Guido Fawked - Mark Clarke Hypocrisy

The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog are not, you understand, taking sides in the Tory Bullying scandal, or the saga of former activist Mark Clarke, and nor are they spinning for or against any of the participants. It is by sheer coincidence, and nothing else, that they have gone after Tory activist Patrick Sullivan, who had previously featured in a Mail On Sunday article criticising Clarke’s behaviour.

The alleged "News Editor" of the Guido Fawkes blog can be seen having the most terrible falling out with Mark Clarke

So it was no more than chance that the Fawkes blog posted “Clark Complainant Backed Him To Be MP Four Months Ago” on Thursday afternoon, telling readers “Patrick Sullivan is the Tory activist who sombrely told Newsnight he had complained about Mark Clarke’s behaviour as far back as 2010. He also featured heavily in the Mail on Sunday, claiming Clarke subjected him to a ‘terrifying ambush with two henchmen’ last week”.

The post goes on “Yet they weren’t always such bitter enemies … On 17 August, just four months ago, Sullivan described Clarke as a ‘wonderful potential MP’, sharing a post by one time Clarke ally turned enemy Paul Abbott … So Sullivan complained about Clarke in 2010, then backed him for parliament this summer, and now says he was a wrong ‘un all along? Very odd”. Not half as odd as the Fawkes folks’ behaviour.

Zelo Street regulars will recall that Staines celebrated his ten years crawling his way into the heart of the establishment in October last year by hosting, along with his now former tame gofer, the Most Worshipful Master Harry Cole (welcome member of the Funny Handshake Brigade and nipple bearer supreme), a dinner attended by a generous contingent of freeloaders - plus Staines and Cole’s pals.

Guess who's coming to dinner, Fawkes folks

So who was invited? No prizes for guessing that Mark Clarke was one of them. Not only that, his name appears on the guest list as “Mark Clarke MP”. We know this as Peter Oborne took away a copy of that list and later published it at the Telegraph. So in October last year, Staines and Cole were running an in-joke suggesting their pal Clarke was potential MP material - the same thing for which Staines has now kicked Sullivan.

It gets worse: Cole has, while admitting that he and Clarke were long-standing friends, claimed that he had a falling-out with him, and that this occurred in July 2014. Yet, three months after this falling-out, he was quite happy to receive Mark Clarke as one of the guests at a dinner he was co-hosting. But then, honesty and Harry Cole have always been elusive bedfellows at the best of times.

All of which shows that it ill behoves Paul Staines and his rabble to shoot their mouths off about who has been backing Mark Clarke - because they have been doing plenty of it themselves. It is also possible that the attempt to discredit Patrick Sullivan could be seen as yet more spin on behalf of Clarke. After all, the Fawkes blog has recently been accused of being a conduit for Clarke’s bullying.

Staines and Co might find keeping schtum a better option in future. Another fine mess.