*Not verbatim.

Let's all be very happy today. In the libel case brought by the BCA against Simon Singh, there has been a dearth of good news. First the was the "astonishingly illiberal" ruling on the question of meaning at the preliminary hearing, followed by a refusal of Simon's application for permission to appeal. Today was his second attempt, by means of an oral hearing, to secure leave to appeal the initial judgement on meaning. It was successful.

Courtesy of Index on Censorship's summary of the hearing, it appears that Lord Justice Laws has robustly rejected Mr Justice Eady's judgement, with phrases like "legally erroneous", adding that there was "no question" of Simon's "good faith" in writing an article that was "clearly in the public interest".

Let's not forget though, that although this is, to paraphrase, an astonishingly robust and sensible ruling, it is still within the crazy and embarrassing framework of English libel law. Whilst this is good news for science in general, and Simon in particular, the wider battle to reform libel law continues.

I urge you to add your name to the campaign.