Guido Fawked – Still Not Stars

A thread of desperation appears to run through rather too much of what passes for content at the Guido Fawkes blog nowadays. Quite apart from the practice of recycling existing stories and pretending to have had some influence on events, and the creative use of figures to put the boot into anyone not of a right-leaning persuasion, is a wilful ignorance of how their own industry works.

Yeah, I should be on Question Time. Provided there aren't any questions about bullying, and bankruptcy, and telling porkies, and drinking and driving, and if anyone mentions that photographer I didn't knock over, I'll sue them

That would be the media, where the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his tame gofer, the odious flannelled fool Henry Cole, along with their newly anointed teaboy Alex Wickham, have collectively sold out to Richard “Dirty” Desmond, the Barclay Brothers, and Rupert Murdoch, while being so frightened of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre that they have even stopped snarking at Andrew Pierce.

But they most certainly are still snarking at Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger, because she represents Labour, and quite rightly does not consider the Fawkes rabble worth the time of day. And, for the Fawkes folks, ignoring is only A Good Thing when they do it to other people. For Ms Berger to do it to them cannot be allowed, because, well, they’re Real Media Stars, don’t you know.

Course I should be on telly, cos I'm on telly!

So teaboy Wickham has been put on yah-boo duty, and has duly obliged, with a post titled “Berger’s Climate Change Whopper”. This follows her article for the Staggers titled “David Cameron hasn't spoken about climate change for three years. Time is running out”. That Ms Berger probably didn’t write her own headline is not allowed to enter, and nor is the clear inference that this isn’t about occasional mentions.

“According to They Work For You it turns out Dave has mentioned climate change 32 times in Hansard over the last three years” sneers Wickham, clearly having inherited the tendency to dodgy punctuation so characteristic of Master Cole. But Ms Berger wasn’t saying that: “Remarkably, David Cameron hasn’t made a single speech on climate change in the three years since he became Prime Minister”. See?

This is desperately thin stuff for the “brand” that is supposed to cause MPs to quake in their boots (which, in most cases, is probably because they are suffering convulsions of laughter). And this post isn’t the only recent example of the “look at us ‘cos we’re important” genre. Only yesterday, readers were treated to “Graph of Everything That’s Wrong with BBC Question Time”.

Nigel Farage has been on eight times in the past three years! And George Galloway five times! And David Starkey four times! And someone from The Apprentice twice! The clear sub-text is that the Fawkes rabble believes it should be able to feature on the panel occasionally, especially as they are all legends, if only in their own lunchtimes. But one of the figures on the graph shows why it isn’t happening.

There have already been 13 comedians on the programme. Another fine mess.