Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Support the Lambeth 1: Dave Walker/SPCK/SSG update, Weds 30th July

Welcome to the latest update, and if you're new to what's happened to cartoonist and blogger Dave Walker, have a look at my post from yesterday, which tells the story so far, and links to other places where you can find out more.

Today is Awards and Puzzles Day.

The 'We Support Dave Walker Awards'

Best Quote: “Thank goodness that we have this one, last bastion of free speech– the Internet. The internet, in particular, is the only truly free “press” we still have.” (J Mark Brewer). Ht Matt Wardman. Oh, the irony. SquiggleJones has some commentary on this, well worth a look.

'With Supporters Like These, Who Needs Subpoenas?' Award: Rev Dr Christian Troll and his GAFCON blog (not quite what you'd expect!). I wouldn't endorse his tactics, but its, erm, interesting.

Magic Number of the Day: 300, which the We Support Dave Walker Facebook group trundled past yesterday. Please join it to show your support for Dave. I'm a bit embarassed that is has more members than the SPCK support group, so you should join that as well. I just did. Our membership is a weird and wonderful blend of vicars, bloggers, youth workers, booksellers and journalists.

Misleading headline of the day: Dave Walker Speaks!
....to the Anglican Journal about his cartooning and Lambeth etc. But there is a cryptic message on Dave's blog: Continued thanks, by the way, to friends everywhere, I wonder what it could mean?

Puzzles Section
Missing Word Competition: hosted today at Unicorn Tree Books of Lincoln. See if you can work out which words and phrases have been left out in telling the story of the SPCK staff members in Lincoln who, it is reported, arrived at work one morning, switched on the shop email, and discovered on the aformentioned email that they'd been fired. Nice.

Maths Puzzle: How many Cease and Desists Are There? We know about Dave Walkers, and Elizaphanian (also worth a visit if you like nice photos, film reviews and debates about atheism). The 'Important, Please Read' notice on the SPCK/SSG blog (which just reported the excellent news of a new Christian bookshop in Cardiff) suggests there might be a third. I'm surprised. If there is a no.3, and it was served whilst the blogger in question was on holiday last week, that means there has been no further communication from SSG since last Wednesday. Read into that what you will, but lots of other people have done exactly what Sam at Elizaphanian did. Mind you, imagine tackling Madpriest in court. On second thoughts, don't.

Maths Puzzle: Advanced. Will former SPCK workers get any pension payments? Asingleblog reports a friends attempts to get some answers out of the Church of England pensions board.


More Links (Sorry, couldn't think of how to make these an award or a puzzle)
another blog dealing with this story: US blog TalkToAction, who notes that British bloggers are quickly stirred to action when libel threats are bandied about.

Matt Wardman is updating daily, so have a look there too. He's just posted a list of the Church Times articles on the SPCK/SSG transfer, if you want to look into the background. He also has a full-ish list of who's blogging about this, though see the comments too for additions. Welcome aboard to Maggi Dawn and Tim Abbott.

For the record: my goal in all of this is not to have a go at anyone. It is to have the Cease and Desist order on Dave Walker lifted, and in the meantime to keep the SPCK/SSG story in the public domain, as a matter of public interest and personal interest too. The fact that 800-900 people have come to this insignificant blog in the last 8 days to find out about the story is evidence of the 'public interest' bit.

That's why I'm blogging daily about it (sorry if you come to this blog for other things - don't worry, I'll get back to mission soon, and there are some book reviews on the way) and encouraging others to do so. For my other posts on this, use the SPCK link.

Update: Matt Wardman has posted 3 Dave Walker posts, with commentary, and asks 'are these defamatory?' A fair answer would probably be 'no'. 72 to go.....

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