Jolyon has offered a rare apology this afternoon for supposedly failing to proofread his own misleading press release on the Dido Harding case. Although only after a Twitter user pointed it out to him…
Having posted a War and Peace-sized thread on why the Good Law Project’s comms were “basically right”, and claiming “we have not said that *we* won“, it took one of his own fans to point out this was exactly what the GLP said:
This is a fair point - and I apologise. I did not know of it when I tweeted. We are under-staffed at the moment at a senior level and a huge amount of the burden is falling on me: more than I can realistically be across. https://t.co/GrHlrYlssb
— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) February 16, 2022
Their own press release’s subject line didn’t leave room for interpretation; “Breaking: We won” is pretty clear. Jolyon’s new defence is that the Project is “understaffed” and they currently “have one (junior) comms officer” running the messaging alongside Jolyon himself. Not proofreading his own statements – always the sign of a great lawyer…
UPDATE: Matt Hancock savours the taste of a bit of humble pie:
I welcome this apology from Jolyon Maugham for the untruthful statement he put out yesterday. Having lost yet another case this week, and falsely claimed they won, the discredited Good Law Project should now accept their increasingly vexatious legal actions are a waste of the court’s time, when there is such a backlog to clear.
The Good Law Project should accept that officials and Ministers in Government were working hard to save lives, and end their increasingly desperate actions. I particularly want to thank the huge number of officials who did so much in the pandemic and now find their time needlessly wasted in defending these pointless actions, especially when there’s going to be a full inquiry.
The public should note that the Good Law Project’s claims are frequently untrue, and should not be reported as fact, if at all.I once again welcome this apology from this increasingly discredited organisation.
