Together we forced Guido to take down the racist comments on his site but there is still more to do
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It is wonderful that pressure from LabourList supporters has forced Paul Staines to take the racist comments off his website. He should be commended for doing that but he hasn’t apologised for the offence he has caused and he has not committed never to do the same thing again. He also continues to host many other offensive and hateful comments. And make no mistake, if LabourList had not started this campaign yesterday the original comments would still be there – and would have been added to.
To those people who somehow think that this is a storm in a teacup or we should have better things to do, or its just a spat between our editor and Guido, read the moving, wise words of one of our commenters, Arjun Mittra:
“As someone who has frequently been the victim of racist abuse, I applaud the actions of those who have not when they seek to combat bigotry. People just think that there is no problem making innocent remarks, but the reality is that they contribute to the depressingly hostile atmosphere that ethnic minorities put up with in this country. But seeing as Paul Staines and the other Tories will, hopefully, never suffer serious racist abuse and discrimination, then of course they will not understand when they offend.”
Another of our commenters, Neil Fraser, has put together the following list of advertisers on Paul Staines’ racist website. Anyone who also feels that racism on the internet must be stamped out should also contact these companies. Ther are some e-mails below, as Neil says, do send in more. Let us know how you get on.
Ann Summers
Money Supermarket.com
Marks & Spencer.com
Uswitch
iwantoneofthose.com
HSBC
British Gas
Snap Fish
Skyscanner
Lastminute .com
Gumtree
Flicker
Dell
Intel
British airways Holidays
Gieves & Hawkes
Actionaid
Thorntons
Thomas cook
Dear Sir or Madam:
The above is a list of companies which advertise on the Order-Order.com website, a blog by Mr Paul Staines, alias Guido Fawkes. As you will have noticed, your company appears on this list.
You need to examine his website from Friday February 13th, encouraging his readers to generate comments in a “caption competition”. As you will note, the photograph shows a number of young children together with the Prime Minister. Mr Staines then published a series of responses, many of which were racist &/or sexual in nature.
Whilst Mr Staines denies racism, he allowed the comments to stand and published them on his site, only taking some of the worst (but by no means all the offensive comments) down after considerable outcry on-line.
I believe that Mr Staines choice of picture as “humorous” and suitable for a competition, and most especially his inaction suggests tacit support for some of the views that were expressed, albeit as “jokes”. As a father of young children, I was disturbed by the choice of image and the comments that were posted on the site without any apparent moderation.
I am aware that my opinions on this matter are not unusual. I have discussed this site in internet fora and on social networking sites such as Twitter.com, and have found a lot of people are outraged by the material appearing on the order-order.com site. I am sure that I am not the only person who will withdraw my support and refuse to purchase from companies who support this site with advertising revenue. I am, in fact, suggesting this approach to others who were disgusted by the views expressed on Mr Staines site.
I am sure that your company does not want to be associated with the material that was posted on Guido Fawkes blog today, and I would strongly urge you to withdraw your advertising from order-order.com.
I for one will not be using any of your products until you take a stand.
Yours,
Neil Fraser.
I’ve emailed this out to the following addresses:
allan.gilliland@moneysupermarket.com
Anthony.Chmarny@service.britgas.co.uk
customer.relations@thomascook.com
If anyone wants to do the same that would be great, also if anyone can prove more contact details for these companies that too would be great.
In addition everyone should be aware that the company that handles Staines’ advertising is called Messagespace and also provides adverts for other blogs and sites. Staines put up the money for this venture and seems to be in control of it. It is probably a good idea for all progressive and mainstream bloggers and websites to stay away from this company given the nature of the offensive website that is run by Staines. LabourHome guru Jag Singh is also involved but that is a matter for him. Tom Watson MP has already called publicly for Jag to find other backers for his venture and that would seem more urgent now than ever. It is interesting to note that ConservativeHome has wisely stayed away from the current messagespace setup.
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