Fearless
Peeking out from behind his lawyer (and his dad – ask me or Sunny Hundal over a pint some time), Britain’s most fearless blogger gives his views (via email) on the Mail on Sunday’s attempt to ruin Owen Barder:
I would have done him over harder.
He is paid from the public purse and is a public servant. If he wants to express political opinions he should change his career.
Didn’t he also get caught posting a sycophantic “Miliband is Brilliant”* comment on the Miliblog. I rest my case.
Simon Walters is right.
Very classy, as ever. Money, while buying any number of fancy lawyers, still doesn’t buy you taste, courage or a moral compass, it seems.
* For the record, Owen didn’t post ‘Miliband is Brilliant’ on the ‘Miliblog’. He posted that he thought the site was value for money. Not something I’d say out loud, but not regarded yet – except by tax-dodgers with shady pasts – as a sacking offence.
Posted on May 22nd, 2007 at 8:20am under Blog, bloggers and blogging
| Related posts... • That butterfly/wheel interface again – update • Barder’s back • Avoiding, evading, dodging the issue |
• Permalink • Trackback • Subscribe |
|
|
|
• 5 Comments |
There’s also something I’ve never liked about invoking the term “public servant” as if it meant that the individuals concerned could be deprived of the liberties that the critic enjoys, or as if completely different ethical standards can apply provided in private money rather than public money being spent. It’s a recipe for bullying and hypocrisy, which is perhaps why there’s so much of both.
As it happens, “public servants” are not, in fact, barred from expressing political opinions. Nor should they be, they’re not the Army. There are restrictions on what they can do and say, and these become more stringent as you up the scale. Now I can’t give you chapter and verse on this (I’ve not been a Civil Servant since 1993) but you can actually find out what the rules are, since they are actually written down so that people munderastand what they are.
in other words, these bastard public servants actually have a written code of ethics to which we expect them to abide. What code of ethics do the Mail or Guido Fawkes or any of their fellow critics possess and in what way do they abide by one?
wildly wrong on the law and facts, and using language that will very likely indeed come back to haunt him.
One can only hope.
And talking of language coming back to haunt, Iain Dale’s making jokes about the Katyn massacre. ROFL, or whatever the youth patois is these days.
Guido is dispicable a libertarian who uses libel laws.