I have little in common with the shopkeeper and businessman Sir Philip Green, but one thing we do share is that we have both been the victim of an abuse of parliamentary privilege.
The circumstances were very different, however. One case concerned the disclosure of a truth suppressed by court order; the other the promulgation of a deliberate lie. In Green’s case, his name was revealed in the House of Lords contrary to the terms of an interim injunction and anonymity order issued by the Court of Appeal, designed to protect his reputation pending trial of a civil action. In my case, a member of Parliament (whom I prefer not to name, allowing him to rest in well-earned obscurity) simply told a lie about me that amounted to a serious attack on my professional integrity. Neither the peer nor the late MP suffered any sanctions or consequences.
Green took his case to the European Court of Human Rights and lost (Green v the
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