If Ms Bercow had made her comment on here, could the same legal action have been instigated?

she put the berk in Bercow

I have to say I find this a bit frightening; her Tweet was quite harmless compared to the appalling, thoughtless other comments and indeed myself and other board keepers, who are pretty cautious about such matters, might well have considered it OK had she made it as a post here.

I suspect the point is:
1) as the wife of The Speaker she shouldn't be engaging in mindless tittle-tattle anyway, let alone libellous gossip. She should be above the Take A Break/Loose Women mindset.
2) as the wife of a serving Tory it gives the impression what was being suggested was well-known in those circles.
3) Unlike a lot of the nobodies throwing his name around, she has a large following on Twitter and therefore, taking into account the above, she was guilty of 'rubber stamping' the rumours.
4) Taking the piss with her defence - she was given the opportunity to settle out of court.

I thought Twitter was a bloody awful idea - at least with Facebook it's a personal 'profile' that can remain private or between friends. Twitter just exists to let people gob off in 140 characters. It's become, as expected, basically a platform for malicious rumours and playground bullying. That a lot of moral crusaders have seized upon it as a tool for their propaganda is no surprise.

Chris Retro wrote:
I suspect the point is:
1) as the wife of The Speaker she shouldn't be engaging in mindless tittle-tattle anyway, let alone libellous gossip. She should be above the Take A Break/Loose Women mindset.
2) as the wife of a serving Tory it gives the impression what was being suggested was well-known in those circles.
3) Unlike a lot of the nobodies throwing his name around, she has a large following on Twitter and therefore, taking into account the above, she was guilty of 'rubber stamping' the rumours.
4) Taking the piss with her defence - she was given the opportunity to settle out of court.

I thought Twitter was a bloody awful idea - at least with Facebook it's a personal 'profile' that can remain private or between friends. Twitter just exists to let people gob off in 140 characters. It's become, as expected, basically a platform for malicious rumours and playground bullying. That a lot of moral crusaders have seized upon it as a tool for their propaganda is no surprise.

I totally agree with Mr Retro : this woman is just a fool who deserves everything she gets for the very reason it may prevent others in a privileged position- who use that position a she does- to malign someone unfairly and use the ghastly Twitter as today's backyard gossip forum but one which spreads the rumours worldwide.

I applaud Lord McAlpine for the stance he took, not just for his own sake but for many others.

## have met him twice and know his son..an absolutely charming man..a good old fashioned Tory !!

Ben 9 wrote:
If Ms Bercow had made her comment on here, could the same legal action have been instigated?




I suppose it depends, Twitter is classed as 'public', would this board be classed as 'private'?

steveimp wrote:
Ben 9 wrote:
If Ms Bercow had made her comment on here, could the same legal action have been instigated?




I suppose it depends, Twitter is classed as 'public', would this board be classed as 'private'?

We're in the public domain here Steve.
However I do remember he only went after the more popular twits,not sure if he could judge that so easily here?