Friday
16Feb2007
The desperate thrashings of a vanquished reputation
Friday, February 16, 2007 at 12:55PM
I’m on holiday from tomorrow. I’ll be online daily, but I’m sure I’ll fall behind reading other people’s blogs, and I’ll also be unable to keep up with the ongoing Guido narrative. Although to be honest, the way I feel, this is probably a blessing. To tie-up the events nicely, Sunny has brilliantly summed up over on Pickled Politics, the way the blatant hypocrisy of the Guido ‘brand’ has been exposed.
Paul Staines created a libertarian hero, Guido Fawkes, who supposedly fights sleaze and elitism wherever it is found. But in contrast, the last few days have proved, Paul is nothing but a charlatan and his creation nothing put a political device. The weekend’s events have thrown the political blogosphere into a flux, with the supposedly anti-establishment, libertarian blogger Paul Staines; falling back on the very establishment he scorns, to censor the freedom of speech and enquiry of those who question his motives and past.
I, like Sunny, was prepared to give Staines the benefit of the doubt. Paul had provided what he claimed was a retraction, and had agreed to give Sunny his side of the story (regarding the 1986 Guardian article that Staines has suppressed) in an interview. Sunny for his part had agreed to sit on the story until Paul could make his case. However, as Sunny explains, Paul refused to answer questions regarding the article and the incidents within. What has Paul Staines got to hide?
I don’t want to see Guido topple over this. I have no axe to grind other than to demand transparency and credibility in what we do. I’m not involved in party politics, and don’t consider this site to be exclusively a political blog, but I will resist the use of the blogosphere to covertly push a political agenda: attacking one side of the debate, under the guise of independent political activism.
Paul is not bound to any standards of sorts, but when one saddles the UK political blogosphere and rides a pious crusade against political sleeze, you can expect to be called to account when some of your grandiose claims are found to be nothing more than gutless self-promotion and sad 1980’s era partisan politics. Credibility, Mr. Staines, is mortally dependent on full disclosure, consistency, and independence.
Staines has sought to rewrite the events of last weekend, and subsequently declined to publish my comment to the post, as reproduced below: -
Claims that these events are a coordinated Brownite attack, motivated by a fear that Guido is close to bringing down Brown’s leadership bid, are nonsense. No love is lost for Gordon Brown on this blog. The claims represent the desperate thrashings of a vanquished reputation.
More on the story here:
Unity
Clive
Tim
Justin
Obsolete
BSSC World
Not Saussure
politicalhackuk
Paul Staines created a libertarian hero, Guido Fawkes, who supposedly fights sleaze and elitism wherever it is found. But in contrast, the last few days have proved, Paul is nothing but a charlatan and his creation nothing put a political device. The weekend’s events have thrown the political blogosphere into a flux, with the supposedly anti-establishment, libertarian blogger Paul Staines; falling back on the very establishment he scorns, to censor the freedom of speech and enquiry of those who question his motives and past.
I, like Sunny, was prepared to give Staines the benefit of the doubt. Paul had provided what he claimed was a retraction, and had agreed to give Sunny his side of the story (regarding the 1986 Guardian article that Staines has suppressed) in an interview. Sunny for his part had agreed to sit on the story until Paul could make his case. However, as Sunny explains, Paul refused to answer questions regarding the article and the incidents within. What has Paul Staines got to hide?
I don’t want to see Guido topple over this. I have no axe to grind other than to demand transparency and credibility in what we do. I’m not involved in party politics, and don’t consider this site to be exclusively a political blog, but I will resist the use of the blogosphere to covertly push a political agenda: attacking one side of the debate, under the guise of independent political activism.
Paul is not bound to any standards of sorts, but when one saddles the UK political blogosphere and rides a pious crusade against political sleeze, you can expect to be called to account when some of your grandiose claims are found to be nothing more than gutless self-promotion and sad 1980’s era partisan politics. Credibility, Mr. Staines, is mortally dependent on full disclosure, consistency, and independence.
Staines has sought to rewrite the events of last weekend, and subsequently declined to publish my comment to the post, as reproduced below: -
Reaganites themselves would be proud of that rewriting of recent history.
You're an artist Guido.
:o)
Claims that these events are a coordinated Brownite attack, motivated by a fear that Guido is close to bringing down Brown’s leadership bid, are nonsense. No love is lost for Gordon Brown on this blog. The claims represent the desperate thrashings of a vanquished reputation.
More on the story here:
Unity
Clive
Tim
Justin
Obsolete
BSSC World
Not Saussure
politicalhackuk
Reader Comments (12)
Nicely put.
Interestingly, someone commented on my site yesterday with a link to 'that article'. So, for all the posturing and bullying, it's still out there on at least one site for anyone to see. But for reasons of self protection, I've pulled the comment (I feel a bit spineless for doing so, but simply don't understand the legal complexities).
Juve,
No you're right to pull it. If people want to find it they will.
I think the biggest surprise is how badly Paul has played his innings. With the nature of the Guido site, it astonished me that he resorted to legal threats over a simple delve into his past. Ok, things may or may not be right in the article, but if Paul had come out and played a straight bat, I’m sure he would have come through with his credibility intact.
tyger.
Staines is driven by by both greed and fear.
as an aside, I am disppointed that Tim has chosen to withdraw stuff from his site re entry for Staines from Friends Reunited. Perhaps someone would be good enough to present it on this blog.
In fact, with his readership, I think he would have only grown in stature.
It's a classic case of information that's rendered much more interesting and damaging when banned. He should have ridden it out.
My comment on Guido's Sith post also hasn't appeared, unsurprisingly.
I don't know how Tom Watson got involved in the whole thing, whether he was the first to post the 1986 Grauniad article or whether he simply copied it from one of the blogs that briefly posted it, but the fact that he did has meant that both Guido and Dale have been able to spin this as Brownite motivated.
It's nonsense of course, but why Watson felt he had to jump in has meant that the whole thing can be more easily dismissed.
Trafficone.
I'm sure Tim has his reasons.
septicisle,
Guido is definitely censoring comments, but it's his blog, so it's up to him.
I don't think Tom did anymore than report on it. Tom's role has been exaggerated and I think there was a motive behind Guido involving Tom in the legalities.
Anyway dudes. Off to bed soon. Up at one in the morning.
Keep an eye out for posts from Estonia over the next week.
Hope you have a good holiday.
Fank-u Caroline. :)
Well said tyger. the positive for me is it has motivated me to read a number of blogs i was unaware of but am much umpressed with (this being one of them). Im sure I'm not alone.
oops :roll: - the guido nonsense has motivated me,
and I am impressed not umpressed
The plot thickens.