Since resolving in 2010 to not waste pixels on the unpopular parts of the blogosphere, we have kept to our word for three years. Today is just too good to let it pass.

Not many supported Chris Huhne on Twitter, here is what that the well known progressive tweeter Sunny Hundal had to say, from his mum’s spare bedroom in Hillingdon, during the period that we pushed the Huhne story before the police investigation bore fruit:

Despite Sunny’s support he’s down now.

@MrHarryCole lefties sell out! Blog on it! Might be more interesting than your obsession with Huhne, which isn't going anywhere—
Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) June 12, 2011

So… right-wingers like @guidofawkes who claimed energy secretary Chris Huhne would be taken out this Sunday need to find new sources huh?—
Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) May 29, 2011

The story that Huhne-dal thought wasn’t “going anywhere”, is everywhere…

Meacher-backed LeftFuture’s blog post titled “The unrepresented working class: a space Respect can fill” seems to have been deleted. Nothing to do with it being against Labour Party rules to back an opposing candidate. With the retirement of the politician formerly known as Viscount Stansgate, Meacher is the only authentic Bennite left in Parliament…

UPDATE: Full article by Kate Hudson of the Respect Party – their candidate for the Manchester Central by-election on 15 November uploaded by Guido here. She makes a good point about the extremely low turnout in an extremely safe Labour seat.

That is why I am standing for Respect in Manchester Central. It’s a ‘safe’ Labour seat, with 52% of the votes cast for Labour in 2010. But that figure hides a sorry tale. It also has the lowest turn out in the country at 44.5%. Labour, which has run Manchester for a long time, has not addressed the deep problems of the city or the constituency. Manchester is the fourth most deprived local authority in the country and its two most deprived wards are in Central constituency. Clearly, Labour is not working for Manchester Central. The people are making their judgment by voting with their feet, by turning away from the electoral process altogether. It’s time for a political alternative, articulating the interests of working people. Respect stands for that alternative.

Rival blogger Mark Ferguson from LabourList is quick to condemn:

I see @leftfutures are a promoting a Respect candidate. I will henceforth ignore whatever they say about the Labour Party—
Mark Ferguson (@Markfergusonuk) August 18, 2012

Labour cheerleaders have been queuing up to lay into Tory MP Andrew Rosindell over his comments about General Pinochet.  As we celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of our victory in the Falklands they choose to attack the Chilean leader who was our only ally in in the region during that conflict thousands of miles away. Pinochet gave crucial support, allowing British Special Forces to enter his country and British long range radar to be based in Chile saving the lives of British pilots and seamen. He also provided vital intelligence to Britain in the fight against the Argentinian junta.  Political Scrapbook ran a story on Friday and today Ed jumped on the bandwagon:

Disgraceful comment by Tory MP Andrew Rosindell who said: “I have huge admiration for General Pinochet.” Cameron must condemn these words—
  (@EdMPress) June 18, 2012

Rent-a-Gob Karl Turner has gone even further:

“It’s astonishing that a MP should praise a military dictator who overthrew an elected government and was responsible for the murder, torture and arbitrary imprisonment of thousands of people.”

That sounds familiar…

Guido is sure Labour types would want to be completely consistent on the issue and condemn all dictators equally.

Odd then that 65 Labour MPs – including usual suspects Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn and Paul Flynn – signed a motion praising the Cuban military dictator Fidel Castro in 2008. They paid tribute to Castro’s “achievements” and “the esteem in which he is held by the people of Latin America”. Will Ed condemn their words?

The GMB Congress has descended into an even bigger farce than expected after it passed a motion to outlaw Blairite pressure group Progress from the Labour Party. In a frothing attack, the GMB slammed Progress for accepting the need for spending cuts, undermining Ken Livingstone’s campaign and briefing against Ed Miliband to the press. The decision of Progress patron Lord Sainsbury to stop donating to the party might also have something to do with it… 

The motion, which lays into Miliband and Balls for failing to bring about a socialist revolution, appears to be part of a summer putsch of centre-left Labour figures. At least this means Dan Hodges will have some company. Their ten point lead in the polls should see Labour go into their most buoyant conference in years, yet it seems the left are determined to turn it in to a witch-hunt…

UPDATE: Dan Hodges was for three years up until 2003 the GMB’s director of communications.

One of the favourites to replace Caroline Lucas as the Green Party leader appears to be a Nazi sympathiser. Pippa Bartolotti was pictured raising the flag of the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party, a fascist organisation whose members give the Hitler salute, use a swastika as their emblem and base their party anthem on ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über alles’. Well Hitler was a green…

Pic via CiFWatch

Guido got wind last week that Mehdi Hasan had been sacked as Political Editor of the New Statesman. When we put it to him he exploded…

@GuidoFawkes Simple question: are you a tit?—
Mehdi Hasan (@ns_mehdihasan) May 16, 2012

Well it now seems Guido was on the money and the Staggers were just being nice by not announcing his departure last week along with other internal movements. He’s bagged a massive promotion in both status and influence by joining the Huffington Post.  Guido just spoke to one of Mehdi’s fellow lefty hacks:

Lefty: Has he been fired?
GF: Well he’s going to the HuffPo, so you could put it like that.
Lefty: Oh god that’s worse than being fired. That’s worse than being dead.

Are they going to pay him?

See also: Mehdi is “The Commentator” and a chart of the New Statesman’s newsstand sales during the Mehdi era:

Clearly not content with the royalties from his best selling book about the exploitation of the working classes, higher rate taxpayer Owen Jones wants more:

MP-in-waiting @OwenJones84 in the Independent canteen trying to extract more money out of Indy managing editor Sean O'Grady for his column.—
Eye Spy MP (@eyespymp) May 17, 2012

Don’t tell Laurie!

Ken Livingstone has a tendency to shoot his mouth off and says things which are inadvisable, like criticising politicians for cosying up to News International when he himself is no stranger to Wapping:

Incidentally when Guido tweeted this picture yesterday twitter-idiots claimed it was a fake. It is absolutely genuine.

At the London Jewish Forum last night under pressure about his tax affairs Ken promised again that the certified Silveta accounts would be published online “shortly”. No sign of them yet. Only 20 days since he first promised he would..

Sky’s Jon Craig reports that Labour are dragging their feet in arranging an office for George Galloway. He has taken up residence in the Portcullis House Atrium as spotted by EyeSpyMP last week. Lots of rubbish Gorgeous?

UPDATE:

Guido understands that Johann Hari’s close friend, protégé and replacement at the Indy “Laurie Penny” could be about to get caught up in a similar quote fabrication scandal. With the Indy’s terrible handling of one star’s demise, Guido does not imagine that their new £25,000 per annum columnist could, or would, receive the same leniency afforded to Hari.

I'm just getting in first on this hashtag, #pennygate – be back tomoro morning.—
Brian Whelan (@brianwhelanhack) April 16, 2012

Hari slayer Brian Whelan is up to something, but many have long suspected that the “voice of a generation” was actually listening to voices in her head. Take this correction to her infamous Guardian article about her alleged time spent taking her clothes off on a stage:

“This article was amended on 8 July 2009. Changes were made to the second paragraph to make clear that the author was not persuaded by the managers of a local burlesque troupe to get into stripping, but did so voluntarily. The Burlesque troupe, with which the author performed, created a new format for the show after the Edinburgh 2005 run, not before, as the article originally suggested. The sentence beginning “Peeling off my fluffy underwear…” was moved from the end of the relevant paragraph to the beginning to correct this impression.” The words “after I left” were added before “as my troupe became more successful” to make clear that Laurie Penny did not perform in the new show.”

If you read the article without the words “after I left”, it is a riveting personal read and once added it becomes clear that the second half is almost totally embellished. Guido is confident that the Indy would have done a full and thorough check up of their recent hire in the wake of the Hari scandal. Once was bad enough, but twice…

UPDATE:

Laurie gets in touch to state that she's not on £25k at the Indy but a mere 22. Happy to correct the record.—
Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) April 17, 2012