Rob Gilchrist: Respect, That Man

The headlines should read “Arrogant Private Eye Outspied By Novice.”
More genius journalism from Nicky Hager, whose reputation and wide net of sources continue to do him proud. The Private Investigation firm Thompson and Clark Investigations (TCIL) is rightly in the firing line for again trying to recruit a spy in activist circles (I wrote about the last instance of this too). It seems likely Solid Energy is again involved, against direct instruction from the government, so there’s going to be some chaos out of this.
The best bit is how it went down. Rob Gilchrist, a Christchurch guy with some links into these groups, was approached by Gavin Clark and a pitch was made for him to start spying for TCIL. Gilchrist played along, set up a second meet, and brought along a tape recorder. He then recorded Clark’s recruitment attempts on three separate occasions, feeding the info to Hager who broke the story on Sunday.
Ordinary guy Rob Gilchrist outplayed professional PI Gavin Clark at his own game. That fills me with glee.
Clark, as quoted in Hager’s article, trying to butter up Gilchrist and ending up chumping himself:

I can see exactly where you’re coming from, and I think it’s good you’ve got social values; you know, things that keep things in check. But sometimes people’s ideas are so extreme that, you know, I don’t know if the world could sustain a population of all vegans. We’d be overpopulated.

Oh, my, I’m laughing again. What a buffoon. If it wasn’t a reprehensible action by a determined resident of the ethical sewer, sourced in the large-scale villainy of Solid Energy’s reactionary culture, and continuing despite every possible ordinary restraint, then the hilarity wouldn’t taste so damn bitter.