The Arrest of Dan Norris
Is this just the first of many revelations?
This will be a brief post on this subject as there is as yet little to say about the arrest itself. But there are some important points to note about the man concerned.
On the same day that Bristol City Council installed yet more planters to block East Bristol roads and protestors again succeeded in preventing the work on Marsh Lane, news is breaking that Dan Norris, since July last year Labour MP for North Somerset and Hanham, and outgoing West of England Combined Authority (WECA) Metro Mayor, was arrested on Friday 'on suspicion of child sex offences and rape'.
On 14th March - just three weeks ago - I joined some of the most prominent East Bristol protest voices giving statements on the subject of Bristol City Council’s shocking night time installation of roadblocks in Barton Hill, East Bristol, in front of Mr Norris. In true Substack fashion I will now quote myself - from my piece Council Wages War Against East Bristol:
And what about WECA - the West of England Combined Authority responsible for funding the EBLN? On Friday last week, the day after the shocking events in East Bristol, several objectors attended the West of England Joint Committee and WECA Committee meetings in Southmead, North Bristol.
Several statements were read out demanding an end to the insanity by turning off the financial taps. Questions were asked about the ethics of funding a virtually military operation against protestors, and it was highlighted how BCC’s tactics were divisive and polarising. With the leaders of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset councils, plus Police and Crime Commissioner Clare Moody present, outgoing Metro Mayor Dan Norris (also a Labour MP since the last general election) listened attentively and empathetically, responding with great concern at BCC’s wild actions.
Well, at least that is the impression he evidently meant to give, and the Good Cop Bad Cop tactic was very convincing to people who are desperate for an end to the stress and anxiety they have been suffering. That’s how it works, right? Some came away with the impression something positive had been achieved - that the Labour Metro Mayor was on their side and treating them civilly in comparison with the abuse from their own councillors. Hmmm. Not so sure about that. Apart from the extreme likelihood that anyone in such a position of political power is up to no good, a recent conversation I had with a friend revealed that Mr Norris was known as ‘Jackanory’ at school, on account of all the
liesstories he told. He has also not been free from controversy during his tenure as mayor.
While I was writing the above I did a little research on Dan Norris. My impression at the meeting had been of a smooth operator who is well-trained and practised in manipulating and ingratiating himself amongst susceptible people, and I wanted to know more. A position of power accompanied by the rituals of political office in the UK will generally in itself also convince people they need to look up to the individual concerned. Norris had gazed intently with parental concern at each speaker and made sympathetic comments expressing appreciation of their participation and passion for their causes - a true politician aiming at sounding genuine and trustworthy in order to con the public he’s on their side.
It felt very much like we were playing parts in a well-rehearsed theatre production, and even I slipped into the role prepared for me by beginning my statement with the words, ‘Thank you for allowing me to speak’. Yes, I really did - you can hear for yourselves in the video above. Facepalm. I left the meeting once the statements were over, feeling I’d spent enough time in this distinctly odd atmosphere (it was my second meeting and statement of the day).
So, it will now be coming out in the press, as in this Guardian article, that after studying social work at Sussex University, Norris became and worked for some time as a child protection officer. Let that sink in. A man known as ‘Jackanory’ at school, because he was infamous for his lies, studies social work in order to work in child protection, and goes on to become a very influential politician. In the context of the recent arrest, this will be ringing the same alarm bells for everyone else that it rang for me three weeks ago.
In his Wikipedia article it states:
Norris has a particular interest in child safety and regularly campaigns against child sexual abuse,[11] having co-written a free booklet on its prevention. He also co-wrote, produced and distributed a booklet, Don't Bully Me, giving practical advice to children across the United Kingdom on dealing with bullying.[12]
He is also an ambassador for Kidscape.
Perhaps more will also be revealed about his business activities. After losing his parliamentary seat in the general election of 2010 and until 2014, he was apparently working for David Milliband, running a registered business under the code ‘96090 - Other service activities not elsewhere classified’. Here is an interesting list of rather random business activities that could be covered under the code: https://www.siccode.co.uk/sic2007/code-96090.
We know Dan loves his dog, so it’s possible he was running a dogs’ home or training pet animals. Or perhaps he was working as a spiritualist, fortune teller, clairvoyant or astrologer? In any case the director of the company was a Daniel Kevin Norris, born 20 years after our Dan the Man, so goodness knows what that all means. There is no information about his family on Wikipedia.
Also noteworthy is that Norris was whole-heartedly behind the campaign to remove Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour Party, expressing his ‘shock and horror’ at Corbyn’s criticism of the state of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and of course accusing him of antisemitism. See his archived Bristol Post op-ed from November 2018: ‘today’s Labour leadership seems to have become highly uncomfortable in opposing racism when it is directed at Jewish people: a civilisation that has consistently suffered more persecution and death from others than any other people in history.’ The suffering of Jewish people here or there, it’s a sentence which pretty clearly identifies him as a Zionist.
It remains to be seen what will happen next, but I would not be surprised if more revelations come to light about his conduct. Maybe we should be looking at other local politicians too. Also watch for the possible angle being taken of Norris’s case being used to push further for digital ID, in the name of preventing such child abuse. We should all know by now that any official concern shown for child abuse could equally well be a cover to protect those high up who are actually the perpetrators.
In conjunction with this, I’m planning to write my next post on the WECA metro mayor hustings that took place last Wednesday, so watch this space. In the meantime maybe ask yourself how we can ever know if any of the metro mayoral candidates have any more integrity than the man who is currently in office? And that is of course just scratching the surface of the whole system.
I had the distinct displeasure of a personal run-in with Norris several years ago, back when he had the gall to slither his way into a protest event—not to support the cause, of course, but to bask in the camera flashes like the shameless careerist parasite he is. He showed up with the smug, hollow grin of a man who’s never worked a real day in his life, sniffing around for a photo op to pad his public image and polish his self-righteous credentials.
I wasn't in the mood for farce that day—and never have been, frankly—so I called him out to his face. No vague insinuations, no polite euphemisms. I looked him dead in the eye and accused him of being just another “kiddy-fiddling champagne socialist”
And wouldn’t you know it—once again, my finely tuned diddler radar proved tragically accurate. There’s a certain stink these people carry, masked by their PR handlers and recycled platitudes, but it’s there for those with the stomach to notice. In hindsight, it was less an accusation and more a grim prophecy. The type always reveals itself eventually—when the headlines catch up to what anyone with functioning instincts already knew.
It’s almost impressive, in a sick way, how reliably these ghouls confirm the worst suspicions about them. And yet the public, glassy-eyed and docile, keeps lining up to vote for them, to clap for them, to excuse them. Norris was never an aberration—just another brick in the wall of this decaying system, painted with a fresh coat of moral posturing and hiding rot underneath.
Excellent! Please keep going, I'm desperate to see you come out victorious over the Bristol and other areas in danger of succumbing to LTN lunacy.
This is another example of people of the worst morals and the wrong policies having the power to do the most ridiculous and divisive things to their constituents.