Guido Fawkes blog to provide column for the Sun

Political blogger Guido Fawkes has joined The Sun as a new columnist.

The news was announced by the paper’s @Sun_Politics Twitter feed yesterday:

We are delighted to welcome on board @guidofawkes, Westminster's sharpest blogger…

— Sun Politics (@Sun_Politics) February 2, 2013

…Look out for his waspish diary column in The Sun every Sunday. It's going to be explosive.

— Sun Politics (@Sun_Politics) February 2, 2013

The Order-Order blog, written mainly by Paul Staines and Harry Cole, previously provided a column for the Daily Star Sunday. The Guy Fawkes column will be replacing the column formerly written by Dr John Sentamu , the Archbishop of York, on The Sun’s Op Ed page.

'Guido' wrote on his blog:

Britain’s favourite political blog can now be read in Britain’s biggest selling newspaper. Reaching 1 in 7 of the population, more people get their political news from The Sun than any other newspaper. We aim to make the same style of gossip and news as easily accessible in ink form as it is online.

He also promised the column would “bashing political sinners”, adding that te “Guidoisation of politics has mainstreamed…”

Commenting on the new column, political blogger Iain Dale wrote:

I actually think Guido’s Sun column could become a great political column and The Sun clearly see its potential. I absolutely hope it works for both of them. Some will no doubt view Guido’s move as ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’ but that’s lazy thinking.

You don’t have to be one or the other. The new media can sit quite happily alongside the old media and I suppose over the years I’ve proved that. But it does make it more difficult for Guido to be seen as completely independent in his views on the newspaper world.

And that independence is a major reason why he has built up such a readership in the media world, so much so that last year he launched Media Guido. Essentially, you don’t shit on your own doorstep, and he will know that.