Friday, June 20, 2008

Cameron: We will sue LibDems over Henley magazine


It promises to be a fascinating court case. The Conservative case will rest on an interpretation of the magazine's back page which any reasonable person would not agree with.

The Conservative case seems to be that the magazine is implying that Boris endorses the LibDem candidate. Strange. Indeed, Boris' letter to Chris Rennard says:

I ask that you immediately withdraw it since on the back page you have what purports to be a picture by-line opinion piece from me giving my assessment of the candidates in the Henley by-election.

Well let's see. (The page is here on Conservative Home). We have a picture of Boris beside a quote with his name as an attribution for the quote. Below that we have an introduction to the article below it which says:

With election day in Henley drawing closer The View (the name of the magazine) runs the rule over the two main challengers.

There is then a write-up for each of the two main candidates with "OUR VERDICT" at the end of each. (It features the Tory candidate first and the LibDem candidate second - below it and furthest from Boris' photo).

Precisely what part of this lay-out is meant to imply that Boris endorses the LibDem candidate?

Any ideas? Answers on a postcard please..........

It is quite clear from the introduction to the article that it is written by "The View" - i.e the magazine itself and not Boris.

It appears that the Conservative party has excess funds to spray about on lawyers.....

Some commenters on Con Home say that no permission was given for the photo of Boris to be used. Hello? You only need permission from the owner of the photo to use it - not the person in the photo unless they are a minor in which case you need their parent's permission. If publications needed the permission of people in photos then there would be thousands of people employed by the press to phone up celebrities to get their permission to use photos. There aren't.

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