One of the hecklers stands up, stretches out his arms and says, ‘No. I am Kirk Douglas’ son!’ Then another one stands up, stretches out his arms and says … and another one…

Others might see it as pointless heroism. Maybe I’m old-fashioned. As Osama has hinted at, we live in an age where heroism is looked down upon as something reckless, machista, fake, and possibly illegal. Still, there’s nothing quite like it to stir the soul — as many of our favourite films testify.

Did I imagine it?

That wasn’t Spartacus, that was Ben Hur. But it’s the same sort of thing.

The activities of the FCS were a bit before my time but from what I’ve read over the years they seem to have been as much about winding up left-wing students as anything else. I don’t think his involvement makes him the devil. At worst he’s someone that’s taken reactionary,lefty baiting a bit far. At best (for GF) the article was total bollocks.

His reaction has made it look like he’s got something to hide. He’d have been better dealing with it on his blog and moving on. Had he done so I doubt anyone would still be talking about it.

As for the alleged use of illegal drugs -so what? If he did he certainly wasn’t the only young person in the late eighties and early nineties to do so. Let’s remember he is a blogger, not an elected representative.

Just consider a few things:
(1) It shows he was hanging out in extreme right-wing circles in his student days, and with organisations which had dubious sources of international funding.

[edited out]

For someone who spends his time digging dirt on other people this is almost a gold-mine!

My understanding (IANAL) is that that’s not quite right, and in certain circumstances a true (and provable) fact can still be defamatory due to inference. I think the example I once heard was “X celebrity was seen leaving Y rehab clinic”. It’s true, but there’s no proof there that they were actually there for treatment. But people could infer that simply from that line. My memory’s a bit fuzzy on this now, it’s been about 8 years since I was looking at libel laws.

While not the same as this scenario, it could (highly tenuously) be made into a similar situation. I shaln’t expand for obvious reasons.

All in all though, I hate libel laws. I’d much rather see all libel laws scrapped with a right of reply enshrined in law. And this is the kind of thing you were trying to offer to GF, who duly turned it down. While I can understand his reasons why, it really really makes him a total hypocrit. Shame, I used to enjoy his blog.

I have been thinking for a while about the moment the lawyers would see the blogosphere as lucrative.

I suppose it was inevitable that letters would be sent, etc. They must have exhausted the ‘whiplash’ scam.

We police ourselves pretty well. We don’t need lawyers. But lawyers need money. So the obnoxious get their way.

It’s not the free exchange of ideas I thought I was signing up to. Thanks for being brave, btw.

It’s a shame because he’s rather distracted attention from his fine work on Labour corruption.

The silly billy.

Ego good, Id less so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego,_super-ego,_and_id