What’s the definition of “substantial” in “substantial undisclosed donation to charity” in settlement of a libel claim?
Is it one of those things like “he remained unmarried” which means “gay as a nine bob note” or does it have a more variable meaning?
I think the phrase you’re looking for there is “bent as a row of tents”.
No idea but I doubt that I’m alone in thinking that it means “quite a lot”.
gay as a nine bob note
That’s an interesting simile. In the days of the ten bob note you might have been a gay dog and parties might have been gay.
You would have been as bent as a nine bob note and as queer as a coot – depending on your proclivities, obviously, or orientation as we now have learned to say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92vuIsK4ZVE
@8:09 – did Ritchie admit to working round a legal agreement?
Substantial, adj. Embarrassingly small, but I don’t want to admit as much, so I’m using an adjective which is near meaningless, but gives the impression of “largeness” rather than “embarrassingly small”.
Land Registry data for the purchase of the Ely property is now in.
Shows a purchase price of 330K (no data on the Downham Market yet). Interestingly the title deeds show the owner as Ritchie alone, no lender. Title deeds for the Downham Market property showed Mr and Mrs Ritchie as owners (again, no lender). Mrs Ritchie’s address at Companies House is shown as Ely so don’t jump to conclusions!
I think it simply means not trivial. I remember a case twenty years ago where a judge agreed that an amount of money was substantial because it was more than a judge was paid every year.
RM: It could be a weasel word like that, but my first thought would be something that causes the payer some measure of pain – >10% of capital assets, perhaps even including PV of future income stream?
In 2005, £250k was seen as large for a libel settlement https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/oct/27/pressandpublishing.law1
Substantial is code, or was code, for high five/low six figures.
Noel
That is interesting and in fact suggest there might have been a split? The end terrace in Ely doesn’t look like it could physically accommodate a wife, two boys, various spaniels, Murphy, his massive ego and the model train set all together does it?
Dear Mr Worstall
‘Substantial’ ought to be relative to the payer’s means. Thus for your average multi-billionaire, anything less than £100 million is increasingly fiddly small change.
It also depends on whose money it is – paying the donation with taxpayers’ funds means the sky’s the limit.
In my case ‘substantial’ starts around a hundred quid or so…
Know anyone who needs libelling?
DP
Isn’t it worth considering the costs, given that presumably he’ll have to pay Ashcroft’s ?
It’s a long time since I’ve had to look at this sort of thing, but I shouldn’t think Ashcroft would have got all of his costs. Don’t the courts cap them at what they consider a reasonable level? Ashcroft was probably far better lawyered up than that.
But from memory if you try to fight the case and then cave in once it gets to court, I think you get hit with more of the costs because they say you should have conceded beforehand and saved the cost of a day in court.
According to Crimestoppers 2010 accounts they received total donations from individuals of £38,428 in 2010 and £33,583 in 2009, with up to £310k in other voluntary income. That does depend on how they would acknowledge it and the speed with which it was paid.
https://crimestoppers-uk.org/media/49299/Report-and-Accounts-for-the-Year-Ended-31-March-2010-Final.pdf
The Orchard was up for £450k in April and is reported as sold…
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dkcBYE9ULB8J:www.morrisarmitage.co.uk/search.php%3Fpage%3D1%26searchtype%3Dsales%26location%3DDownham%2BMarket%26radius%3D2%26pricefrom%3D0%26priceto%3D9999999%26added%3D0%26exclude%3DN55+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
So a difference of about £100k
@IanB,
It’s “as camp as a row of pink tents”.
@ TMB
I remember “bent as a five-penny piece” – notes got folded so “bent as (any) note” didn’t signify. we had 1d, 2d, 3d, 6d and – for Maundy money – 4d coins so 5d was the odd one out.
In my limited experience, the legal fees dwarf the settlements. Which is why Dick conducted his own defence. Letting it go to court was the gamble of a desperate or stupid man; so no indication in this case of which it was.
Presumably the garden shed is also drastically downsized.
BraveFart: He could move into Buckingham Palace and still not have room for the ego.
What Matthew L said – plus Stonehenge
I’d say it would be an amount that has a noticable effect on your finances that forces you to make provision for it.
I like Jonah Goldberg’s phrase “as gay as a taffeta chandelier”. Also: “as camp as a Boy Scout jamboree”.