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Van Morrison Is Whining About Free Speech Because No One Likes His Anti-Lockdown Songs

J.T.B. said:
If anything about Covid drove Trump out of power, it was his response to it, not the pandemic itself. If he had taken a more unifying, evidence-based approach and shown federal-level leadership, he would probably be president today. Instead he lied about it repeatedly, left states to fend for themselves, held bizarre press conferences with contradictory and misleading information and let the White House hold a super-spreader event where he himself was infected.

So I guess the theory is: China planned the pandemic, predicted Trump's response and Trump, with all the intelligence information and resources of the US government at his disposal, played right into their hands and lost himself the election.
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Let there be no doubt: China (or at least the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]) is responsible for this pandemic, and this article states this fact eloquently; that conspiracy idea you mentioned is bogus.

As for the lockdown itself, here's what was said by an expert about how Canada (and many other countries) botched up how this pandemic was handled.

Oddish said:
Yeah, my best memory of it is Julia Robert's cosplaying to it in "Sleeping With the Enemy". But I didn't know the artist name offhand.
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Most likely because you don't spend your days listening to nothing but older rock music on classic rock radio format (yes, I specifically said format because that's what it is-it's not a genre of music) like everybody else does these days. ;)
 
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I did for a long time. But I was never enough into the song to worry about learning who performed it. Before the Julia Roberts cosplay, I had little interest in it.
 
gblews said:
And Jimi, Jimmy Page, Angus Young, Stevie Ray, among others, were all better guitarists.
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And not to mention Jeff Healey. It's worth looking him up on Youtube if you don't know who he is. A severely underrated blind guitarist who died at the age of 41. There's a video of him on there with Stevie Ray Vaughn and he absolutely tears it.
 
I like Van Morrison. I have Moondance. I don't know what to say about his politics. It seems these days if anything is democratic these old timers like to chime in and pronounce everything a sham but I also have dealt with the hysteria that can come from the other side like someone misconstruing one of my comments.
 
Wait, that's it? Someone publicly called a politician "very dangerous" and he's suing? :wtf::rolleyes:
 
He must have said more than that. Libel suits kick in when you spread supposed facts that are demonstrably false. Calling someone "dangerous" doesn't really apply.
 
He also called him a fraud, which I think would constitute libel per se (if you accuse someone of a criminal offence, then that’s libellous).

Don’t forget, though that you guys may be coming from an American perspective, where speech is protected. Northern Ireland has some of the most strict libel laws in the world, which is why Tweed is such a successful lawyer - American and other celebrities come here to sue, if they consider themselves to have been defamed but wouldn’t be able to successfully claim in their own country. If the offending publication has been published here, then they can sue here, even if they don’t live here, or if it only sold a handful of copies.

https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-l...-friendly-than-the-rest-of-the-uk-say-experts
 
Captaindemotion said:
He also called him a fraud, which I think would constitute libel per se (if you accuse someone of a criminal offence, then that’s libellous).

Don’t forget, though that you guys may be coming from an American perspective, where speech is protected. Northern Ireland has some of the most strict libel laws in the world...
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I do know that, yeah, this just sounds like an exaggerated parody even of that kind of foolishness.

I'll be nitpicky and say that accusing someone of being a fraud is not accusing them of committing a crime. Not all deceit is a criminal offense. "He's a fraud" is just name-calling accusation.

It's just so fucking stupid.
 
Yeah, the best response to Van Morrison is just to walk away and laugh at him. Don't give him the time of day much less the publicity of a lawsuit.

The politician is being dumber than the celebrity. The UK has some weird laws about libel and protected speech and they wouldn't remotely fly over here in either Blue states or Red.
 
Still scant on the facts, but here's a little more context about the case.

"They say Morrison’s public accusations damaged his reputation by implying that he was unfit for office and implying that he had misrepresented the facts about the pandemic." [https://styleheavens.com/northern-i...ing-him-dangerous-over-his-covid-19-handling/]​

"The lyrics included claims that scientists were “making up crooked facts” to justify restrictions that “enslave” the population." [https://www.thenational.scot/news/n...es-sir-van-morrison-very-dangerous-criticism/]​
 
Groot said:
I do know that, yeah, this just sounds like an exaggerated parody even of that kind of foolishness.

I'll be nitpicky and say that accusing someone of being a fraud is not accusing them of committing a crime. Not all deceit is a criminal offense. "He's a fraud" is just name-calling accusation.

It's just so fucking stupid.
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Yeah, I’m inclined to agree. Libel damages here are ridiculous; the former first minister, Arlene Foster, was awarded £125k damages for being falsely accused of having an affair. I suppose the real issue was not so much the adultery as the charge that, being the leader of a right wing fundamentalist party, she would’ve been a hypocrite if the allegation was true. And I suppose Swann could say that the allegation of being dangerous and a fraud (I take @Groot’s point about “a fraud” not being the same as “a fraudster”) is particularly damaging to the reputation of a health minister (though we’re getting above my pay grade now!).

Still, £125k is the sort of money the courts give for suffering life-changing injuries, which seems disproportionate. Having said that, Morrison has been such an arse over the last 18 months that I’m willing to overlook my usual objections to libel.
 
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