[Father Ted]
To the excellent advice of Old Holborn I can add only the tactical suggestion that those taking up blogging (as everybody with a computer should) might consider avoiding things which might assist the enemy in silencing them.
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1. Libel
Britain is the libel litigation capital of the world. Nowhere else is it so easy for the rich and powerful not only to silence, but to ruin, anyone who utters the smallest criticism of them, even if it is true (vide the Maxwell / Private Eye cases).
Avoid being sued for libel by never stating as fact what is only your opinion. It ought, if you have any skill at all with your native tongue, to be possible despite this to say the most wounding, damaging and unforgiveable things in such a way as to render them less than actionable.
Examples: “Lucian Poove, MP, is a liar, a cheat and a fraud. His moral compass was confiscated in primary school because he didn’t know how to use it. He now does it with dogs, in public, for money, because it makes more profit than did fiddling his expenses.” (concise, but probably actionable)
“Lucian Poove, MP, appears to me to have no conception of truth, personal integrity or financial probity. I am firmly convinced that the uncharitable might be forgiven for supposing that his moral compass was confiscated in primary school because he didn’t know how to use it. One is constantly being told that his dog is not so much walked as ridden and that in respect of this singular performance he is so overpaid that his once vibrant expense account now languishes in desuetude.” (verbose and complicated but, for the time being at least, probably safe, and still gets the point across)
2. Obscenity
There is no clear definition of this, and it becomes intentionally vaguer and more catch-all with every day that passes. To be completely safe it would be best never to use anything that even resembles a swear-word, unless you have made it up yourself.
One of the advantages of this is that with everyone else queuing up to call every government minister a double fcuking cnut (this search-defeating spelling technique is due to the skilled participants in the ARmy Rumour SErvice or ARRSE) one’s writing is likely to stand out from that of the others simply because it isn’t quite so sweary.
3. Incitement
It is a criminal offence to incite people to commit criminal offences. It is a criminal offence to ‘conspire’ with someone to do anything at all, even if it is not a criminal offence.
Writers of horror fiction often say that what one describes in detail is nothing to what one leaves to the reader’s imagination.
My favourite quote from the famous Obnoxio the Clown is
“More lamp-posts; more piano-wire! Will there be enough?”
Hardly ‘incitement’, but we all know what he means, don’t we?
4. Copyright
This gets worse all the time. It is now perhaps best not to quote from mainstream media sources directly; quotes of as few as 39 words have resulted in threats of legal action from the dead-tree press, which in its dying agonies has become extremely vicious. Always link to the original story, so people can read it for themselves, but summarise in your own words the part(s) of it to which you are responding. This technique is called ‘précis’; I was taught it in English lessons, but I’m afraid that rather dates me now.
Do not duplicate images or text unless you are sure that they are (a) in the public domain, like much of Wikipedia, or (b) the property of someone who is on the same side as you are and thus unlikely to make a fuss.
BTW posting posts which consist solely of retailed television footage is no credit to the blogger and very boring for people like me who don’t do Flash.
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With these modest provisos I would urge everyone who reads this blog not to take it lying down but to rise up and write their own. The search-engine term ‘free blog’ will bring up any number of options; this blog is provided by WordPress, who sometimes have little technical things go wrong but who for me have the huge, unbeatable advantage of not being Google. The choice is a matter for the individual.
The more there are of us, the more difficult we will be to deal with. The more careful we are, the less easy we will be to silence.
We hear the government talking loosely about ‘the court of public opinion’ as though they, in some way, represented it.
This is the court of public opinion, and it is your choice whether you will remain in the public gallery, or take a place on the bench yourself.
Click here (for example) to continue.
