Guido Fawked – Clutching At Straws

And still the attempt by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog to damage Commons Speaker John Bercow continues, despite the award of a Parliamentary pass to wife Sally’s pal Farah Sassoon clearly being a personal matter concerning a family friend. The Fawkes folks have been fortunate here, of course, as many of their press pals hate Bercow.

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Moreover, some Tory MPs – but, significantly, not those whose opinions matter – also dislike the Speaker intensely. Some of them dislike John Bercow so much that they are prepared to speak without engaging brain on the subject, one prime example being Simon Burns, who represents the long-suffering commuter town of Chelmsford. His overnight intervention was magnificently stupid.

“I do not quite see why at the request of the wife of the Speaker a friend should be given a pass to the House of Commons – in that they are not usually given to MPs’ friends” he told. Hello Simon! Let’s go over this nice and slowly, shall we? The Speaker and his family live on the Parliamentary estate, so their friends have to have a pass to get in to see them. But then, Burns has previous with Bercow.

Meanwhile, the Fawkes blog claims “David Morris MP tells Guido this morning that Farah Sassoon introduced herself to him on the Commons Terrace as ‘an adviser to Ed Miliband’ saying she advised the Labour leader ‘on all sorts of things’”. Then perhaps the member for Morecambe and Lunesdale would care to go on the record, and also confirm that he has more recent previous with the Speaker.

One wise decision the Fawkes rabble have made is not to follow the Mail and quote Michael Fabricant, another Tory MP who has previous with the Speaker, feebly trying to up the ante by suggesting “I’m sure the Speaker would welcome an inquiry in to this matter in order to clear his name”. Sadly, Mikey is just another has-been, a gobshite who, like Burns, is unable to engage brain first.

But the Fawkes folks are determined to keep the story going, despite there not being a story in the first place. “Crucially, Bercow’s spokesman dodged the question of whether proper advice was sought before he accepted a donation from this mysterious business woman” they tell, dishonestly. If anything untoward had been discovered, Ms Sassoon would not have got the pass.

On they plough: “Who is this mysterious character, and to what end is she really using this pass?” they demand. She’s a family friend, and uses it to see Sal. Which we all knew last weekend. Then they round off with “Yet each day brings new questions”. Yes, you keep on making up excuses to try and keep a story going which has no substance. But you can’t back down now or your credibility will be bust.

Your story is going nowhere, O Great Guido. Another fine mess, once again.