Boulter vs Fox

The Liam Fox imbroglio has just started to make more sense. The original story was broken by The Guardian (of whom more later) and the main source appears to have been one Harvey Boulter, an American mogul whom Fox fatally agreed to meet in June at the suggestion of his friend Adam Werrity. It was the kind of meeting that a civil servant would never have arranged. Boulter was, to use a political term, toxic. He was being sued for blackmail by 3M, in a court case being fought in London, and after landing this meeting with the UK Defence Secretary he tried to use it as ammo. According to 3M’s lawyers, he told them that unless this blackmail malarkee was settled quietly and out of court then his new mate Foxy would discuss at Cabinet rescinding the knighthood recently given to 3M’s chairman Sir George Buckley. A lunatic suggestion – as any Brit knows, knighthoods are not rescinded by a Cabinet discussion.