Bring Me Sunlight – 4

Last year, I looked at the Sunlight Centre For Open Politics, which claimed to be inspired by the Sunlight Foundation in Washington, DC. Their website – never any better than slow in response – promised things like “resources for bloggers”, but a look at those involved showed that it was run by Paul Staines, who blogs under the alias of Guido Fawkes, and his tame gofer Henry Cole (aka Tory Bear).

Moreover, although this organisation initially engaged the services of Christopher Galley, the former civil servant who gained brief notoriety as an informant of Tory Damian Green, he soon vanished from the scene. In fact, little was heard of the group until the name came up during the General Election campaign, concerning some local knocking copy aimed at Pa Broon’s former confidant “Auguste” Balls.

Sadly, despite the best efforts of Staines and Cole, Balls won. The realisation may have dawned on the pair – but probably not – that the money thrown at trying to produce a so-called “Portillo Moment” could have been deployed far more effectively in support of more marginal campaigns.

So what now for the Sunlight Centre For Open Politics? A look at their website now shows that the response has degraded from merely slow to no response at all: the site is “currently unavailable”. So much for “resources for bloggers”, then: it looks very much as if the “Open Politics” are in name only, and that this is merely a means for Staines and his gofer to pursue their campaigns against anyone that their respective blogs fail to nail.

Which, as I’ve said many times, will, without the help of the supposedly despised MSM, be all of them.