http://order-order.com/2013/07/24/poll-result-86-of-readers-...
Guido Fawkes is talking to his lawyers about Libel. (Which under English law -- the reforms haven't gone through yet -- places the burden of proving that she didn't damage his reputation squarely on Claire Petty's shoulders.)
I'm just astonished that an MP appears to have been so ignorant of the law of her own land (and how it applies to twitter) that she left herself wide open to this.
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.
I still enjoy watching politicians squirm :)
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.
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.
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.
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.