| | Tories win damages over "adoption hell"
18 Dec 2002
A political party who adopted Spectator editor Boris Johnson won damages today after the High Court agreed that he was "uncontrollable and vicious". Johnson, who also appears regularly in the Beano, was adopted by the Conservatives at the last election where he won a seat. Since then, though, he has become unruly and his occasional media appearances, including presenting Have I Got News For You last month, have earned him "universal disrespect".
The High Court ruled that the agency responsible for supplying Mr Johnson, Toy Town Tories Ltd, was negligent. Earlier in the case Iain Duncan Smith, speaking for the Conservative Party, told Mr Justice Big Ears that Mr Johnson had caused "huge emotional distress" to party members. "Many were in tears when they saw his so-called performance on Have I Got News For You," he said, the bell on his drooping hat ringing slightly. "He is an embarrassment and a liability. We should never have been landed with him in the first place."
Tow Town Tories Ltd has, however, been given leave to appeal. "The Conservative Party was made fully aware of Mr Johnson's disposition," said spokesman Douglas Ramsbottom. "We could not have foreseen the breakdown of this adoption, and I thought his performance on Have I Got News For You was very good."
Mr Johnson was too busy throwing custard pies from the backbenches to comment.
Simon says look at this...
|
|
