You would expect an organisation with the words open politics to be just that open. So just who are they.
I got intrigued last weekend into just how Guido Fawkes managed to get the story so quickly about Jim Devine being reported to the police. Then during the week I got interested in just how fast Guido and Tory Bear, both right wing bloggers were able to Retweet Sunlight Centre for Open Politics news so rapidly. Until you follow the links. Their twitter is @sunlight-cops which leads to their website which shows on their about page who they are.
Founder: Paul Staines AKA Guido Fawkes
Media Director: Harry Cole AKA Tory Bear
New Media Campaigns Director: Mike Rouse of Rouse Media fame 18 Doughty Street, various mainly Tory groups he has worked for including both Guido and Tory Bear as well as John Redwood and Iain Dale.
Research Director: Chris Galley just the Home Office Mole reveled as leaking from close to Jacqui Smith in 2008 who had applied for several jobs in to Tory Party. He also stood as a Tory Candidate for Sunderland council in 2004. When he was unmasked as that mole his Friends reunited page listed his interests as 'centre-Right politics, the stock market, political satire, the miners' strike'.
All in all quite a right leaning lot, which would explain why not one of their complaints to the police thus far has been against a Tory Member of Parliament despite their paying back over £250,000 of their expenses and paying for moat cleaning, duck houses and thinking that the voters were just jealous of their fine country houses.
Bear in mind that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is to the North of the 38th parallel when you consider just home open the Sunlight Centre is on the politics of all hues.
6 comments:
charming.
we have made only one complaint to the police which would explain why we havent gone after a tory yet. if you look at the website you will see we have gone after tories, lib dems, and labour in equal measure - rennard, spelman, binley, malik etc
the issue of corruption goes higher than party politics.
what exactly is your problem here? we have been completely open with who works for us and when we actually get any, we will be publishing our donor list.
Sorry Harry I'd only heard and read about Devine (obviously), Rennard, Jacqui Smith and Malik.
Hadn't seen the Binley stuff over the last couple of days.
However, care to explain oh media director why the Spelman and Cawte stuff has two published dates one being way back in August 2008?
Besides which Harry you have to admit that is currently a very right leaning group of individuals. It is hardly a balanced political viewpoint on the issue of open politics, so obviously there will be suspicion from other areas of the political spectrum of just how open it can be especially based on the headline grabbing stories.
Feel free to prove me wrong.
Good work Stephen
But right wing , selective, or not, these guys too have performed a public service
From what I can see the people behind this campagining group have been perfectly open about who they are and have, as they point out, 'gone after' people across the political spectrum? What's the problem? I daresay there are valid criticisms one might make, if one searched hard enough, but I think they are rendering us all a service, without resorting to biased propaganda to do so, irrespective of what they may as individuals believe.
Who's funding them? Follow the money...
Post a Comment