One day I will make a list of my most bizarre work experiences.
Top of that list will almost certainly be the day I found myself standing outside Forest Bank prison in Salford waiting for the release of pub landlord Nick Hogan.
Nick had been jailed for six months for failing to pay a fine after allowing customers to smoke in his pub following the introduction of the smoking ban on July 1, 2007.
Nearby, with a silver attaché case containing over £9,000 in cash, stood a man in an all black outfit wearing a Guy Fawkes’ mask. His name was Robert Ambridge but to the world he was Old Holborn, a ‘satirical political blogger’.
Yesterday it was reported on social media that Ambridge had died on Saturday. The reaction, it has to be said, was one of rejoicing because since his blogging days his alter ego had become ‘one of the internet’s most notorious – and despised - individuals’ (Telegraph).
I didn’t follow him so I’m going to distance myself from his online persona because there are some things you can’t condone, even in the name of free speech.
All I will say is that, for the very short time I knew him, this ‘middle-aged, recruitment consultant and father-of-six’ did an outstanding job - with fellow blogger, the late Anna Raccoon - in getting prisoner DN5431 released from jail.
Without them Nick would have been in prison for considerably longer than the eleven days it took to raise the money, release the funds, pay the fine (in cash), and get him out.
You can read my version of the story here (‘Nick Hogan - free at last!’) and here (‘Nick Hogan - behind the scenes’).
See also: Bolton smoking ban landlord freed from jail’ (BBC News), ‘Jailed smoking ban martyr is freed by a mystery crusader's cash’ (Daily Mail), and ‘Landlord who defied smoking ban released from jail’ (Manchester Evening News).
That was in March 2010. The last time I saw Ambridge/OH was a few weeks later, in Cambridge, where he was standing for election under his nom de plume. He was canvassing for votes in Market Square, which is where I took the photo above, and I bumped into him while I was shopping.
Which reminds me, the only time I saw him without his mask was in the car park at Forest Bank prison before he changed into his alter ego’s all black attire.
What surprised me was how seriously he took the transformation but, to be honest, when you’ve seen a stocky middle-aged man struggling to squeeze into knee high leather boots in a prison car park, it’s hard not to laugh.
Our paths never crossed again so goodness knows what persuaded him to become ‘one of Britain’s most notorious internet trolls’ (Daily Mail).
I guess people are complicated. And social media facilitates their raw and unfiltered edges. I was lucky though to experience the best rather than the worst of Old Holborn so for that reason RIP.
PS. Also in Salford on that extraordinary day was Juliet Samuel, aka Emily Nomates, then a shy but intrepid reporter for Guido Fawkes’ Guy News. (I made a brief appearance in her report, below.)
Harvard-educated Juliet has gone on to work for City AM, The Times, the Wall Street Journal and, most recently, the Telegraph where she has been a columnist for several years.
Yesterday, by complete coincidence, it was reported by Guido that Juliet is returning to The Times in March to replace long-standing columnist (and former communist) David Aaronovitch.
Big loss for the Telegraph but good news (I think) for free market Times’ readers.