When Libertarians send for their Lawyers...

I'm resurrecting this blog for a one-off post about something that has been troubling me quite deeply as of late.

Earlier this week the UK Political blogger and activist Tim Ireland  (of Bloggerheads fame) repeated the claim that so-called Libertarian Paul Staines (aka 'Guido Fawkes') had been leaching images that belonged to other people.  Not the most scandalous of claims (this place did it all the time) but Staines nonetheless responded by sicking a lawyer-chum on Ireland.

The lawyer in question is Donal Blaney, who, much like Staines himself, has a history of links to the Conservative party.  He is most famous for being investigated for racism while a Local Councillor and for  attempting to launch a  witch-hunt into so-called left wing bias in British academia (a move no doubt inspired by Allan Bloom's neo-conservative attack on decadent intellectuals in his book The Closing of the American Mind.

You will note the irony of right wing people who bemoan the depredations of the nanny state while simultaneously leaping to litigation to silence their detractors.