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News from Dave Osler (reproduced in full):

A DIRECTIONS hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice this morning ruled that the libel action brought against me by former Labour Party parliamentary hopeful, former Respect member, former Communist Party member and current Tower Hamlets Tory activist Johanna Kaschke should go to a four-day jury trial towards the end of this year.

The case centres on Ms Kaschke’s arrest on terrorism charges in 1970s Germany, which she admits; you can read a summary of the issues involved here.

Ms Kaschke is also bringing a separate action against Alex ‘Recess Monkey’ Hilton and John Gray of John’s Labour Blog, which still faces procedural issues.

Many of the ‘words complained of’ – to use the legal expression – were not even written by me, but consists of comments from the comments box. While I am confident that all of them fall within the realm of fair comment, the outcome of the case could have considerable implications for the freedom of the blogosphere.

I wrote about this previously at some length.

Another day, another libel action on the blogosphere. I seem to spend more time on these than anything else, so … here we go.

The bloggers Alex Hilton (who runs Labour Home and has made a comment) and Dave Osler are being sued following postings on their websites about Johanna Kaschke, who is now a Conservative Party member.

Dave also reports that legal action is also being taken against Trade Unionist John Gray, who writes John’s Labour Blog, and that an action against the Labour Party has failed. There may potentially be an action against Thomas Cobleigh from Devon, but I have not yet seen his article.

Dave Osler comments:

Being a journalist, I have had sufficient professional training to put forward a defence of justification and/or fair comment, and I furthermore contend that the doctrine of ‘bane and antidote’ applies, in that her side of the story was properly set out. I admit to breach of copyright in using a photograph from her website, and will shortly make an offer of settlement, based on National Union of Journalists rates for photographers.

(Read it all)

And this in a comment on Socialist Unity:

I can also tell you that one of the things she is complaining about in her statement of claim against me is a comment you left on my blog.

David Osler at Liberal Conspiracy. I couldn’t put it better if my name was Jupiter Peston.

For some reason, this morning’s newspapers are full of outcry about what UK councils are doing investing in Iceland anyway. The answer to that seems quite simple; they were seeking the best returns for the council tax payer, which is exactly what they should be doing. Remember, Iceland’s leading banks offered high rates of interest and enjoyed AAA credit ratings. Sounds fair enough to me.

Are the critics seriously maintaining that those good folk who cheerfully pay whatever shocking sum Ceredigion demands for a Band D semi would have been better off if their dosh had been in the safekeeping of Northern Rock or Bradford & Bingley?

It can be argued that they should have taken the money out in the few days avaialble to them, but – basically – spot on. If the original decision to lock in lots of money at high interest rates for long periods was faulty, then so was the Treasury advice to do the same.

OK, that’s Councils. Now, if we start apply a requirement for individual judgement where it *can* be expected and follow the MP demands that individual bankers cannot hide behind the “letter of the regulatory regime”, and then proceed with logic to apply the same principle to MPs with their expenses, where they themselves use the “it is within the rules” excuse to justify massive abuse – then we might get somewhere.