Psychic news is free from SNU Spiritualist National Union

Well I think this is the last topic in this area before we move on

Sue has completed a report upon the machinations that saw the SNU try to grab hold of Psychic News to make it an in house publication.
http://spiritofpn.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/psychic-news-%e2%80%93-there-is-no-death/
As people know, on the Forum we have been following this for a long time, slowly analysing the information that became available in the public domain and adding comments.

It is now clear that the Forum was not far off the mark in its review of the reasons the SNU did what they did and the unscrupulous way they went about it. However what becomes evident is that the timing of some of the events was earlier than estimated upon the forum and that some of the acts committed were even worse than we could have imagined

The threads are:
http://spiritualismlink.forumotion.com/t883-psychic-news-snu-spiritualist-national-union-and-liquidator
http://spiritualismlink.forumotion.com/t917-psychic-press-to-go-into-creditors-voluntary-liquidation

It appears that the whole intention of the liquidation was to take direct charge of the newspaper and to get editorial control. This has to be the case because they received but rejected offers from the JV Trust and STF which would have placed the operation back on a sound financial footing. I was, in fact startled to note some points in Sue’s report.
The first is that these offers were made before the decision to liquidate the company was formally made.

To quote Spirit of PN

“In late April, the J.V. Trust offered a significant sum of money to PP’s chairman David Bruton (now SNU president) to support Psychic News through the tough times of recession. The trustees believed that, though it was desirable for the paper to make a profit, its primary purpose was as a mouthpiece for Spiritualism. David Bruton rejected the trust’s offer. At the same time, the Spiritual Truth Foundation (STF) offered money to fund a marketing campaign for the paper. This, too, was rejected. The reasons for rejection were not easy for outsiders to grasp. The funds offered were in excess of PP’s debts, which at that time were modest.”
Given the fact that only the working party had met at that time, clearly other parties were either aware of the issue that might arise because of Psychic Press’s prior year loss or
they had some inkling of the working parties leanings towards liquidation.

As Sue wrote in Spirit of PN

The first whisper of trouble came in April 2010 when, quite by chance, I discovered that the SNU had convened a “working party” to consider the future of Psychic News. This information was deemed strictly confidential and was not officially shared with me or other staff members for some time. Neither, astonishingly, was it shared with at least one of the directors of PP. During this period, a source close to the SNU’s National Executive Committee (NEC) confided to me that secrecy had been imposed so that the SNU could retain “the element of surprise”. People might reasonably ask why an organisation dedicated to the promotion of “The Brotherhood of Man” would want to spring an unpleasant “surprise” on anybody

Looking at these two pieces of information it is inconceivable that the trading problem should have been the reason they became intent upon liquidating Psychic Press (1995). They knew in late April that they had access to enough money to continue trading for some considerable time and that there were funds to promote the Newspaper on offer. On its own this guaranteed that none of the stakeholders would lose out whilst the paper continued and a new strategic plan was developed to bring it back into profit. Accepting this money would have protected both the employees and the creditors.

Unless there was some deeper motive they would never have rejected such an offer and embark upon a course that was at best unwise. Of course, as it actually turned out it was far worse than unwise, their actions went on to cause considerable emotional and financial distress.

So what do the events, now brought into highlight by Sue’s Spirit of PN article show? It becomes crystal clear that they wanted the newspaper, bookshop, archives, masthead and total control of the editorial content. Once this was the case it would have reported precisely what the NEC, tutors and the “incoming” philosophy and ethics committee wanted. There is no surprise in this given the certain involvement of Judith Seaman.

Meeting the liquidators in April must have let them realise they had a unique opportunity. This was made available by recent changes in the liquidation rules in the UK. The liquidators obviously suggested at an early stage that, in accordance with these new rules, the trick was for the SNU to take the company to liquidation. The SNU would then make an offer for the assets which would cover the costs of the liquidation.

There would be no surplus for the creditors and no money to pay out employees entitlements. The creditors would, therefore, lose their money and the staff would have to go cap in hand to the UK Government to obtain the lesser sum available under the statutory protection scheme. So the creditors, employees and the UK tax payers would lose to the gain of the SNU.

Clean, quick, and a very dirty trick. Conduct like this is unbefitting for any Company which had been offered the finances to continue trading, indeed even for a Commercial Enterprise it is ethically and morally reprehensible. For the National Executive Council of a Spiritualist body, which rates itself as foremost Spiritualist Group in the world, it is totally appalling. I do understand, from asking several questions about the world, that the SNU has a terrible reputation as an employer but this was one of the meanest tricks imaginable.
Let us just confirm some of these things by reference to Sue’s Spirit of PN Article

“A further PP board meeting was held on May 22 – a mere nine days later** – so that David Bruton could present directors with the working party’s recommendations. Prime among these was that PP should be placed in liquidation.

I was present at this meeting and was instructed not to tell other staff members of the decision to liquidate the company, with one exception – Paul Brett, then assistant editor of Psychic News. There was a reason for this: David Bruton made a number of statements at that meeting, most of which were minuted by the SNU’s general secretary, Charles Coulston, and one of which directly affected Paul.

Key among these statements was that the working party had recommended that Psychic News should become an internet-only publication. However, the minutes recorded that “the chairman … thought they had to retain some form of physical paper. Mr Hadley [Andrew Hadley, then a relative newcomer to the upper echelons of the SNU, and member of the working party] and he had met with an insolvency expert and it [liquidation] could be done painlessly. If they continued Psychic News they would make the staff redundant except for Ms Farrow and Paul Brett, which would mean redundancy payments of some £30,000, otherwise they would wind up and the government would make the redundancy payments. They could take the book sales into the Union [PP (95) also published books, including reprinting classic Spiritualist volumes – a profitable operation], which would save on accountancy fees. The Union would have to buy the assets back, which would be at a considerably knock-down price.””

** Note: At that time the staff of PN were told it was “business as usual.”

It is a shocking tale and makes it obvious the working party had intended to liquidate at a very early date. Yet, even with this decision made, they continued to take money for tickets to fund raising events to occur after their chosen date to place Psychic Press (1995) into liquidation, and to accept forward subscriptions for copies of Psychic News or for customer’s future advertisements. This occurred even when they knew the terms of these arrangements extended beyond the intended closure and liquidation dates. They have ignored the advertisers and subscribers, who lost money but repaid the ticket holders because they became aware that taking their money was an illegal act. I suspect the same is true for the other parties but with the small sums, geographic spread and possible terms signed up to in the subscription agreements they can be ignored by the liquidator with apparent impunity.

However, despicable these acts it seems clear that they would have got away with it without the whistle getting blown in June 2010. In part the break down in the blanket of secrecy may be from the smoke that began to rise on this forum spreading out so far it reached people who could ask questions. Without that protest it appears the NEC could have pulled this off without the slightest difficulty. Indeed, it is rather a surprise that they originally chose to wait so long - until July 31st, because had they acted quickly it is highly unlikely any unified opposition could have been organised until it was a fait accompli.

The detail from Sue’s report at Spirit of PN shows that they did decide on immediate liquidation in June but then, from their point of view, fatally hesitated. I say fatally because it may appear that everything that happened since then did so because they did not just drive the liquidation through quickly. For this hesitation we must be grateful for without it we would not now have an independent Psychic News.

I will digress briefly here. One point that seems to have been comfortably forgotten by both liquidators is that although the insolvency law has changed there are still imperatives for directors in an insolvent company.

The imperative is that from the time they knew they were trading insolvently, i.e. at the April meeting, their duty was not to protect the shareholders assets but to protect the rights of the creditors. Had they acted in June they may have been able to argue this but to continue on exposed them to this liability. The best they could delay the date they acknowledged insolvency was the Psychic Press (1995) board meeting on May 22nd.

To put the damage done in context, Sue has confirmed there was very little debt in April (in her Spirit of PN Article), but when the liquidator put the company up for sale in February 2011 she needed 150,000 pounds to clear debts and her costs.

This is a huge turnaround making it is clear the Directors failed in their duties. However, if we step back, the directors’ last meeting was on 22nd May2010. From that moment the NEC exercised its right to handle matters directly by controlling all subsequent events themselves. In effect the NEC became the Directors and had the same duty to Creditors which they failed to fulfil.

Having digressed, I will also comment that under the old law, which mirrored the current Australian Law, no company would have been willing to approach a liquidator. Their only option was Administration, however, the appointed Administrator takes charge of the Company and the NEC would have lost control of events. Alternatively they could have manipulated the affairs of the company and wound it up but then both the staff and all the creditors would have had to be paid out. It is no wonder the NEC grabbed this chance to default on their liabilities while attempting to get the assets by the use of the new law.

Returning to the time line, we find that the NEC turned a blind ear to any offers of money and help. Indeed they closed the paper one week earlier than expected. It appeared they intended to make the staff redundant on the 31st July 2010. I say “redundant” guardedly because the staff were to receive no money and could only approach the UK Government scheme once the liquidator was in charge of the company. It is horrific to think that the National Executive Committee of a Spiritualist organisation could be so insensitive to the financial hardships they were about to cause.

When the JV Trust approached the SNU to buy Psychic Press (1995) they decided to delay the appointment of a liquidator and extend the employment of the staff.
The negotiations began in August 2010 but it is clear that the NEC had absolutely no intention of selling the business. This became clear when they made it plain all they intended to sell was the debt ridden carcase of the Company. Despite the fact, as Sue’s Spirit of PN article specified, they did not own the key assets: the masthead and archives

“The Union would have to buy the assets back, which would be at a considerably knock-down price.”

as quoted above from the May 22nd meeting, yet they told the JV Trust they did own them. Indeed this claim was met by howls of protest not least from the STF who gifted the assets to Psychic Press (1995).

Not surprisingly the negotiations failed and the SNU announced that the company was in the hands of Berleys the firm of liquidators and that the staff had been made redundant with no payout. It is interesting that by this time the SNU had refunded all of those advance payments for fundraising events in the face of clear evidence these had the capacity to become a huge problem for them.

Of course there was a problem here; they had told Berley’s they had wanted to use liquidation to buy the assets so the liquidators knew they did not belong to the SNU.
Berley’s were, in some ways, much more sympathetic to the creditors. They accepted proof of debt from everyone, even those who had lost elements of their subscriptions for undelivered copies of the paper. However even before their appointment, Berley’s had been bombarded by emails challenging the legality of the actions of the SNU. All of mine are copied onto the forum and indeed these copies show that the Companies Investigation Bureau was also included in the circulation.

Of course Berley’s knew by now that this was not going to be the straightforward simple liquidation planned between them and the working party. The SNU had turned down a valuable offer for the company, which would have kept it going with all debts paid and employees looked after. They had done so by claiming ownership over assets that they knew the SNU did not own.

I would expect they also thought that their actions would be scrutinised by Companies House. A reported fee increase to 20,000 pounds on the part of Berley’s was hardly surprising and still in hindsight a bargain. It did, however, give the SNU a let out which they used. At the Creditors Meeting the SNU withdrew from the liquidation. I believe, from Leslie Price’s report in Paranormal Review, the actions of the two forum administrators from Australia got a mention from the harassed liquidation firm, “The liquidator and his colleague seemed quite relieved not to be further involved in SNU affairs. He expressed his particular irritation with messages from Australia!*”

Of course the SNU must have known that its actions would leave the employees in limbo, unable to obtain any money from the Government until a liquidator approved this. However, as we can see the SNU had only one interest, trying to get its hands on the masthead and archives.

To bolster their claims of “ownership” they then went for another cunning Black Adder style plan. They went off to register a trademark for Psychic News as a printed and internet paper. A cunning stunt which although partly blocked by another registration actually became accepted in March 2011 and you can imagine the chaos this caused in the negotiations that were going on by that time.

The poor staff were well in limbo by now with no money for two months and the SNU spending all their time trying to find a way to get the assets. Rumours of a new firm of liquidators did appear in October 2010, with a notice going out from the SNU. However attempts to contact this liquidator by the forum admin, copying the Companies Investigation Bureau and Charles Coulston, received no responses.

Finally, on November 10th 2010, the SNU put up a notice confirming Marsh Hammond had been formerly appointed the new liquidator. The creditors meeting took place on the 15th November, and it is clear Marsh Hammond were seeking to exclude the creditors for subscriptions incomplete. The report on the meeting says that “It was noted that the Charity Commissioners had been asked to confirm that subscribers (£10,700) might be repaid by the SNU itself, although in general creditors would not be paid by the Union, because of charity law.” Since that day neither the SNU nor the liquidator, have attempted to make any contact with these creditors, and proxies appointed by them, have been excluded.
The astonishing thing from that meeting is to see that the claims on hand for outstanding creditors now totaled 130,000 pounds. Up from 4,000 pounds when the SNU could have taken the bail out in April , and a testimony to the incompetence of their actions.

The good thing is that this liquidator did agree to establish the ownership of the assets, announcing discussions with both the SNU and STF almost immediately after the meeting. In this seed we see the beginning of the end for the SNU’s plans to grab the assets.

In many ways this news rather took the edge off debate because all we could do was to await the outcome. Any attempts by us to contact the liquidator failed so we just waited and waited.

Finally we heard important news. At long last the employees received their Government payouts. Not of course the full amount they were owed but the statutory payout in late January 2011. Only 4 and a half months after the SNU got rid of them. This is one stain that no amount of time will wash off the character of the SNU.

Then on 18th March 2011, more news began to break when a poster on here wrote

“received an email last night at 21.50, to say that the assets of Psychic press 1995 will be for sale The Deadline for responses is 4pm on Friday 25th March 2011. Offers of over £150,000. The Email States that Quote An indefinite licence to publish the paper and to hold and use the archives. Unquote.”

Then on 23rd March

“** STOP PRESS ** Ownership of Psychic Press assets determined.”

The Spirit of PN article told us that the SNU had lost their claim to own the assets. I would love to have seen the faces of the SNU representatives at that meeting.

Once again there was silence as the negotiations took place while people wondered what the “Quote: An indefinite licence to publish the paper and to hold and use the archives: Unquote “ actually meant.

The confirmation on 20th May 2011, that the SNU’s attempt to register the Trade Mark had succeeded suggested that despite losing, the SNU were not about to give up.
Then 4 months after the closing date for offers, the SNU’s AGM carried the news that the JV Trust was negotiating to buy the assets in July 2011. However, those negotiations continued on for a little over two months more. Given all of the SNU’s machinations it is impossible to imagine they did not keep trying to create hurdles and barriers to drive the JV Trust away. You can be certain one of them was the viciously done ban of Eric Hatton’s book because he was leading the JV Trust in its bid.

Well, despite all their efforts it is a done deal and absolute congratulations to all of those who led the fight, especially Sue Farrow and Paul Brett, who must have used up all and every reserve of cash that they had during the fight. Congratulations to the JV Trustees especially Eric Hatton and to their lawyers. ‘

The cost has been horrendous. Firstly, the emotional cost of those who lost their employment and those who had to keep going in the face of some pretty nasty events. Then the economic cost: back in October the losses were about 130,000 pounds, when the assets were advertised they were over 150,000 pounds. The liquidator and her lawyers have now been negotiating for 6 months. Those costs will be huge. The total money sunk in Psychic Press (1995) by the actions of the SNU must now be heading towards 250,000 pounds, less whatever money was recovered by the sale. Now no one was going to pay anything like the liquidators stated price of 150,000 pounds because of the cost of regenerating the Newspaper. Of course the liquidator will take all the purchase price for her costs and may well go to the SNU and demand more if the shortfall on her fees is too large. Indeed, the majority of the money lost will be borne by the SNU, because of its actions, and not the other creditors.

On top of that, the JV Trust has been negotiating now for 7 months, and I would hate to see their legal bills. We could well be staring down a joint cost of over 300,000 pounds.
Yet In August last year the NEC turned down an offer from the JV Trust. The money would have gone straight into their funds. The legal fees would have been minimal and not one dollar would have been lost to any creditor or employee. By their actions the NEC has singlehandedly removed at least 250,000 pounds of funds desperately needed to promote Spiritualism.

This whole saga has been done with the least spiritual of motives, in a totally insensitive way. The losses also show that this NEC is careless of the money in trust to the SNU, and indicates what must, at best, be seen as incompetence.

Whilst it is now time to move forward and see that the resurrection is a success, I believe all the SNU members, especially those on the NEC, should review events, and consider what changes they should make to improve the future management of the SNU.

What baffles me is that there seems to be a willingness in some quarters to let the SNU off the hook after it was admitted that they "made some mistakes".

This, we were told was so that all could move forward, but to allow the SNU to move ahead with no review or examination of the way it operates and treats it employees, is simply mind boggling.

As you know for some time I have been making people aware of the appalling actions of the SNU NEC over the past 15 months on the Spirit of PN site and others, and am delighted that at last the future of Psychic News has been secured.
However what happened to the ownership of the title 'Psychic News'? We are told that it was registered to the SNU in March 2011; is it still owned by them, sold with the other assets, or re-registered by the current owners JV Trust?
Thanks,
Mike.

Mike Goodall wrote:However what happened to the ownership of the title 'Psychic News'? We are told that it was registered to the SNU in March 2011; is it still owned by them, sold with the other assets, or re-registered by the current owners JV Trust?
Thanks,
Mike.

Mike asks an important question. The title Psychic News has been transferred to the J.V. Trust as part of the sale agreement. It is now registered as their property with the Intellectual Property Office.

Thanks for that confirmation Sue

Thank you Jim. An excellent summary of events. It can now be clearly seen by all who read the article just how badly the SNU/NEC acted throughout this sad saga. They should be hanging their heads in shame (somehow I doubt it though). Thanks to the doggedness of Sue Farrow and the JV Trust and undoubtedly help from the Spirit world, The morons at the SNU have been defeated. I wonder how they will explain their underhand actions and great financial loss to their members? I, for one, will not be holding my breath waiting for answers.

Thanks for the explanation Sue; I'm glad that issue has been sorted.

Bill; I won't be holding my breath either; it's very unlikely that the issue will surface again at their meetings; they are trying to forget it I guess.
I think it's time their rules were changed; under the present ones they don't have to explain any of their actions to members, and all meetings, right down to church committee level, are in secret. So basically they can do what they like with no comeback or explanations necessary.

Am I getting this wrong but didn't someone separately register the title 'Psychic News' during the past year, to avoid it being misappropriated? Sometime last winter?

I remember reading long accounts about it.

Someone tried to but in the face of a large number of lawyers I believe that one may now be amicably all settled Mac.

Admin wrote:Someone tried to but in the face of a large number of lawyers I believe that one may now be amicably all settled Mac.

I hear what you're saying, Jim.....

mac wrote:Am I getting this wrong but didn't someone separately register the title 'Psychic News' during the past year, to avoid it being misappropriated? Sometime last winter?

I remember reading long accounts about it.

Mac, a private individual attempted to register the trademark Psychic News but their attempt lapsed for lack of a final payment to the Intellectual Property Office. The SNU was then successful in its attempt to register the trademark, but that registered trademark was subsequently transferred to the J.V. Trust as part of the sale agreement. It is now the property of the J.V. Trust's holding company, JV TR Ltd and is licensed to the new publishing company Psychic Press Ltd for ongoing use.

For the attention of the SNU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE....
'Oh what a tangled web we weave
when first we set out to deceive'

answerable only to themselves when they ascend.... oh what a yoke they have to bear....

Susan Farrow wrote:

mac wrote:Am I getting this wrong but didn't someone separately register the title 'Psychic News' during the past year, to avoid it being misappropriated? Sometime last winter?

I remember reading long accounts about it.

Mac, a private individual attempted to register the trademark Psychic News but their attempt lapsed for lack of a final payment to the Intellectual Property Office. The SNU was then successful in its attempt to register the trademark, but that registered trademark was subsequently transferred to the J.V. Trust as part of the sale agreement. It is now the property of the J.V. Trust's holding company, JV TR Ltd and is licensed to the new publishing company Psychic Press Ltd for ongoing use.

Thanks for the details, Susan. I thought I had remembered correctly but from what I had read I mistakenly gained the impression that the attempt to register the PN trademark was a done-deal. I did not know it had failed and that the SNU later succeeded. Thank goodness that ultimately it didn't matter.

I hope now that PN will quickly re-emerge and that this whole disgraceful business will fade into the past but not be forgotten. What members think about the SNU officers involved I can only guess....

Yes Mac, thanks to Sue for sorting that one out I wondered what exactly had happened there.

Looks like there has been a trade off here Psychic News can be registered in any form by any-one Psychic News 2012 or any thing like that it seems PN the newspaper is not so easily copied due to copy rights to which were owned by the SNU. The lady now trades as the Spirit of the PN
Our Trade mark is Spirit of Psychic News®2011
http://www.psychicsnews.co.uk/index.html

jock wrote:Looks like there has been a trade off here Psychic News can be registered in any form by any-one Psychic News 2012 or any thing like that it seems PN the newspaper is not so easily copied due to copy rights to which were owned by the SNU. The lady now trades as the Spirit of the PN
Our Trade mark is Spirit of Psychic News2011
http://www.psychicsnews.co.uk/index.html

Now I'm baffled again......

Wouldn't any use of the words 'Psychic News' in such a way be deemed as infringing its copyright should PN (or whatever organisation owns its legal name is) wish to pursue the matter?

jock wrote:Looks like there has been a trade off here Psychic News can be registered in any form by any-one Psychic News 2012 or any thing like that it seems PN the newspaper is not so easily copied due to copy rights to which were owned by the SNU. The lady now trades as the Spirit of the PN
Our Trade mark is Spirit of Psychic News2011
http://www.psychicsnews.co.uk/index.html

Really ther is no misunderstanding to any of this Jock all the answers are on the threads but may take some finding, publiceye a member here, told us she had attempted to register all of this and Susan Farrow has confirmed what happened about the apparent registration of Psychic News.

I sometimes think you look for more things than are there. Anyway lets cut through and say that I do not want all this to somehow obscure the very real picture of the absolutely appalling behaviour of the NEC. This must also be shared by the members because they seem almost unanimously to condone their actions. I say this because the events were clearly in the public domain, as was the terrible behaviour of the NEC and teh last annual conference passed with barely a voice raised against the action with a few honorable exceptions like David Hopkins.

We all know that the SNU membership will do nothing to shake the NEC's conviction they have the divine right of Kings to do as they please. A bit like the Scottish monarchy who took over England from Elizabeth before the Civil War started the change to parliamentary rule. However, in this case I do not believe anything will change, no revolution or civil war, the same heads in the same places, or the new ones are hand picked by el presidente to fit into the current culture, just like Mike Goodalls story of the monkeys in the Spirit of PN article.

Let us hope that Hadley is the first victim of the curse of Barbanell on the NEC for what they did to PN. May the Spiriytualist National Union peak body start to quake in their boots. The stones of Stansted Hall are shouting for justice ( a little over the top perchance)

Admin wrote:Let us hope that Hadley is the first victim of the curse of Barbanell on the NEC for what they did to PN. May the Spiriytualist National Union peak body start to quake in their boots. The stones of Stansted Hall are shouting for justice ( a little over the top perchance)

If nature spirits can master keyboard skills then surely the stones can get some satisfaction...

Very True Wes (off topic Of course with the Nature Spirit being from Sydney I wondered if some one over there had mislaid a materialised being, or was just having some fun, channelling a nature Spirit they never said what type fairy or elf)

Admin wrote:Very True Wes (off topic Of course with the Nature Spirit being from Sydney I wondered if some one over there had mislaid a materialised being, or was just having some fun, channelling a nature Spirit they never said what type fairy or elf)

Haaving some fun I reckon or simply testing the gullibility of some posters!