diff --git a/Bugtracker/plugin.py b/Bugtracker/plugin.py
index 8e8c717..193b3fb 100644
--- a/Bugtracker/plugin.py
+++ b/Bugtracker/plugin.py
@@ -698,6 +698,9 @@ class Launchpad(IBugtracker):
                 assignee = ''
 
         except Exception, e:
+#NOTE: The LP API will raise a lazr.restfulclient.errors.HTTPError with private bugs, so bugdata.private is useless..., do the checking here instead
+            if e.__class__.__name__ == 'HTTPError': # messy, but meh
+                raise BugtrackerError, e.content # should be 'Bug nnnnn is private'
             supylog.exception("Error gathering bug data for %s bug %d" % (self.description, id))
             s = 'Could not parse data returned by %s: %s (%s/bugs/%d)' % (self.description, e, self.url, id)
             raise BugtrackerError, s