The Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips has threatened a blogger with “libel damages” over an email exchange.

The dispute revolves around the ‘Winterval’ story that right-wing commentators push every year around Christmas.

A few days ago, the blogger at Angry Mob sent Phillips an email stating:

Melanie, I noticed in your recent Daily Mail article that you again repeated the ‘Winterval’ myth – that councils have attempted to replace Christmas with ‘Winterval’. This myth has been debunked many times, indeed I have written an extensive essay on the subject which was covered by BBC Radio 4.

As it appears you have somehow missed this can I point you in the direction of this essay so you can apologise to your readers for misleading them: http://www.thedisinformed.co.uk/2010/12/12/the-winterval-myth/

Melanie Phillips replied by saying:

Interesting that you think all those people, including Bishops of the Church of England who were so upset by Winterval, failed to understand what you alone apparently understood. In fact, it is plain that you have zero understanding of why this term caused such offence to so many people. Birmingham council’s protestations that Christmas remained at the heart of the Winterval celebrations were disingenuous and missed the point. ‘Christmas’ is a term that does not merely refer to Christmas Day but to the period around it. There was no need for the term Winterval at all — except as a way of not referring to the Christmas season, but instead to provide a neutral term which would enable other faith celebrations around that time to assume equal prominence. That was the objection which was clearly stated at the time by the Bishops and others: Winterval buried ‘Christmas’ and replaced it in the public mind. Your message is therefore as arrogant and ignorant as it is offensive.

Melanie

‘Uponnothing’ then proceeded to publish the exchange on his blog, adding that she is, “essentially stating that I am wrong because I couldn’t possibly have a better understanding than people such as ‘bishops’ and presumably all of the journalists happy to repeat the myth over the years.”

He also sent her a short email back stating:

If you read the essay I think you’d realise that you are quite mistaken. Again, you really need to start engaging with facts, rather than just reverberating around your own blinkered mind.

Your dishonest attack on Rory Weal was a staggeringly embarrassing exercise in how underhand you have to become to even engage in an argument with a 16-year-old.

I’ve responded to you via my blog [http://www.butireaditinthepaper.co.uk], I prefer to keep such conversations public – as any writer should (although I notice you don’t believe that journalism or blogging is a two-way process, probably because it is easier to write your nonsense trapped in your own blissful bubble of ignorance).

I really think you should take a second look at some of the accusations you made about Rory Weal, because, thanks to your laziness (i.e. not bothering to look into his life situation before starting your rant), you got his situation horribly wrong and you look even more foolish than normal.

To which Melanie Phillips responded with legal threats.

She said in her response:

Your blog post about me is highly defamatory and contains false allegations for which you would stand to pay me significant damages in a libel action. There are many things I could say to point out the gross misrepresentations, selective reporting and twisted distortions in what you have written. I will not do so, however, because you have shown gross abuse of trust in publishing on your blog private correspondence from me without my permission. Consequently I will have no more to do with you and any further messages from you will be electronically binned unread along with other nuisance mail.

So, a libel threat for damages from a writer who constantly accuses ‘liberal elites’ of trying to shut down debate.

In 2009 Melanie Phillips wrote an article titled ‘Death of free speech: Is Britain becoming the censorship capital of the world?‘.

That year, she also complained of ‘lawfare’ by Muslims to shut down criticism of their activities.

In a speech today, CBI Director-General John Cridland will call for a boost to the housing market and construction sector to kick-start British growth.

He will call on the Chancellor to consider a number of measures to help first-time buyers, people who want to move up the property ladder, and the construction industry.

Bolstering infrastructure spending investment on transport, power stations and housing is one of the biggest and most effective levers the Government has to pull.

It will help unlock some of the £60 billion of potential investment currently on company balance sheets and could create new jobs into the bargain.

Last year the shadow chancellor Ed Balls called for a £12 billion investment over two years to build 100,000 extra affordable homes. He said it could create up to 750,000 new jobs.

At the Labour party conference, Ed Balls called for a repeat of the bank bonus tax again this year to build 25,000 affordable homes.

He also called for an immediate one year cut in VAT to 5% on home improvements, repairs and maintenance.

The CBI’s director-general will echo Ed Balls but not explicitly say he is essentially endorsing the latter’s plans.

He will say in his speech:

Owning a home has been a natural aspiration for generations of Britons since the 1950s. It has never been easy but after this recession, the high cost of property, strict lending rules and the need to save substantial deposits has put home ownership out of reach for all but the lucky few.

As we have seen, without a steady stream of eager first-time buyers the housing market stagnates and our whole economy suffers.

We look forward to the Chancellor paying attention.

Update: The Federation of Small Businesses has called for growth, tax breaks and apprenticeships, saying government is ‘out of touch with reality’.

A prominent Conservative MP has pointed out that a return to ‘traditional Toryism’ would be a disaster.

In an article for the Telegraph today, Nick Boles MP writes an article in response to the book ‘After The Coalition’ – authored by five new Tory MPs.

He starts by pointing out that the Conservative brand is still highly toxic:

A recent YouGov survey found that 70 per cent of adults said that they might be prepared to vote Labour and 64 per cent said that they might be prepared to vote Liberal Democrat – while only 58 per cent said that they might vote Conservative. Forty-two per cent of voters said that they would “never” vote Conservative. Even after five years of modernisation under David Cameron, the brand is still Marmite – and cordially loathed by four of the 10 people whose votes we need.

He also points out that only a small minority of people think the Conservatives are “on the side of ordinary people”.

He implores the party

This is not an argument for another round of fluffy modernisation, in which sun-kissed Tories dressed in pastel shades declare: “Hello birds, hello trees.” What worked in the halcyon days of 2006 would seem ludicrous in this age of austerity. But what we need now is to put away our favourite ideological hobby horses, ignore the political positioning of the other parties and dedicate ourselves to addressing the everyday ambitions of ordinary people – a steady job, childcare they can afford, a home of their own – and their most pressing concerns – rising fuel prices, excessive immigration, the care of elderly relatives. Only by showing that we really are “on the side of ordinary people” will we turn the Conservative Party back into a truly national party – one that will win the support of the broad mass of moderate voters and see that support translated into a majority of MPs in the next House of Commons.

Its highly unlikely most Conservative MPs will listen though. Boles is also in favour of a continuing coalition with the Libdems.

The company Atos Origin have a £300 million contract with the government to continue carrying out ‘work capability assessments’.

The testing system has already led to allegations by many people with terminal illnesses and severe medical conditions that they were being declared fit for work and having benefits cut without proper tests.

Today, campaigners across the country are mobilising for the ‘National Day of Action Against Poverty Pimps Atos’.

Disabled people and supporters, claimants groups and anti-cuts groups will be gathering outside the offices of Atos once again demanding an end to the demeaning health testing which has seen thousands of people stripped of benefits.

To date around 40% of appeals against Atos Origin’s decisions have been successful. Atos have also used legal threats against critical websites.

In London people will be gathering outside the BMJ Recruitment Fair where Atos will be attempting to recruit yet more ‘disability assessors’.

See this page for the list of events across the country.

Since 2009, Germany has been run by a Christian Democrat/Liberal coalition. Going into government quickly led to a collapse in support for the liberal Free Democratic Party, whose support plummeted from 14% to around 5%.

FDP politicians might have assumed that things couldn’t get any worse. But in recent elections in Berlin, the FDP lost all of their seats in the state parliament, and were overtaken by the Pirate Party, which won 9% of the vote and fifteen seats.

Opinion polls since the Berlin elections have seen a total collapse of the FDP vote – down to just 2% – and the rise of the Pirates. The Left Party (die Linke) has also lost support to the Pirates, who in the most recent poll were backed by 7% of Germans.

The Pirate Party’s main policies are around defending civil rights and privacy in telephony and the internet, and increased transparency of government by usage of open source government. They are part of an international movement, which also has strong levels of support in Sweden, where there are two Pirate MEPs, and Somalia.

It is probably too much to hope for something similar in Britain, where voters take revenge on Nick Clegg by replacing him with a Pirate. But we can hope.