Sarah Vine - Nearly ANOTHER Legal Action

To attract one legal action may be misfortune, to attract a second very soon afterwards looks like carelessness. And pointless pundit Sarah “Vain” Vine has come awfully close to a careless moment after once again failing to do a little of that basic research that one might expect from someone who pretends to be a journalist.

Ms Vine is already facing proceedings brought by Mic Wright after she made a series of claims about him which were not true; he and his lawyers will have watched her latest mis-step with interest. What caused her to stray once more can be put directly.

Priyamvada Gopal

Author Priyamvada Gopal, who works within the University of Cambridge, has been on the receiving end of a torrent of abusive social media feedback. This has been sexist, misogynistic, and viciously racist in nature. Many Twitter accounts have been reported for flagrant breach of Ts and Cs. Also, one creative soul has invented a Tweet and attributed it to Dr Gopal, although she did not write it. The fake Tweet is what undid Ms Vine.

Dr Gopal told “I am not able to post a screenshot of Sarah Vine's peddling a fake quote though people have sent it to me. Those who can access her profile - she has the awful handle of Westminster Wag or something - should please report it. Lots of people have told her it is fake”. Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain had a screenshot.

“Sarah Vine (Daily Mail columnist) has shared a lie about [Priyamvada Gopal]. Even when Vine is informed it is a lie and acknowledges that she sees that it is a fake, she keeps the original lie up”. Ms Vine had posted the fake Tweet, commenting “That does seem fairly unambiguous - but I’m probably not intellectual enough to understand her true meaning”.

Jonathan Portes put the Mail columnist straight. “Don't know about ‘not intellectual enough’. But apparently - stupid enough to post an obvious fake without checking - irresponsible enough to do so given she's already had multiple death threats - and amoral enough not to delete and apologise”. And Dr Gopal was by now consulting lawyers.

“Thank you, Jonathan. My solicitors will be in touch with her. She's been given ample warning to delete and to clarify to her following. [Daily Mail] is complicit as she is a columnist”. At this point I felt obliged to point out that the Mail’s legal department had taken up her defence against Mic Wright. It was all getting very interesting.

But Sarah Vine was, ultimately, of less than perfect courage, and took down her Tweet, which Wright’s lawyers will also find interesting. Dr Gopal observed “Gosh, those SIX magic letters L.A.W.Y.E.R … Sarah Vine has finally retracted [her] false claim”. She had indeed, although her comment, “The tweet referenced here was fake, so I’m taking it down, with apologies” may not be enough to head off another lawsuit.

While this was going on, Mic Wright observed “It's also instructive to see that Sarah Vine *can* apologise to people sometimes”. And by 2330 hours, it had all become a bit too much for Ms Vine, whose considered response was “more wine”.

But that will not stave off her problems. Sarah Vine is becoming exceedingly careless.

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