Blogger’s vision for the future

Political blogger Guido Fawkes believes that video journalism is the future and that next year’s general election will be a “YouTube election”, writes Nick Hamilton.

Fawkes, whose real name is Paul Staines, has broken a number of high-profile political stories on his controversial, right-leaning blog. But he told journalism students at the University of Westminster that video holds the future for journalism.

Staines said that new video technology is quicker and easier for journalists and the public to use. He questioned why anybody would read an article in a newspaper when they could watch a video with the same information on their mobile phone.

Bigger role

Staines said the fact that The Guardian’s offices are fitted out with recording studios is proof of the changes under way. He described seeing The Guardian’s Assistant Editor, Michael White, setting up his tripod and doing pieces to camera unassisted at public events.

As a result of these changes, Staines believes that video journalism will have a bigger role to play than blogging in the general election next year.

“It’s more likely to be the ‘YouTube election’ than it is to be the ‘blogging election’”, he said. “I think that somebody will catch something on their camera phone that people don’t want them to see.”

Digital billboards

But a campaign this week in which the Conservatives compare Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling to X Factor contestants Jedward, shows how political parties can use the new media to their advantage.

“[Political parties] will be able to change their campaigns in the flash of a switch. They just did that when Jedward were knocked out of X Factor. The Tories ran a campaign immediately on digital billboards. You know, you couldn’t do that in the past,” said Staines.

The blogger believes the Scottish National Party (SNP) has set a good example for English parties to follow during the election.

Breaking stories

“In the last general election the SNP in Scotland had their own online six o’clock news. It was fantastic. It had a former local news reporter doing the reports and it was really well done.”
Staines has been blogging as Guido Fawkes since 2004. His reasons for starting the blog were “completely narcissistic”.

“I realised that I could be the drunk complaining in the corner of the pub or I could do it online. I chose the latter,” he said.

Staines has been criticised for the quality of his journalism and his undisguised support for the Conservative Party. But he has succeeded in breaking a number of important political stories.
In 2008 Welsh Secretary Peter Hain resigned his ministerial posts after Staines revealed details about donations Hain received for his campaign to become Labour leader. And in the Smeargate scandal this year, one of Gordon Brown’s top advisers resigned after Staines blogged that he was planning a smear campaign against senior Conservatives.

Staines believes that he is doing important work not covered by other sections of the media.
He criticised the lobby as “an embedded system, in which you become the client of people you should be reporting on.” And said that ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye, has “become pretty much establishment”.

Additional reporting Rob Powell

Guido Fawkes’ political blog

MPs’ expenses scoop: the inside story

The reporters who broke the MPs’ expenses scandal revealed the inside story to University of Westminster journalism students in a fascinating account of their investigation, writes Victoria Maw.

The Daily Telegraph’s deputy political editor Robert Winnett and chief reporter Gordon Rayner told how their team sifted through a million documents in a secret room at the newspaper’s headquarters and endured the wrath of many angry MPs. Some even shook their fists at researchers

Their work for the conservative-leaning newspaper, which has been turned into a book called ‘No expenses spared’ explained how some MPs from across all parties abused the expenses system.

‘Genuinely excited’

Rayner said the cases went from the downright ridiculous and trivial to “bordering on criminality”.

The information was so sensitive that it took the Telegraph a month to build up a relationship of trust with their source.

“It was a big digging exercise,” said Winnett. “A cynical group of journalists were genuinely excited.”

Rayner believes that Prime Minister Gordon Brown damaged his own reputation by micromanaging the expenses scandal. “Cameron showed leadership whilst Brown dithered,” said Rayner. “He [Brown] was obsessed with his image. He was only interested in how it would rebound on him. He poured over the paper late into the night with a pencil,” he said.

Benefit

The spotlight has also fallen on one of the university’s local members of parliament, Tony McNulty. The reporters believe the expenses row will probably wreck the Harrow MP’s political career.

The MP for Harrow East agreed to pay back more than £13,000 in expenses this October after it emerged that he had claimed second home allowance expenses on a house that his parents live in.

The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee found that the expenses were not wholly connected with McNulty’s parliamentary duties and his parents obtained a benefit from parliamentary funds to which he was not entitled. Although McNulty occasionally worked from the Harrow property, the committee said he overclaimed in relation to mortgage interest and council tax. Former employment minister McNulty publicly apologised to his constituents in October.

‘Fully complied’

Winnett said McNulty was “fairly contrite” when he was told that the Telegraph had details of his expenses claims.

“He dealt with it moderately well. I think he even made a joke about it,” said Winnett “but it will probably end his political career”.

In response, Tony McNulty said: “Any fair-minded person who reads the committee’s report will see that I fully complied with all rules and advice given to me at the time and that the commissioner decided he would change the advice retrospectively. He is perfectly entitled to do that and I have absolutely no complaint. It will be for the people of Harrow to decide my future.”

Hostile
Winnett and Rayner say that the clever MPs said very little whereas those who got into trouble defended themselves too publicly. “Nobody had even heard of Margaret Moran before she insisted on going on television. She now may well be replaced by Esther Rantzen, “ said Rayner.

Many MPs were hostile towards the Telegraph over its handling of the scandal but Winnett and Rayner say that most soon realised that they could not afford to isolate the papers.

The story also caused a surge of interest in politics. “This summer people got interested in politics again,” said Rayner. “They took interest in who their MPs are and this can only be a good thing for democracy.”

Rayner adds that the story’s beauty was in its simplicity. “The story was something that kids can understand. It was straightforward and dead simple. Hazel Blears claimed a Kitkat,” he said.

The journalist told students that other papers had refused to buy the story, notably the Times who thought the story was too risky from a legal perspective. Winnett thinks the Telegraph’s new young editor Will Lewis is responsible for the go-ahead attitude.

“There was a will to have a big story and to show that the Telegraph has changed,” says Winnett.