Leverhulme in Chancery Lane after the Twitter "joke" case ... Free speech in the Old Dart ... Wallopers swoop on Twitterer who was rude about Olympic diving hero ... Lord Denning on Desert Island Discs ... New President of the Supreme Court's rocky beginning in the law
Alastair Murray, Paul Chambers and Stephen Fry outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the Twitter "joke" case
LAST week, as the Lympic visitors headed happily for Stratford and appeared outnumbered by recently dragooned guards, it occurred to me that the natives were staying away from dirty, clammy central London.
Perhaps they were not privileged enough to have scored a corporate ticket or maybe it was just good British common sense.
I called into the Knights' Templar in Chancery Lane with a young colleague for a restorative ale and noticed the comedian Al Murray, pub landlord holding court with a glass of champagne.
Alastair James Hay Murray, bred in the purple with an Oxford degree, is an insulting comedian in the style of Barry Humphries, but he has also presented learned historical programmes on the Second World War.
It was this aspect of his career that attracted my young friend. He wasn't as keen to talk to Al as to get a snap of him.
When he returned to the table and started playing with his phone I asked to see the photograph, but he was busy putting it on Facebook.
Within seconds his friends were writing terse, ungrammatical replies and marvelling at his coup.
His conversation with Al was secondary but the better story, if only he'd cared to ask, was that Murray and friends were celebrating with Paul Chambers.
Chambers had just won an appeal against his conviction for sending a menacing tweet.
Apparently, when his travel plans were frustrated by snow he told the world at large:
"Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"
As only an accountant could, he claimed it was a joke. The eminently reasonable Lord Chief Justice, Lord Igor Judge, announced in the curious way that lawyers describe a stuff-up:
"We have concluded that, on an objective assessment, the decision of the crown court that this 'tweet' constituted or included a message of a menacing character was not open to it."
Referring to the 2003 Communications Act the court said:
"Satirical, or iconoclastic, or rude comment, the expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious or trivial matters, banter or humour, even if distasteful to some or painful to those subjected to it should and no doubt will continue at their customary level, quite undiminished by this legislation."
Then their lordships might have gone a tad overboard.
"Shakespeare can be quoted unbowdlerised, and with Edgar, at the end of King Lear, they are free to speak not what they ought to say, but what they feel."
Al Murray and Stephen Fry were straight onto Twitter with the news. Murray said later:
"Paul was doing what we all do sometimes in the heat of the moment.
There are 10 million people on Twitter. Freedom of speech is something we take for granted in this country. This judgment affected the freedom of speech of 10 million people, not just Paul. That's why it's so important.
The judgment shows this should never have come to trial and has been a terrific waste of money and time."
Asked if he would employ Chambers as a gag writer, Murray replied: "No."
But CMS Cameron McKenna media expert, Chris Watson warned:
"While the ruling today suggests the threat to Robin Hood airport should not have been considered credible, the public would be very wrong to take this as a green light to say whatever they want on social media, without consequence. I expect to see the police and CPS to bring similar cases to court in an attempt to correct public misconceptions on where the law stands."
* * *
IT didn't take the wallopers long.
The darling of the nation, diver Tom Daley and his partner (not civil) Pete Waterfield, did a Moses and came fourth in the synchronised diving.
That's worthy of hero status around these parts. You can get an OBE for just competing. Jessica Ennis will probably get a peerage.
A pathetic youth was arrested for tweeting with expletives that Daley had let his Dad down. Tom's Dad died of a brain tumour last year.
Daley re-tweeted the insult to the world and the youth was promptly arrested.
Daley's splash pal Waterfield got in on the act:
"For all the haters out there, come do what we do then have ur say, In fact achieve what we do, low life pr"ck! Until then shut ur mouth! Tom done great it was my fault."
It's hard to know where we are heading with all this.
There is a place for informative, intelligent or funny tweets but Twitter and Facebook seem to attract the most frightful incontinence and an indecent rush to blab, insult or show off.
* * *
I WONDER what Lord Denning would have made of the social media. I expect he'd like the short sentences.
For those of you, like me, who never heard Denning speak, there is now a fascinating interview with the old boy on BBC radio's Desert Island Discs, and the audio has now been posted online.
It gives the great flavour of a true, old-fashioned Englishman and his love of John Bunyan and tea and Greensleeves.
Denning was, quite clearly, brilliant - achieving a first in law at Oxford in eight months and the interview is full of gems, such as:
"The chances of doing justice are two to one against ... [or] ... Everyone goes wrong. I go wrong from time to time."
* * *
ANOTHER wonderful interview online is with the new president of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger.
The estimable Joshua Rozenberg has written of machinations and dashed hopes behind the appointment.
When the Supreme Court was born, Dave, for constitutional reasons, wasn't keen on a seat at top table. But something about the presidency has made the leap to Little George Street attractive.
It is clear that his Lordship is very clever, self-effacing and hard-working. He also seems a thoroughly good egg.
I think that's what clubbable means, although some say it alludes to the fact that he's not a woman.
When you watch the video you will learn of the travails of his early jobs and take a measure of the man.
I just hope he doesn't like Twitter.
Imagine a sitting of the Supreme Court and getting the following tweet from the president:
"Gordon Bennett, we're spose to be 'earin' a case and f***in' Sumption's got 'is nose in a bleedin' 'istory book again."