Guido Fawked - Danczuk’s Deli Doomed

The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog love to pretend that certain politicians - notably Pa Broon - have “cursed” and therefore “doomed” those they commend to failure. What the Fawkes folks would rather not tell, of course, is that when it comes to putting the curse on others, there is nothing more effective than a recommendation by Themselves Personally Now.

Behold the now former representatives of Themselves Personally Now

This has been superbly illustrated by the saga of Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk and his now estranged wife Karen, who were - and, it appears, still are - 50/50 shareholders in a business called Café on the Walk Ltd., which operated out of a shop on The Walk in central Rochdale before unceremoniously going, er, belly-up recently, leaving the rent unpaid and Kazza on the wrong end of a County Court Judgment.

Last year, the Fawkes blog announced “Bags Of Fun At Danczuk’s Deli”, going on to tell anyone in the Westminster village who was bothered that “Guido doesn’t normally do free advertising on the blog, but he thought he would make an exception for Danczuk’s Deli. Rochdale’s finest coffee shop has shelves stacked full of traditional baps, toasties, cakes, paninis, soups, salads and a Miliband-trolling ‘easier to eat’ bacon butty which was helpfully launched after an unfortunate incident involving Ed Miliband”.

There was, unfortunately, more: “The deli is run by Labour MP Simon Danczuk’s missus Karen, who is also a Labour councillor in the area. For some reason Karen has been racking up Twitter followers in recent weeks”. A number of Kazza’s selfies were plastered over the post, just so you got the picture.

Alas, The Curse Of Guido took effect almost from the word go: Kazza has stepped down from her role as a Labour councillor, the Deli was allegedly sold but apparently it wasn’t that simple, the Landlord is pursuing rent arrears that are building up at well over two grand a quarter, and now it appears there is an application to strike off the company in which she and the MP are joint shareholders.

On top of that, the couple have split up in the most public and acrimonious style. This, of course, is not the first business with which Simon Danczuk has been involved that has encountered difficulties; if Café on the Walk Ltd (formerly Danczuk’s Delicatessen Ltd) does get struck off - the latest annual return is more than five months late - one has to ask what the Rochdale MP is doing chairing a small shops group at Westminster.

I kid you not: he is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group. Last month, “the All Party Group launched the Everyday Entrepreneurs inquiry, looking at the importance of Britain’s small business owners and how Government can help them succeed”. Simon Danczuk might not be the best person to consult on business success right now. Especially after he and Kazza have been cursed by The Great Guido.

But then, Paul Staines knows a bit about going bust himself. Another fine mess.