The blogosphere has been united in it’s defence of Craig Murray and others whose hosting company Fasthosts was bullied into taking down Murray’s blog after Schillings, lawyers for Arsenal Ambramovich-wannabe Alisher Usmanov, threatened legal action. Schillings, it seems, have a lot to learn about how the internet works and even more about how parliamentary privilege works, be it Westminster or Europe. England Expects fills us in…
Tonight, during the Saryusz-Wolski report “Towards a common European foreign policy on energy” the Euro realist MEP Tom Wise will use parliamentary privilege to spell out the allegations against Alisher Usmanov. He has been talking to Craig Murray to ensure that the allegations are accurate and to the point.
The purpose of the debate is to discuss the creation of a single energy policy for Europe controlled by an European Energy Minister (or in Eurocratese a “High Official”).
As Mr Usmanov is in the words of Murray who “who ordered the cutting off of supplies to Georgia earlier this year” this is extremely relevant to the debate.
Under the rules governing parliamentary privilege, any news organisation can repeat what has been said in the Parliament chamber, allowing the MSM to circumvent the legal threats being thrown about by Usmanov’s lawyers Schillings.
The Grauniad Sports Section this morning mentions Usmanov’s colourful past, I expect more will emerge over the next couple of days.
Last Sunday, Perry at Samizdata was reflecting on the implications of the affair and how easy it is to dodge the toys being hurled from Usmanov and Schillings’ prams, thanks to the U.S. First Amendment.
