Guido Fawkes (website)

Guido Fawkes is a conservative politics news website published by Anglo-Irish political blogger Paul Staines.[2]

Guido Fawkes
Type of site
Blog
EditorsPaul Staines
URLwww.order-order.com
Alexa rank 188,985 (July 2020)[1]
Launched2004
Current statusActive

History

In September 2004 Staines began writing an anonymous blog about British politics, under the name of Guido Fawkes, an alternative name of Guy Fawkes, one of the group that plotted to blow up the Palace of Westminster in 1605.[3] In February 2005 the online version of The Guardian reported that the Fawkes blog shared a fax number with Staines.[4] Although he subsequently refused to confirm the links, further media coverage continued to name Staines as Fawkes until the airing of a BBC Radio 4 documentary[5] about him on 10 February 2007, which gave a fairly comprehensive history and background, and prompted his blog post "So Much For Anonymity".[6]

In 2005 Staines's blog was voted the best in the Political Commentary category of The Backbencher Political Weblog Awards, run by The Guardian. This was an online poll linked to the Guido Fawkes site, and not a poll of Guardian readers specifically.[7] In May 2006, Staines (as Guido Fawkes) co-authored a book with Iain Dale, which was critical of the Labour Party's practices since taking office in 1997.[8]

In April 2006 Staines was one of numerous bloggers subject to an injunction[9] from News International for publishing a picture of undercover journalist Mazher Mahmood. Staines agreed to publish[10] the photo if 10 other bloggers would do so.[11] The picture remained on Staines's site, and subsequently, following legal action from George Galloway, the photo was released into the public domain.

Staines reported the allegation that John Prescott was having an extramarital affair with an MP, and named the woman in question, saying that such rumours had long been shared among Westminster journalists, but that he was being less hypocritical and breaking the clique by refusing to cover up such stories.[12] The coverage of the Prescott affair drew considerable extra traffic to Staines's blog.[13]

He was named at number 36 in the "Top 50 newsmakers of 2006" in The Independent,[14] for his blog, and his role in the Prescott scandal in particular. In 2011 GQ ranked him and co-author Harry Cole jointly at number 28 in the magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential Men in Britain.[15]

Staines encourages readers to forward political documents and information, which he publishes on his blog. One such leak was a strategy document for the Peter Hain for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party campaign. This leak caused embarrassment to Hain's campaign,[16] as it included information on MPs who had not gone public with their support, as well as others who were supposed to be independent.

Tottywatch[17] is an irregular feature that comprises pictures of attendees at political events. Although the pictures are of both men and women, the majority are of attractive young women.

Staines' wife is referred to as Mrs Fawkes and his daughters as Miss Fawkes and Ms Fawkes.

Monday cartoon

At the start of every week, the site features a cartoon by cartoonist and creator Rich Johnston. These satirical sketches usually reflect on recent news showing politicians, celebrities or media personalities.[18]

Caption contest

A caption contest is held every Friday featuring a politician or celebrity that has been highlighted in a recent article.[19]

Weekly readership

Every Saturday, the website posts weekly visitor numbers and the top seven most read stories of the week. In the week ending 4 July 2020, the website had 212,667 visitors that visited 719,613 times, viewing 1,206,276 pages.[20] The highest number of weekly visitors to the site came in the week ending 30 November 2019, in the run-up to the 2019 United Kingdom general election. The website had 450,436 visitors that visited 1,306,506 times, viewing 2,039,625 pages.[21]

Campaign against The Lobby

In November 2009, Guido Fawkes reported that the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson Simon Lewis and the Chairperson of The Lobby, Jean Eaglesham would review the current briefings system “in light of the changes in the reporting of the work of government in an increasingly fast-moving and on-line media world”. The article argued for government briefings to be televised.[22] In March 2014, Guido Fawkes attacked The Lobby after it was revealed that the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson, Jean-Christophe Gray, was not asked a single question at the day’s government briefings. The article went on to describe the Lobby as a self-selecting privileged cartel.[23] On 21 January 2020, Guido Fawkes reported that urgent clarification was sought from Lobby journalists over whether the Number 10 briefing was only for The Lobby or not. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson James Slack confirmed that The Lobby’s rules are determined by The Lobby for The Lobby members. A member of The Lobby had also complained that the Guido Fawkes site had named the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson, which isn’t standard practice for Lobby journalists.[24]

On 23 January 2020, Guido Fawkes reported a victory against The Lobby. Chairman of The Lobby, Christopher Hope, announced that as Guido Fawkes would be covering the Government briefings live on Twitter, members of the Lobby would also be permitted.[25] Furthermore, on 2 July 2020, the website reported another victory after 10 Downing Street announced future Government briefings would be televised.[26] Editor, Paul Staines told Press Gazette "he was happy but surprised" and "journalists at closed briefings are gatekeepers with their own agenda who interpret and filter the answers so the public gets them secondhand".[27]

Exposes

Smith Institute allegations

Staines has made a number of posts on his blog relating to the Smith Institute, a charitable thinktank set up in memory of former Labour leader John Smith, which he alleged to have engaged in party political activities (forbidden under charity law) and links to Gordon Brown. These complaints led on 1 February 2007 to a formal investigation by the Charity Commission.[28] The Commission threatened him with contempt of court proceedings if he did not release any documents, obtained from whistleblowers, relating to political activities by the Smith Institute.[29] Staines has stated on his blog that he intends to protect his anonymous sources,[30] which has occasioned speculation that no documents or proof of Staines' allegations actually exist.

Peter Hain

Staines has been credited with being the first blogger to "take the scalp" of a serving British minister, following the resignation for a period of well over a year of Peter Hain from the offices of Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales in January 2008.[31][32][33]

Smeargate affair

Over the weekend of 11–12 April 2009, Staines exposed in his blog that a series of e-mails had been prepared by Damian McBride, a political adviser working at 10 Downing Street, smearing a number of Conservative MPs which had been sent to Derek Draper for consideration for publication on the Red Rag blogsite.[34] This led to the resignation of McBride and expressions of regret to the MPs concerned from the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.[35] Staines provided copies of these emails to the News of the World and The Sunday Times and states that, contrary to the comments of his detractors, he did not receive any payments for this.[36]

His success in the McBride affair has occasioned serious criticism from him of the UK lobby correspondent system, which he believes has succumbed to the ethos of political spin.[37]

Leveson Inquiry
Main article: Leveson Inquiry

In late November 2011 Staines posted on his Guido Fawkes blog the Leveson Inquiry pre-submission of journalist and former Labour Party press secretary Alastair Campbell. All pre-submissions are given under strict and full confidentiality, and all core participants – including victims, the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service – are also signatories. Staines stated that he had obtained the submission legally. Lord Justice Leveson immediately called him to the inquiry to make a statement under cross-examination.[38]

Staines gave written evidence denying any fault or breach of the Inquiry Act. At the start of his oral evidence to the Inquiry, Campbell admitted sending his evidence to "two or three journalists" and some friends. The order for Staines to appear was dropped.

In late December 2011 Staines was invited to give further evidence.[39]

Associated People
  • Paul Staines is the founder and editor-in-chief of Guido. While at college, Staines was a member of the Federation of Conservative Students, writing that the group “spoke a language I could understand – Thatcher on drugs … anti-Communist, anti-Wet and mainly reactionary”. After helping to organise illegal raves and working as a hedge fund manager, Staines set up the political blog in his late thirties to “make mischief at the expense of politicians”. He is a “committed Brexiteer,” according to former Guardian correspondent Anne Perkins, and his politics are “right wing, free market”.[40]
  • Tom Harwood, who joined Guido in 2018, is the website’s senior reporter and has also written for ConservativeHome, the Spectator, and the Telegraph, among others. While studying politics at Durham University, Harwood was chairman of the national student arm of the official Vote Leave campaign in 2015-16, worked as a parliamentary assistant in the House of Commons during a summer 2016 internship, and was an intern at Students for Liberty in 2017 in Washington D.C. The group is funded by Charles Koch of Koch Industries, the largest private energy company in the United States. In 2019 LBC listed Harwood as one of the 100 most influential Conservatives in the UK.[41]
  • Christian Calgie has been a reporter at Guido since 2019. He graduated with a degree in British Politics and Legislative Studies from the University of Hull in 2019 where he was editor of The Tab Hull student news site and worked as a parliamentary aide for Conservative MP and current Minister for International Trade Ranil Jayawardena. Before joining Guido, Calgie worked on the Rory For Leader campaign to elect Rory Stewart as Leader of the Conservative Party.[42]

People who have worked for the Guido Fawkes website in the past include:

  • Hugh Bennett. Bennet, formerly News Editor at Guido left the website in 2019 to work as a special advisor for the Conservative Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg to help “get Brexit through the commons”, according to a post on the Guido website. In February 2020, Bennett moved to work at Number 10's EU negotiating unit.[43]
  • Harry Cole was the Westminster bureau chief and second in command at Guido before moving to work at the Sun as Westminster correspondent in 2015, and then deputy political editor of the Mail on Sunday in 2018. In July 2020 he became political editor of The Sun.[44]
  • Ross Kempsell. Kempsell worked as chief reporter at Guido before working as a special advisor at Number 10 under Prime Minister Boris to focus on reform of Whitehall and the public sector. In the Summer of 2020 he became a special correspondent at Times Radio.[45]
  • Alex Wickham was a news editor at Guido before joining Buzzfeed UK in 2018 as a senior political correspondent. In June 2020, Politico revealed that Wickham would be taking over as editor of the site’s London Playbook political newsletter.[46]
  • Jim Waterson was an intern at Guido Fawkes. Subsequently became BuzzFeed's political editor and then the media editor at the Guardian.[47]

Criticism and controversy

Staines has been criticised for his approach to blogging. He often criticises the mainstream media, claiming that they are too close to the political establishment and that they also keep internal secrets about political scandals from the public. When allegations about John Prescott's private life appeared, Staines wrote that "You can tell it is a big story because Nick Robinson is ignoring it". Robinson responded via his own blog,[48] accusing Staines of having a political agenda to damage the government. These criticisms were echoed by Peter Wilby, in the New Statesman, who suggested that Staines's claims to have made the news on Prescott were unfounded, as the story had previously been covered in The Times, and that Staines' contribution to the debate was persistent implications of scandal without supporting evidence.[49]

Colin Brown, in response to criticisms from Staines that the media are too cosy with politicians, said: "We would love to go into print with things that we hear and believe to be true, but cannot prove, but the libel laws are such that we cannot put things into newspapers that he [Guido Fawkes] seems to think that he can get away with on the internet. They don't seem to run by the same rules".[12] Staines responded by claiming that he is more vulnerable to libel suits than the print media are; as an individual, he does not have a large company backing him, although he says the fact that his blog is published through a Nevis-registered firm offers some protection,[50] as plaintiffs are required to deposit $25,000 in court before commencing any action in Nevis.[51] The same firm is majority shareholder in MessageSpace, a blog advertising network that sells advertising space on many British political blogs, including PoliticalBetting.com, Iain Dale, ConservativeHome, Labourhome.[52]

In a Newsnight debate with Staines, Michael White said: “You see a naive conspiratorial view of the political process and of politicians which says in effect they’re all crooks, and they all ought to be in jail, and we will fearlessly expose them on the blogsphere. And it isn’t like that... You can be pretty cavalier with the facts sometimes. Much of the blog, for people who don’t know it, this week is devoted to whether or not Gordon Brown picked his nose in, was it the budget or some other recent event? That’s been your top item.”

Staines was criticised by Iain Dale and Michael White in September 2010 for publishing rumours about William Hague, alleging that he shared a hotel room with his newly appointed special advisor. Hague confirmed he had shared a hotel room, but denied any "improper relationship".[53][54]

Later in February 2011, at the Leveson Inquiry, Staines revealed he had been paid £20,000 by the News of the World for a picture of Hague's special adviser, Christopher Myers, in a gay bar. The picture was not published by the News of the World.[55]

In 2012, RTÉ Radio 1 broadcast a documentary about Staines, Our Man in Westminster, as part of its Documentary On One series.[56]

gollark: Can you erase their memory of ever being on fire?
gollark: Yes.
gollark: I agree, lyricly interpreted wrong.
gollark: Were you just CARRYING a FIRE extinguisher?
gollark: It would be way easier to emulate fire blast's flashy colors and stuff than to make a spell which is like fire blast except it doesn't do anything.

References
  1. "order-order.com Competitive Analysis, Marketing Mix and Traffic - Alexa". alexa.com. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  2. Waterson, Jim (28 May 2019). "Pro-Boris Johnson campaign launched by Guido Fawkes blogger". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  3. "Guido Fawkes". Blogger. Retrieved 1 June 2006.
  4. "Who you gonna call?". Guardian Unlimited. London. 2 February 2005. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  5. – 09:00. "BBC – Radio 4 – Profile – 10 February 2007". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 20 May 2010.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. "So Much For Anonymity". order-order.com. Archived from the original on 27 April 2007.
  7. "The Backbencher Political Weblog Awards: Help choose the winning blogs". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 June 2006.
  8. Dale, Iain; Fawkes, Guido (2006). The Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze. Politico's Media. ISBN 978-1-904734-16-1.
  9. "Murdoch on warpath - Independent on Sunday, The - Find Articles at BNET.com". 2 February 2008. Archived from the original on 2 February 2008.
  10. "Sheikh It Up Baby". order-order.com. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.
  11. "'I will publish a picture of Mazher Mahmood a.k.a. the Fake Sheikh'". PledgeBank. 7 April 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  12. "Press Gazette – Fawkes plots to blow up 'cosy' political reporting". Pressgazette.co.uk. 14 July 2006. Archived from the original on 19 August 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  13. "Hitwise Intelligence – Heather Hopkins – UK: Guido Fawkes – Fair and Balanced". Weblogs.hitwise.com. 11 July 2006. Archived from the original on 21 June 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  14. "The top 50 newsmakers of 2006". The Independent. London. 18 December 2006. Archived from the original on 1 December 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  15. "GQ Give Guido Oxygen of Publicity". Guido Fawkes.
  16. "Leaked paper threatens to derail Hain's ambitions – icWales". Icwales.icnetwork.co.uk. 31 January 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  17. "totty watch". order-order.com.
  18. "Rich's Monday Morning View". Guido Fawkes. July 3, 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  19. "Caption Contest: Archive". Guido Fawkes. Guido Fawkes. 3 July 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  20. "Saturday 7-Up". Guido Fawkes. Guido Fawkes. 4 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  21. "Saturday 7-Up". Guido Fawkes. Guido Fawkes. 30 November 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  22. "Guido Killed the Lobby Star". Guido Fawkes. Guido Fawkes. 12 November 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  23. "Tired, Exhausted, Nothing to Say, Time for Them to Go…". Guido Fawkes. Guido Fawkes. 26 March 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  24. "Downing Street Press Briefing Descends Into Chaos". Guido Fawkes. Guido Fawkes. 21 January 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  25. "Guido Victory: Lobby Chairman Tears Up Cartel's Rulebook". Guido Fawkes. Guido Fawkes. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  26. "Guido Wins: Televised Lobby Briefings Coming". Guido Fawkes. Guido Fawkes. 2 July 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  27. "Televised press conference to permanently replace afternoon Downing Street press briefing". Press Gazette. 3 July 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  28. Statement on the Charity Commission and the Smith Institute, Charity Commission website, 1 February 2007
  29. Hope, Christopher (16 February 2007). "Political blogger warned he could be jailed". The Daily Telegraph.
  30. "Sith's Allies Fightback". order-order.com. Archived from the original on 30 April 2007. Retrieved 16 February 2007.
  31. Daniel Hannan. MPs can't distinguish right from legal. Daily Telegraph. 25 January 2008.
  32. Mick Fealty. Blogging's first UK scalp. 24 January 2008.
  33. Roy Greenslade. Has Guido got UK blogging's first scalp?. Guardian Unlimited. 24 January 2008.
  34. Smeargate timeline in The Guardian, 14 April 2009.
  35. "UK | UK Politics | E-mail smears handling defended". BBC News. 14 April 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  36. "The Backlash Begins – Guy Fawkes' blog". order-order.com. 14 April 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  37. Article by Staines in The Times, 17 April 2009.
  38. "Blogger 'Guido Fawkes' summoned by Leveson Inquiry". BBC News. 27 November 2011.
  39. Halliday, Josh; Baird, Dugald (8 February 2012). "Leveson inquiry: Paul Staines AKA Guido Fawkes, Keir Starmer appear". The Guardian. London.
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  41. "Guido Fawkes". DeSmog. DeSmog. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
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  48. Robinson, Nick (5 July 2006). "Nick Robinson's Newslog". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  49. "New Statesman – The internet or something". The New Statesman. 17 July 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  50. Smith, Edwin (31 July 2014). "Guido Fawkes: "The Lying In Politics Is On An Industrial Scale"". Esquire. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  51. "So Rosie, Where is Guido's Writ?". order-order.com. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.
  52. Oliver Luft. "Political bloggers launch ad initiative". Journalism.co.uk. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  53. Iain Dale (1 September 2010). "A Bleak Day for Political Blogging". Iain Dale's Diary. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  54. Michael White (2 September 2010). "Coverage of William Hague story is a shaming day for Fleet Street". guardian.co.uk. London. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  55. Ball, James (9 February 2012). "News of the World sources back up Guido Fawkes claims about photographs". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  56. O'Connell, Brian. "Our Man in Westminster". RTÉ. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
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