Guido Fawked – Gofer English Lessons

Yesterday brought confirmation that someone from the Guido Fawkes blog is looking in on Zelo Street: whether it is the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines or his tame gofer, the flannelled fool Henry Cole, is not known, but the Laurel and Hardy of the blogosphere were seen to sneak through an edit after I had called them out for shoddy grammar. But they were caught out doing it.

English lessons? Now that's a good idea!

Earlier in the day, as Jesse Norman’s ten minute rule bill proposing to abolish Trade Union facility time was emphatically defeated in the Commons, the Fawkes blog ran a post whingeing about the result. This was most likely written by Cole, as he had been Tweeting about Labour MPs who have union connections, and the post made threatening noises in that direction.

If at first you don't succeed ...

As can be seen, the post began “As predicted, union back [sic] Labour MPs mobilised to defeat Jesse Norman’s 10 minute rule bill” and later told that “Given Cameron has backed the ban, you can add a [sic] the payroll vote to that number next time”. And, as an aside, the threat to look at MPs’ union connections means that the opening sentence is an unproven assumption (no surprise there, then).

... wait for someone who knows the language ...

Zelo Street had already commented on the vote, which marked another glorious failure for the dubiously talented array of non-job holders at the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA). The petulant outburst from the Fawkes blog, however, demanded an update, and so the shoddy grammar was subjected to suitably adverse comment as Cole found himself on the wrong end of the e-cattle prod once more.

... and try, try again

And lo, the post on the Fawkes blog was miraculously changed to remove the two offending grammar howlers. Moreover, the post looks as if it has been that way all along, as WordPress leaves the original time stamp in place. But a screenshot had been taken. Thus it can be seen that the Fawkes blog looks in on Zelo Street to figure out how to correct its poor grasp of English.

One would have assumed that Henry Cole, the probable author of that post, would be able to get it right first time. After all, he’s a journalist, you know. He’s got a card that says so. Whatever. Another fine mess, once again.