Another day, another monumental failure to predict the obvious by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog. The Great Guido had been trying to predict the outcome of the contest to secure the Labour nomination for Mayor of Greater Manchester, and to this end had been shamelessly rubbishing Leigh MP and currently shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham.
Indeed, the Fawkes folks had told their avid readers back in May “Northerners Mock ‘Grim Up North’ Burnham”, going on to claim “Burnham played up his Northern credentials when he threw his hat in the ring to be Labour’s Greater Manchester Mayoral candidate … Sounding like the seventh Python won Burnham no favours. A series of prominent Northerners in politics and the media took to Twitter to take t’piss out of the shadow home secretary”. Very good - but Manchester is not in Yorkshire.
That is where they might take t’piss out of someone … like the clueless Staines and his pals. But, undeterred, they were back on Burnham’s case in June, gleefully reporting “Burnham Comes Last In Two Manchester Hustings”, and going on to leer “Scouser Andy Burnham running for Manchester mayor was always an odd one. The Everton fan’s Twitter stream is full of opposition from local Mancs who would rather have Stretford boy Tony Lloyd in the job”. And there was more.
“So it’s not surprising that Burnham’s campaign has bombed - he came last in the Co-Op Party hustings last week, and came last again in the Gorton CLP hustings last night. Lloyd won both by a landslide. Maybe Andy’s just too Westminster bubble”. The Great Guido somehow missed that Burnham represented a Greater Manchester constituency.
There was, though, as Captain Blackadder might have said, only one thing wrong with this idea - it was bollocks. As Zelo Street told in June, attempts by those loyal to Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk attempted to stop Burnham talking to the local Labour Party failed. They later nominated Burnham.
Rochdale Constituency Labour Party (CLP) was not the only one: Burnham secured the approval of six more. Then came the late opinion polls of Labour members, and by this stage the Fawkes rabble had fallen silent. Why should this be? Well, it could have been because the prediction was that Burnham would not only win, but win convincingly. And so it came to pass: Andy Burnham secured the Labour nomination on the first ballot.
What would The Great Guido do now? How would Staines and his entourage talk their way out of this latest humiliation? “Burnham To Finally Quit Shadow Cabinet” was the spin, as if he had wanted to quit, but didn’t. This was complete crap: Burnham had never shown the first inkling of leaving his shadow cabinet post. The only reason for pushing this line is that the Fawkes rabble has got it wrong, and has tried to spin its way out of it.
The Great Guido has chalked up another glorious failure. Another fine mess, once again.
6 comments:
Inhabitants of the London M25 ghetto get thicker by the minute.
Not only do they not know where Manchester is, they don't know Andy Burnham isn't a Scouser.
So no surprise they failed to see Burnham was a shoo-in for the nomination.
He was born in Aintree, which is only 5 miles from Liverpool city centre. Granted, he moved to Warrington at a young age, but I don't think there's hard and fast rules for this sort of thing. He was born right on the edge of Liverpool, he goes to most Everton home games... if he wants to call himself a scouser, he can.
(Note: I have no idea if he calls himself a scouser. I mean, I imagine he doesn't just to avoid alienating people politically, but I have no idea what he calls himself in private.)
@LiamKav.
You have no idea "for this sort of thing." Period.
Aintree isn't in Liverpool. It's in Sefton.
I mean, you really don't have a clue about anything do you. I imagine you don't just do it to avoid alienating people politically.
Jesus Christ, can you have a conversation without being a smug, antagonistic prick?
Technically, Aintree is in the borough of Sefton. But it appears on Liverpool maps, general information web-sites about Liverpool, it's covered by the Liverpool Echo, the Grand National is frequently referred to as taking place in Liverpool, and Aintree racecourse itself giving its address as "Ormskirk Road, Aintree, Liverpool L9 5AS" on its web-site. If someone from Aintree wants to say they are from Liverpool, then that's fine.
You've apparently decided that you are the gatekeeper of some sort of "sound of Bow-Bells" definition of "Scouser", so perhaps you'd like to share it. Do you mean someone from Merseyside, or Liverpool, or Liverpool City Centre? Someone with the accent? Did your mum have to give birth inside the Liver Building? Some people from the Birkenhead considers themselves the "True Scousers". Are you going to go and call them all idiots, too?
@LiamKav
"Are you going to go and call them all idiots, too?"
No. Just you, because you keep getting things, y'know, wrong. Someone has to set you right. You seem incapable of doing it yourself.
See, post codes sort of make a mess of you yet again. Wirral postcodes are "CH". Which is Cheshire. But Wirral is in the county of Merseyside, not Cheshire.
Towns outside Manchester also appear on maps of, y'know, Manchester. But the citizens in those towns object to being called Mancs.
It's illogical too for you to say "If someone from Aintree wants to say they are from Liverpool, then that's fine" - then ignore the fact that Burnham has said he's not a Scouser, which, given your weird mindset, is also "fine" too.
Aintree is not "technically" in the Borough of Sefton......It IS in the Borough of Sefton. Therefore, not in Liverpool.
If you're going to try to make a contribution you might at least try to get your facts right. But that does seem far from your objective, given some of your decidedly, y'know, weird and illogical posts.
You seem weirdly obsessed with regional nicknames being defined by strict and arbitary geographical boundaries. Are you literally saying that someone from one side of a road can be a Scouser, and someone from the other side can't be because a planning board has decided exactly where the boundaries end? Do you think they did a poll of "are you a scouser", and then made everyone move to a different postcode if they said "no"? If the metropolitan borough of Liverpool expands, does that convert people from non-Scouse to Scousers like some kind of Genesis Wave washing over them? You still haven't given your definition of "Scouser", but considering how you avoided arguments on the other comments section, I'm not surprised. Your other thread was full of "No True Scotsman" fallacies.
"Towns outside Manchester also appear on maps of, y'know, Manchester. But the citizens in those towns object to being called Mancs."
What's your point? Lots of people living in suburbs don't like saying that they live in an area named after a city. Lots do. Or are you seriously saying that no-one who lives in Aintree would ever self-identify as a Liverpudlian? Aintree Racecourse itself seems to have no problem identifying as a Liverpool institution. Maybe you should write them an email telling them that they're wrong?
'It's illogical too for you to say "If someone from Aintree wants to say they are from Liverpool, then that's fine" - then ignore the fact that Burnham has said he's not a Scouser, which, given your weird mindset, is also "fine" too.'
Your agument is a complete non-sequitor. Burnham saying he's not a Scouser has nothing to do with whether people from Aintree can call themselves Scousers or not. All it means that Andy Burnham has defined himself as "Not A Scouser". And I wasn't ignoring it. As I stated quite plainly above, I did not know whether he considered himself a Scouser or not, as I haven't been able to find a quote on it. If he did it's his prerogative, but has no bearing on anyone else from the area.
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