Michael Fallon - Dead Cat Hypocrite

As if anyone was in any doubt that Tory candidate for the London Mayoral election Zac Goldsmith was trailing in the polls, yesterday brought confirmation, and that desperation has set in. Up popped Michael Fallon, who claims to be the Defence Secretary, to denounce Labour front runner Sadiq Khan with the help of the not-at-all-partisan-honestly Evening Standard, by chucking another dead cat on the table.

“MINISTER: KHAN IS UNFIT TO BE MAYOR” thundered the obliging Standard, blatantly doing the Tories’ bidding in a move that the Guardian’s London man Dave Hill termed “Highly unimpressive”. The supporting article told that “Defence Secretary Michael Fallon claimed the Labour candidate was ‘unfit’ to be London’s Mayor because he had shared platforms with extreme radicals”. And there was more.

“The row follows a series of media reports highlighting links between Mr Khan and controversial individuals and groups”. Yes, and you folks at the Standard are the ones making them - along with the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog. The only surprise is that this battle has not yet been joined by career Islamophobe Andrew “transcription error” Gilligan.

But enough: Michael Fallon really should not be calling lack of fitness - or association with extremists - on anyone. As Political Scrapbook and Tom Pride noted recently, “In 2013, our Defence Secretary Michael Fallon – who witnesses say was visibly drunk – had to be forcibly separated from an attractive woman by a government minder at a posh party … The woman turned out to be a Russian spy – who had been paid to work as a honey-trap by a Russian energy company with close ties to Putin”. Oh dear!

It got worse: “Fallon has a dishonourable history of ‘tackling’ women at parties while drunk … As an example – at another posh party in 2010 – the man now in charge of the defence of our realm drunkenly went up to author Bryony Gordon and openly called her a slut … Fallon was also of course famously banned from driving for 18 months in 1983 after admitting a drink driving offence during the general election campaign”.

Fallon has shown himself to be not only thirsty, but also a security risk - then he has the brass neck to claim “Labour cannot be trusted with our country’s security and they cannot be trusted with London’s either”. And it gets yet worse: the Minister who tries to smear Sadiq Khan over Islamic extremism has form on that front himself.

Yes, there he is, associating with representatives of the Saudi Arabian Government, upholders of a Wahabist régime which routinely practices beheadings, floggings, forbids freedom of speech and viciously oppresses women, who are banned from even getting behind the wheel of a car. Michael Fallon knows all about sharing platforms with extreme radicals - because it’s exactly what he does.

Memo to Evgeny Lebedev: you won’t get a Knighthood peddling shite like that.