Guido Fawked – Union Bashing Sellout

The dust has now settled from the ruckus over the selection process to find a new Labour candidate for the constituency of Falkirk, and an internal party inquiry has found no evidence of wrongdoing. Prospective candidate Karie Murphy and party chairman Stevie Deans have been reinstated to the party, but Ms Murphy has withdrawn in favour of a new candidate.

Of course I can go after newspapers ... like, er, the Guardian, and, er, the Observer, and, er, the Guardian, and, er ...

The Police found that there were insufficient grounds for action. No charges were ever laid in respect of any alleged offence. But, had you taken the reports on the affair from the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog as having some basis in fact, a completely different impression would have been given, and still is, despite yesterday’s news.

From the outset, the Fawkes blog juxtaposed a photo of Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey and the words FRAUD CHARGES in very large capital letters. This could be seen not just on one blogpost, but in four of them (HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE). No apology has been forthcoming from the Fawkes rabble, and none will be – even though there have been no fraud charges.

Union bashing is popular ...

Instead, Staines and his pals dig themselves in a bit deeper, claiming that another Union, the GMB, has forced the hand not just of the Labour Party, but that of Mil The Younger personally, by cutting its affiliation to Labour. This is held to be behind what has transpired in Falkirk, except of course that the Union involved there is not the GMB, and saying “they pay the bills” when they don’t is plain silly.

So why is there so much attention lavished by the Fawkes folks on what, even for the most ardent Union-hating papers, will be little more than a footnote in their political coverage? Ah well. That is because the range of topics once covered by The Great Guido has decreased: no more attacks on most papers and their hacks, for starters, as the Fawkes rabble has been bought off by them.

... because other potential targets have bought them off

Staines has secured a column from, in turn, the Daily Star Sunday and the Sunday edition of the Sun, so “Dirty” Des and Rupe are off limits. His tame gofer, the odious flannelled fool Henry Cole, has a berth at the Spectator, so the Barclay Brothers titles attract no attention, and Cole also writes for GQ, so much of the detail on the Russell Brand ruckus has been left out of his witterings.

Coverage of the Russians by the Fawkes blog is also muted: this may be not unconnected with the Russian embassy in the UK buying advertising space. And today has come a “sponsored post”, meaning one more body that will not be attracting criticism from Staines and Co any time soon. If the Labour Party and the largest Trades Unions bought space too, they’d be totally stuffed.

Anti-establishment? You’ve got to be joking. Another fine mess, once again.