I've asked the investigator to rewrite both of his draft reports (before issuing his final reports) to properly reflect the real law about the correct meaning of freedom of expression when the code of conduct does not (repeat NOT) include a specific requirement for respect. Indeed, this requirement for respect was specifically removed when the previous standards regime, which did include respect, was entirely revoked by parliament in 2012.
This means all my relevant emails and, in the second case, posts to Facebook, fell well short of any relevant threshold that might cause a breach of the town council code of conduct.
According to the legal advice I have been given, and which has been forwarded to the investigator in full, when a political argument is started and there is no counter requirement for respect, once the higher protection for political argument is engaged, it is not disengaged just because part of the debate then enters into personal criticism or abuse. Indeed, even strong personal abuse is protected or anything strongly offensive is protected (unless actually illegal).
The investigator was trying to pretend that the law as it stood under the now-repealed statutory code of conduct is still current. I think this is because he is basically being told how to interpret the law - incorrectly - by the monitoring officer (the legal director at WC), which actually means the investigator is not actually properly independent ....
We'll see if he corrects the nonsense in his reports ....
In the first case, this would mean removing the rubbish about me veering close to the limits of freedom expression and him coming to a balanced decision .... as all my actions fell well short of any code problem ...
In the second case, he'll have to rewrite large sections of his report ...
BTW, I previously mentioned the two cases involving the former Salisbury City Council leader and this same independent investigator. Both of his investigations have now ended with him being found by the same investigator to have not breached the code of conduct at all, so I think there is hope that this investigator can get to the correct result in the end ...