The Wardman Wire

We have another blogosphere Libel Action. More details later.

Dave Walker, the official Lambeth Conference Cartoonist in Residence, has taken 75 posts down on his blog after being threatened with Libel Action by the new owner of SPCK - the oldest chain of Anglican Bookshops. He has been reporting the story of alleged mismanagement for two years.

Already there are a lot Industrial Tribunals from ex-employees, among other things.

Relevant Links

Notice of posts taken down:

This morning I was sent a ‘cease and desist’ demand from Mark Brewer relating to the posts I have made about the former SPCK bookshops. The demand says ‘Confidential - not to be redistributed or posted’, so I am not posting the text.

The demand says that if I do not remove all SSG-related material by noon today, July 22, 2008, an injunction will be sought against me and legal action taken for damages for libel.

I have therefore removed all of the SPCK/SSG posts on this blog, as, although I believe I have not done anything wrong I do not have the money to face a legal battle. The removal of these posts is in no way an admission of guilt.

David Keen first informed me about the story:

Dave Walker, who has been flying the flag for the beleagured SPCK bookshop chain, has been threatened with libel by the St. Stephen the Great Charitable Trust (SSG), who took over the chain last year. Since then, most (if not all) of the SPCK bookshops have closed, and there have been various questions about management practices. One former bookshop manager, Steve Jeynes, tragically took his own life just a few weeks ago.

Dave has been keeping a close eye on all of this, and providing a forum for people to share news about the chain. He has been told he’ll be sued unless all SPCK posts are removed from his website.

My past posts about this story:

December 2007 - a roundup of the history of the situation - which includes audio from a 25 minute Sunday Programme item with interviews with both Mr Brewer who has made the threat and Dave Walker, who has received it:

About a year ago the venerable SPCK chain of Christian Bookshops (one arm of the literature work of SPCK - the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, who also do things such as funding libraries in theological colleges) were transferred to a charity called St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust.

The bookshops - of which there were around 25 when transferred to the SSG Trust - historically stock a wide range of religious and secular books, and particularly stock in more academic or specialist titles of the sort that may (for example) be bought by a priest rather than a member of that priest’s congregation. That is a generalisation (and I hope members of congregations who buy academic books will forgive me), but it probably makes the point well. The chain had staff members who were - by and large - book enthusiasts who knew their business and their stock.

(Includes 25 minute interview on Sunday programme on 16/12/2007)

June 2008: Reporting the updated situation and the suicide of an SPCK bookshop manager:

The saga has continued and extended - currently the owners have attempted to place the company in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in Texas (no one has explained quite how Chapter 11 applies to a British company), and there are currently 30 Industrial Tribunal cases in train and more to come.

Doug Caplin, who writes at MetaCatholic reports that this has turned to tragedy in Worcester with the apparent suicide of Steve Jeynes, the ex-SPCK branch manager, two weeks after he was made redundant.

SPCK ex-employees Blog reports on the continuing Industrial Tribunals.

By Order of His Hon. Judge Meeran, President, details of a number of pending employment tribunals have been posted on the Employment Tribunals website. The notice, in MS Word format, is dated 20 June 2008 although I (Phil Groom writing) only stumbled across it myself this week; not sure when it was actually posted.

Wrapping Up

I’ll be commenting on this later, in the light of wider Civil Liberties questions.

Since it is (I think) one of the things that Dave Walker has had to take down, here (not to everyone’s taste is the original Save the SPCK song from 2 years ago when this whole thing kicked off.

For the record, my posts are legitimate comment and they are staying exactly where they are.

Tags: Dave Walker, lambeth conference, mark brewer, society of saint stephen the great, spck, ssg