James Wharton, Tory MP for Stockton South, seems to have a particularly unhealthy relationship with his constituents. As the Darlington and Stockton Times reports today, the 27-year-old MP has threatened legal action against a local grandmother who caricatured him in a satirical cartoon. After personally tearing down posters from a local park, Wharton wrote a threatening email to Yarm resident Carole Jones:
“I will … be taking advice on the libellous cartoons you have been distributing and you can expect to hear from my solicitors in due course. You have damaged my reputation by making untrue inferences and it is time you were taken up on your lies.”
Jones, a local campaigner, had posted a number of “Save our Park” posters on trees, protesting plans to convert an area of the park into a boules pitch. Her cartoon depicted a character called “W” as an evil genius planning to cover the park in concrete, and was handed out to around fifty residents in a local pub.
Despite being a fresh-faced member of the 2010 intake, Wharton has already managed to generate his fair share of bizarre stories. Three months after being elected, he was embroiled in a scandal after attempting to fast-track a grant application for a friend’s business. The friend, it emerged, had been served with a fixed penalty notice earlier in the year for displaying a four-foot stone penis sculpture outside his shop:
We eagerly await the Honourable Member for Stockton South’s next appearance in the papers.
8 Comments
Oh come now, he doesn’t look stoney faced to me, he looks quite friendly and definitely taller than 4 foot. Or have I got something mixed up?
MP threatens to sue when libel is printed about him. What a heartless montster!!
Interesting also that he seemingly doesn’t know the difference between “infer” and “imply”. Independent schools aren’t what they were.
Always thought Stockton as a solid working class area, why is there a Tory boy representing the place? No wonder the natives are restless, so would I be.
How could anyone else damage his reputation, when he’s doing such a good job of damaging it himself?
Yes Nils, I noticed his mistake: a common one, it’s true, but a strange one for a public school educated solicitor.
Imagine, though, that at 27 (ie, not that far away from his legal degree and training), he has to consult a solicitor about a case of defamation. Doesn’t he remember anything of his law? I hope the person he consults is a little more aware of the difference between an implication and an inference.
He’ll go far in the Tory party this boy. Thick and arrogant.
I believe satire, along with speech/opinion is protected under law is it not? This guy doesn’t even know the laws he is legislating!
Of course, if you’re a grandparent you should be shielded from any kind of legal action, regardless of what you print. Can we assume you’ll be making asimular defence of kind old Mr Murdoch?
2 Trackbacks
[...] Hi there! Scroll down for more posts, or you can jump to my wedding entertainment here, my wedding signing boards here, and my gift caricatures here. Become a fan on Facebook! me for a quote!Bully MP threatens to sue granny for drawing a cartoon of him | Political Scrapbook. [...]
[...] possess the powers to threaten those with a bad opinion. You already see this kind of thing with Tory MPs in the UK against those who make ‘untrue inferences ‘ against them. (Then again, authors [...]