Paul Staines

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Paul Staines (born 1964/65)[1] is a right-wing libertarian, who promoted acid house parties in the early 1990s. He is currently a political blogger, who writes under the pseudonym Guido Fawkes.

Contents

[edit] Early life and education

Staines was educated at Harrow school.[2]

In 1983, Staines was the UK Atari Video Games Champion.[2]

[edit] Politics

From 1988 to 1990, he was a member of the SDP, on the National Executive of the Youth and Students organisation [3]- and not as has been argued, then a Liberal Democrat. He was previously also a member of the Federation of Conservative Students, claiming, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that he contributed to it being shut down for being too right-wing [4]

[edit] Acid house

Staines was an organiser of raves and Acid House in the early 1990s.[5]


[edit] Guido Fawkes blog

In September 2004, a blogger began writing critically about politicians of the United Kingdom parliament, under the name of Guido Fawkes, an alternative name of Guy Fawkes, one of the group that plotted to blow up Westminster Palace in 1605.[6] In February 2005, the online version of The Guardian reported that Fawkes' blog shared a fax number with Staines.[7] In July 2006, the online version of the Press Gazette stated positively that Fawkes was Staines, a claim not repudiated by Fawkes.[8]

Fawkes effectively confirmed that he was Staines in November 2006. In an entry on his blog,[9] Fawkes linked to an article in the online version of the Press Gazette, which referred to Fawkes and carried a link to a profile of Fawkes on that site, which stated that Fawkes was Staines. In the same blog entry, Fawkes stated that he was attending a party to celebrate five years of the samizdata.net blog. That blog published pictures of the party-goers, including Fawkes.[10] The picture of Fawkes could be compared with pictures known to be of Staines, such as the one on his profile on the website of Development Gateway,[11] an off-shoot of the World Bank.

The blog is hosted by Blogger, though the content is published through the mechanism of a limited liability company called Global & General Nominees LLC, incorporated in Nevis.[12][13]

In 2005, Staines' blog was voted the best in the Political Commentary category of The Backbencher Political Weblog Awards, run by The Guardian.[14]

In May 2006, Staines (as Guido Fawkes) co-authored a book with Iain Dale about instances of sleaze from the Labour Party since taking office in 1997.[15]

Staines reported the allegation that John Prescott was having an extra-marital affair with an MP, and named the woman in question, saying that such rumours had long been shared among Westminister journalists, but that he was being less hypocritical and breaking the clique by refusing to cover up such stories.[8]

Using his blogging persona of Guido Fawkes as a pseudonym Paul Staines is a regular guest on a live radio show and podcast [http:theknivesareout.com]

[edit] Leisure

Staines took an interest in bull running, but a bull got the better of him at the start of the Festival of San Fermín in July 2002, though Staines escaped with facial injuries.[1][16]

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ a b Burgen, Stephen. "Briton is injured in Pamplona bull run", The Times, 2002-07-08.
  2. ^ a b Collin, Matthew, Godfrey, John (1998). Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House, 2nd edition, London: Serpent's Tail. ISBN 1-85242-604-7.
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ [2]
  5. ^ Paul Staines. SourceWatch. Center for Media & Democracy. Retrieved on 2006-08-01.
  6. ^ Guido Fawkes. Blogger. Retrieved on 2006-06-01.
  7. ^ "Who you gonna call?", Guardian Unlimited, 2005-02-02.
  8. ^ a b Tomlin, Julie. "Fawkes plots to blow up 'cosy' political reporting", Online Press Gazette, 2006-07-11.
  9. ^ Fawkes, Guido. "Party time!", Guido Fawkes' blog of plots, rumours & conspiracy, 2006-11-10.
  10. ^ "Samizdata Five Year Blogger Bash - after action report", samizdata.net, 2006-11-11.
  11. ^ Paul Staines. Development Gateway. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
  12. ^ Guido Fawkes' blog of plots, rumours & conspiracy. Retrieved on 2006-08-12.
  13. ^ Guido Fawkes' blog of plots, rumours & conspiracy. Retrieved on 2006-08-12.
  14. ^ The Backbencher Political Weblog Awards: Help choose the winning blogs. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2006-06-01.
  15. ^ Dale, Iain, Fawkes, Guido (2006). The Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze. Politico's Media. ISBN 1-904734-16-2.
  16. ^ mondialglobalinvestors's profile. Yahoo! Member Directory. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.

[edit] Further reading

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