Excellent, after the whole furore with Bercow it'll be interesting to see whether the defamation laws will be used to the same effect. That High Court ruling set a very clear precedent about what can and can't be classed as libel, and given that there was less actual libel in her tweet compared to this then it'll be like shooting fish in a barrel.

I still think the libel laws need gutting, but it'll be interesting to see them used to spectacular effect against someone who should know exactly how much trouble they'll get in.

>> I still think the libel laws need gutting, but it'll be interesting to see them used to spectacular effect against someone who should know exactly how much trouble they'll get in.

We can only hope that by actions like these people can scare the lawmakers into actually doing something about our stupid laws....

Or if not, at least we can watch and laugh as they're on the receiving end.

This case isn't the best reference for why the laws are stupid. Publicly accusing someone of a crime without any sort of evidence just because they're reporting on it _should_ bloody well be libel.

I suppose that's a good point.

I still enjoy watching politicians squirm :)

"I'm just astonished that an MP appears to have been so ignorant of the law of her own land ..."

You don't know our MPs very well do you ...? I'd say this is pretty much par for the course. The only laws they know anything about are loopholes.

I think this was the right thing to do on his part. Things like this are unacceptable.

Isn't this the same libel that that has been used to punish journalists who write about inconvenient truths? It seems hypocritical to stoop to that level.

What she said could be grounds for a libel suit in the US as well. The real difference is in the defense that she could mount.

Why should journalists abstain from defending themselves from libel in the UK just because others abuse those laws to attack journalists? Suggesting that journalists should not defend themselves from libel just because others abuse libel laws to shut down journalists is damn near concern trolling.

Exactly, bad law is bad law and if you like free speech you should like it regardless who is speaking.

Personally I don't see this going anywhere near court. Guido may have some fun here but he's a political journalist with a Conservative leaning, he isn't going to start seriously threatening an Conservative MP. He'll milk the publicity, wring a minor apology out of her and it'll go no further than that.

Sure that particular law has been used that, since it's England's Libel law. However what she did was libel, and would be considered libel in basically every country with a libel law.

WRT the libel claim, I think he did promote the website defacement. Ergo he was a "sponsor" to it.

Her tweet to that effect appears to be true [a partial defence], and as he is happy to have promoted it based on his blog I'd warrant it to be impossible to prove that it defamed him to say that he promoted the crack. Indeed he revelled in the promotion of said defacement.

Case dismissed.

Reporting that something happened is not sponsoring it.

Would you say he wasn't promoting it?