I’ve had a think about the No 10 email smear affair, aka Emailgate, since yesterday’s post. What I must remember not to forget as I get carried away with loathing Labour is what really matters is that the scurrilous gossip about the Tories and their family members is out there now. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, it’s in the public domain.
Wasn’t that worth the loss of a special adviser who’s undoubtedly still on the PM’s contact list and who’ll surely find a comfy job in a convenient thinktank right up the street anyway?
Job done thinks No. 10; so far for Brown the positives outweigh the negatives. So far. Like many my first google yesterday was to find out what the allegations against the Tories were and it was the allegations that occupied the headlines all day.The machinations behind the scenes in Downing St, although reported, were paid secondary attention, but things are changing. Even the normally slavishly loyal Jackie Ashley of the Guardian is fingering Gordon as guilty.
Although we’ve seen at least one of Labour’s buttmonkey wannabes, Damien McBride go down over Emailgate (he says resigned, Gordo says fired), yet the man who’s chosen to surround himself with a troop of viciously loyal simian spinners still denies it has anything to do with him.
The whole reason McBride was employed at public expense and for political purposes was to destabilise the opposition with lies, mislead the media and divert attention from Gordo’s own flaming red monkey butt. Gordon Brown still denies all knowledge and as usual, responsibility for McBride, although McBride has been his poo-flinger in chief since forever :
He caught Gordon Brown’s eye in 2000 as the official responsible for leading the Treasury’s response to the first wave of fuel protests. According to one insider: ‘His hardline stance impressed Brown because he eventually stared out the truckers and forced them to capitulate.’
[…]
McBride took over from Ian Austin as Gordon Brown’s adviser on political press issues after the 2005 General Election.
Despite having to be replaced at one point he saw off his rival and continued poo-flinging for Gordo. Here’s a more polite sample of McBride’s output:
I just wish for once you’d try to get past your cynical, Tory, halfwit Harold Lloyd schtick to try and be a genuine journalist.’ read Damian McBride’s text message to the outgoing chief political correspondent of The Times.
‘It’s presumably cos of your inability to do so that you’re off to earn a crust at some Tory think-tank instead. Pathetic.’
Brown liked McBride and his methods so much he put McBride in charge of his wife Sarah Brown’s personal PR. How’s that working out for you Mrs Brown?
‘Journalists who then found themselves walking beside Mrs Brown struggled to avoid being tripped up as party members muscled in, trying to form a protective phalanx.
Then came the most extraordinary piece of control freakery of the day. “I want you guys on the green,†said the man from the Labour Party. “There will be six or seven guys with guns who will keep you away from her. You may be shot and then it won’t be my problem.â€
It’s not as though the PM or other Labour ministers can claim that they don’t know their responsibility for ‘rogue’ advisors, either; in 2007, Labour minister Lord Davies of Oldham confirmed that ministers must answer for the actions of their advisers, telling the House of Lords:
“The responsibility for the management and conduct of special advisers, including discipline, rests with the Minister who made the appointment. The Ministerial Code makes clear that individual Ministers will be accountable to Parliament for their actions and decisions in respect of their special advisers.”
As if. That hasn’t ever stopped them letting SpAds like McBride off the leash. The PM knows fine well what his aide was up to. When he says he didn’t know about the planned Red Rag blog or the smear campaign he’s lying. Again.
But still. It’s out there. Proper job.
UPDATE:
Yes, that is Drapers’ proposed Red Rag blog linked to up there – there’s nothing on it yet, but it is taking (moderated) comments.
Go on, you know you want to. I did:
“Is this thing on, Dolly? No?
Ah well, I suppose you can always use it for selling menstrual products if the politics and psychotherapy don’t work out and your famous wife dumps you.”
Such larks.
