Former chancellor of the exchequer Norman Lamont had a not-so-black Wednesday this week, winning libel victories against the Evening Standard and the Oxford University Press.
Both have apologised and agreed to pay damages.
The Standard settled after a story in the Londoner’s Diary section suggested Lamont sought to insult James Major and Emma Noble by giving them a copy of his autobiography, which was critical of James’ father, John Major, as a wedding present.
In a statement read out in open court on Wednesday, Lamont’s lawyer David Price said: "My Lord, the truth is that the claimant did not give the couple a copy of his memoirs either as a wedding present or at all. Accordingly, there was no basis to accuse the Claimant of cheap and vindictive conduct."
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Lamont has also successfully sued the Oxford Companion to 20th Century British Politics over an entry that wrongly claimed Lamont had once "anxiously asked a policeman to make him a way through traffic" on the basis that he was the "rote minister responsible for the British Nuclear Button".
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