Guido Fawkes & the Death Penalty

Paul Staines, better known by his blog name Guido Fawkes, has grabbed a few headlines recently. His e-petition to restore capital punishment has caused quite a stir among political types and attracted over 3,000 signatures so far. Were it to reach the 100,000 mark it will be eligible for discussion in the Commons.

His claim to represent the 'regressive majority' has got the issue of capital punishment on the front page of the Daily Mail as well as discussed on Newsnight. He has even affected the way people view the Conservative party: restoration of the death penalty might be about as far from Government policy as one could get, yet Diane Abbott still felt able to scream of a Tory conspiracy to return us to the 1950s.

Fawkes evidently has some influence on the political debate. However, this is a man who regularly gets his facts wrong. He even happily contradicts them. Take as an example his coverage of the the financial performance of the Guardian Media Group, owner of the Guardian and the Observer.

In a highly critical post on 2 August he claimed  GMG's turnover in 2011 was £198m. Somehow, he saw no contradiction when this figure mysteriously jumped to £255m in a blog post the next day. This seemed all the more strange when this post concerned the purported deception by GMG in the presentation of its accounts. We are all human and we all make mistakes. That is perfectly understandable. When made in a vicious attack, however, an inability to acknowledge their existence is not.

This is a man who has a history of being cavalier with the facts. To allow such a man to drive the political debate is not just foolish. It is positively destructive.