Michael Ellis

In 1895, Winston Churchill, as a young officer cadet at Sandhurst aged 21, was falsely accused of having committed an act of “gross immorality of the Oscar Wilde type” with another cadet. He promptly sued for defamation and received several hundred pounds in damages, the equivalent of £80,000 today. People from around the world even travel to London for litigation shopping, as if they were purchasing a luxury handbag And talking of Oscar Wilde, nearly thirty years later in 1923, Churchill sued Oscar Wilde’s erratic fixation Lord Alfred Douglas for criminal libel – in part because Lord Alfred had accused Winston of being part of a “Jewish conspiracy to manipulate stock exchanges”. (Oh yes, when it comes to anti-Semites nothing ever changes!

The Liberal Democrats, who control Oxfordshire County Council, have once again shown their illiberal credentials and dire lack of political judgement. The Liberal Democrats on Oxfordshire County Council should have been hoist by their own petard They decided to spend what could be tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money in legal costs persuading a High Court judge this week to impose an injunction not only on a handful of individuals said to be associated with a group called “Raise the Colours”, but also on any “persons unknown” who may seek to place Union flags on public property in the streets in the future. Firstly, what sort of politician bans the England flag during the football World Cup when people are flying it proudly from every vantage point?