The following is an email response to a legal notice issued to The Civilian by Chapman Tripp on behalf of Conservative Party Leader Colin Craig. The full legal notice can be read here.

Dear Mr. McKay,

Thank you for your email. The Civilian was horrified to learn that it had misquoted Mr. Craig in the article in question, and if you visit our website, you will see that we have taken urgent action to rectify our terrible mistake.

We would never dream of making Mr. Craig look ridiculous. Indeed, we’re quite content to leave that up to him.

I have attached to this email the retraction statement you requested, along with my signature, which we hope you will find satisfactory:

We look forward to future legal notices from you regarding the following articles, in which we also appear to have misquoted several other politicians, including David Shearer, Russel Norman and Bill English:

http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/labour-greens-announce-plans-to-buy-all-the-power-see-what-happens/

http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/bill-english-pleased-to-have-house-to-himself/

We also hope you will seek legal action against us with regards to this opinion piece, which we erroneously claimed was written by Jim Hickey:

http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/opinion-please-stop-sending-me-novelty-ties/

Yours Sincerely,

Ben Uffindell

Editor of The Civilian.