Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge in 2012, the case was described as a "$2.5-million suit" and Bower said, "How can a convicted fraudster find a jury who will say that his reputation has been damaged by a book that says he's a fraudster?" A passing reference in the book to the British businessman, pornographer, and publisher Richard Desmond led to Desmond unsuccessfully suing Bower for libel in 2009. Desmond argued that the description in the book that he was "ground into the dust" when he had published an apology after Black had threatened to sue for libel had weakened his reputation. Notes References Conrad and
Robert Bower (Conservative politician) of the House and struck Bower in the face, before turning to the Speaker, apologising and walking out of the chamber. Bower also then apologised to the Speaker, and no disciplinary action was taken against either MP. The context of this violent confrontation was a series of questions being put by Labour MPs to the Foreign Office minister R. A. Butler, challenging the government's apparent recognition of the Duke of Alba as a diplomatic representative of General Franco's nationalist forces, who were then in the midst of a civil war against Spain's Republican government. Shinwell had described Butler's answers as