The fact Mr Dale tried to stop this lot, perhaps 12 hours or more after he started uttering the libel, perhaps more, but as it goes TOO LATE does not make it any less of a libel.

Or perhaps it does?

Suppose Mr M had uttered some mad fuck crap to Mr D and coterie (cf Mail features desk) for potential publication in a few months time but that Mr D and Mr M perhaps had decided not to publish any of it as it was WRONG would that be better or worse than Mr Dale uttering some mad fuck crap to the Mail which was WRONG paradoxically on a story about getting stuff wrong and all that, and trying to stop it too late, and it actually being published by them?

Mr Dale: Tried in vain to stop a crappy detail of a fairly crappy totality which showed his normal absence of fact-checking and responsibility being published.

Draper’s D team: Didn’t publish any of the silly crap at their disposal.

Why is Dale commenting in this outraged way. IT WAS YOUR MISTAKE IAIN. All blooming day it was. Repeated and repeated and repeated. With more than a few comments here there and everywhere suggesting it was bollocks.

And this unsubstantiated thought was sent off in purple prose to the Mail, in an email very likely.And this was OBVIOUSLY far more damaging than a stupid satire-o-booze email circulated among idiot mates. Yet even now “It’s not Iain’s fault!” That’s crap.

Oh dear.

What?

Is this a new definition of the word ‘publish’?

From what I understand, the original, never published e-mails talked of an MP who had been compromised whilst away from Parliament.

Legally the emails were published the moment that they were sent from McBride to Draper.

Who published Iain Dale’s article that libelled Tom Watson?

Iain did when he sent his copy into the paper, the newspaper did when it edited it, the printers did when they printed the newspaper, the newsagents did when they sold the newspaper, the owner of the website did when he put it onto the website, the ISP provider did when they hosted it, and if you linked to the article by hyperlink then you did too.

It’s quite a broad word really.

Great publicity though for the poor misunderstood one. And quite a successful way of diverting attention from the expenses issue.

I wonder what the reaction of her constituents to all this will be at the next election? And will Dave offer her a top job, being as she is such a high profile MP? With so many friends!

Incidentally those in Fleet St who believe copying guido’s witterings without checking (yes grauniad I mean you) constitutes journalism should at least be aware that libel writs have not existed since 1999.

Tut. I should have been clearer about this, as it may not be obvious to all:

Who published Iain Dale’s article that libelled Tom Watson? Was it Tom Watson on his blog? No, it was the Mail on Sunday in their newspaper (and to a lesser extent on their website).That makes Iain’s “Should I accuse you of libelling me on my blog?” challenge misleading at best; Iain was in a better position than anyone to want to doubt Sunny’s claim and be able to check it, but instead he went ahead and published it (knowing Iain, probably so he could later bitch about it). The Daily Mail were not in a similar position, because Iain Dale falsely claimed that Tom Watson was CCed on the Draper/McBride emails… he did not claim that the Daily Mail were CCed on the Draper/McBride emails.

Were the Mail on Sunday liable for this libel? The courts certainly thought so… but that does not transfer ownership of the libel entirely to them, as Dale produced it (based, he claims, on the word of a single source) and later showed that he was willing to propagate it in his own modest way, even when (by his own admission) he knew it not to be true.

(And can we please have less talk of who looks dodgy hanging around school playgrounds? This kind of grubby smear is best left to the Paul Staines of this world. If anything, the issue here is if Staines had a choice about delivery to McBride’s workplace, or if he could have served this document at home or maybe even left it to the law firm to mail it by registered post. If it can be shown that Staines deliberately tried to embarrass McBride at his new workplace, *then* you have something worthwhile to chew on. Cheers all.)

I could understand him posting this video if he’d bitchslapped Draper, or maybe even just given him some funny chat on the doorstep…but he doesn’t. He just looks embarrased and a bit nervous.

Oh, wait, surprise surprise.

People who spend loads of time ranting about who they hate on the internet are cowards when it comes to facing people in real life.

(I include myself in this assesment, just for the record. But then, I don’t post vids of myself handing out writs)