Guido Fawked - Graceless Gove Grovel

As if it were not already screamingly obvious that the Murdoch mafiosi had decided to take advantage of any vacancy at the top of Government to insert their own placeman, the desperate scramble to cover for the ineptitude of Michael “Oiky” Gove after he fouled up on The Andy Marr Show (tm) yesterday morning proves it. The firing up of the corporate spin machine also shows who is under the Murdoch empire’s control.

Drinks bill courtesy of News UK

The Sun’s finest - that would be, for some value of “finest” - gave the game away at the start. The paper’s non-bullying political editor Tom Newton Dunn was at first honest, telling “Marr: ‘What was Zaghari-Ratcliffe doing in Iran? Gove: ‘I don't know’ …  Teheran [sic] will like this. This should have been the easiest question for him to answer all morning”. His deputy Steve Hawkes was more immediately on-message.

TND Tweeting before application of spin ...

“Scorching defence of Boris from Michael Gove - let's not play Iran's game, they are the serial abuser, principle state sponsor of terrorism” he blustered. Yeah, we’re a democracy and therefore we can’t be wrong. Bullshit. In whose jail is Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe languishing right now? We want her out, we play the game, however distasteful it might be. Even Sun readers can grasp that. But by now, Newton Dunn had got the message.

... his deputy shows the approved Murdoch line ...

“Gove (and Boris) should not be giving Teheran more ammunition, but his essential point is right: cruel regime hardliners are why Zaghari-Ratcliffe is in jail”. What he meant to say, your Majesty Rupe, was that it was Iran’s fault and not Gove’s. And this was exactly the line trotted out by the supposedly independent new media force that is the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog.

... and so we have TND after application of spin

As soon as Gove had fouled up - telling Marr that he didn’t know what Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing in Iran, when even his pal Bozza had admitted that she was on holiday - the Fawkes blog’s newly anointed teaboy Alex “Billy Liar” Wickham was off and running. “Bang on from Gove, who gave Marr a passionate defence of Boris in the wake of increasingly hysterical point-scoring by his enemies” he whined.

There was more. “Look at those losing their minds about Boris this week: [edited out to prevent excessive boredom]. They are ignoring that Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin’s husband, has said: ‘It’s not in Nazanin’s interests to have the Foreign Secretary battling for his job’. And yet Boris’ political enemies are cynically trying to make the whole story about his career rather than Nazanin”. No, it was about Gove fouling up. On top of Bozza fouling up.

And sure enough, today’s Sun editorial follows exactly the same line: “We must remember that the real villain of the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe case is the Iranian government - not our ministers Boris Johnson or Michael Gove … Those saying Boris should go - which doesn’t include Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe or her husband - are missing the point”. Wrong.

No-one is missing the point, which is, apart from confirming The Great Guido as a Murdoch asset, that the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker will do anything to take the heat off Michael Gove, no matter how clueless and inept he appears to the public.

The Fawkes rabble once again gives the game away. They are in lockstep with their masters at the Murdoch press, at Rebekah Brooks’ beck and call. Another fine mess.