Guido Fawked - Corbyn Non-Apology

Yesterday morning, the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog were in their overbearing, thuggish, cat-calling element as they hectored the hated BBC for suggesting that partially deaf Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke might not have been paying full attention during a Commons debate, when in fact he was leaning over to listen to proceedings via a speaker embedded in the end of the bench.

Fart in lift inquiry in wind of no change shock

“BBC Smear Of Deaf Tory MP Goes Viral” they gasped, continuing “The BBC and the rest of the lefty Twitter echo chamber are gleefully sending this picture of Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke viral. The nation’s broadcaster reckons he was asleep during last night’s debate on the Trade Union Bill”. There was more.

“The picture has been retweeted hundreds of times already. Just one problem: he was not asleep. That little thing you can see next to his ear is a speaker. Shelbrooke needed it to hear because he is partially deaf. He tells Guido: ‘I am genuinely slightly deaf and struggle to hear. I had taken part in the debate and was trying to hear the wind ups. Seems a shame I get trolled due to being slightly deaf’”.

The question had to be asked: “Will the BBC apologise?” And the BBC did indeed offer its “heartfelt apologies” to Shelbrooke. So getting caught red-handed smearing someone calls for an immediate and unconditional apology, then, Fawkes folks? Well, not, it seems, when it is the Fawkes rabble doing the smearing, as they did in no style at all after Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson departed the Battle Of Britain memorial service yesterday.

Sort of apology, you mean

“Corbyn And Watson Accused Of Taking Sandwiches Meant For Veterans” thundered the Fawkes headline, as readers were told “According to respected photographer Steve Back (@PoliticalPics), Jeremy Corbyn took two free lunch packs meant for veterans at today’s Battle of Britain event at St Paul’s. Back was on the scene, and snapped Corbyn taking not one but two free Costa coffee lunch bags”. Back, sadly, was wrong.

And so it came to pass that The Great Guido, well after the smear had been enacted, told readers “UPDATE: A new photo clearly shows the volunteers offering Tom and Jerry the lunch bags … Kerry Parkin, Costa’s spin-doctor, confirms: ‘The bags were available to veterans and guests at the service’. Guido apologises to Mr Corbyn and Mr Watson for any embarrassment caused by our eye-witness based report”.

Apology? Yeah, right. The apparent suggestion is that they had an eye-witness, and that somehow justified their story. It did not. Worse, we know just how sincere an apology from the Fawkes rabble really is, after Adam Bienkov filmed the aftermath of Staines and his now former sidekick, the odious flannelled fool Henry Cole, charging into a Ken Livingstone photocall outside London Bridge station, when a camerawoman was knocked over (and Staines lost his rag with a Livingstone aide who blocked his path).

BBC offers heartfelt apologies, Fawkes blog mumbles “sorry”. Another fine mess.