Guido Fawked - Gardiner China Smear BUSTED

Pickings seem a little thin for the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog at present: apart from dredging up every last scrap of Corbyn bashing material they can find, and selective spinning of the increasingly bad Brexit news in order to pretend that everything is going wonderfully, they have been reduced to indulging in the most blatant hypocrisy in order to get their message out there.

This paucity of, well, just about anything credible has resulted in today’s lame attack on Labour MP Barry Gardiner, whose presence anywhere is A Very Bad Thing because he is well able to deal with anything the most hostile of interviewer can throw at him, and he is allied to Jezza. “‘Beijing Barry’ Takes £43,000 From China-Linked Firm” is the headline.

So what is this alleged link to China? “Barry Gardiner is still pocketing tens of thousands of pounds from a law firm whose head is linked to the Chinese regime. New figures show the Shadow International Trade Secretary has accepted £43,500 from Christine Lee & Co so far this year”. Yes, but what is this alleged link to China?

“Christine Lee describes herself as a ‘legal adviser to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the UK’ and ‘legal adviser to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council’ in China”. So the Chinese Embassy is a client of hers. Much as any other client of any other lawyer. Big intercoursing deal.

Would Sir like to actually pony up a scrap of relevant evidence? “Gardiner’s current brief concerns international trade with China. He was a vocal advocate of the Hinkley Point power station deal, which involved a Chinese state-backed firm. Both the donations and employing Christine Lee’s son are allowed under parliamentary rules”. So nothing beyond a nudge and wink. In other words, sweet sod all.

Barry Gardiner

And while the Fawkes massive is trying desperately to smear Gardiner on the basis of next to nothing, the current issue of Private Eye magazine (#1470, available at all good news outlets) tells of MPs taking freebies from the actual Chinese Communist Party.

As Lord Gnome’s mighty organ has told, “According to the latest register of MPs’ interests, Tories Bim Afolami, Oliver Letwin, Richard Graham and Victoria Prentis went to the UK-China Leadership Forum in Beijing last month, with an added trip to Wuhan, thanks to funding from the ‘International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party’”.

The Eye notes that “While the likes of Treasury minister Liz Truss call Jeremy Corbyn’s rhetoric ‘crypto-communist’ on Twitter, it’s more than a bit awkward that four Tory MPs have each received at least £2,000-worth of freebies from, among others, an actual, literal Communist Party - not a ‘ctypto’ one”.

And it’s so awkward for The Great Guido that the Fawkes blog doesn’t mention this at all. Why that may be is all too obvious: it would make their smear of Barry Gardiner look even more amateurish than it does already. Also, not that the Fawkes rabble is partisan, you understand, but they just don’t do that kind of exposé. Their real bosses wouldn’t like it.

More double standards duly exposed. Another fine mess, once again.