MR JUSTICE WARBY Approved Judgment Monroe v Hopkins [2017] EWHC 433 (QB) individuals. As a matter of principle, context for which a defendant is not responsible cannot be held against them on meaning. But it could work to a defendant’s advantage. 40. Mr Price invites me to “extend” the principle, that context includes information in the wider publication that incorporates the statement complained of, by taking into account “facts and matters in the wider realm of Twitter generally as it was being experienced by the hypothetical ordinary reader at the relevant time”. I have indicated how I do see the context in a Twitter case. But Mr Price has put forward a rather broad formula, which is also rather vague, and looks as if it might be somewhat over-ambitious. To the extent that it might draw in as “context” things that might or might not have been known to the ordinary reader, it would tend to erode the rather important and principled distinction between natural and ordinary meanings and innuendos. When it comes down to its practical application, however, it turns out that in essence Mr Price only wishes to rely on the known characteristics of the claimant and defendant ([8] and [9] above), and matters of background that Ms Monroe’s legal team have relied on as innuendo facts in support of the meaning attributed to the Second Tweet ([27] above). 41. There has been no objection to this approach. And if a claimant has put forward an innuendo case, there is nothing inherently unfair or wrong about the defendant adopting and relying on the same matters. But Ms Hopkins has never pleaded any “defendant’s innuendo” in respect of the First Tweet or the Second Tweet, nor any detailed case about “context”. The exact nature of her case was not crystal clear until closing submissions. In principle it seems to me that it is incumbent on a defendant who takes such a position to make this clear at an early stage, in her Defence. It seems to me desirable in principle, and it is certainly both safer and fairer, especially in the “multi-dimensional” Twitter context, to treat earlier material of the kind I have referred to as requiring pleading and proof by way of innuendo. But a case should be stated, regardless of whether it is considered to be one of innuendo or context. Discussion and conclusions 42. It is important to separate the question of what message a reader would take from the tweets from the separate question of what response the reader would have to that message. 43. Ms Monroe complains of the natural and ordinary meaning. That is not the same as a literal meaning. The literal meaning, that Ms Monroe had herself scrawled on and vandalised a memorial, would be rejected by the reasonable reader, having regard to the context. The reader would see the tweet as having an element of metaphor. But it is, to my mind, an inescapable conclusion that the ordinary reasonable reader of the First Tweet would understand it to mean that Ms Monroe “condoned and approved of scrawling on war memorials, vandalising monuments commemorating those who fought for her freedom.” That is a meaning that emerges clearly enough, making full allowance for everything that seems to me relevant by way of context: the characteristics of Ms Hopkins and Ms Monroe, the nature of Twitter, and the immediately surrounding contextual material on Twitter. The reference to Grandma would not be understood, but that would not affect the reader’s conclusion.