The reasoning for Lord McAlpine’s libel action against Sally Bercow just does not stack up
Sally Bercow, the speaker’s wife, is a loudmouth. We don’t dispute that. There’s little she won’t say or do to keep herself in the public eye and whether draped in nothing other than a sheet in the Palace of Westminster or fooling around in the Celebrity Big Brother house, she comes across as a bit of a fool.
The current libel action against Mrs Bercow, though, just doesn’t make sense. It is an overreaction on the part of Lord McAlpine and rather reminds us of the case of Oscar Wilde and the Marquess of Queensberry.
Bogus lawyer Giovanni di Stefano was jailed for 14 years yesterday after being found guilty of nine counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception, eight counts of fraud, three counts of acquiring criminal property, two counts of using a false instrument, one count of attempting to obtain a money transfer by deception, one count of obtaining property by deception and one count of using criminal property.
It has just been confirmed that 67-year old oligarch Boris Berezovsky was found dead in a bath at his Surrey home at around 11am this morning. His son-in-law, Yegor Shuppe, revealed the news earlier today on Facebook and later a statement came from Alexander Dobrovinsky of Moscow based The Alexander Dobrovinsky & Partners law firm stating:
“Just got a call from London. Boris Berezovsky committed suicide. He was a difficult man. A move of disparity? Impossible to live poor? A strike of blows? I am afraid no one will get to know now”.
Boris Berezovsky (1946 – 2013)
Berezovsky, who I encountered several times at The Lanesborough Hotel, lost a £3 billion damages claim against Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich in 2012. It was the largest private court action ever to have been heard in Britain and during the case he was described as “an inherently unreliable witness”.
In a separate case in January 2013, Mr Berezovsky former lover and mother of two of his six children, Elena Gorbunova, won a £200 million freezing order on his assets.
Aside from this, the political exile and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was subjected to a number of assassination attempts. A 1994 car bomb decapitated Berezovsky’s chauffeur and after a hitman had been sent to kill him in 2007, he alleged that security sources had told him:
“Someone you know will come to Britain, he will try to connect to you and when you meet him, he will just kill you and will not try to hide”.
Whether Mr Berezovsky died of natural causes, committed suicide or was killed unlawfully remains to be revealed. Whatever transpires, this turn of events marks a most tragic end for this most colourful of oligarchs.
The former wife of disgraced politician Chris Huhne is herself an embarrassment to womankind. In February 2013, she used her time in a courtroom to rake up unnecessary information about their relationship in an attempt to save herself from jail. Her bitter attempts to blame her ex as a bully and her statement: “If I really wanted to inflict fatal damage on him I could have done something very, very different” show her true character. It’s also ironic that this harpy set up a company aiming to encourage ethical behaviour. The Good Corporation plainly didn’t guide her own morals when it came to speeding offences and for that reason she deserves her sentence.
A former supporter of Julian Assange denounces his behavior
Jemima Khan has shown great courage in turning on Julian Assange. In a feature in the New Statesman, she described him as being “more like an Australian L. Ron Hubbard” than the crusader he has portrayed himself. Suggesting Assange thinks himself like a real life Jason Bourne, she commented:
“It may well be that the serious allegations of sexual assault and rape are not substantiated in court, but I have come to the conclusion that these are all matters for Swedish due process and that Assange is undermining both himself and his own transparency agenda – as well as doing the US department of justice a favour – by making his refusal to answer questions in Sweden into a human rights issue.”
Jemima Khan
‘There have been three rounds in the UK courts and the UK courts have upheld the European Arrest Warrant in his name three times.”
“The women in question have human rights, too, and need resolution. Assange’s noble cause and his wish to avoid a US court does not trump their right to be heard in a Swedish court.”
“I don’t regret putting up bail money for Assange but I did it so that he would be released while awaiting trial, not so that he could avoid answering to the allegations.”
In a firm but fair article, Khan stated: “I remain convinced that if Assange is prosecuted for espionage the future of investigative journalism everywhere would be in jeopardy” but added “[Julian Assange] has been guilty of the same obfuscation and misinformation as those it sought to expose, while its supporters are expected to follow, unquestioningly, in blinkered, cultish devotion.”
Jemima Khan talks sense. Some of what Assange did was in the public interest but his behaviour now is ridiculous and his attitude to justice perverse. Julian Assange should walk out into Hans Crescent and hand himself in.
The hypocrisy of the former Energy Secretary Chris Huhne is exposed
In 2008, Chris Huhne made the following speech to the Liberal Democrat conference:
“For every 100 crimes committed in Britain today, just 1 criminal will end up with a conviction in a court of law. That’s a 99% chance of getting away with it. And if you don’t catch offenders, no amount of threatening punishment will work.”
Former minister Chris Huhne should have held his hands up ten years earlier
With his resignation and change of plea yesterday, the shamed former minister’s previous comments now sound as shallow as the way in which he has treated his family.
Prior to the trial Huhne had called the police investigation into a matter that could have been solved so easily “gossamer thick”. If, instead, he’d simply taken responsibility for his own actions in the first place, none of this need ever have happened.
It is good to see that Huhne didn’t fall in to the 99% he chose to describe. Now it is time to speed him away to the cells.
Watch the video clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tBh5wJLCl5M
Jailed for 14 years in March 2013 on charges of deception, fraud and money laundering, Di Stefano is a man who is often referred to as “The Devil’s Advocate”. He has been variously linked to such luminaries as Saddam Hussein, Harold Shipman and Nicholas van Hoogstraten. Others he’s associated with include Jeremy Bamber, Kenneth Noye and John “Goldfinger” Palmer. He plainly should have kept better company.
Some say he died in 2009, others, including the Serious Fraud Office, suspect he’s hiding out in the rainforests of Borneo. This bankrupted businessman was best known for drinking red wine from a teapot at breakfast and for his public spats with Egon Ronay, Richard Desmond, Lord Rothschild and Ernest Saunders. He met his wife, Nicola, in a nightclub. When asked what she’d require to move in with him, she asked for £5,000 a month. He organised it that very night and though most of his assets have been seized, she continues to drive a top of the range Mercedes and lives in comparative luxury on the island of Labuan, Malaysia. The investigators are still watching.
