Welly Ball releases, and then unreleases, financial information

On Thursday 27 October, the committee of Welly Ball posted a statement entitled “In Defence of Welly Ball” on their Facebook page prompted by an article published by The Saint on the same day. The statement rebuked, at length, claims made by the author’s article, Natasha Franks, who the committee claimed had accused them of “corruption, embezzlement and greed.”

The post included a link to the committee’s financial documents, in order to dispel any doubts as to their integrity. The statement also went on to further criticise The Saint in general and Miss Franks (mentioned by name in the post, which received over 250 likes and 15 shares): “Accusations of corruption and embezzlement seriously threaten the reputation we have worked hard to retain. The Welly Ball Committee hopes this response proves their falsehood. We now make one request of the author of the article – Welly Ball is removed from the article and the allegations against us are retracted immediately.” 

While Miss Franks had indeed made reference to balls and other events being accused of corruption, the article in question was written in defence of these balls, calling out the students who “fall back onto accusations of embezzlement to reconcile themselves with their baseless hatred of a charitable club.” The article describes accusations of corruption as “senseless, bitter rumours which are quickly discredited by the innate hypocrisy of their makers.” The Welly Ball committee’s post appeared to have been a misreading of the article.

Following Welly Ball’s post, the article accrued numerous comments sharing their sentiment. One commenter named “James Spectre” was particularly vociferous, demanding that Miss Franks and The Saint both apologise for making “factually incorrect” criticisms of different events, and saying (ironically, given the context): “If you are going to make claims, Natasha Franks, you need to have a basis for these claims.” 

Comments

comments