in a statement, mark meznies said... our political correspondent iain watson has the story. this all got under way, really, when the times newspaper reported a bizarre story where apparently, last december, mr menzies, according to the times, had called, met a local official in his party, in his constituency at 3.15 in the morning demanding £5,000, which he said was a matter of life and death, because he had to be released from a flat in which he was locked by, quote, some bad people. in addition to this,