Home | Friday 16th May 2008 | Issue 632

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GAGGED AND BOUND OVER

Fellow anarcho-scribes at the Cardiff based Gagged newsletter have landed in hot water after offending the high-and-mighty in the Torfaen area. In issue 23 under the SchNEWS-worthy headline “Hip-Hip Hooray”, they reported how the family of local councillor Rosemary Seabourne had secured a £63,000 grant for an extension to their house to help care for her grandchild - who suffers from Perthe’s syndrome, a debilitating disorder but temporary and not that unusual. Apparently there are four other cases in the ward.

Gagged suggested that healthcare in the area was perhaps more equal for some than others. Cue a pre-action letter from Steel & Shamash solicitors demanding an apology. Not from whoever wrote the article, whose identity remains shrouded in mystery, but from one man who was merely delivering the newsletter. The letter threatens that he committed ‘libel by dissemination’ and demands an immediate apology ‘in terms to be approved by us’. SchNEWS isn’t going to speculate about the intricacies of local government in Wales but isn’t this a bit like suing a paper-boy for lurid speculation in the tabloids?

The letter then bizarrely blames the messenger for a totally un-connected hate mail sent to another councillor in the ward and suggests he might be liable for prosecution under the Protection from Harassment Act. He’s been given ‘til the 6th May to answer.

Dai Bach, spokesman for Gagged told SchNEWS “Basically Labour got annihilated in the local elections and they’re looking for someone to blame. Rosemary lost her seat and now she’s lost her rag. But they’ll never take us alive, boyo.”

* http://www.myspace.com/gaggednewsletter

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