Potentially libellous comments

In the past couple of days anonymous comments have been left making allegations against named individuals. In one case that individual was acquitted after a trial, and in the other I have no way of knowing if the allegations are true. So, after some reflection, I have deleted both comments.

Liberal England now has far more readers than it did even a few months ago - thanks in part to Charles Kennedy's recent travails. So I now have to start taking the possibility of libel seriously.

If you have some juicy gossip, please e-mail me privately. If you simply post it as a comment I may have to delete it.

This can be a shame. One of the posts I deleted was making a very good point about the way that a party's members are likely to support a leader, even in the most extreme circumstances, while vilifying those who try to force him out.

Thank you to the person who posted a comment reminding me of the issue of libel. I have deleted that too, as it does not make sense without the comment it referred to.

There is a useful article about the web and libel on The Register site.