Playing with explosives

‘Mps to vote on death penalty’, announced the front page of the Daily Mail earlier this month. This was a reference to a petition on a government website calling for the restoration of capital punishment, but the true significance of the story was buried in the small print. The e-petition in question was created by Paul Staines, the man behind the Guido Fawkes blog. Until recently, Staines’s influence was confined to uncovering political scandals, making him a must-read in the Westminster village but relatively unknown in the wider world. Now, it seems, he’s single-handedly put capital punishment back on the political agenda.

‘Harry reckons this is our Glenn Beck moment,’ says Staines, referring to his second-in-command Harry Cole. Political anoraks will recall that Beck, an outspoken American talk-show host, lost his slot on Fox News after he branded President Obama a racist, prompting an advertiser boycott. But Staines doesn’t seriously think his e-petition will harm his career.