Champagne Super no-no

There is a story today in the Manchester Evening News (brought to my attention by @AlixMortimer via @Peter_Henley on Twitter) about a Tory party member, Philip Whittington who got into a spot of bother yesterday at the conference Midland Hotel after he was accused of failing to pay the bill on a £150 bottle of champagne. He was arrested on suspicion of theft but he claimed that he thought it was a free bar and that he was entitled to it. The police decided to take no further action and Mr Whittington was released at 6am this morning without charge.

So far, so good. An apparent mistake led to an unpleasant few hours for a man who will probably be more careful in future. I expect he has learned an important lesson.

Except apparently that is not good enough for the Conservative party. According to the report:

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "We have banned the individual from attending any further Conference events and are considering what further action may need to be taken."

So despite the fact that as far as the police are concerned, no action is required and despite the fact that the gentleman protested that it was an innocent mistake the Conservative Party have unilaterally banned him from any further conference events! Not only that but they are looking to see what else they can do to the unfortunate man. What? Kick him out of the party? Make him wear a sandwich board proclaiming his unworthiness and parade up and down Market Street?

I can understand the Conservatives being a bit jittery about this sort of thing but this sort of reaction is way over the top. It does not befit a party who just a couple of weeks ago were trying to claim they were truly liberal.

If they were, they would reinstate Mr Whittington's right to attend future conference events.