Paul Staines

Paul Staines
Staines in 2006
Born
Paul De Laire Staines

(1967-02-11) 11 February 1967 (age 57)[1]
Ealing, London, England
Alma materHumberside College of FE
OccupationPolitical blogger
Known forGuido Fawkes
Political partyformerly associated with:
Conservative Party
Social Democratic Party (UK)
Progressive Democrats

Paul De Laire Staines (born 11 February 1967)[1] is a British-Irish right-wing[2][3][4] political blogger who publishes the Guido Fawkes website, which was described by The Daily Telegraph as "one of Britain's leading political blogsites" in 2007.[5] The Sun on Sunday newspaper published a weekly Guido Fawkes column from 2013 to 2016.[6][7] Born and raised in England, Staines holds British and Irish citizenship.

Staines acquired an interest in politics as a libertarian in the 1980s and did public relations for acid house parties in the early 1990s. He then spent several years in finance, first as a broker then as a trader. In 2001, he sued his fund's financial backer in a commercial dispute.[8] Consequently, Staines declared himself bankrupt in October 2003 after two years of litigation, and legal costs on both sides running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.[9]

In September 2004, Staines started publishing his political blog Guido Fawkes.[10] The blog was named after the Spanish name for Guy Fawkes, an English Catholic involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot to assassinate King James I in 1605.[11]

  1. ^ a b "Paul Staines: The worm of Westminster". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 April 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  2. ^ Perkins, Anne (7 April 2018). "Guido Fawkes: a cross between a comic and a propaganda machine". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  3. ^ "The Most Feared Man In Westminster". Esquire. 31 July 2014. Archived from the original on 2 August 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  4. ^ Edemariam, Aida (15 February 2013). "Blogger Guido Fawkes, aka Paul Staines: 'I still hate politicians'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  5. ^ Graeme Wilson and Brendan Carlin. Focus on Labour website in peerage row Archived 12 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine. The Daily Telegraph; retrieved 31 January 2007.
  6. ^ Aida Edemariam (15 February 2013). "Blogger Guido Fawkes, aka Paul Staines: 'I still hate politicians'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 May 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  7. ^ Turvill, William (2 February 2016). "Guido Fawkes Sun column ends, but editor Paul Staines says: 'The appetite for political scandal is back'". Press Gazette. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  8. ^ "Sprecher Grier Halberstam Llp & Anor v Walsh [2008] EWCA Civ 1324 (3 December 2008)". Bailii.org. Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  9. ^ "No. 57079". The London Gazette. 9 October 2003. p. 12536.
  10. ^ Fawkes, Guido (30 September 2004). "Blair Heart Flutters". Guido Fawkes. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  11. ^ "Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot Who was the man behind the mask?". Historic Royal Palaces. Archived from the original on 29 July 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.