Don’t Menshn Plebgate

[Update at end of post]

Former Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell discovered yesterday that his campaign to take Rupe’s downmarket troops to the cleaners for libel had developed not necessarily to his advantage, as a judge at the High Court decided that he had called a Police officer at the Downing Street gates a “pleb” after the officer’s refusal to open the main gate for him to cycle through.

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

For one obedient Tory supporter, this decision could not go unchallenged: over in her reassuringly expensive corner of Manhattan, (thankfully) former MP Louise Mensch decided that Mr Justice Mitting was wrong, because he had heard all the evidence, and she hadn’t. And she didn’t need to, because she was right.

“No doubt in my mind that the Plebgate verdict is an appalling miscarriage of justice” she declared, unaware that this was not a criminal trial. And the rozzers were the bad boys here: “I say again that Andrew Mitchell should be given back his front bench post, stolen from him by Police collusion; Police jailed for it”. But she had nothing to back this up, and it still wasn’t a criminal trial.

But wait – she did know it wasn’t a criminal trial: “A civil case is a civil case; no way do I believe Andrew at any time used the word ‘pleb’ to Police officers. A shocking result”, she told, going on to talk of “The jailing and dismissals for severe misconduct we saw on the Plebgate case, to criminal standard”. But the judge wasn’t assessing that – he was deciding what had or had not been said at the gates that evening.

And it was still wrong: “based on one bent copper jailed and others dismissed from the force? Just a thought ... I’m saying the judge was very clearly wrong based on the admitted Police conspiracy over Plebgate with multiple bent Police”. Again, the judge was not looking at the bloke who invented the crowds outside the gates, or any alleged conspiracy. He was deciding who had said what.

Still, there was always Michael Fabricant to kick: “Another obnoxious comment from Michael Fabricant. So glad he was sacked for his nastiness towards Maria Miller. Once fun now just vile ... truly Fabricant’s Tweets on colleagues went from class clown to nasty piece of work overnight”. And Mitchell still didn’t do it, honestly: “Andrew Mitchell did not lie and I have no idea whether or not the Policeman did”.

But, by ignoring the elephant in the room – Mitchell now faces a bill for costs of at least £2 million – Ms Mensch was missing the point about the whole business. Perhaps Peter Jukes could enlighten her? “Looking at the eye-watering costs of [the] Plebgate trial – the need for a cheap effective press complaints system is all the more apparent” he observed. Got it in one there.

In the meantime, Ms Mensch might consider for a moment that she is briefing against the paper that keeps her in regular paid employment. Just a thought.

[UPDATE 29 November 1540 hours: for some reason, the first in that series of Tweets from Ms Mensch has been deleted. But the rest are still there. Why might that be?

Well, the deleted Tweet specifically talks of a "miscarriage of justice", which of course does not happen in a civil action where the Judge is deciding on the basis of all the evidence put before him, and the law enforcement authorities are not prosecuting the case.

So she's quietly removed what is probably the most embarrassing in the series, left the rest there, and hoped nobody would notice. But one of this blog's commenters did]