All is not well on that great ship of British journalism known as The Guardian. There is dissent in the ranks…
The newspaper has been deeply embarrassed by being caught up in the Labour Together ‘smeargate’ scandal – now imploding as one of the many disasters Starmer is currently fighting. The paper’s political editor, Pippa Crerar, approached left-wing writer Paul Holden and Labour Together critic to accuse him of being investigated by MI5…
As lefty magazine Tribune puts it today:
“Holden has stated publicly that in February 2024, he received an email from Pippa Crerar of the Guardian, informing him that the paper had seen information that he was being investigated by the security services and that the Guardian intended to run the story. Holden stood firm and told Crerar that the claim was defamatory and warned that he would sue if it were published. The story then evaporated, and Holden heard nothing whatever from the NCSC. One can only speculate how the security services regarded these attempts to draw them into political disputes.”
“This is a total ****show“, one Guardian reporter crowed to Guido, complaining that the paper should have had nothing to do with the now infamous ‘smeargate’ document provided to Labour Together by consultancy Acpo. The paper’s journalists – who consider themselves paragons of moral rectitude – are now asking how it can continue to cover Starmer at all. Would never have happened under former Guardian associate editor Seumas Milne…
It is three weeks since the Guardian began its campaign of reporting on Farage’s time at Dulwich College and a week and a half since the story blitz reached maximum pace. The result? A poll boost for Reform…
Guido counts twelve stories by the Guardian on the topic, most of which have been followed up by the BBC and the rest of the media. YouGov polling released today by Sky News and the Times now the dust has mostly settled shows Reform is in fact up one point to 27%. In fact Reform is the only party to be up in the polls this week…
Reporting resulted in the extraordinary scenes at a Reform press conference last week in which Farage demanded an apology from the BBC for its coverage. A few more stories like that and YouGov will have Reform at 30+…
Despite The Guardian quitting Musk’s X in a tantrum last year it is still paying the company to the tune of thousands of pounds. Nice of them…
Co-conspirators will remember the paper declaring: “The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.” Its bio on X says: “This account has been archived.” Money is still changing hands however…
Seeing as the account still has a gold tick for a verified organisation and its political editor Pippa Crerar has an affiliate account with the little Guardian logo next to her name the paper is still subscribed as a Full Access verified organisation. Price tag attached to that…
The Guardian has to pay for Crerar’s affiliate account along with some others such as live blogger Graeme Wearden – that brings the total bill for seven months of having “quit” X to upwards of either £7,350 or £8,680 depending on whether the bill is paid monthly or annually. Tidy sum…
Hilariously every author page on the website features a link to the individual’s X account. In addition Guardian journalists are still highly active on X which everyone has returned to with tails between legs after saying they would be over on Bluesky. Crerar last posted on the alternative platform nine days ago. The pol ed has tweeted over twenty times since then…
Earlier this month panicked reporting from The Guardian’s environment desk predicted that the “nature-friendly farming budget is set to be slashed” at the Spending Review. The Guardian must be well sourced on eco-matters – unless…
A half-billion cut was reported to be on the way:
“However, the entire farming payments budget including the EU acreage payments which were being phased out was £2.4bn, so looks like £400m a year cut.”
This prediction was later amended to a £400 million a year cut by the last year of the spending review. Scrambling…
DEFRA released a document yesterday going into the details of the funding settlement it had reached with Reeves. No surprise: the Chancellor kept subsidies up…
Combining tree funding along with some other measures and the total cut is a small £100 million. The Guardian was forced to publish all of the subsidy-guzzling farming groups favourable statements on the settlement: “Nature and farmers’ groups cautiously welcome spending review as there were fears Treasury wanted bigger cuts.“ Neglected to mention that the ‘fears’ were entirely manufactured by them…
The Guardian is busy promoting its main exclusive story today: “NATO rearmament could increase emissions by 200m tonnes a year, study finds.” A corker…
Apparently the costs of responding to armed threats to the West are doubled by the resulting “climate action.” Miliband will be reading closely…
“For every dollar invested in new hardware, there is not only a corresponding carbon cost but also an opportunity cost to potential climate action, critics say.”
The Guardian’s report has only looked at NATO countries. Russia and China are off the hook…
“Recent estimates of the social cost of carbon – a monetary indicator of the damage of CO2 emitted – put it at $1,347/tCO2e, suggesting the annual cost of Nato’s military buildup could be as much as $264bn a year.”
Naturally the recommendation will be that western allies should pay for a carbon offset for every rifle they buy from now on. Clown show latest…
After weeks of constant stories on Attorney General Richard Hermer, the defence operation is shifting into gear. And where else to put it than the Guardian…
The paper quotes ‘senior government figures’ who are “baffled by the attacks complain that attacks and the implicit suggestion that the government should be less concerned about following the law.” They complain that briefings about the AG are “deeply unfair“:
“If you were a member of the cabinet who wanted to know how to deliver on this government’s missions while also navigating the law, you couldn’t ask for someone with more ability.”
The spin won’t convince many. Hermer, who has earned himself the nickname among some SpAds of “the F*cking Lawyer,” is causing constant frustration across numerous departments with his politics-cum-law obstructionism. Which is seen to run directly against the newest reset…
The crux of the Guardian piece is that attacks on Hermer are attacks on the PM himself:
‘Insiders believe Hermer has become a sort of cipher for the prime minister and his approach… “I think there is some proxy work going on – having a go at the big man by having a go at [Hermer],” a well-connected senior Labour figure said.’
That is a clear cease-and-desist warning shot to those venting their frustration at Hermer. ‘Attack my mate and you attack me’…
One Downing Street source tells Guido the PM is the only senior figure currently offering Hermer support. That is not to say that co-conspirators should expect the AG to go anytime soon. Despite feeling “beleaguered” Guido is told Hermer “sees this as a vocation and he can just ignore the brickbats.” If the “blocker not builder” keeps it up the expectation of some in SW1 is that he will start seriously butting heads with Morgan McSweeney. At which point, one government figure tells Guido grimly, “Morgan always wins”…
Burnham said in his main conference speech: “For the historic victory he achieved for us, I am here to say: thank you, Keir.”