduate community? A more useful and authentic response is possibly to galvanise that cadre rather than the organisation themselves. If the proponents of the lizard theory are quite as irrational as they seem, they are only likely to say “Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they, the lizards have brainwashed them”.
Of course with allegations quite as potty as those bandied about by these people, you might hope that rational human beings will see them as the groundless nonsense they really are, but you’re right, insidious messages alleging paedophila are a bit worrying.
Obviously a jewish blog. Common purpose is a cleverly funded jewish organization. It has it’s roots in marxism and the whole jewish agenda which we do not need to go into. Being all light and stupid and denying whats going on, just marks you out as jewish
I’ve read a lot about Common Purpose,i believe it is a sinister secretive organization,I’ve never seen any mention of seven foot tall lizards .The B.N.P. and U.K.I.P.,are not ‘far out’,unless far out is a belief in open and democratic accountability!
@crinkle @mark - I love the way your two comments sit together like that. Pretty much sums it up!
@crinkle I’m an atheist.
@mark I’ve got at least ten pages of ’space lizards rule the world through common purpose’ nonsense by searching for ‘icke lizard “common purpose”‘
I am deeply offended by your Lizardist blog.
You are clearly a pawn of the international Anti-Lizard Conspiracy, well-known members of which include Gordon Brown, Vladimir Putin and the “pop star” Bono.
Just try voting British Lizard Party at the next election and you will find the candidate’s name and affiliation has been removed from the ballot paper! I think that proves my point.
Stop Common Purpose
If you don’t know what Common Purpose is, I suggest you find out.
Common Purpose is a corrupt organisation which must be stopped:
http://www.stopcp.com
Stef, thanks, you’ve clearly performed a public service. The Anti-Lizard agenda is now revealed… I just can’t wait until Common Purpose tells me that I can rip this annoying “human” face off and reveal my true Lizard identity! I pretended for one post, but what they hey, Crinkle, Mark, you got me and you got me good. I’m a lizard, and a jewish lizard at that…
can lizards BE jewish?
Hi Stef: there is some attempt to address the bizarre claims - but youre right about the lack of resources - Helga is right when she says the graduate community are best placed to react to this!
However, there is a “facts” page in direct response here:
http://www.commonpurpose.net/
And Common Purpose graduates comments about the programmes are invited here:
http://mycommonpurposeexperience.wordpress.com/
Another bloggers who have picked up your point is here - worth reading purely for the comedy in the comments below!
http://www.theliberati.net/quaequamblog/2008/03/29/the-column-purpose/#comments
@Helga: Since writing this a number of my friends and contacts have ‘come out’ about their mega-lizard-overlordness. I would encourage others to do the same - it’s a liberating experience so I am told.
@Simon: some classics to be had on that last blog.
Including an entire category on Swivel-eyed loons
Looks like another potty alegation -
Elite trainer gets 11-year state freebie
06 May 2008
A TRAINING provider which has enjoyed privileged access to Downing Street has been given free office accommodation in a Government department for the last 11 years, the Yorkshire Post can reveal today.
Common Purpose, which has run elite training seminars at Number 10, was granted free office space at the Department for Children, Schools and Families in Sheffield in 1997 and has enjoyed its use ever since
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Elite-trainer-gets-11year-state.4053633.jp
If you put David Icke in with any search terms you come up with the lizards. What interests me is why you made that particular connection?
Thinking through this debate about how CP operates us surely better than calling people who have done so swivel eyed loons. The thing is, there may be _some_ truth in all this.
CP contacted me to do advocacy stuff back in the 90s when it seemed pretty much to be the tool of the Business Link quango and I declined because I thought the whole thing pretty iffy then.
Mixing up the investigators with known wackos like Icke is a proven way to discredit, and tbh I’d prefer to keep an open mind.
@Brenda - fair enough. I’ll try to be less tongue in cheek in future. In the PDF I’ve linked on page 4 there’s an article about how Gerrish has noticed the work of Satan in logos that resemble serpents, in particular the one of his local church. Then there’s the diagram he uses in his video presentation - the old ‘all seeing eye’ pyramid, which is a common theme in the lizard conspiracy/Illuminati stuff. Sure there’s more, but I can’t face watching that video again…
@Graham - that’s a far cry from an EU Police state or paedophilia. But in the interests of being more balanced - has there been any response to the story?
Stef - tongue and cheek is good, tho, if that’s what it was.
The Masonic iconography thing is very interesting indeed. The seeing eye symbol is as central to the Masons as the crucifix is to Christianity. Appears time and time again, including on our banknotes.
Nice attempt to deflect attention away from the 5th column that is CP by linking it to Icke and lizards. A registered charity that receives public funds and is not held accountable? Why is a registered charity giving leadership type courses in the first place and all very secretive with everybody held to task under the Chatham House rule? What is that about? Why is nobody allowed to talk openly about a registered charity and it’s activities? Why is a registered charity targeting youngsters for leadership programs? It’s a front and so far CP’s major ’success’ has been the ruination of the NHS. The CP promo video should provide all the clues you need. CP operatives being filmed in empty housing estates and empty sports stadiums is all very suggestive imho.
Someone’s been drinking too much Fluoridated water…go back to sleep!
The whole point of Chatham House rules is so people from different organisations can talk about failures and problems without fear of them being made public.
If you want people to learn how to manage effectively then real life examples work best. Who is going to share them if someone else in the room will make them public?
Sure, CP is a Marxist pro EU institution. But just because a couple of oddballs turn it into a conspiracy issue doesn’t make it a branch of Satan or a collective of lizards.
Avoiding fluoridated water is how I manage to stay awake and alert to such infiltrations into our lives.
Im a left-winger and disagree that CP and the pro EU people are marxists. The EU is run for and on behalf of big business and tramples on the liberties of the working classes of europe. CP - im no expert, but it sounds totally elitist and is certainly no friend of the working classes or of open accountable true as opposed to sham democracy. We nedd Peoples Power not CP or EU superstate power
I watched the Brian Gerrish video. He backed his argument with evidence in the form of Freedom of Information requests. Where is your evidence to support the honest intent and practice of Common Purpose?
By writing editorial one would expect of the National Enquirer as opposed to a balanced argument you have displayed highly discreditable reporting.
I was hoping to learn something here. I will look elsewhere.
Stumbled on all of this today when I read a mail on news.bbc about Obama being a “Communitarian”.
I’d never even heard of CP before 07:00 this morning!
When I look at the CP web site all I see is a management consultancy run by people smart enough to know how to make a few quid out of (no doubt) stating the obvious about getting to work on time and not overly upsetting your staff. Like most of those types of enterprises they are generally run by people who seem to know how to “manage” as opposed to “do”; i.e. not many farmers or welders in the Trustees list are their?
Crap about “leadership” skills is fertile ground to plough for a fast buck, checkout the vast number of titles on Amazon about it.
My only concern is how they can be a charity given that they don’t seem to do anything charitable; but then I don’t know what the rules are, maybe Al Quaeda could be a charity, they train people don’t they?
So basically the Church of Scientology they probably aren’t, but they sure as hell aren’t Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Penny has hit the nail on the head, for me. I’ve only just come across this ‘Common Purpose’, but I’ve read through most of their website and find it very worrying. I think all taxpaying citizens have a right to be uncomfortable about vast amounts of our money being spent on this training/PC brainwashing, without being ridiculed as ‘weirdos’. The whole thing seems to be set up to further reinforce the liberal elite which already has far too much influence in this country and is far removed from the common working class man and woman. I’ve also watched the Brian Gerrish video and, beyond the rather silly references to Hitler and submarines at the beginning, he goes on to show evidence that should make anybody, of any political persuasion, concerned. And no mention of lizards. Even if the most nefarious aspects of this organisation are only in his imagination, at least it’s spurring him on to investigate what appears to be a shocking waste of OUR money and a rather arrogant, unelected group of individuals striving to gain far too much political control without mandate from the public. Some of you may be happy with your money being spent on such things. I’m certainly not.
I’ve come across that organisation. The question arises,if they have nothing to hide, them why all the friggin secrecy?
No, you don’t have to believe in lizard aliens, just corrupt eurocrats who seek to bring about a hidden hand controlin the UK.
I Find the allegations of child brainwashing and very worrying indeed and I am deeply suspicious of this organisation.
Oh man I am so bored of these constant comments popping into my inbox.
Glen - what secrecy?! They had a bit of a rubbish website. Then they updated it. When people go on training days they are held under Chatham House Rule. That means that anything said on the day _can_ be repeated to other people, but _not_ attributed to the person who said it.
So I can tell you that there was someone at the event that I was talking at who worked in a public sector organisation and nobody in her entire career had even nudged her in the direction of even thinking about starting her own business. Out of the group of people I was working with she had the best business idea and came up to me afterwards saying that she was going away inspired about new possibilities in her career.
The only part of that story that I can’t tell you is her name.
These guys are just a flipping underfunded boring-as-you-like management training organisation that doesn’t make a big profit from what they do. They don’t have tonnes of cash to spend on PR and marketing like commercial organisations (check out the day rates and compare) that don’t have an ethical/social standpoint, hence the crappy website.
Lay off - you’re barking up the wrong tree, and the fact that we’re even continuing to discuss all of this nonsense is just boring me senseless.
Look around - the country is in financial meltdown! Whose fault is that? Whose ’secrecy’ is to blame? If these guys are a ‘hidden hand’ controlling the UK then don’t you think they’d make sure that their entire business model wasn’t threatened by recession?
But on the flip side, we’ve got people above saying ‘blah blah taxpayers money, blah blah’. That’s equivalent to saying “I don’t think we should send people in highly responsible leadership positions for training - a waste of money if you ask me”, and I bet they’re the same people who would say “he’s not up to the job - he’s not got the experience nor the expertise” when they screw up.
Personally, I think that the more well trained leaders we have in society the better, and perhaps if they have a wider set of experiences then they might screw up less and have more to draw on when big decisions have to be made.
Stef,
Bring back the good old days when police chiefs inspectors exposed their knee caps down the local lodge, to JP’s and captain’s of industry. Now all the chief inspectors want to be in Common Purpose along with the journo’s, lawyers and government movers and shakers; ah the allure of power.
But the most galling thing of all is they want me to pay for it. Local govt, police, companies, westminster departments spending shedloads, and sending their ‘leader’s’ to be inducted and network, the Common Purpose way. No more knee caps and silly secret handshakes.
I hope public money wasn’t spent on your CP ‘graduation’
It’s me again.
Sorry, no disrespect intended to you personally, but to lump Gerrish together with David Icke is unfair in my opinion.
They are lumped together because they are both ‘conspiracy theorists’,which is these days a stick with which to bash just about anyone who does not agree 100% with what the bbc or the Murdoch media report, ditto the papers wether it;s the Guardian or the Daily Mail.
I think that recession (or depression)is just what the controling elite are seeking at the moment in order to 1.centralise power and bring in one world government.
2. financial conrol by abolishing currencies, witness Osbourne’s comments at the weekend likely to cause a strong devaluation of the pound and the bringing in of the euro as replacement currency unit. Witness Brown bahaving like a demi-god at the g20 summit and calling for a ‘new world order’-he actually uses that exact phrase for freaks sake!
I’m sorry if this bores you, you are free to delete anything you please.
Respect
Jikes, came past here while looking for views on CP (having gone through The Know program in South Africa recently). Oddly enough my experience was quite good, great balance was achieved between the elements that make South Africa such an interesting place, and the people that went through this with me were from all walks of life. Not an elitist in sight. I guess one sees what one fears in everything when you are not informed. Overall, great site - thanks.
Jan - thanks, nice to have your thoughts…
Glen - I’ve been wrestling with the ‘do I close comments’ thing (I don’t remove comments unless they are spam or hateful), but I’ll keep them open to avoid any ‘you see - he’s _one_of_them’ issues!
And see my recent update post too where I’ve got my own kool internets filez on me: http://steflewandowski.com/2008/11/conspiracy-theory/
I came across this article by chance, ive never heard of Common Purpose. After reading all the posts i decided to take a look at the CP website. For a ‘charity’ Cp charges a large amount of money for its ‘charitable work’, Matrix costs £4,225 + VAT!! Perhaps some of the suspicions about Marxism are because CP’s founder Julia Middleton was a member of DEMOS think tank, which was founded in 1993 by former Marxism Today editor Martin Jacques. I had a read of what the Matrix programme is supposed to teach you, frankly it reads like nonense to me, i would lve someone to explain to me in plain English what the Matrix programme actually entails.
if you need to be taught how to be a leader you are not fit for the job. any person applying to go on a CP course should be demoted immediately. simple as that.
Wow James - so basically what you are saying is you don’t train your staff and sack anyone who shows ambition?
I’m guessing this must be comment impersonation. If not, wow, I thought D8 were a pretty good design agency.
I laughed until I read crinkles anti-Jewish comments, at least you know what hatred is behind them taking the time to attack you!
To be fair, I can see why people would think CP isn’t all it seems, but I don’t believe evil is on the agenda. Being not-for-profit doesn’t mean you don’t pay your staff, I know not-for-profits where the directors earn £150k a year and work a few days a month part time for that, though I’m not suggesting CP is doing anything like that. If I wanted to set up a business training people in a similar way that CP does and offering them advice and guidance (good advice and good guidance, its a great idea to give people the skills to further their lives, to look at new opportunities, to learn to network properly rather than turning up for a soggy sandwich at a half-hearted dull networking meeting with John from accounts as guest speaker) I would struggle to get many takers even if I charged less than CP does. Even if I was an amazing trainer it would cost money and take time to get to your potential market. However, if you have a new door to go through and can wear a badge that says ‘Charity, we are here to do good, we are not making a profit’ and you can then approach people who have been ’specially selected’ you have a very keen audience.
Stef, I’m not saying for a second that you were had or that the CP course wasn’t worth going on, I know people who have paid many many thousands for good training courses that in reality they could have got for a lot less, and I would love the opportunity to have some of the insight and knowledge that CP are able to give, you didn’t do anything wrong, you were not brainwashed, and I hope my comments don’t come off as negative towards CP. CP have found a clever way of doing business, any of you can set up as not-for-profit, ask nicely and buy me coffee and I will tell you how, what you get out of it and the pitfalls, being NFP means you have access to a different audience, people listen, they don’t hang up on you or throw your letter in the bin so quickly, if CP are helping people to learn new skills and the people they are teaching are happy then wheres the harm? Is it underhand? Not at all, you lot are just annoyed they thought of it before you did!
Scientology doesn’t stop after taking a few thousand from you, they want your total and utter dedication and lifelong financial support. As far as I know CP don’t even keep in touch with the people they train! Comparing them to Scientology is strange, you obviously don’t understand what you are talking about so there is little point discussing it further.
I know of many training companies who will charge you staggering amounts to learn skills you should already know, or to fine tune skills you could fine tune yourselves, however they are simply out for the profits and don’t try to hide the fact, but they get an easy ride - go figure!
Lastly, I don’t see whats wrong with a ‘New World Order’ anyway, this one isn’t doing us a lot of good, maybe the NWO could sort out the Worlds problems!
One Trackback
[...] comments Stef Lewandowski » Common Purpose are the seven-foot-high lizards who really run Birmingham on Common Purpose - The Entrepreneur’s GameEasy Spyware Tools » I Just [...]