Having a devious, scheming mind myself, I’ve often been known to speculatate about ulterior motives for  legislation from this Government, often considering the unintended (or otherwise unnoticed) consequences.

Guido’s reminded me of something I wrote on the ‘Suing Bloggers’ story that hit the blogosphere a while ago. I had a slightly different take on the issue, because something about the plan struck me as more significant than the ability to sue bloggers:

Quote, “…we will also seek views on the abolition of criminal libel in respect of defamatory material”

Well that’s interesting, isn’t it? If libel can never be a criminal matter then doesn’t that mean that a politician with deep pockets for example, or politicians belonging to a party with deep pockets – could quite easily risk putting out a complete whopper during a General Election campaign, knowing that by the time it’s all cleared up there would only ever be a financial penalty, and the damage would have already been done?

Thanks, McBride. Thanks for encouraging and rewarding my paranoia. Just brilliant.