The Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday that all existing copies of Andrew Marr's book "A History Of Modern Britain" that are still for sale are being recalled for pulping "for legal reasons" since someone living has objected to a passage it.
This is stupidity beyond belief. Apart from the slight fact that the book has been published for about 3 years and that "only" 250,000 copies have been sold (including a copy to me), all that has happened is that attention has been drawn to the offending line in the book (and apparently it is just a single line) so that far far more people are now aware of the alledged libel that were ever before (the Daily Mail has a piece on it here ) and with the growth of the internet that alleged libel has already spread far and wide.
It would have been far far better to have done absolutely nothing: why did it take almost three years for this matter to be raised for instance? HAd anybody actually noticed before? I have read the offending line in my copy and frankly unless I actually was looking for it, it had passed me by.
The Internet makes a mockery of such heavy handed reactions to libels - even if WIkileaks isn't used.
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