When is a ‘libertarian’ not a libertarian?

Last Updated: May 13, 2014By

More on the UKIP attempt to gag the blogger who posted the “10 reasons” meme. Apparently the police were called because Mr Abberton is a member of the Green Party and his Tweet/Blog should have been labelled as election material.
Firstly, this excuse seems to have been cobbled together hastily, after the fact of the police visiting Mr Abberton. Secondly, it doesn’t work as Mr Abberton would have to be a Green Party candidate.

5 Comments

  1. […] rights blogger Paul Bernal and Mike Sivier over at Vox Political were soon rallying in support, and so should we […]

  2. Barry Davies May 13, 2014 at 6:07 pm - Reply

    He has deliberately made a fraudulent fabrication and posted as if it were the real article the UKIP logo is copyright therefore he has broken the law in a poor attempt to fool the public he deserved to get his collar felt.

    • Mike Sivier May 13, 2014 at 7:10 pm - Reply

      No – he fact-checked a meme that had already been in circulation for several months, then added the references for that fact-check to the image (creating a new version, if you like) and presented that image along with his article.
      At no point is any – sane – reader likely to believe that he was passing himself or his work off as that of a member of UKIP. The suggestion is so ludicrous that any judge would laugh it out of court.
      I have discussed the use of the logo before. To recap: It is the same as when Barclays Bank was implicated in the Libor price-fixing scandal. The Barclays logo was used extensively in news reports and the bank never so much as squeaked about it. Why? Because the news stories were representing the bank’s actions correctly.
      The police have agreed that there was no crime to answer, and their chief is investigating why officers were sent to the home of an innocent man on the word of – it’s believed – a UKIP councillor who wanted to curtail his freedom of speech.
      UKIP is supposed to be all about freedom of speech, Barry.
      Or is that a lie?

  3. Barry Davies May 13, 2014 at 9:20 pm - Reply

    Well as he used the UKIP logo and colours and stated it was UKIP policy I don’t think your argument holds water, UKIP is certainly for free speech but when it is lies that does not come under the freedom of speech act. He is not an innocent man whether he made the original lie or just posted it as being an official UKIP document, either way it shows how scared the europhiles are of the people who have read the lisbon treaty and know exactly what is happening on November 1 2014. No one who has read it and understands it is a europhile.

    • Mike Sivier May 13, 2014 at 9:56 pm - Reply

      Barry, how many times do we have to tell you? We all know by now that the first nine on the list are verified, and we also know that UKIP would buy three aircraft carriers.
      There is no ‘Freedom of Speech Act’ – it’s a Common Law right and this item certainly qualifies, for reasons that you know perfectly well as I have made them on this blog within the past few days. Nobody apart from members and supporters of UKIP has ever suggested it was intended to be seen as an official UKIP document.
      The only people telling lies about this matter are members and supporters of UKIP.

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