Guido Fawked – Darren Gough Cursed

The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, as part of their shameless selling out to the so-called “Dead tree press” that they once claimed to hate, have a column in the Sunday edition of the Murdoch Sun. Here, they claim to give readers the inside track on the Westminster gossip and rumour mill. But sadly, their sources are not always as good as they imagine.

Something there we can copy and paste ...

Take the weekend before last, when the Fawkes folks were peddling another of their routine attacks on Sayeeda Warsi, not that they have any problem with the Tories, or any other party, admitting Muslims to their ranks, of course. But the item to watch is second in this particular batting order – “England cricket hero Darren Gough in the running to be the Tory candidate in Cannock Chase”.

Indeed, such was Staines’ faith in this rumour that he also broadcast it via Twitter. Yes folks, “Save yourselves a trip to the newsagents and find out all the latest gossip by subscribing to Sun+ and reading Guido’s column online”. Never mind that Gough had previously been approached by the Tories to stand as a candidate, in Barnsley – and had turned them down.

And what The Great Guido was not telling Sun readers is that this supposedly exclusive nugget was already a fortnight old, having been run by the Birmingham Sunday Mercury, which told that “Cricket legend Darren Gough could be in line to replace disgraced Tory Aidan Burley as MP for Cannock Chase ... [he] has been named as a possible Conservative candidate in the Staffordshire seat”.

So it was old news. Moreover, the Fawkes rabble ignored the comment at the foot of the article by Cannock Chase District Council’s Tory leader Paul Snape: “Personally, I would like a local person, with a business background and some experience of life” which is telling the press that the preferred candidate would be a West Midlands businessman or woman – not a former cricketer from Yorkshire.

Then, to put the lid on the whole idea, The Curse Of Guido worked its customary magic, and now Gough has found himself not going anywhere near any Tory Party selection process this side of next year’s General Election – because he’s just been splashed all over the front page of this morning’s Sun, along with much photographed TOWIE “star” Amy Childs.

And, in a classic “Couldn’t make it up” moment, the two met on Channel 4’s The Jump. Nudge-nudge, wink-wink, jump, eh? I mean, phwooarr, eh? Know what I mean? And in the same paper that just ran The Great Guido’s exclusive goss that he’s set to be a Tory candidate. That won’t be happening any time soon, and serves Staines and his pals right for cutting and pasting from the regionals.

The Fawkes rabble has cursed another career. Another fine mess, once again.