I see Iain Dale’s reporting that the Tories are planning to sue the Lib Dems for copyright infringement over use of a photo of Tony Lit in one of their leaflets, at the conclusion of which he makes this hilarious observation:

Whatever the result of this by-election Grant Shapps and his team have drawn a line in the sand and taken on the LibDems in a way which has rarely happened in the past.

Well, yes, Shapps has made quite an impression, whether by making unsubstantiated allegations about an alleged Lib Dem poster lottery (which would have been illegal had the Tories had any evidence to back up their claim) or by getting caught astroturfing using his own YouTube account.

That said, here’s another couple of Lit-related photos for Dale and Shapps to chew on…

Here’s the Minimum ‘Voted Tory all his Life’ Tone schmoozing with the Maximum Tone at the Labour Party fundraiser on 20th June 2007, a mere seven days before he joined the Tory Party and a mere eight days before he was installed by CCHQ as the Tory candidate for the Ealing Southall By-election –

Sky News has picked up the story and obtained a response from Lit –

Mr Lit insisted he was at the event in a business capacity as managing director of Sunrise Radio.

He has since quit the Asian station which serves London.

Mr Lit told Sky News he did not know the bash was designed to raise cash for Labour coffers.

“It was a diversity event and I attend them throughout the year,” he said.

“It was just part and parcel of my everyday job.”

I guess his former everyday job as MD of Sunrise Radio can’t have included signing cheques such as the one below, which paid £4800 to the Labour Party to cover Mr Lit’s attendance at this event…

If anyone does happen to recognise the signature on the cheque, please let me know who it belongs to…

UPDATE

No soon as I ask the question, the Torygraph provides the answer…

Mr Lit’s company, Sunrise Radio, paid £4,800 for a table at the event in a cheque made out to the Labour Party five days earlier and signed by his father Avtar Lit, chairman of Sunrise.

And there’s more…

During an auction, the Sunrise table also successfully bid £4,000 for a weekend trip to Atlanta, the highlight of which was two places at a fundraising dinner for Hillary Clinton.

Labour insiders said Mr Lit’s company had not yet paid the £4,000. If they had, in addition to the £4,800 for the table, it would have put them over the £5,000 limit requiring Labour to declare them as a donor.

Dale will be pissed off, especially as the byline on the story goes to Melissa Kite…

As for Dale’s story about the Tories suing the Lib Dem for breach of copyright, Lib Dem Voice has this to say…

After the all-round rubbishing of the Grant Shapps “but my password was set to 1234″ story which Iain Dale published (and is pretty much the only person to say they believe) you’d have thought Iain would be a bit more careful about stories he is fed in future.

But it would seem not … for his latest outburst about the Liberal Democrats using a photo of the Conservative candidate and thereby breaching the law, leaving themselves open to massive legal costs (and probably being guilty of eating babies too) is left looking really rather odd by one small fact.

Can you guess what the leaflet the Conservatives have been distributing today in the Ealing Cleveland council by-election includes?

Oh go on, I’m sure you can… (hint: it’s a photo, it’s of the Lib Dem candidate, and it’s taken from a Lib Dem website).

Now, if using such a photo is a heinous crime, do pray tell us Iain what that means the Tories in Ealing have been up to. After all, it’s not as if you would be saying that there is one rule for the Tories and another for everyone else is it?

Yep, that Grant Shapps sure is sticking it to the LD’s, isn’t he?