The Curmudgeon

YOU'LL COME FOR THE CURSES. YOU'LL STAY FOR THE MUDGEONRY.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Those Poor, Abused Barclay Boys

Lawyers acting for the thugs who own the Torygraph have jumped in with their hobnailed writs to shut down the weblog of Nadine Dorries, the wacky paragon of caring Conservatism who has compared the exposure of our MPs' expenses scam to the McCarthy witch-hunts in our greatest ally, and who has expressed concern that some of the more delicate flowers of the Westminster hothouse may yet be driven to suicide despite being innocent and therefore, presumably, fearing nothing but immigrants, terrorists, excessive BBC license fees and teenagers with knives. The Barclay brothers invoked "the acceptable user policy used by internet service providers to protect themselves against libel action provoked by comments on websites they host"; apparently the offending material consisted of some speculation by Dorries about the dark and devious motives behind the Torygraph's revelations. As Craig Murray points out, the material has not been found to be libellous in a court of law, even a British one, but has simply been censored at the behest of a couple of rich bullies. The only reason they were able to do it is because it was on a weblog rather than in Hansard, where parliamentary privilege (yes, another one) protects MPs against libel actions. A spokesbeing for the Torygraph apparently came over all coy when asked about the matter, perhaps having judged that a full and spontaneous reply would not be in the public interest.

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