Does anyone have any information on the Twitter and Blog wars going on in South Tyneside

[fedsron2us]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-13588284

The press is going mental because of the supposed implications of the Californian courts decision on the rather boring Giggs affair. In particular it is suggesting that it might lead to the exposure of the Twitter posters who outed the Man Utd footballer. I am not quite that the matter might be quite as straightforward as suggested since the new case surrounds allegations of libel which will still have to be tested in the UK courts. The defence will depend on whether the claims made on Twitter were true or not. In the Giggs case the issue is the injunction itself not the truth of the posts.

Notwithstanding all these legal quibblings I think the real issue here is whether what South Tyneside Council have done is fit and proper use of council taxpayers money. Googling the names of the persons mentioned in the BBC article it seems the mud slinging has been going on at this council for a number of years with accusations and counter claims being traded by councillors in the media and on Twitter. Much of this argument was being conducted openly so there was not really much doubt about the identities of the parties involved. Moreover it seems that the matter may already be the subject of a referral to the Standards Committee for England and Wales which polices Council behaviour. Given this fact you have to wonder the council is pursuing a separate civil action that required recourse to a foreign court. I find it very hard to justify the waste of public money in this case as it seems to be a political and personal tiff.

http://curly15.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/bring-it-on-potts/
http://curly15.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/cllr-david-potts-needs-a-moderator/
http://curly15.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/potts-is-a-recovering-alcoholic/

Surely when services are being cut to the bone the council taxpayers of South Tyneside can expect their money to be spent on better things than this farogo. Pity that the press have not identified this as the real scandal.

Skin this is your neck of the woods so do you know anything about the matter ?

[non sociopath skin]

1. No more than the media has, Feds, but I'm keeping my ear to the ground.

The press here certainly are raising the issue of taxpayer's money, big-time.

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

2. Private Eye suggest that the case all relates back to secret 'bonuses'

paid by the Council to bosses of the local airport.

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/sections.php?section_link=rotten_boroughs

So much mud has been slung in the blogospehere that it is difficult to work out what has gone on since as far as I can see both sides have been pretty free with their accusations.

I have,however noted two points from my brief investigation into the matter

First the notorious 'Nr Monkey' blog was on WordPress which is owned by Google not Twitter so it is not clear why the Council is fishing for Twitter details or how they are supposed to identify the original blogger as the use of the same user name on different sites proves nothing.

Second, the litigation appears to have been launched without the approval of the Full Council (at least not in a public session). I would have thought that on those grounds at least the behaviour of launching a court case in California must be open to question. The assertion by the Council on TV tonight that the proceedings have cost less than £75,000 is difficult to believe given that US law is certainly not cheaper than in the UK and poor old Giggsy apparently shelled out at least £50,000 on his duff Super Injunction. As they appear to have declined to open up their financial records for examination it is impossible to determine the truth of the matter. I find it strange that my local Parish Council has to post every item of expenditure on the Web for public scrutiny but larger Councils are under no such obligation.

Due to the joys of the open US justice system you can actually track the plaint history here

http://openaccess1.sanmateocourt.org/openaccess/CIVIL/civildetails.asp?casenumber=482779&courtcode=A&casetype=CIV&dsn=

[T_i_B]

3. I can't understand why they've gone after Twitter and not Wordpress

As to the accusations, I'm a keen twitterer and I haven't heard owt on the subject. Mind you, the only people from that neck of the woods I follow on Twitter are apolitical gourmets.