Sunday Shows Archives - Guido Fawkes Guido Fawkes

Rory Stewart’s Macron/Messiah complex grew this morning in an extraordinary interview on Marr. In the course of ten minutes, Rory…

Declared he is the only candidate who can get the UK out of the EU.
Announced that every single MP would join him in an impromptu parallel legislature in Methodist Central Hall if a future PM did an Attlee and prorogued Parliament.
Flip flopped to say he would refuse to serve in a Boris cabinet, despite maintaining he wants to reach out to Nigel Farage and “bring him in.”
Said that if Parliament doesn’t pass May’s deal on a fourth attempt, he will bypass democracy to set up a scientifically determined and appointed ‘Citizens Assembly’ of 50,000 people phoned up to join televised sessions to make the decision for them. We have a democratically selected citizens assembly, it is called the House of Commons.
Binned his ‘clean campaign pledge’ to not indulge in personal attacks, to launch personal attacks, claiming that “there are too many people trying to be polite.”

Rory complains that Brexiteers are threatening to bypass parliament if the EU refuses to negotiate a better deal, yet his core big idea is to bypass parliament with his phoned in Citizens Assembly.

He’s in danger of joining the Brexit-driven descent into derangement travelled by the Adonises and Chapmans of this world…

UPDATE: This follows yesterday’s live stream from a cafe. What Guido most enjoyed about his live stream from a cafe is the staff and customers, in a very English way, ignoring the man talking to himself in the corner:

The waitress in the background just carried on wiping down tables. Guido imagined her telling the cook behind the counter

“He says he wants to be the bloody Prime Minister, looks like he could do with a feed if you ask me. Only ordered a cup of tea. Seems harmless enough.”

You just know that the kid is thinking “Don’t make eye contact, must not make eye contact…”.

Guido feels Rory isn’t getting much critical scrutiny. People have heard things like he was in Afghanistan – as a civil servant. That he tutored the Royal princes – for 2 weeks and admits he had to be extracted from a secure safe room at Highgrove by axe-wielding security officers after he locked himself in one night. He did PPE at Oxford – and didn’t get a first. His name is not really Rory – it is Roderick. Someone who knows him well described his defining talent as the Old Etonian ability to “sound convincing without expertise”. He is not even doing that with his flip-flopping and frankly eccentrically bonkers campaign…

This morning just as Marr began his interview with Michael Gove we published the regulations, enforced by him when he was Secretary of State for Education, on the prohibition of teachers for misconduct. Gove’s had responsibility as the Secretary of State to regulate teachers’ conduct and to hold a list of teachers who have been prohibited from teaching. Included in the list of offences that would lead to a lifetime ban on teaching was “possession of class A drugs”. An offence that Gove admits to having committed many times.

Marr asked him did he bring in the rule change on “your watch”, Gove evaded answering the question directly, saying “no, I don’t believe so”. Which is what a politician says when he wants to give himself wriggle room. Gove had the power as Secretary of State for Education to ban teachers for life from teaching with a prohibition order. Possession of Class A drugs was grounds for a lifetime ban.

Gove also told Marr he couldn’t remember being asked the question of whether he took Class A drugs when travelling to the USA, and didn’t declare he had. Here is the visa question he will have had to answer when travelling to the USA:

Gove likewise claimed he had not been asked a direct question about drug use in the course of his vetting. Something most Whitehall veterans think unlikely…

At times during the interview Gove looked unusually uncomfortable having started out sounding confident. He trotted out some rehearsed contrite lines, by the end of the interview he seemed deflated. On the betting markets his odds lengthened…