User:PeterT111

The Red Rag blogsite was at the centre of a UK political scandal that became known as smeargate. The scandal broke on 11 April 2009 when it was reported by the Daily Telegraph that Gordon Brown's special adviser, Damian McBride had sent a series of emails to left wing political blogger Derek Draper discussing plans to set up the blog which would be used to post false rumours about the private lives of senior members of the Conservative Party and their spouses.^[1]

The emails, which had been sent from the Downing Street Press Office, found their way to Paul Staines who blogs under the pseudonym of Guido Fawkes. ^[2]

Draper and McBride initially tried to play down the plans, McBride stated "To call it an orchestrated smear campaign is ridiculous. It was just some ill-judged gossip between friends which was never meant to see the light of day. They appear to be some ideas — laid out in embarrassing detail — for stories which could appear on a Left-wing version of the Guido Fawkes blog called Red Rag.

They’re all stories which have been doing the rounds in Westminster for a while, written up in a scurrilous style. But the website has never appeared, so it’s hard to see what it was all about."^[3]

However, it quickly became apparent that the plans where much more fully developed. Phil Hendry who blogs under the pseudonym of Dizzy Thinks exposed that The Red Rag had in fact been set up.^[4] This was followed up in the main stream media later that day led by an article in The Observer which also reported that McBride had resigned .^[5]

On 23.07.2009 the original registrant of theredrag.co.ukreliquished the domain and it was re-directed by the registrar to order-order.com which in an act of irony is the blogsite of Guido Fawkes.^[6]

• The Red Rag
• Guido Fawkes Website