Libel and slander – Privilege. The judge struck out the claimant's defamation and malicious falsehood claims concerning the defendant's Parliamentary statements repeated to a Queen's Counsel (the QC) on the basis that he could not enquire into the defendant's state of mind before the QC without enquiring into his state of mind before the committee, which would violate art 9 of the Bill of Rights 1689 (art 9). The claimant appealed. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in dismissing the appeal, held that art 9 prohibited an examination of the defendant's assertions to the QC, as the characteristics of instances where the protection of art 9 extended to extra-Parliamentary speech had been present.