Meeting up with Stroppy Bird & Dave

It was great to meet up this evening with Yvonne and Dave at the Evin Restaurant in Dalston. It has been at least 2 years since we last met up (due to you know what). I had forgotten where the Overground platform was at Stratford station. 

Yvonne is a Councillor and Mayoral advisor in Hackney and Dave is a journalist. 

We first met in the Royal Court of Justice in 2009 (with Alex Hilton) when we had a little libel issue to sort out. This took about 2 years. 

Yvonne and I both bored Dave silly with our conversion about the exciting life that  London Councillors lead (knocking on doors, wearing hard hats and visiting dog pounds). 

We hope to meet up with our legal guru Robert Douglas soon (Alex is currently in Thailand I believe but will also try and invite)

"They’re all the same. Oh no they’re not"

This is a great post on Redbrick defending Ed Miliband and the Labour Party on its housing policies. I am afraid that my old libel mucker, Alex Hilton, is on the wrong side of this argument.

Libel Reform Celebration

Last Wednesday evening I was invited to take part in an event organised by the Libel Reform campaigners to celebrate the Defamation Act which received Royal Assent in April.

This Act has been achieved very much against the odds and is a real victory for free speech, reasoned argument and citizen power.

It has still not been "enacted" and there are concerns that much of the detail on regulations and procedures have not been clarified. Also Northern Ireland needs to ensure that citizens have the same protection as elsewhere. But the Libel Reform campaign has been incredibly successful in such a short period of time (2009). There is still more to do of course.

I met my old blogging mucker, fellow Labour Party loyalist and Libel Survivor Dave Osler in the Betsey Trotwood Pub beforehand. At the event (next door at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon, London) itself we met up with Alex Hilton (see photo right) and Libel freedom fighters David Allen Green,  Robert Dougans and Nick Cohen.

After the event we retired back to the Betsey to continue putting our world to rights. Interestingly, Dave Osler is going to provide me with evidence that Trotsky was actually all the long a mixed economy reformist - just like me :)

(sorry picture is a little flat but surprisingly cannot find anything better on internet to pinch)

"Defamation Bill agreed by Parliament" Hip, Hip Hooray!

Great news! I received this email this evening. Well done to everyone involved in getting rid (mostly) of this nasty, vindictive, unjust, unfair and horrible stain on the whole British judicial process. 

I hope they are celebrating:)

(for details of picture see here)

"Dear Friends

We have some great news to share. The Defamation Bill has been agreed by Parliament and is now just waiting for Royal Assent, which will probably happen today, before becoming an Act of Parliament. This is undoubtedly down to all of your hard work with us over the last few years and you all deserve a huge thank you!

Below are some of the reactions from some of the Libel Reform Campaign supporters. You can read more here: http://www.libelreform.org/news

Tracey Brown, Director, Sense About Science said: “A campaign of small organisations, thousands of individuals and good parliamentarians has achieved changes that were denied to citizens for a century. We can now decide to publish based on ‘is it true’, not ‘will they sue’.”

Kirsty Hughes, Chief Executive, Index on Censorship said: “We now have a Defamation Bill that will strengthen freedom of expression, end the global chill from libel tourism and restrict corporations from suing citizen critics.”

Jo Glanville, Director, English PEN said: “This has been a remarkable campaign that has united politicians and campaigners to reform a law that had become an international embarrassment. The chill has had an impact on anyone speaking out in the public interest - from scientists to bloggers - so this is good news for freedom of speech in the UK.”

Dr Evan Harris, Libel Reform Campaign parliamentary adviser said: “As someone involved the campaign from the start, and from inside and outside Parliament, I can see what an achievement it is to achieve this reform.”

Simon Singh, science writer and defendant in BCA v Singh said: “This is an extraordinary story of cross party collaboration, fired up by a grass roots campaign, backed by everyone from nerds to Mumsnet, which includes mums who are also nerds.”

Justine Roberts, CEO and co-founder of parenting forum Mumsnet said: “It's not perfect, and of course we don't yet have the full detail on how the regulations will deal with publication on the internet. But we applaud the hard work of everyone involved, and are very happy to have been a part of this much-needed reform.”

Charmian Gooch, Director, Global Witness said: “The passage of the Defamation Bill is a long overdue victory in the campaign to reform the UK’s outdated and repressive libel laws.”

You can also read our initial analysis of the Bill (PDF)

We're going to arrange a bit of a gathering to get supporters and champions of the campaign together to celebrate this wonderful accomplishment and let you know what needs to happen next. We all still need to keep the pressure on to make sure the new law is enacted as soon as possible, clear and robust regulations are published, new Civil Procedure Rules are issued and most importantly we need to tell those who try and silence free speech through that libel they can't get away with it any more.

We'll be in touch with more details soon!

Síle & Mike

Information: www.libelreform.org"

Libel reform campaign petition: Don't kill the Bill

I've signed this petition from the Libel reform campaign to my MP asking her to save the current Bill which has nearly passed through Parliament. However it has been hijacked by "unhelpful" amendments in the House of Lords.

While I would personally support these amendments, they are not relevant to libel law and appear likely to scupper the entire Bill.

By coincidence last Saturday was the 2nd anniversary of the throwing out by the Royal Court of Justice of a certain stupid, wasteful and completely pointless Libel case. If the new Bill was passed into law it would help prevent similar nonsense in the future. 

Europe tells Kaschke to go forth....

In March this year I posted here that the British Court of Appeal had finally thrown out the libel accusations against Labour Bloggers Alex Hilton, Dave Osler and myself made by Tower Hamlets Labour/Respect/Communist/ Conservative Party member, Johanna Kaschke. 

I have made it clear at the time that I think this has been a ludicrous waste of time, trouble and vast amounts of public money that was allowed to continue for four years despite having "no merit whatsoever". 

Many thanks yet again to top lawyers Robert Dougans, David Allen Green (Jack of Kent) and former members of the CCCP Young Pioneers, for their outstanding help and support. Also last but not least thanks to Stroppy and Montrose.

Recently Ms Kaschke has announced that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have  rejected her appeal against the British Court's decision.  I am not sure which of the many appeals to the ECHR she said she would lodge have been rejected.  However, I assume that this matter is now finally finished. Ms Kaschke is of course busy blaming everyone else except herself for this outcome.

I thought to celebrate this occasion I should play this video recording of defendant Dave Osler at the Royal Court of Justice and his magnificent opening argument before Lord Justice Eady.  Luckily Robert and David were later able to rescue his defence.  Or so I am told.

Draft Defamation Bill Scrutiny and the three Labour blogger comrades!

On Friday evening I made a (very last minute) submission to the House of Commons Joint Committee on the
Draft Defamation Bill. For nearly 4 years Labour bloggers Dave Osler, myself and Alex Hilton had to fight a series of completely daft and ludicrous defamation claims in the Royal Court of Justice.  Thanks to pro bono (free!) help by expert solicitors David Allen Green and Robert Dougans the claims were eventually dismissed.

I was going to post on my submission but yesterday I got an acknowledgement from the  committee which suggested that I would be unable to post on it until they published my evidence.  So (if this is correct) I will have to keep stum for now.  It is an interesting story I think.  I hope it will help help organisations such as "Sense about Science" to fight the good fight against censorship and the current gross abuse of our Libel laws.

(This picture was taken at a curry house near to the Royal Court of Justice after something sensible was decided)

Dave is on the left of picture, then me, then Alex.  I do enjoy getting facebook reports about when Dave goes to lefty Trot parties and social events he is introduced as "this is Dave Osler, a friend of John Gray" :)

Libel Reform: Sign the Petition and write to your MP

The Libel Reform Campaign is urging people to sign their petition and contact their MP and ask them to support Early Day Motion (EDM) 1636.  The government published a draft defamation Bill in March.

"The Libel Reform Campaign led by English PEN, Index on Censorship and Sense About Science have welcomed the Government’s draft Defamation Bill as ‘a great starting point’ to ensure the first overhaul of our archaic libel laws, but calls upon Parliament to go further in key areas. Since its launch 18 months ago, 55,000 people have signed up to the campaign, with over half of all eligible MPs backing our Early Day Motion in the last session of Parliament. This is the first time any government has promised wholesale reform of our libel laws since 1843.
In particular, the campaign calls for:

• a stronger public interest defence
• an end to the ability of corporations to sue in libel
• more protection for web-hosts and Internet service providers from liability for the words of others".

Super-injunctions, privacy laws and libel have been in the news recently but it is not just the rich and famous who could fall foul of our unfit for purpose libel laws.  I am speaking as someone, who with two blogging comrades (Dave Osler and Alex Hilton), had some little local difficulties (for almost 4 years!) at the Royal Court of Justice.  Grappling over such issues of principle as whether comparing someone to Chocolate Cake is actionable?  and should there be an injunction in case primary school children google the names of their governors and think they are a terrorist?  

Finally, eventually, the cases were thrown out an abuse of process - "not worth the candle" of pursuing. 

However, there is a very serious side to this since these utterly pointless cases probably cost you the taxpayer £100,000's in un-claimable Court costs and check out this account on the real "cost" of the case by Dave's Partner, "Mrs" Stroppy. 

Kaschke v. Gray & Hilton....you thought is was all over?...it is now!

After nearly 4 years of extensive litigation, Lord Justice Thomas today at a hearing in Court 68 of the Royal Courts of Justice refused Johanna Kaschke leave to appeal against her libel case being struck out.

He supported previous rulings that the difference between what Ms Kaschke has admitted to be true and what she thinks is libel, is so insignificant to be an abuse of a full Jury trial.  It is simply not worth the candle.  Even if she was to win (and of course she would not) her damages would only be minimal at very best.

Why this statement of the bleeding obvious has taken such a long time to come about at such a huge cost to the public purse is another matter.

This is now the end of the matter for Alex Hilton and myself.  Ms Kaschke of course intends to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).  However, in the extremely unlikely event that the ECHR consider this a case worth examining it will be the British Government who will have to defend it not Alex or I.

Fellow defendant Dave Osler also had the case against him kicked out last year.

Many thanks to Robert Dougans, David Allen Green (Jack of Kent) and former members of the CCCP Young Pioneers for their outstanding help and support. Also last but not least thanks to Stroppy and Montrose. 

The final irony (of many) in this is that Ms Kaschke claims that she got involved in British Politics because she was worried as a Council tenant about her security of tenure. She then made her long march from Labour to Respect to CPGB to CPB to Labour (again briefly) then to the Conservative Party.  Her beloved David Cameron and his Tory-led government is now responsible for introducing changes to the Housing benefit system which will mean that Council tenants such as herself who under occupy their homes (have more bedrooms than they are deemed to need) will face being evicted.

Picture from last July when case first dismissed.

UPDATE: Check Index against Censorship press release and David Allen Green's post in the New Statesman about the case "with no merit whatsoever".

UPDATE: ECHR decision

Kaschke Blogging Libel Update

The legal saga and complete waste of Court time and public funds continues. Please bear with me while I try to set the scene and explain - since it is just a tinny weeny bit confusing.

In 2007 Tower Hamlet's own SPD turned Labour Party turned Respect turned CPGB turned CPB turned Labour and finally Conservative Party blogger, Johanna Kaschke, sued for libel Labour bloggers Dave Osler (Dave's Part), Alex Hilton (Labourhome) and myself.  In September 2010 Kaschke's ludicrous case against Dave had been finally and completely thrown out of court for abuse of process.  She is still as you can see threatening him with some sort of legal action.

In July 2010 her case against Alex and I was struck out also for abuse of process (pending appeals). Last week, Kaschke lost a written appeal against the decision to strike out her claim (see copy of order left) despite her "lengthy arguments". However she is still allowed to have a oral hearing requesting an appeal.  This will now take place at the Royal Court of Justice on 2 March 2011. 

Alex and I are being ably assisted by Assistant Solicitor of the Year" (2010) and The Times "Lawyer of the week" Robert Dougans and top legal blogger, David Allen Green, (aka Jack of Kent).

I am of course pleased that Ms Kaschke, who obviously as a personal libel litigant is concerned about reputational damage has decided to withdraw her incisive, intellectual masterpiece post "John Gray is a Fat Ponze".

:)

UPDATE: but I have been reminded that she still posts here "Incumbent Labour Councillor Worships Machinegun wielding hero".

Labour Party Conference 2010: Bloggers 4 Labour fringe

Last Monday I was a member of this panel at the conference fringe chaired by London Labour MEP, (and blogger) Mary Honeyball.  I was first to speak then Islington Councillor and head of David Miliband social media campaign, Jessica Asato; the popular website Labour List’s acting editor, Mark Ferguson (who despite a dare did not appear in the supposed atypical male blogging attire – boxer shorts and dressing gown) and Labour “Social Media Tsar”, Kerry McCarthy MP.

There were around 100 people present in the fringe.  Many of whom were furiously blogging, tweeting and facebooking as we spoke.  There was even a few die-hards writing notes with pen-and-paper!

I went first about the legal perils of blogging and how Alex Hilton, Dave Olser and I have lived in “interesting times” for the past 3 1/2 years.  Since my case and Alex is still “on-going” (although in its final stages hopefully) I was a little circumspect about what I could say. 

I did warn bloggers that they must be mindful that it only costs £75 for someone to make a claim (serve a writ) for libel no matter how seemingly ridiculous the claim.  If you are in receipt of certain benefits it is even free.  You could spend thousands of pounds in legal costs (and years of your life) trying to get such a case kicked out with no guarantee you would ever be able to reclaim any of your costs. 

There are a few things to safeguard yourself - such as if you make a somewhat controversial post or comment on something you see on a web site - then save a screen print of it.  If you allow comments then make sure you do indeed moderate them.  If you get a complaint - take down the post until you get advice. 

Some say that the best posts are written late on a Friday or Saturday night after a “few” drinkies – but it is best to post only in the cold harsh light of the following day.  No matter how brilliant you thought it was at the time.

It is not all doom and gloom.  There were a number of occasions of “high comedy”.  Such as when Dave Osler "Ex-punk. Ex-Trot. Unchanged attitude problem" (definitely not a New Labour Supporter)" had to stand up in chambers and respectfully address the bowler hat wearing and MCC tie judge as “Master”.

Check out top legal blog “Jack of Kent” for fuller details of case's.

Next, I spoke about my cunning plan to “drive a wedge in the Coalition by social media”.  Blogging is usually driven either by the top or the bottom.  There are a number of high profile national individual or party blogs with widespread readership and interest.  There are also a huge number of smaller local and personal blogs with a small number of readers.  There is a gap in the middle to exploit. 

I wanted to encourage a Labour movement family blog in every locality.  In London this could be on a borough or regional basis. Run jointly by the local Labour Party and the affiliated trade unions.  A campaigning and reporting blog which will primarily be aimed and used to demonstrate to the 3 million trade union affiliates (and others) that the responsibility for the massive cuts in services and benefits that we face are down to the CONDEMS – and no one else. 

(I did mention that this wasn’t probably the most sensitive time to mention the further political mobilisation of trade union members!).  

Next was Jessica who was able to tell us what it was like to run a national mass new media campaign.  She suggested that there should be a fund for bloggers who face legal action and we need to do something about vile misogynistic anonymous commenter’s (which Mary concurred)

Mark is in the best tradition of Labour bloggers – enthusiastic, knowledgeable, cynical yet amusing.  He will make a fine editor of Labour List as long as they do not run out of money.

Kerry is a total new media enthusiast who wants to use this medium as a new means to communicate our traditional Labour values to the real wider public.   

Mary noted that she “was very pleased by the number of serious bloggers in the audience Councillor Stephen Cowan, Jon Worth, Tracey Cheetham, Mark Nottingham, Colin Ellar and the increasingly well regarded Political Scrapbook”.

There was a very good Q&A from the audience and since no-one mentioned my grand design for local Labour movement blogging, I assume that everyone agreed that it was a wonderful idea - or were too polite to disagree. 

Mary gave all us panellists at the end a very lovely thank you card and a little pressie (see – bloggers do have manners!). 

My pressie was the DVD of “A Very British Coup”.  Which perhaps I ought to send on to our “Red Ed” to prepare him for what might happen when he does become PM!

Many thanks to Mary and her team for all their hard work for what was an enjoyable and instructive fringe.

Finally - A Victory - for Common Sense.

We won. It's struck out.  What a complete and utter waste of time, energy and (public) money. Many thanks to Robert, David (and Matthew)

nuf said

Jack of Kent on "Kaschke v. you know who" case

Top legal blogger (and all round nice guy) Jack of Kent reports on the latest round of legal nonsense and complete waste of public funds here.

As usual he cuts to the quick to make complicated legal matters clear to (nearly) everyone.

"Assistant Solicitor of the Year" at this year's Lawyer Awards (June 2010) and The Times "Lawyer of the week" Robert Dougans is also doing his very best to sort out this utter mess.

See what happens tomorrow I suppose. 

This is purely coincidental and nothing to do whatsoever of course with the present case - but can anyone advise me what would happen to a claimant, who let us say, happened to blatantly lie repeatedly about a significant issue to a High Court Judge in a pre trail hearing?

I assume something pretty 'orrible?

Hat tip thingy for the above Jack of Kent caption to Science, Reason and Critical thinking

UPDATE:

The classic Battle of Cressy Poem:

"...Ha! cried the Prince, is it thou my gallant Jack of Kent,

Now charge with me my brave lad for thou has been sent

By God, to aid me in the midst of the fight,

So forward, and wield your cudgel with all your might...."

Dave Osler wins Libel case against former “terrorist suspect” Johanna Kaschke

Congratulations to my fellow Labour Party blogger Dave and his legal team for yesterday's judgement by Justice Eady at the Royal Court of Justice. Kaschke is also trying to have a go at Alex Hilton and me for similar nonsense. I was unable to be there this morning since I was representing a trade union member. 

Justice Eady clearly believes (in my view) that the claimant Johanna Kaschke is a some sort of frivolous applicant and threw out her claims against Dave due to “abuse of process” (amongst other things). In lay terms I understand his judgement (see here) to mean that her substantive complaint was so minor and petty that even in the extremely unlikely situation that she was to “win” the case (after a probable 1-2 week jury trail) she would have received such very nominal damages that it would “not be worth the candle” to have heard the case. 

It is practically unheard of for libel cases to be knocked back for this reason which shows how completely daft it was in the first place.  In a nutshell Kaschke is a German born national who in her youth in the 1970's had been wrongly arrested and detained on warrant for several weeks by the German police on suspicion of being involved in terrorist activities.  She was released without charge and later given compensation for wrongful detention. Despite posting this information on her own blog and being offered a full right of reply she decided to sue Dave for posting about her own admissions.

Check out the links here, here, here about the whole sorry silly tale of how a former Labour Party member who failed to be a Parliamentary candidate defected to Respect then turned to the Communist Part of Great Britain then the Communist Party of Britain then the Labour Party again and finally (for now) joined the Conservative Party - all within a few months. Who then went on to waste tens of thousands of pounds of public money by taking out multiple libel actions and court applications that were doomed to fail. There has probably by now been millions of pages of documents wasted and thousands of hours of court administration officers and officials time used up. An incredible number of different expensive direction hearings, applications and appeals. Imagine how much Royal Court of Justice Masters and Judges are paid per day and how much nonsense they had to read and listen to!

Dave is a professional journalist and has suffered the stress and uncertainty of if he was to lose this action being made bankrupt and losing his home for the past 3 years.  Check out his Partner Stroppy account of the stress and strains this has caused.

I don’t totally blame Kaschke (well maybe only 99%) since the system should have never allowed this to happen in the first place. A clearly obsessive individual with a grudge should not be allowed to use the Courts as their play thing. She has been allowed to not only waste everyone’s time and money (especially the taxpayer) but to also ruin and damage herself, when it should have been obvious to the Courts that something was clearly wrong in planet Kaschke a long, long time ago.

As a housing officer I have been to civil courts for a number of years and found that although judges tend to be very supportive of unrepresented litigants they will stand for none of the daftness that has gone on here and it can be very much "rough justice" at times.  Libel law seems to be taken far more seriously by the Court system than tenants losing their homes?  I can guess the reason why.

We need libel reform urgently.

Kaschke of course is now blaming everyone else except herself for the position she is in and is resorting to bare faced porkies. She has threatened to sue the legal blogger Jack of Kent (not a wise move since he is a top lawyer) who is now going to court to get her classed as a vexatious applicant.  She is even trying to use the good name of a sick children’s hospital charity to support her case.  Tut, tut.

As Dave said “the Tories are welcome to her”.

I am Seismic Shock

Check out Modernity blog here on the campaign against the mistaken involvement of the Police in an attempt by some very stupid people to shut up blogger “Seismic Shock”.

While I can understand that the Police felt that they had to investigate the complaints made against “Seismatic Shock” they should have completed their investigations and told all parties that there was clearly no case to answer.

Which I suspect they did not and instead tried to appease both parties.

I do think that the CPS need to issue some guidance to Police on such issues or if this is not possible then we need to update the law to take into account the phenomenon of New Media and in particular “blogging”. The Police have more than enough to do without getting involved in such essential silliness.

Dave, Alex and I can also definably claim to say “We have been in Seismic Shock for nearly 3 years”. The law is a banana on several fronts with regard to these matters IMO.

IMO – In My Opinion. Nothing more, nothing less. Who cares what I think? Surely if something is really offensive there must be real evidence of intent, significant harm and gross inaccuracy.  Any response by the "authorities" must also be proportional.

"Kaschke, complaints and kirschtorte"

This story was in the Village People gossip column in today’s “The Independent”.

"Alex Hilton, star of the Labour blogosphere and Labour candidate for Kensington & Chelsea, won a minor victory in the High Court this week, in a case which illustrates how easy it is to get sued for libel in the UK. He owns the website Labourhome, on which another Labour blogger, John Gray, wrote about a political activist named Johanna Kaschke, who left the Labour Party in 2007, to join George Galloway's Respect Party, then joined a communist party of some description, and since autumn 2007 has been an active Conservative.

In 1975, Kaschke was falsely suspected by the German police of links to the Baader Meinhof terrorist gang. She was arrested, but eventually released and awarded compensation.

She objected to having this old story dug up on LabourHome. Hilton removed the post and offered right of reply, but she decided to go to court. She lodged five complaints, but this week, the court struck out four. One point m'learned friends may yet have to deliberate, seriously, is whether it is actionable to describe someone as "one cherry short of a Schwarzwalderkirschtorte".

Not quite the full story but...No comment!

Dave Osler: A Labour Comrade in Arms

Check out Dave’s latest post here and add a message of support in his "comments". I’ll post on my own local difficulties another time. Meanwhile they do say that a picture is worth a thousand words so surely a video...

At the Royal Court of Justice

On Friday outside the Royal Court of Justice was veteran anti-smoking campaigner and vegetarian Stuart Holmes (see picture). Stuart was protesting about an appeal that was taking place that day by publican Hamish Howitt over his conviction for allowing smoking to take place in his pub.

Howitt lost the appeal which was for a judicial review of his conviction.

As a former very enthusiastic smoker I can understand why smokers feel upset about the ban but the case for it on public health and the safety of staff is (in my view) unanswerable.

I had met up with Labour bloggers Alex Hilton and Dave Osler to take part in the latest farcical episode of our seemingly never ending saga. People will be glad to know that Alex who has been very seriously ill recently with Meningitis is “out and about” although not surprisingly he is still weak.

Dave had to dash off but Alex and I had a curry for lunch over which we sorted out all the internal problems with the Labour Party and how to bring the trade union movement up to speed with web 2.0.

Christmas Truce 2008?

An unexpected Christmas card arrived the other day.

I wonder if Dave and Alex got one?

I for one will not be playing football in no-man’s land.

Being Sued for Libel by a Disrespectful Tory

Alex Hilton at Labourhome first brought this to attention, then yesterday, Dave Osler, in this post here spilled the beans good and proper about an attempt to sue us all for libel.

Now, I am convinced that the case against us (and "Private Eye – now “settled”, The Labour Party – kicked out with costs awarded against the claimant and “Der Spiegel” – just coming up to speed) is frivolous and vexatious (also just plain nonsense). That is my opinion. However, I am not sure what the Court thinks about reporting actual details of the case so I will have to keep Mum for the moment.

I think that the law needs to be changed. This is in one way a truly fascinating and amazing experience but on the other it is in my view a colossal and tragic waste of Court time and money. Since there is no “Court” costs awarded in English libel cases, the costs to the public purse so far (which cannot be claimed against claimants or defendants) must run into thousand and thousands of pounds. What a disgrace. Please note how this money could have been better spent elsewhere.

I do think that with regard to Alex and Labourhome that it is just absolutely outrageous that they are facing any such legal action. I posted the original article on Labourhome and accept responsibility for it. Sue me if you must. If this legal action was to be successful then there would be no Labour, Conservative or whatever blogs which allowed un-moderated comments or posts. Even moderated blogs would be under threat since the law allows spurious claims to be made which cost £1000's to defend.

I hope all bloggers will pause for a moment and put aside sectarian interests (only for a moment of course) and realise that “there for the grace of god” argument applies to our little problem and any support you can offer in our common cause will be greatly appreciated.

Dave and I are defending ourselves in person but Alex has employed solicitors - so click on his post on Labourhome to donate to his costs and support the call for real on-line freedom of speech and expression for all.

Please note that for very obvious reasons I will have to delete any comments which may relate to the claimant or the case. You can email me privately via my blog profile (left).

(I've updated this post to take account of my Labourhome one)