The English Democrat Party keep threatening to sue Chris Lightfoot for defamation because he was rude about them. I noted from their contact page that they 'support the principle of free speech'. So I sent them an email them to ask about it.
From pete@ex-parrot.com Tue Jun 8 09:48:25 2004 Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 11:05:43 +0100 (BST) From: Pete Stevens <pete@ex-parrot.com> To: enquiries@englishdemocrats.org.uk Bcc: chris@ex-parrot.com Subject: Freedom of speech. Dear English Democrat Party, I note from your contact page http://www.englishdemocrats.org.uk/contact.html you state that "The English Democrast support the principle of freedom of speech" I would like to know how you reconcile this statement with your well documented multiple legal threats to sue Chris Lightfoot for giving his unfavourable opinion of your party. See : http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/wwwitter/20040602-more_threats.html http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/wwwitter/20040601-how_to_send_an_email.html http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/wwwitter/20040531-progress_and_the_unreasonable_man.html Secondly, if I publically described your party as having a tendancy to barratry, would you attempt to sue me? Yours, Pete Stevens -- Pete Stevens pete@ex-parrot.com http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/
They sent me this reply.
From HartlandS@aol.com Tue Jun 8 09:48:48 2004 Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 06:11:52 EDT From: HartlandS@aol.com To: pete@ex-parrot.com Subject: Freedom of Speech The law of defamation is an important part of the law relating to freedom of speech. Simply because we support English liberties, such as free speech, does not mean we support general licence to tell lies. As for "barraty" - a good word - which I had to look up, as I suspect you did! Naturally if you make untrue accusations against us individually or collectively we shall "consider our legal options". Robin Tilbrook Chairman English Demcrats Party