Wardman Wire Magazine

Everything in the Wardman Wire

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.

Click through on the title for all the papers.

Front Page Images here and on the Front Page are Courtesy of Sky News.

Click through on the title for all the papers.

Front Page Images here and on the Front Page are Courtesy of Sky News.

From the Lancettoday:

Child maltreatment remains a major public-health and social-welfare problem in high-income countries. Every year, about 4–16% of children are physically abused and one in ten is neglected or psychologically abused. During childhood, between 5% and 10% of girls and up to 5% of boys are exposed to penetrative sexual abuse, and up to three times this number are exposed to any type of sexual abuse. However, official rates for substantiated child maltreatment indicate less than a tenth of this burden.

Exposure to multiple types and repeated episodes of maltreatment is associated with increased risks of severe maltreatment and psychological consequences. Child maltreatment substantially contributes to child mortality and morbidity and has longlasting effects on mental health, drug and alcohol misuse (especially in girls), risky sexual behaviour, obesity, and criminal behaviour, which persist into adulthood. Neglect is at least as damaging as physical or sexual abuse in the long term but has received the least scientific and public attention. The high burden and serious and long-term consequences of child maltreatment warrant increased investment in preventive and therapeutic strategies from early childhood.

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The excerpt is all you get to read, sunshine. So you will have to take part in the complex debate based on secondhand accounts and shouty newspapers.

That may sound like a weird request, but if you have got a till receipt with a legible VAT number from Durham Cathedral shop I want a copy for a very good reason indeed. This is about the chain of bookshops that used to be owned by SPCK:

We have been looking for information to throw light on the history of the underlying changes going on in the Society of Saint Stephen the Great, and the cluster of charities and companies that J Mark and Phil Brewer have set up around it.

One of the things we are audit trailing as closely as we can are the VAT numbers in use in different places at different times as recorded on the public record - which in this case consists of till receipts. Till receipts with VAT numbers are legal documents of record within the UK Tax and Accounting systems (which is why you can use them to prove expenses claims of course).

If it is of any value, I will acknowledge your blog on this site in return for any receipts received. A photo with an email of authentication is sufficient.

For a bit more background, read my post from yesterday:

Durham Cathedral Shop Finances and questionable Saint Stephen the Great payments

Then read about why we need those receipts.

The pollster crisis
What on earth is going on with the polls? One day we have MORI putting the Tories up three points and Labour down five, a couple of days later COMRES show the Tories down six points and Labour up four. It seems the economic turmoil is reeking a little bit of [...]

Amongst all the excitement and speculation about the story, there was an interesting and sober conversation about the possible legal and constitutional implications of the arrest of Damian Green MP and the process of the search of his House of Commons office on the Insite Law Magazine podcast:

Today I am talking to Carl Gardner, a barrister, ex government lawyer and author of The Head of Legal blog about the extraordinary arrest by Police of shadow frontbench spokesman on Immigration, Damien Green MP.

Click through on the title to listen.