This morning Jolyon Maugham decided to test his mettle once again in the Twitter Bitch Fight arena, as he laced up his gloves to face Transport Minister Jesse Norman. Ding ding…
Round one kicked off when Jolyon replied to Jesse’s tweet regarding sewage pollution, with the Kimono King jabbing Norman over the “disgraceful situation” in the River Wye:
How had this disgraceful situation continued for so long, Minister Jesse Norman? https://t.co/P4sm8bqdwJ
— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) February 16, 2023
Jesse immediately swung back, claiming Jolyon was “not well placed to call anything disgraceful” after his treatment of Norman’s wife… one Kate Bingham. Now it’s personal…
You are not well placed to call anything disgraceful after your treatment of my wife. The inconvenient truth is that this is a complex longstanding problem which needs much local coordination and agreement. The use of fines — for which I campaigned — is another key step forward.
— Jesse Norman (@Jesse_Norman) February 16, 2023
Jesse is, of course, referring to Jolyon’s accusation that Bingham had a “brazen conflict of interest” and “leaked confidential information to investors” as vaccine tsar in 2020. The same accusations that Jesse later printed onto a tea towel for Bingham’s birthday…
Tea towel drama aside, Jolyon stood his ground. The foxbeater wasn’t going down without a fight…
The criticisms of your wife (which I stand by) were first made in the Times. But you are silent about its role and attack me. Is that because you are afraid to criticise power?
— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) February 16, 2023
Now, back to the point: are you proud of your Government's record in tackling sewage dumping?
On the counterattack, Jesse replied:
Jolyon your standing by your revolting remarks speaks for itself. If I worried about criticising power, I would not have run the 2012 rebellion vs. an elected Lords, got kicked off the No 10 Policy Board for not voting with HMG on Syria, or written a no confidence letter to Boris
— Jesse Norman (@Jesse_Norman) February 16, 2023
On the ropes, Jolyon then claimed Norman was dodging his questions because he’s “afraid to criticise the powerful right wing newspapers that uncovered [Bingham’s abuses”:
You have answered neither of my questions: (1) why are you afraid to criticise the powerful right wing newspapers that uncovered her abuses? (2) Why as a Minister do you write letters to newspapers rather than vote to protect the Wye?
— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) February 16, 2023
At the end of the round, Norman hit the final haymaker by again sharing the decorative tea towel that still sits in the family kitchen. And pointing out that Jolyon had to withdraw legal action after realising it wouldn’t quite pan out…
You obviously haven’t taken the time to work out that none of these claims was true; and you repeat them even so. You also had to withdraw your disgraceful legal action. Why not spend 5 mins reading her book, which refutes them? Perhaps I can remind you what they were… pic.twitter.com/9EkcNlebFK
— Jesse Norman (@Jesse_Norman) February 16, 2023
Usually Guido leaves it to co-conspirators to decide the winner. In this case, there can be only one loser…
