There it was being delivered to the BBC after being driven from darkest Islington by what was not actually a tank: a petition demanding the reinstatement of Jeremy Clarkson, who has not yet been de-instated. And it had a million signatures - we know this as the container bearing all those signatures said so. But, as Captain Blackadder might have said, there was only one thing wrong with this idea - it was bollocks.
Fart in lift Inquiry suffers unexpected fact
While those representing the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines, who was unavoidably absent, claimed that it was the Guido Fawkes blog that won it, with the odious flannelled fool Henry Cole going before the cameras to argue against himself - the BBC must be free to discipline Jezza, but their options couldn’t include anything that stopped The Great Man fronting Top Gear - many in the press obediently swallowed the spin.
“'Tank' delivers Clarkson petition to the BBC” reported, er, the BBC, going on to tell “A ‘tank’ being ridden by a man dressed as the Stig has delivered a petition calling for the reinstatement of Jeremy Clarkson to the BBC … The petition has garnered over a million signatures online”. The Mirror also swallowed the Fawkes Kool-Aid.
“Jeremy Clarkson petition reaches a MILLION signatures and is delivered to BBC headquarters by TANK” proclaimed their headline, adding fraudulently “The vehicle, apparently driven by the motoring show's enigmatic professional driver The Stig, made its way from Westminster, through central London and towards New Broadcasting House near Oxford Street on Friday”. Apparently it wasn’t.
And, at first, the Standard followed suit: “Jeremy Clarkson: 'The Stig' delivers petition calling for Top Gear host's return to BBC... in a tank”. But then a discordant note was sounded as readers were told “BBC security staff had gathered outside the building, in All Souls' Place, by 10.30am … But the tank, originally due at 10.45, arrived 75 minutes late after breaking down near Angel”. Do go on.
“The petition had not quite reached a million as the box of ‘signatures’ was delivered - but looked set to do so before the end of Friday”. The Independent was yet more critical: “at the time of writing, the petition is around 9,000 short of the mark needed to meet its 1 million target, which could cause some embarrassment to stunt organisers Guido Fawkes, who started the campaign”. So there weren’t a million signatures?
Indeed not, and we know this because the Fawkes rabble conceded the fact later yesterday afternoon: “Today at 16:52 the petition to ‘Bring Back Clarkson’ to the BBC passed the million signatures mark”. So, by their own admission, the Fawkes folks were fibbing when they rocked up at the BBC. It wouldn’t have been the first time that has happened, would it, lads?
They’re full value for that 4% positive trust rating once again. Another fine mess.
Well, that big dumb bloke with his tank in a mess
ReplyDeleteAnd Guido, who was so very late to confess
And ol' Harry Cole with his tweets all a hash
They're all gonna see that million petition crash
Ooh, baby, ooh-ee, ooh, baby, ooh-ee
It's that million petition crash
The louder they come, the harder they crack
Come now, boy Wickers, don't take all the flak
Remember that as you write some more trash
They're all gonna thru' ya at that million petition crash
Ooh, baby, ooh-ee, ooh, baby, ooh-ee
It's that million petition crash
While noting that Cole shares Farage's taste in Arfur Daley coats, I was left musing about the "freedom to fracas" the petition I saw being promoted by Fawkes. Is this the same one? If Guido and his chums really mean what they say then I'd like to be at the front of the queue to fetch them one up the bracket.
ReplyDeleteTim,
ReplyDeleteI'm a 'right winger' and I can tell you that Fawkes/Staines is in no way a Libertarian or right wing. From what I can see, he appears to be a Tory party shill of some sorts - I mean the Cameron "heir to Blair" type Tory.
Anyway, take a closer look at his comments section, you may notice something odd? Most likely around 99% of the comments are from the same person or small group of people. I mean the same people holding multiple 'registered' and 'anonymous' user names, all posting the same message with some setting up fake arguments. We're talking something like over 600 comments generated like this per day?
Such behaviour was highlighted on a blog post's comments section from yesterday, Staines has closed the comments for that post? A first in my experience, don't think I've ever seen him shut-down a comments section before? Some people highlighted this 'fake user' stuff this morning on a blog post he made, most of those comments have vanished but there are a few left.
Don't get me wrong, I used to enjoy Fawkes's blog back in the early days, but lately it appears to be a soap box for Heathrow Airport Expansion, Tory Party and The Sun.
What has struck me though, is Fawkes's blog contains very little in content with regards to his blog posts? Usually a paragraph and a sentence highlighted in red. To me, it seems his blog is about the comments section and creating the impression that lots of people hang off his every word. It's the comments section which controls the message, if you read the comments you can see, what I think to be, a disturbing message which is being sent out from that blog. No f-ing way is the message right wing or Libertarian. Corporatism and Crony-ism is the message!
The truth is that Political Blogs are not as popular as some make them out to be, and I suspect Fawkes gets a handful of visitors per day, with much less bothering to comment. Alexa and all that can be rigged so am not interested in the lies and statistics. When you look at all the political blogs, Fawkes seems to have the most popular? I don't believe that to be true, his is as quiet as the others. If that were not the case, then he would not allow anonymous folk to post rather offensive material etc. In other words, he is desperate for traffic.
That's my take on it all.
Thanks
Chest