Labour Hit Jobs - Just Fawk Off

Putting tribalism to one side is a concept that some find difficult to talk about, while others find it yet more difficult to do. So while many on the left try and keep their criticism of alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his pals constructive - like reminding Chancellor Rishi Sunak that he still hasn’t done nearly enough to help the self-employed get through the Covid-19 downturn - those on the right just keep on going.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan ...

And when we talk about those on the right just keeping on going, that inevitably brings us to the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, whose nasty little snipe at Labour chair Ian Lavery, which Zelo Street covered yesterday, was not the first such excursion. Worse, as was seen only this morning, it was not the last.

As Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah discovered, The Great Guido was spreading misinformation on a more general level last week, telling readers “MPs Given Coronavirus Expense Boost” and going on to claim “MPs have also been informed that their monthly credit card limit has been increased to £10,000 and told their cards will not be suspended if they can’t reconcile payments on time. Not a good look when the Government is failing to reassure ordinary families their finances will be supported during the pandemic”.

... and the less than totally upstanding Great Guido

That this was some kind of personal credit card was news to Ms Onwurah. “This is not a 'personal' card. It’s for office expenses. Currently being used to buy video conferencing facilities to keep in touch with constituents, & computer equipment so staff can work from home, etc. It is wrong to imply this is for personal support”.

But then came the Lavery smear, and now has come - before being hastily deleted - a really nasty dig at deputy leadership contender Rosena Allin-Khan, who you can tell as she’s a doctor. The Tweet signalling malicious intent came from the Media Guido account, and bore the style of Staines himself - although it could have been one of his gofers.

This is what it claimed: “This morning I was contemplating asking why Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (also the MP for Tooting) felt it necessary to take a Daily Mirror photographer to the A&E in which she is working. Decided against doing a piece. Because, in my judgment, ‘now is not the time’”. That’s very Mafioso of The Great Man (Dr Allin-Khan has returned to the NHS during the Coronavirus pandemic, and been praised for doing so).

She put the Fawkes massive straight. “The photos were taken 2 years ago, after the Mirror wanted to run a piece, I was actually off-shift and there was no disruption to the A&E. But don’t let that get in the way of your clickbait, gutter journalism”. The Media Guido Tweet was deleted. This is not surprising: there are grounds for a defamation action there.

Dr Allin-Khan appeared to have taken this on board when she added “The tweet by [Media Guido] has been deleted. I don’t need an apology but they could make a donation towards the St George’s Hospital charity" (link HERE). Well, how about it, O Great Guido? The clear suggestion was that she took a photographer into an A&E very recently - and, as she didn’t, the Fawkes rabble should at a very minimum say sorry.

What is worst, of course, is the inference that it is in Staines’ gift to decide on the severity of punishment beatings, as if he is some kind of real-world mafioso. Which, as a close associate of the Murdoch press, he probably is. Say sorry and open your wallet.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet5

[The Legalballs Fund has now closed]