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EXCLUSIVE: Paul Delaires-Staines Forward, David Rose Regrets ...
Just off to go canvassing with Frank and JB. On my return I'll review the older stories and provide a full caption here. In the meantime careful comments welcome. Click to enlarge.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
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9 comments:
Get to Chorlton for canvassing at some point.
The facts remain. "You told me then that you wrote this letter as an attempt to trick the BNP, in the hope perhaps of gaining intelligence of its activities and that your motive was only to damage this extreme right-wing organisation". A likely story. Almost believable if it wasn't for the fact that Paul Staines is politically extreme right wing himself, and that his track record shows that he attacks those on the left. Pull the other one its got bells on it...
Anonymous 10:47: of course.
JHL: I will add my caption to the letter shortly. Paul Staines in his alter ego of Guido Fawkes is a right wing Libertarian and to be fair he attacks Dave/id Cameron and people across the gamut of politics as well as going on his quixotic runs against Balls, Brown and Miliblog. Who are not exactly on the left by the way.
However - and despite his tawdry crew of commentators many of whom are racist, sexist, homophobic and out for themselves, albeit under cover of anonymity - I can't recall myself Staines/Fawkes being racist.
I don't believe he is immune to racism because of his ancestry - and Hitler is but one example of an anti-semite with Jewish ancestry - but if you can recall an example of Staines/Guido being racist you should blog that evidence/URL.
What Staines/Fawkes is understandably upset about is being tarred as a racist for something he did 21 years ago when he was much younger.
And more important to him when he feels his alternative explanation of going under deep cover and trying to trick the fash was not even voiced in the Guardian of the time though Rose had interviewed Staines.
I can see Staines' point of view. And not just because he has been clumsily battering bloggers about their person with threats of law.
I believe that AIRING the story with the balance of Staines' motivation included as it could and should have been in 1986 does something to ENHANCE his reputation. Whereas SUPPRESSING it tends to DETRACT from his reputation.
The only exception to that belief of mine which I hope Staines' will share, because it is reasonable, is if he expects the story to flush out other material which is not consistent with his story. I doubt it will.
That's a caption half written. More anon.
Chris Paul shows admirable fair-mindedness on this issue.
I realise that certain parties have a visceral dislike of Staines, and they are within their rights to have this.
However, there seem to be plenty of other objections to him to write about, so attempting to paint him as a racist as JHL is doing, comes across as malicious and mean, and spreading mean rumours in an attempt to portray Staines himself as a nasty meany, is bizarre.
That said, Staines' management of this story has been very poor. I believe this letter was to be published on Chicken Yoghurt, but Staines then changed his mind, on the advice of his lawyer, so the suggestion has lingered. It's unclear how the substance of this story actually is, even if the suggested motivations were true. It's undoubtedly the case that the legal threats have made the likes of JHL more determined to attack him on it.
Current senior politicians have got more concrete racist/extreme pasts than a vague suggestion of teaming up with the bovver boys to disrupt the left. I mean for fuck's sake, current *Liberal Democrat* councillors have worked together with the BNP.
I guess Staines' reaction demonstrates his distaste for the far-right is more fundamental than many Tories, as it does seem to have got him quite upset. "Call me anything, but don't call me a racist."
As Chris says there is no evidence that Staines has any opposition to people of other races or is anti-immigration.
Is this:
http://www.order-order.com/2005/04/campaign-gets-nasty-well-send-em-back.html
the words of a racist? Hell, he's not even as right-wing on race/immigration as the Labour party, let alone the BNP.
I had a look at some of his many of comments on Samizdata, which you would think might be less guarded than his high-profile Guido Fawkes blog, but I'm not seeing anything racist in comments like these:
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/006573.html#058841
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/005887.html#048949
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/005910.html
Do let me know if you can find anything Staines has said on race/immigration where you could place him to the right of even the Labour Party, let alone in the same area as the BNP.
My understanding of the history was that the far-right monday clubber types were ousted from the Conservative youth wing by the libertarian 'Thatcher on drugs' types such as Staines. It is my understanding that the FCS passed a motion in favour of free migration, due to the strength of the libertarian element.
Thanks anonymous 15:02
Let's hope we can move on to peace in the world. The first link btw is an attack on wannabe leader Charles' Clarke's dog whistle immigration policy rather than David "Puff" Cameron's er dog whistle dog whistle for Michael Howard. But the same applies. Even the Libs are there or thereabouts and Fawkes is right.
The Samizdata references are respectively first on the bullshit arrest swoops on Muslim communities, second on spreading propserity globally, and thirdly on the need for fairer (but from PDS point of view natch = freer) trade with the developing world.
PDS also used a Banksy image of the three kings encountering that illegal wall as his Christmas Greeting. Although I started this strand with an open mind - and did and do know some FCS people of the time who were flirting with the fash - I will be very pleased if the investigation and dialogue which followed are of some help in rescuing Staines'/Fawkes' reputation on this matter.
Which will only leave about another 267 matters to work on. Fawkes will end up loving Broon probably.
Peace and love
Chris P
PS The Banksy Wall image Guido used is now replaced in his archive but his FREE shop is great and I've just copylefted/thieved a great image from his site to go with a post soon.
It appears that blogger cut off the anchors to Staines' actual comments, which is what I was trying to link to, rather than the original posts, which weren't written by Staines (although he has written a number for Samizdata - see here http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/005887.html)
These were:
#048949
appended to
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/005887.html
commenting on the fear of Islamism:
"A half billion prosperous Westerners have little to fear from the 5 billion other inhabitants of the planet.
The goal should be to spread the prosperity, and when that happens population growth will slow."
Although Staines is pro-Israel, this does not appeared to be accompanied by rhetoric that is anti-Islamist, such as you would find on Harry's Place
--
#058841
appended to
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/006573.html
Per Mr Staines:
"Call me a wooly old liberal, but 30,000 raids producing 100 charges seems excessive.
A charge rate of 0.33% seems underwhelming, no doubt that rate will be reduced dramatically when it comes to convictions. That means every day in Britain almost 100 raids occur - that is scary. Just because most raids might be happening in Muslim Bradford does not make me any happier. Seventy or so years ago the Gestapo probably concentrated their efforts in the Jewish ghettoes.
I'm not opposed to measures against terrorists, but when 99.67% of the raids lead nowhere, what the hell is going on?"
--
as well as multiple comments to
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/005910.html (as Paul D S)
I think Staines has genuine commitment to liberalism and freedom, and I suspect his core beliefs are rather stronger than someone like Iain Dale who is basically a classic professional politician.
He is signed up to the Tory cause, but I don't think it is tribal Toryism, but sees it as a means to his ends.
"A lot of libertarians seem to have neglected Cameron's social liberalism - something that is enraging social conservatives. I know Cameron ain't the real deal, but he is the best game in town.
Therefore we should pitch in to the fight rather than whinge across the world wide web. We should be in the tent making sure we are pushing policies we want rather than complaining about the policies we don't like.
A lot of wasting talent prefers impotent protest to getting dirty in party politics. You are wasting your time. For every one of you who does actually write this era's Road to Serfdom there will be 9,999 who have as much effect as all those pamphleteering trots of the sixties.
The Tories have someone who has the look of a winner about him, its a good time to man the barricades after a lost decade. C'mon, get your hands dirty..."
He wasn't very keen on IDS, but can identify more with Cameron:
"Iain Duncan Smith is not, they believe, going to pull the party forward, and us metropolitan libertarian sophisticates are more in touch with the voters than old guard Tories of whatever shade.
Contemporary politics is boring, the mainstream spectrum is narrow. The fact that libertarian Tories are described as centre-left is a genuine breakthrough - it means that we are no longer arguing about liberal economics, but civil liberties and the liberty of the individual."
HERE,
HERE and
HERE. The full links were available in another isotope of the page.
Just read the Cameron "Puff" (which dear readers was the man's nickname at Eton - hat tip Katherine Bergen in The Whip in The Sun) and must say I think, as Hitchens but from a different perspective, that DC is an empty vessel who will say anything to get elected.
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