Guido Fawked – Desperate Hypocrisy

Today, though he has sought to spin the news to his advantage, the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines has discovered just how seriously the rest of the hated MSM takes him and his tame gofer, the flannelled fool Henry Cole, and their dubiously sourced tales at the Guido Fawkes blog. And the bad news for The Great Guido is that they do not take him seriously at all.

Invited? Course I was, I wrote it myself

The Labour leadership, following Cole’s attempt to be jolly clever in his questioning of Mil The Younger, has taken the Laurel and Hardy of the blogosphere off its invite list, rather as the Obama White House dealt with Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse). The big difference is that the rest of the media Stateside forced a rethink, and Fox was readmitted as a result.

Thus far, the remainder of the Westminster press pack has not said as much as a dickybird in defence of the less than dynamic duo. And they have precious little leverage, not having any legitimate journalistic credentials between them, other than Cole pretending he is a “real journalist” because he has mastered the use of the words “copy” and “file” (maybe he should now add “spiked” to his vocabulary).

I must be a real journalist, 'cos I'm on telly!

And, as Staines and Cole are so vociferously anti-union, they couldn’t tell an NUJ card from a hole in the ground. So, while the papers, the hated BBC, ITN and Sky News (“first for breaking wind”) and proper online sources like the Huffington Post UK continue to get invites to Labour pressers, the Fawkes blog has been left well and truly out in the cold. What to do?

What indeed. Staines has been reduced to such desperate straits that he has turned for support to none other than Tom Watson MP, whom he and Cole have spent much of the past three years demonising. The member for West Bromwich is quoted as saying “if you can’t deal with [Staines] in a public meeting, you don’t deserve to be Labour leader”, a citation made with obvious approval.

To which there is an equally obvious answer: Labour pressers are not public meetings, and therefore the party does not have to deal with Joe and Joanne Public there, which is the only status to which Staines and Cole can legitimately lay claim. If the Fawkes blog wants to quiz Miliband at future public meetings, I’m sure he’ll be more than willing to humour them – but they’ll have to take their turn with the rest.

In the meantime, it very much looks like Mil The Younger, probably with the encouragement of “Auguste” Balls, has cut The Great Guido off at the knees, and such is the lack of regard for the pisspoor standard of his “journalism” that nobody who really matters cares. Heck, even the Staggers – which Staines keeps sneering at – gets invited to Labour pressers.

I’m sure he and Cole will find other stuff to invent, though. Another fine mess.