Kuenssberg fails to question Dowden over Wragg-Grindr scandal

  • Post last modified:April 7, 2024
  • Reading time:9 mins read


This week saw the reveal of a scandal so shocking that it’s hard to believe it’s real. Think Grindr. Think William Wragg – because Kuenssberg might not have been:

Given the severity (and – let’s be honest – hilarity) of this scandal, you’d expect the BBC‘s flagship political show to give it some attention.

At least you would if you had zero familiarity with the BBC anyway:

Losing his Wragg

So what happened with Wragg exactly? According to Sky News:

Mr Wragg told The Times on Thursday he was “manipulated” into giving personal phone numbers of colleagues to a man he met on a gay dating app, after he had sent intimate pictures of himself.

It’s not ‘victim blaming’ to call Wragg out, and thankfully everyone seems to realise this (doing a Twitter search, we found only one misguided soul making that argument).

The chief reason is that MPs are wired into the country’s security apparatus, and as such they’ve been briefed on the fact that foreign adversaries are constantly trying to get compromising materials on them. The Soviets called it ‘kompromat‘, and back then it was hard to come by – it didn’t simply show up in your inbox.

The second reason why it isn’t victim blaming is that the compromising materials on Wragg must fall into one of two camps:

If the images of him are simply cringe, he should have just let them come out; if they pictured him breaking the law, he should be in prison.

In summary, Wragg is a total fuck-up who should be booted out of office and possibly locked up.

That in itself should have made it discussion worthy on Kuenssberg, but what really tips it over the edge is that prominent Tories are arguing that Wragg is actually a “courageous” smol-bean who’s simply out there doing his best:

Seeing red

So what happened with Angela Rayner?

Err… she sold her house or something?

The ‘scandal’ has been rolling on for weeks and weeks despite never landing. New ‘evidence’ came out this weekend, but that seems to have been instantly debunked too:

Some more context from Neidle’s piece:

Ms Rayner’s statement suggests she may have misunderstood the law. In some scenarios that could mean she failed to pay CGT of up to £3,500, but potentially less or zero. The amount of tax involved is therefore small but, in the interests of transparency, it would be helpful for Ms Rayner to clarify the position.

Three and a half grand.

Given that the media routinely ignores tax scams worth billions, do you seriously think anyone in the British media gives a fuck about £3.5k, even if it was a genuine scam?

Also, do you seriously think they care about lying?

They should care, of course, but these tabloid stooges are only bothered when it benefits their lying, tax-dodging owners.

What scandal, asks Kuenssberg?

Context out of the way, you can understand why people had reactions like the following:

Grindrs creepers

Controversial opinion, perhaps, but as long as the nuclear codes aren’t getting leaked via Grindr, we here at the Canary are all in favour of Tory MPs doxing one another to their anonymous sex friends. Largely because it’s funny, but also because fuck ’em.

We’re also in favour of the following:

  • MPs being sacked in disgrace.
  • MPs resigning in disgrace.
  • MPs remaining in position in disgrace, and in doing so calling the validity of their disgraceful party into question.

What we don’t like is the BBC turning a blind eye while any of the above are going on.

Given the national broadcaster’s record, however, it’s far from surprising.

Featured image via BBC





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