A few scant weeks after signing an Early Day Motion calling for the reform of libel laws ‘which stifle free expression’ , John Mann threatened a Retford resident in his sixties with  libel action for asking questions about his expense claims.

After seeing Mann’s threat of libel action against me, a Retford resident got in touch and sent me copies of an email exchange between himself and John Mann in February this year. He has asked not to be identified or quoted directly as he is concerned about police involvement. More on that later. But he is aware that Mr Mann will know his identify.

The exchange started civily enough, with the Retford Resident (I’ll call him RR) asking John Mann if he had repaid any expenses and did he employ any relatives.

Mann replied via his parliament.uk email address asking for RR’s home address to which he would send a copy of the Legg report.

RR replied with details of a specific repayment which he had been made aware of, coincidentally the one which I had highlighted and ultimately led to Mann’s letter to me, and asked Mann to clarify it. He also asked again for details regarding employment of family members.

Mann’s reply consisted of two short lines:

This is inaccurate and libellous.

Any such libel will be actioned

RR replied, pointing out that Mann had again avoided answering the questions and saying that the voters should have a chance to make up their own minds about the subject.

Mann’s reply was even shorter than the last.

As you are using a fake name this will then go directly to the police.

RR was not using a fake name and pointed this out to Mr Mann, also stating that he was greatly concerned by Mann’s threatened involvment of the police. So much so that he had passed the correspondence to his solicitor.

This email exchange continued further, with Mann NEVER SATISFACTORILY answering the questions and alluding to a plot by the Conservatives and/or ‘the people who stole the miners compensation money’. He again referred to RR’s emails containing libellous material and repeated the threat of legal action.

This is blatant bullying of a constituent by Mr Mann, using his position as an MP to try and stop any questioning of his expenses by the voters.

He was elected to represent his constituents, not bully them into silence.

This is part of a pattern of bullying behaviour by John Mann.

He is unfit to represent the people of Bassetlaw in any capacity and in light of these revelations, should resign his position immediately and allow the local Labour Party to field a candidate who would have the constituents’ interests at heart, not their own.

Fat Councillor, a man with a sharp wit and an even sharper axe, has made a video tribute to John Mann.

Check it out on YouTube.

John Mann, apparently not content with talking nonsense in Bassetlaw, has decided to dump on the voters of Newark for a change. Offering his support (that’s going to become a poison chalice any day – watch this space) to the Labour candidate in the upcoming election, Mann called a public meeting to criticise the proposals for the NHS in Newark.

Addressing the huge crowd of 17 (seventeen), Mann referred to his campaign for saving  Bassetlaw’s A&E in 2003.

A typical Mann Myth, Bassetlaw A&E was NEVER, EVER going to be closed. It was just another self-promotion stunt for the soon to be ex MP for Bassetlaw.

Does he think the voters are so gullible he can continue to feed them his nonsense?

Or even worse, does he actually believe his own propaganda?

If you have had an intimidating letter from John Mann on House of Commons notepaper, or an intimidating email (I know of at least one), you can make a complaint to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

You can find the information here

In December last year, an Early Day motion was proposed by Lib Dem MP, Evan Harris.

The Motion is thus:

That this House notes that human rights activists, scientists, writers and journalists are prevented from publishing, and the public prevented from reading, matters of strong public interest due to the chilling effect of English libel law; further notes that libel actions in England and Wales cost 100 times more than the European average; further notes that the costs of defending a libel case are usually prohibitive and that even successful defendants do not recover their full costs; and further notes the report of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights which criticises English libel law for its stifling of free expression globally due to libel tourism whereby foreign complainants bring cases against foreign writers for alleged libel in overseas publications; believes that public interest is endangered by powerful vested interests and corporations being able to intimidate writers into not publishing; further believes that the libel laws discriminate against average and low paid people when victims of defamatory comment in the pages of national publications; recognises the recent report by Index on Censorship and English PEN, Free speech is not for sale andfurther notes the campaign for scientific freedom by Sense About Science; welcomes the formation of the Libel Reform Coalition to campaign for law reform; and calls for a re-casting of the libel laws such that, while individual reputation is protected against malicious or reckless smears, lawful free expression is not chilled and there is a fully effective public interest defence for both scholarship and responsible journalism.

Phew! A bit of a mouthful, but it says esssentially that the existing libel laws intimidate writers and stifle free expression and need to be changed.

http://www.edms.org.uk/edms/2009-2010/423.htm

It was signed by John Mann.

Yet he sends a letter threatening me with a libel action because I publish something he doesn’t like.

This is my MP.

In his recent letter to Retford residents (see previous post), John Mann’s loyalty to the Labour Party seems to have evaporated.

Click graphic to enlarge

I am asking you and your family and friends to support me in being re-elected as your MP because of my commitment to keep fighting hard for the people of Bassetlaw no matter who forms the next Government

Not a word about  Labour Party national policies or a few words of encouragement for his boss. In fact, the only mention of Labour is in the letter’s address.

I’m sure Gordon Broon will be delighted to read this.

Every Mann for himself, eh?

Solidarity brothers!

I’ve just been sent a campaign letter from John Mann to a Retford resident.

It begins:

As your MP, …

Oops! Last time I looked, Patrick Mercer was the MP for Retford.

Don’t you know who you represent, John?

Of course you do. It’s you.

I trust Patrick will make you retrieve all those letters immediately.

Another Tory Blog, Tory Politico has added some words of encouragement.

Read them here

And I also welcome the link to Mr Mann’s letter from Guido Fawkes at order-order.com

Dizzy Thinks also has the story

Methinks Mr Mann is regretting opening this particular can of worms.

John Mann’s woods, that is.

Respected and widely read blogger, Tory Bear, has lent a paw in this blog’s continuing coverage of John Mann’s struggle against reality.

The article is here but stick around and read the other stuff. Quality material here.

TB rounds off the article with some words of wisdom for Mr Mann.

Don’t be a wanker, John

Prolific Blogger – The Lone Voice – has picked up on John Mann’s letter threatening me with libel action and has published his take on it, together with some very interesting facts about Mr Mann’s expenses claims.

You can read all about it here:

The Rt Hon. John Mann MP is a wanker.

And it’s well worth the read. £2,500 for carpets,  John?

No doubt the author will be receiving his very own libel threat soon.

Mr Mann’s Bill – British Jobs for British Workers introduced under the Ten Minute Rule – is nothing more than a cheap trick to capitalise on a popular issue and grab some votes from the uninformed.

If you want some information on the Ten Minute Rule go to Wikipaedia

Here are some direct quotes:

The vast majority of Ten Minute Rule bills are not supported by the house, and are dropped immediately

Since the Government usually opposes Ten Minute Rule bills, it is extremely rare for them to become law.

Most Ten Minute Rule introductions are used to stimulate publicity for a cause.

The last one is particularly interesting. Mr Mann’s primary cause is self-preservation and he’s cooked up this litte Bill to try and get re-elected. Unless you know what the Ten Minute Rule is, and the likely fate of any Bill introduced under it, you would be tempted to think that the bill was kosher, when in fact it has as much chance of getting support as a BNP candidate in Islamabad.

John Mann knows full well that this Bill is never going to happen, yet he brags about it in the Worksop Guardian and claims support from the Construction Industry.

Draw your own conclusion.

Gordon Brown recently asked voters to ‘have another look at Labour’ before deciding on which way to vote at the upcoming election.

I suggest you do just that, if you MUST vote Labour in Bassetlaw.

You may change your mind about voting for John Mann, though, if you check out this site:

www.bassetlawlabour.co.uk

I personally don’t support anything on the site but it’s an alternative for Labour voters as it claims to be True Labour.