Top blog's contributors slammed over racial slurs

Chris Gaynor

Hostilities continue to rage this weekend in an  online spat   between well-know political blogger Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines) and the editor of the newly created blogsite LabourList.

This time, Labour's discredited former spin doctor Derek Draper has accused Guido of allowing unsavoury racial slurs in the comments section of one of his blog posts. A friend of 'New' Labour architect Peter Mandelson, Draper fell from grace in the Labour Party a decade ago after being caught on tape by an undercover reporter boasting about his "intimate" links with the prime minister Tony Blair's innner circle.

Draper's bust up with his fellow blogger   started with Guido's weekly Friday caption competition, which had the picture of Prime minister Gordon Brown meeting a group of Black kids at a school. The ex-Labour insider used LabourList, which was officially launched last month, to lambast Staines, but, ironically, Guido wrote a tongue in cheek in response - shrugging it off.

"Dearest Derek, Thank you for your email drawing attention to some unsavoury comments on the Friday Caption Contest. They have now been deleted. We really value your input to the blog and in particular the amusing contributions you have made this week to the success of Guido Fawkes blog.

He wrote further: "If you would like to formally apply for the position of Comment Moderator (there is a vacancy) please send your updated CV to..... You will find it a much more demanding job than you are used to. This is after all a high traffic website."

Here are a selection of the comments that were from the Friday Caption Competition: "The pygmies pleaded their case for asylum" "Whilst the other G8 leaders saved the world, Gordon looked after the Obamalettes" "Welcome to Brown Britain!"

Obviously, these are distasteful, but there were, and still are  far worse ones in the comments section.

Draper wrote in a blog post on LabourList: "Sadly, the right wing blogosphere has today proved itself to be even more offensive and objectionable." He added: "This is about zero tolerance of racism. It is about coming down firmly on racists and their apologists and enablers wherever they show their sick, ugly heads."

The latest development is that contributors of LabourList have written to some of the advertising companies that Guido uses, warning them that they are 'linked' to a website which does not moderate comments properly.

The blogging spat between Draper and Guido got personal earlier on in the week when GUIDO and The Guardian published a story claiming that Draper had embellished his qualifications on his CV regarding where he had studied psychology. Draper threatened legal action.

And over a week ago, Draper got into another blogging spat with Tory blogger Iain Dale, who he claimed was supportive of writer and journalist Carol Thatcher's comments over a Black Cricketer, whom she referenced as a 'Golliwog.'

It caused a fracas in the mainstream media when she was fired by the BBC after a whistleblower had leaked the comment she had made at a private function in the BBC.

LabourList have been urging people not to 'link' to Staines' site - despite Draper having linked to Guido in the story. The comments section of LabourList has been inundated with mixed reaction to the latest spat.

Some have said that Guido has a community of bloggers who enjoy a racist joke on a Friday afternoon. While others, have been horrified by them.

One said: "Racism and homophobia on Guido Fawkes' blog didn't start yesterday. It's been there for a long time so I'm amazed it was linked to from here at all in the first place, so adding it on just to take it off looks a bit like a stunt, but hey ho, if it helps draw attention to the vile nature of his site I don't mind."

On the other side, some claim that Draper has been using the spat to increase traffic to his site - by picking a fight with successful bloggers from the right.

One said: "Clearly you are reduced to picking fights with successful blogs in an attempt to increase traffic on your own site. Do you have anything of interest to actually contribute? What is Labour's vision of the future? Presumably the scale of Labour's ambition is limited to trying to convince the public that all Conservatives are evil."