1. The pair say it is undisputed that Mr Willmott CBE, Tory councillor in Wiltshire‘s Kennet district, wrote to a colleague about attending a fire conference dinner in October 2005: "I see the rig is evening dress, are we going back to ‘Mess Dress‘ and medals? (I would have thought that with this mob in charge of the country we would have been required to wear dreadlocks and multi–coloured woolly hats or nightshirts and tea–towels) Cheers Jerry Willmott." An internal investigation into other allegedly racist emails sent in January 2006 between Mr Willmott and chief fire officer Andy Goves found they may have been the result of a "cut–and–paste" hoax aimed at besmirching their reputations.