Europe: Gays For Brexit

Guido Fawkes - a man whose knowledge of gay culture begins and ends with Village People.

'I'm gonna start a group for gay men who support Brexit.'
'Oh. What you gonna call it?'
'Out & Proud!'
''Brilliant! Pub?'
'Pub.'

Tory Sex Scandal: Who's Who?

The latest revelations in this morning’s Telegraph allege that a 22 year-old activist woke up in a Tory MP’s bed with no memory of the night before. One MP is threatening an injunction, and at least three others have been accused of inappropriately having sexual relations with young volunteers on Mark Clarke’s infamous RoadTrip campaigns. 

This is Guido’s handy flowchart of who has been bonking whom. It is by no means complete. If you woke up naked next to a Tory MP – or indeed are a Tory MP who woke up naked next to Mark Clarke – and can’t remember the night before, call Guido’s helpline on 0709 284 0531…

Guido Fawkes.

What larks!

Someone's said this could be like an advent calender, so I won't bore you with that one again.

PS With hindsight this early Telegraph profile of MC, Forget Tory Boy Conservatives Are Now Cool, is 'totes hilair'.

It also contains this gem; "When I told my mum I was joining the Conservatives 10 years ago, she said, 'Oh God, it would have been easier if you'd told me you were gay.' But that's not the case any more."

PPS Not much on Elliott Johnson's still live Twitter account to suggest he was gay, bar a light silly (gay-mocking?) joke last xmas...

Lord Browne: Twit

Guido Fawkes.

Liking porn is pretty normal for a man - can you imagine what Fatboy Fawkes Googles? - being a colossal corporate crook or a right-wing scumbag blobby blogger is not.

Matthew Parris: Amateur Trolls

Hard to know whether it’s worth bothering to assess a policy that obviously isn’t seriously happening, or likely to. But on the basis that we even give a second glance to the idiotic initiatives that ministers keep spraying out to seize the “news initiative”, consider the latest, from the justice secretary. Chris Grayling says he’ll quadruple penalties for those who subject others online to “sexually offensive, verbally abusive or threatening material”.

I get (and ignore) this kind of online abuse all the time. Here’s a selection of what I’ve read about myself recently on the Guido Fawkes website . . .

“Forget Parris. Sodomites aren’t that big a f***ing deal anyway.”

“I’d sooner be a working class pleb than one of Matthew Parris’ bent brigade. Shut that door! Then f*** off!”

“Parris is clearly demonstrating the affect of dissolute living and the long-term adverse symptomatology of limp-wristed empathising.”

By contrast, “Bromley Polecat” on Conservative Home is positively genteel, attributing my opinions on Ukip to the bitterness of a homosexual affronted by Tory members’ rejection of gay marriage.

These people — “trolls” as they are known — are paper tigers. I wouldn’t in a million years think their nonsense worth reporting to the police. I enjoy invective. What are we coming to if we think this kind of flotsam should be dragged expensively through our justice system?

Telegraph.

Matthew quotes Mao!

Alex Wickham: Outed

The sting operation that caused a Tory minister to resign was masterminded by a reporter who works for the Guido Fawkes political blog, Alex Wickham (who outed himself, see Zelo Street).

He first offered his story about Brooks Newmark's explicit Twitter exchanges with a "Tory PR girl" to the Sun on Sunday because it publishes the Guido Fawkes diary, to which he contributes.

But the Sun rejected the chance to run the "investigation". Its senior executives, who include the former Press Complaints Commission director Stig Abell, thought there were unjustifiable elements to the story.

Wickham then approached the Mail on Sunday's political editor, Simon Walters. He and his editor, Geordie Greig, did not take long to reject it out of hand.

Like the Sun, the MoS was concerned about the methodology employed to obtain the story, believing that it amounted to entrapment and also involved a fishing expedition.

Wickham was luckier with his third choice, the Sunday Mirror. Now it is that paper taking the heat for running the story rejected by the other two. It is the subject of complaints to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) and to the police...

He has previously aired concerns about the sexual peccadilloes of MPs. In a piece in The Spectator in January this year, he related how he had been the subject of "unwanted advances from male Tory MPs."

He wrote about predatory gay Tory MPs haunting the Strangers' Bar in Westminster "on the lookout for fresh meat" and then moving on to the Players piano bar in Charing Cross where one Tory - "a headline name" - ran his hand up Wickham's thigh.

Wickham has yet to respond to my attempt to reach him.

Roy Greenslade, Media Guardian.

Mr Newmark has done nothing illegal, but  Fagburn wonders if Mr Wickham's sting was.

What a cnut.

Please feel free to send in compromising photos etc of Alex. 

Sarah Wollaston: Blogger Off

A prominent Tory backbencher has hit out at “aggressive male bloggers” who, she claims, target female MPs.

Sarah Wollaston said that certain parts of the political blogosphere were “quite aggressive in their approach towards women”, particularly when discussing sexual violence or gender. “If you stick your head above the parapet you can expect some quarters of the aggressive blogging community to go for you,” she said.

Dr Wollaston, the Totnes MP, faced a barrage of criticism last week after Nigel Evans, the deputy speaker, was cleared of a string of sex charges. One of the alleged victims was in a Westminster bar with the former GP when an “off-the-cuff” remark about an alleged assault triggered a sequence of events that led to the court case. Dr Wollaston was contacted by a second man — a friend of the first — who alleged that he had been raped.

The MP listened to their complaints and took them to John Bercow, the Speaker, who said that he could not help. She then passed on police contact details to the alleged victims, who contacted the officers, prompting the arrest last year of Mr Evans.

The acquittal of the MP for Ribble Valley led to accusations that Dr Wollaston had put pressure on the accusers to complain. She responded with an article entitled “Why am I being blamed for Nigel Evans sex case?” in which she argued that she had an ethical duty to take their claims seriously...

She singled out The Daily Telegraph writer Dan Hodges, the libertarian blog Guido Fawkes, and the Tory publisher and writer Iain Dale, saying that she had been reading their “really quite aggressive attacks” about her handling of the allegations...

The Times.

Let's have a look at what those really quite aggressive bullying male bloggers wrote...

YEAH! AND ALL THAT!'
Poor lay-out though.
OR  N?

Iain Dale, Conservative Home “She no doubt felt she was exercising a duty of care towards the man who cried rape. She clearly believed his story, but today she must also be asking herself if she acted properly throughout this sorry saga.”

Dan Hodges, The Daily Telegraph “Partly because of her actions, a wholly innocent man had his reputation destroyed and his career ruined and now faces crippling debts to cover the cost of his legal fees”

Paul Staines, Guido Fawkes “Did she, as Evans implies, have an ulterior motive? [She said:] ‘I reject that idea entirely.’ Many of Wollaston’s colleagues disagree...”

NB Out of these three men at least two are gay and two are Tories. Just putting that out there...

Jones/Pierce: Twitter Bitch Fight Of The Week

Via Guido Fawkes.

Hilarious.

The increasingly pious Owen Jones has cried homophobia over some of the comments - but what do you expect from the right-wing cunts who post on there?

And she's been accused of far worse on there...

Jack Dromey: Oops!

Guido Fawkes

A front bench Labour MP is under pressure to explain how he has "favourited" gay porn websites on his Twitter account.

Jack Dromey, the husband of Harriet Harman, the Labour Party deputy leader, has blamed the messages on a "technological mix-up".

In September, the shadow policing minister favourited a message about black porn stars having sex.

When he was challenged Mr Dromey, 65, claimed he had accidentally clicked on the message, which included the name “Paris”, while researching a romantic holiday with his wife, it was reported on political gossip website Guido Fawkes.

However, he was left facing further questions when he favourited a second explicit message last week, which showed a picture of two men engaged in a sex act...

Daily Telegraph.

Have to say Mr Paul Staines - Guido Fawkes - can come across as rather prudish for a self-styled "libertarian".
This story was also picked up with great relish by the Daily Mail.
Like the Telegraph, the Mail's coverage of hardcore gay porn is otherwise usually quite patchy, I've found.

PS The Telegraph reported in September; Nearly 300,000 "attempts to access websites categorised as pornography" were made from computers within Parliament in the last year, official records show.

Bear this statistic in mind next time you hear an MP tut-tutting about Paul Flowers being caught with porn on his council laptop.

And as with Flowers, the reaction of any grown-up here surely should be; and so what if he did?

Owen Jones: Here, There And Everywhere

"I don't believe in the political hijacking, quite frankly, of the deaths of six little kids whose lives were snatched away from them by this monster... The idea [Mick Philpott] is representative of people on benefits is as absurd as claiming Harold Shipman is in anyway representative of doctors, or indeed the case of Steven Seddon last week, now Steve Seddon was jailed for life because he killed his parents in an effort to extort £230,000 of inheritance money - is that in anyway an argument for arguing about the problems of the inheritance system because his motives were financial? Of course they weren't."

Good to see Owen Jones on - as he might say - "cracking" form this week demolishing the Tories and their running dogs on the press's evil attempts to try to link the deaths of the six Philpott children with their attacks on "benefit culture" ie arguing for making yet more welfare cuts. 
Here he is on This Morning with the right-wing bum gravy machine, Guido Fawkes/Paul Staines.
And here he is with the comically posh and patrician AN Wilson on BBC News.
And here's Owen on Channel 4 News. 

And on Radio 4's The World Tonight.
And on LBC Live.
And in The Independent, Philpott Verdict: Blame The Man, Not His Class.
[Edit: And on Sky News on Friday with some Jabba from The Spectator].
As Mr Jones's profile continues to grow, let's hope it all doesn't go to his pretty little head.
We have more than enough journalists who have fallen in love with their celebrity status and act like arseholes, thanks.

Edit: This wasn't meant to mock Owen Jones - sorry if it seemed so.
I'd despair at any radio or TV researcher who didn't get the author of Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class to comment on this story.
My final paragraph was a general comment about how fame and vanity - which is a bit chicken and egg, admittedly - have been the ruin of many other journos.
Regular viewers may know I'm quite the fan of our Owen.

Newsnight: Just Like Eddie

Checking my blog stats at the close of play yesterday, I noticed a small yet intriguing surge towards this old post about Radio 4's Eddie Mair.
But for why?
Eddie - one of Fagburn's most favourite people - had presented Newsnight for the first time last night.
My hunch is that many people having discovered him for the first time, as you would, Googled three little words; "Eddie Mair Gay?"
Like anyone needs to ask.
His relaxed, affable, non-shouty style went down very well, even the usually anti-gaylord Guido Fawkes approved.
Guido reckons Eddie could be being lined up to take over from Paxman permanently.
Let us hope so.
If you want to see why, Eddie Mair is presenting Newsnight again tonight.
Hurrah!

Happy Father's Day: From Coalition 4 Marriage

This charming ad has appeared on a few websites today.
Though it doesn't make it clear, it's a reference to birth certificates in Spain now listing Progenitor A and B instead of mother and father, apparently.
The horror, the horror!
It appears on Guido Fawkes blog with a supportive editorial once again showing that this self-styled "libertarian" has no grasp of libertarianism. 

PS The ASA has rejected complaints against Coalition 4 Marriage's last ad. More during the week as the news is embargoed - though the Telegraph have broken it...

PPS And today's gay marriage op-eds include... Nick Cohen in The Observer, A church fit only for bigots and hypocrites, and in the Sunday Telegraph, Will gay marriage bring on The Rapture? (Or something).

Country Life: Too Many Syllables

Some bullying members of the militant homosexual lobby are on the virtual warpath because Country Life have run an advert for Coalition 4 Marriage.
Many people are leaving complaints on the magazine's Facebook page. 
Good for them - though I can't say I'm particularly arsed about it.
Is anyone surprised Country Life have done this?
This is the third place to my knowledge where C4M has tried to place adverts - and they all show who they see as their natural constituencies.
Guido Fawkes blog has run a banner ad - take a look at any comments section and you'll see most of his readers are really nasty and scarily right-wing.  
I got into a brief Twitter row with editor Paul Staines about this.
He defended his actions by tweeting; "It is an advert by pro-marriage Christians. Not homophobic. I ran adverts for Ken Livingstone. Advertisement <> endorsement."
When asked if he did endorse it, came the reply; "Don't know, don't care. I just count the cash and re-stock the wine cellar."
The Womens' Institute were widely praised for refusing to run an ad for C4M last month.
They used the opposite argument to Mr Fawkes; "As WI Life is the national membership magazine, any promotion of your campaign could be seen as an endorsement... to members. We do also welcome all women to the WI and this campaign could offend many of our members."
Good for them.
The WI are often caricatured as being hilariously Middle England, and I guess C4M may have thought they'd be a shoo-in.
It's instructive and satisfying that that is no longer the case.
And Country Life?
It's the inhouse magazine of Upper England.
Though I can't pretend to read it every week, it's essentially a series of adverts for multi-million pound houses, broken up with advertorial about multi-million pound houses - note the cover above shows Country Life's idea of a smaller country house.
Plus there's a few pictures of posh totty debs, and some doubtlessly positively gripping articles about hunting, shooting, dogging and farming.
Of course Country Life ran the ad!
What do you expect from the Coalition 4 Inbreeding?

Update: Email from Julia Dawson, Complaints Executive, Advertising Standards Authority, on Tuesday, saying the ASA are to investigate complaints that the "70%" claim on the C4M ads is misleading...

Ken Livingstone: Riddle Me This

Did you know Ken Livingstone hates The Gays?
Although in the last thirty years he's almost certainly done more for the LGBT community than any other British politician, apparently he's a fifth columnist who's despised us all along.
I found out this today from some of our tireless and long-standing allies, the Tories.
Late this afternoon the New Statesman published on its website some extracts from a forthcoming interview with Ken Livingstone.
As ever, he is frank and often funny whether talking about Boris Johnson, Margaret Thatcher or Rupert Murdoch.
But the interviewer, Jemima Khan, also brought up his "private life".
A pulled quote reads;

"We [Boris and I] both have five [children]. I can admit to all mine.
"[The public] should be allowed to know everything, except the nature of private relationships - unless there is hypocrisy, like some Tory MP denouncing homosexuality while they are indulging in it."

Pressed by Khan about his use of "Tory MP", Ken responds:

"Well, the Labour ones have all come out... As soon as Blair got in, if you came out as lesbian or gay you immediately got a job. It was wonderful... you just knew the Tory party was riddled with it like everywhere else is."

Fagburn agrees with all that.
But apparently he outed himself as a secret homophobe by using the word "riddled".
Riddlegate - as no-one calls it - seems to have begun around 5pm when Sophy Ridge tweeted one line from the piece - "Ken Livingstone on Tory MPs not being open about being gay: "The Tory party was riddled with it like everywhere else" - and a link to the NS.
Who is Sophy Ridge?
She's a political reporter on Sky News.
Oh, and she used to work for the News of the World - a now defunct tabloid not exactly known for its support for gay rights or the Labour Left.
In fact, Fagburn seems to remember them regularly attacking Livingstone over his support for gay rights.
Things blew up when this was picked up by Guido Fawkes (he gives a nod to Ridge) - a Tory blogger not exactly known for being pro-gay (his readers are often brazenly homophobic - have a look at the comments after the post).

Ken's Gay Gaffe

"With his usual tact Ken has told the New Statesman that he believes the Tory party "used to be riddled with it like everywhere else". What was this it. Gay people?
"There is never much doubt how people feel when they use the expression "riddled", but for the avoidance of that let's see what the dictionary says:

'Riddled: Fill or permeate (someone of something), esp. with something or someone), esp. with something unpleasant or undesirable.'

"Guido has to wonder how this is going to play at the LGBT London for Ken fundraising dinner in March."

You may have noticed the "quote" from Ken is getting shorter and shorter.
According to BBC News; "Angie Bray and Mike Freer, Tory MPs in London, wrote to the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, urging him to ensure Livingstone's remarks were retracted. Bray said: "These are the sort of offensive remarks we hear all too often from Labour's candidate for mayor."
Purely in the interest of balance here are some in-no-way offensive remarks by Boris Johnson; "Slowly Labour is winning the battle it really cares about, the Kulturkampf, adjusting what can be said, and what cannot be said… Homosexuality is to be taught in schools." The Spectator, April 29th, 2000.
"If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog." Friends, Voters, Countrymen, 2001.
A spokesperson for Ken Livingstone said; "Ken is clearly saying the advance of lesbian and gay people into politics is unequivocally a good thing.
"He has fought for equality for gay and lesbian people throughout his life, and the fact they are represented in all major political parties is a sign of the progress that has been made."
All of which is as obvious as rain - unless you're a complete idiot or a right-wing goon with an agenda.
This is the most stupid, hypocritical, irrelevant manufactured outrage Fagburn can remember since the last one.
How ironic that the last part of Ken Livingstone's New Statesman interview reads:

What is your greatest boast?
"That I am still here after 30 years of unremitting media hostility."

Johann Hari: An Apology

"Following an examination by a former editor, Andreas Whittam Smith, Johann Hari, currently suspended as a writer from The Independent, is taking four months unpaid leave of absence from the newspaper, following a two month suspension that began in July. This decision has been made in accordance with Andreas' recommendation that, subject to certain conditions, Johann should be allowed to work again at the paper.
"The report on his conduct is a private one and will not be published, as would be the case with any member of our staff.
"During the next few months Johann will concentrate on a course of journalism, including ethics, in the United States, and will not be writing, tweeting or blogging for any of the group's titles or website.
"The expectation is that on successful completion of his studies, he will return to The Independent. Johann has acknowledged and admits the central accusations made against him, that of embellishment of quotations/plagiarism, and that it was he who used the pseudonym David Rose to attack his critics. Johann has also agreed to return the Orwell Prize awarded to him in 2008."

Statement From The Independent.

A Personal Apology by Johann Hari in The Independent.

'Independent columnist apologises for plagiarism' - The Independent.

Comment on L'Affaire Hari on the New Statesman blog.

Some stupid homophobic comments on Guido Fawkes blog.

"Imperfect ourselves, we must be tender towards others and be slow to impute motives" - Some bald bloke called Gandhi.
Part of me feels quite sorry for Mr Hari - we all fuck up occasionally, and none of us are saints.
You can bet that many of the journalists gloating over this have done far worse things ethically.
His "apology" seems rather self-serving - how can you give back an award that's been taken off you?
And Hari hasn't apologised for his real crime; telling lies about Iraq in the run-up to the last war.
Ho-hum...

[On re-reading this, it's a bit wet - and I'm a bit annoyed by the circlejerkery on Twitter tonight. So to clarify; what he did was wrong, he was a serial offender, and much of it wasn't even mentioned in The Independent case. Blah blah blah etc. Good day!].

Update: Toby Young picks some gaping holes in Hari's "apology" - as does Cristina Odone.

Guido Fawkes: Bring Back Hanging!

Great to see Guido Fawkes one-mad-man campaign to get Parliament to restore the death penalty is gathering momentum.
Admittedly it's all a completely pointless exercise as it's just an e-petition on some stupid website that David Cameron set up as a populist gesture and it won't lead to a vote, but quite frankly that's all by-the-by.
You might think one of Britain's leading political bloggers might have an inkling how these things work, but there you go.
Anyway, whatever, Fagburn thinks it's a great idea.
Hanging is banging!
Let's do it.
And why stop there?
Next let's:

1. Recriminalise homosexuality.

2. Take the vote away from the womenfolk.

3. Bring back bearbaiting.

4. And slavery.

And remember: It's the only language we understand.

Johann Hari: Epic Fail

The August issue of Attitude has just come out.
Its star columnist, Johann Hari - who's normally bigged-up on the cover - is noticable by his absence.
Editor Matthew Todd had been - quite nobley, I think - defending Hari on Twitter.
But it's come out that Todd is one of the many journalists that Hari has nicked quotes from, so I'm not sure where they stand now (I have asked).
Others have turned on Hari.
Posters like the one above have supposedly been put up in the newsroom of The Independent - the paper has now suspended him for two months.
Some of the most serious allegations have come from former colleagues at the New Statesman, where he worked prior to joining The Indy.
Further, there are rumours that the reason why Hari was dropped both as a GQ contributor and as editor of Cambridge University's Varsity magazine was his journalistic flights of fancy.
Self-styled right-wing libertarian blogger Guido Fawkes has really been fanning the flames on this story - and some have argued that this is at heart a right-wing smear campaign.
This is clearly nonsense* - not least of which because Hari is hardly "left-wing".
Not only have most of the most damaging revelations come from New Statesman contributors, but arguably the most sustained and long-running critique of Hari's journalism has come from the - excellent - left-wing website, Media Lens.
Here is Noam Chomsky on Hari's "lies", "total ignorance" and "subservience... to power".
Presciently, writing to Media Lens in 2003, Chomsky concludes by recommending that Johann Hari should "try the experiment of literacy instead of repeating gossip he's heard somewhere."
Many have remarked how ironic/fitting it is that this scandal has been unravelling in the shadow of Hackgate.
Like the phone hacking story, when it began it seemed to centre on quite minor transgressions - the odd borrowed quote or bit of "creative writing" aren't great crimes in the general scheme of things.
But as with Hackgate, every week seems to bring more damning evidence of serious and serial ethical failure.
About which we knew.
For one example;
Johann Hari invented Iraqis who were supposedly asking for the US/UK to invade [All links to Johann Hari's website/archive have now been deleted - which says much].
Fuck this lying cheerleader of death.
The latest issue of Private Eye contains one of the most serious by far; a 2007 report from the Central African Republic so mendacious it "appalled" the charity that took him out there so much they complained to The Independent's editor.
And yet nothing was done.
Whatever next?

* It is worth noting though how many comments after Guido Fawkes posts show the most repugnant homophobia.

Tatler: Bachelors, Eligible & Confirmed

Fagburn is not an avid reader of top peoples' magazine Tatler, so thanks to Guido Fawkes for drawing my attention to their list, Top Ten Eligible Bachelors 2010.
In at Number 8 is Christopher Myers.
"Close friend of Foreign Secretary William Hague. Ask for a double, not two singles. Good calves."
Guido waspishly comments about this eligible bachelor; "Presumably going for the Lifetime Achievement Award..."

William Hague: Guido Fawkes Plot Thickens

'"The rise of the internet has posed a new challenge to politicians," thundered Andrew Pierce in the Daily Mail after William Hague was forced to deny innuendo about his sharing a hootel room with a 25 year-old male aide."
"It is unregulated and bloggers know they are safe from injunction or libel writ. Many hide behind anonymity including Guido Fawkes - who has fuelled the latest smears and who does not even have the courage to write under his own name, Paul Staines."
Quite rich, given that the Mail's newsdesk had been in constant telephone contact with Staines thrpughout the week, following up every item he published on the topic - one story, on 25 August, appearing under the brave byline of "Daily Mail reporter".
Staines himself got the room-share story from a journalist on a national paper who had witnessed the breakfast behaviour of the pair at a Birmingham hotel during the election campaign, and tried (and failed) to get a story about it into their own pages. Needless to say, the paper in question enthusiastically followed up the "internet rumours" after Staines published them.'

Private Eye, No. 1271, 17-30 September 2010.

Very interesting, though for the record Fagburn believes The Daily Mail was the first to publish the whispers about William Hague and Chris Myers.

Cabinet Rumour: Who's Next?

"A Cabinet minister is ready to take legal action to halt a series of increasingly lurid but baseless rumours sweeping Westminster over his sexuality, The Daily Telegraph has learnt."
Has it? Who?
No, not Crispin Blunt, he came out this afternoon.
"The minister, who is married, has been accused of having an affair with a Whitehall official and of having a long-term relationship with a journalist. He has strongly denied the allegations. Senior Downing Street aides are braced this weekend for “suggestive” reports to begin surfacing over the Cabinet minister’s private life.
"Friends of the minister have warned that he will not hesitate to take “action” should unfounded allegations that he is homosexual, which are circulating on the internet, appear in mainstream media."
Who on Jupiter can they mean?
Apropos of nothing - there's a fun new caption competition on Guido Fawkes blog today.
What larks!

William Hague: Just Asking What?

Guido Fawkes is asking some probing questions about William Hague.
"Seems odd that young Christopher Myers (25) should go from driving William Hague (49) around his constituency during elections, where according to the Mirror, “although he never worked at Tory HQ in London… they became close during campaigns”, to become his third Special Adviser at the Foreign Office..."