And 'smeargate' still has legs on its fourth day...

Downing Street will be furious that Guido Fawkes' huge scoop - that started to emerge on Saturday - has still not been closed down.  It is still leading this morning's broadcast bulletins and newspapers.  Any advantage that Brown may have hoped to gain from the G20 summit has been sunk in Damian McBride's sludge of smears.

There are still legs in the story, too.  Here are the unresolved issues:

1. The inadequacy of Gordon Brown's letters: Yesterday, just before 5pm, the news broke that Brown was to issue letters of apology but it now seems that the content of the letters fell short of what was spun.  The Prime Minister's letters described the whole affair as a "matter of deep regret" but they haven't gone far enough according to Tory sources.  As Iain Dale told Sky News: "Tony Blair would have held his hands up, said sorry, and we would all have thought better of him for doing it."
2. The position of Derek Draper: The editor of LabourList is still in place. Over the weekend he was defending Damian McBride. John Prescott has called for him to go and today's FT reports that senior Labour figures now intend to give the website a very wide berth: "“You won’t be seeing any of them going near it again,” said a Labour figure."
3. The position of Tom Watson: The Sun urges the Prime Minister to sack the "poisonous" Tom Watson MP - currently a Cabinet Offioce minister - who plotted against Tony Blair and who has a reputation as a "ruthless political hardman".  Watson, The Sun Says, "is a stain on the Prime Minister’s judgment and his government’s credibility."
4. A new line of complaint from Frances Osborne: The Shadow Chancellor's wife - one of Mr McBride's targets - has, reports The Telegraph, complained to the Press Complaints Commission about the ways in which certain newspapers repeated the fabricated stories against her.

Tim Montgomerie

Comments

[ToryBlog.com --> First Broon then Roon]

Fantastic work by Guido.

Brick by brick, bloggers will chip away until the political class fall.

[Sally Roberts]

I don't blame Mrs Osborne for complaining - to drag the wives into this kind of thing is completely and utterly despicable and good for her for fighting back!
As for why the story is continuing - the reason is two-fold. Firstly, Brown has demonstrated himself utterly incapable of pronouncing the "S" word - all he will repeat is that he "regrets...". Secondly it must be reiterated that public money was spent on financing a civil servant to sit in Number 10 and fabricate black propaganda purely for the benefit of the Labour Party. At a time of deep recession the public have a right to wonder whether their money could be better spent.

[Super Blue]

I'm still enjoying this!

[Sally Roberts]

Good, isn't it Super Blue - and have you seen over on another thread who has come back from their holiday?

[TRG Tory]

Fellow Conservatives,

We shouldn't be enjoying this. All of politics is being soiled.

[Super Blue]

Yes - they all being ridiculed to death here.

[Sally Roberts]

Point taken, TRG Tory!

[ToryBlog.com --> First Broon then Roon]

"All of politics is being soiled."

Politics is soiled.

Exposing the fact does not make politics worse, it presents an opportunity to make it better.

[johnny come lately]

sally roberts is right, it was sick! and I could not believe that the 'responsible' newspapers were the ones describing, in full, the contents of most of the emails. I say 'most' as we are told there are others which are even more disgusting. Gosh they must be bad!

This story will continue as the decent ones within the Labour Party are now getting a voice. We could even see Brown seriously weakened by this and told to stand down!

He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.

Politics would be a far healthier place without Brown. I want our politics to have this cancer of assassination by inuendo removed for good. Let us get back to arguing on policies.

I hope that Brown is removed as soon as possible. He has brought all this on himself. He can blame nobody else but himself.

I wonder if he can look himself in the eye?

[Denis Cooper]

Sally, the public have a right to see the law applied:

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/l_to_o/misconduct_in_public_office/index.html

not ignored.

[pp]

TRG

You are wrong, this is not soiling politics, it is just showing how disgustingly soiled politics has been all along.

The longer it takes for anyone to really take the moral high ground, the more you have to wonder what they have to hide.

Brown is unfit to be in charge of anything at all - let alone our country and treasury.

The tory front bench have to stop playing the game of pretending that this is all just part of the process.

The tories will win the next election with no credible opposition for years to come - under our current system this will be as unhealthy as the current brown/nu-labour situation.

Tony Blair brought in the fantastic 'freedom of information' act - enough to convince me that he at least set out to be honest and accountable (even if entirely misguided in his politics)- the tories should be promising to build on it and extending it, both as an demonstration of their integrity and to protect the public from the lack of a credible opposition in parliament.

It should be illegal for any government business not to be at least minuted and available for FoI requests.

[Sally Roberts]

Thank you Denis for the link. I would not be surprised if there is a prima facie case here.

[Doug]

It's true that politics was already soiled. Even before these revelations the modern standards of politics were fundamentally broken.

Also I can't help but laugh at Stephen Pollard in the Times for claiming that what newspapers write is truthful. How many court cases and millions of pounds in settlements does it take for newspapers to realise that not only do they create smear stories they also facilitate their publication by inappropriate, uncritical relationships with powerful and favoured polticians? There's all sorts of talk about journalists named in associated, unpublished e-mails. It would be very informative to find out which journos are nothing more than stenographers for the government e.g. Andrew Porter at the Telegraph. But then we'd have to rely on the blogs to publish that information as the papers generally protect each other when it comes to revealing their complicity.

[Malcolm Dunn]

I hope we don't overdo it. The damage to Brown's reputation has been done.There are more important things to think about.
Well done Guido!

[johnny come lately]

May I recommend:-
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/columnists/fergus_shanahan/article2375497.ece

an excellent read which shows this story will run until Brown wakes up!

[That's News]

And what on Earth happened to the Telegraph? Gordon Brown's mouthpiece? Good grief!

No more the Torygraph?

[Cleethorpes Rock]

I think this we go on and on without the party driving it. Let's change the subject and change the pace by moving things back onto the economy.

We can do this by calling a Cameron/Osborne press conference on the Economy, and then by leading off on the Economy on the next PMQs. This shows us to be the bigger men by moving onto the things most voters care about.

If the jounalists bring the "Night of the Wronged-wives" up, we can give a stock response then move things back to the economy, then to the prison debacle, then to Labour's immigration shambles, then back to the economy again. Labour need to be kept guessing and we need to be setting the agenda, and seen to be doing so.

[UKIP Campaigner]

"We shouldn't be enjoying this. All of politics is being soiled.

Posted by: TRG Tory | April 14, 2009 at 08:32"

Politics were soiled by the TRG's relentless attacks on Mrs`Thatcher. TRG MPs, especially those in cabinet, led the move to remove her as Premier.

TRG Officers
President: Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP

Some Patrons:
John Bercow MP
Prof Nicholas Bourne AM
The Rt Hon David Curry MP
The Rt Hon Stephen Dorrell MP
The Rt Hon Lord Heseltine CH
The Rt Hon Lord Hunt of Wirral MBE
The Rt Hon Lord Hurd of Westwell CH CBE
The Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes
The Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind KCMG QCMP
Ian Taylor MBE MP
The Rt Hon Lord Walker of Worcester MBE PC
The Rt Hon Sir George Young MP

What a shower!!

[Dorothy Wilson]

If I heard correctly, according to some Labour MP - I think his name was Flynn - on the Today programme this morning most of this is the fault of a] the newspapers and b] the Conservatives.

He did admit that there was something nasty in McBride and Draper's behaviour but then seemed to say that most of the blame lay elsewhere. Firstly, it was the newspapers' fault for publishing the e-mails. Secondly, the Conservatives should have taken out an injunction to stop them doing so. Also, the Conservatives were milking the situation for all it was worth.

It would seem to me that there's an opportunity here for the Cons to play this situation objectively. They should say that when they come to power they will cut the number of special advisers drastically. And, most government news management will be put back into the hands of civil servants - Haseltine made that point on the news last night. As part of that they should also make a commitment to appoint a Speaker from one of the other parties as, in my view at least, the partisanship of the current Speaker has degraded the operation of the Commons and has contributed to the fact that the scandal of MPs' expenses has dragged on for so long.

This approach would allow the Conservatives to take the high ground without falling into the Back to Basics trap of Major.

[RichardJ]

Agree with those who say we should move on now. I suspect the public will become bored with this predominantly Westminster-based story fairly quickly. Guido has done a terrific job but there's only so much interest this sort of story can generate. Time to focus on areas of policy methinks.

[Yogi]

I fuly agree with Cleethorpe Rock. Let the media keep the other matters in the spotlight.

I must say that Brown has a pathalogical inability to utter the word sorry.

[Tristan Downing]

We should be talking more about the economy, that is true. But this isn't like the GreenGate scandal, this is far more damaging to the PM and Labour specifically. In a couple of the papers today there are diagrams of the web of spin and dirty politics in Downing Street. Can we have those reproduced here please? Maybe as another thread?

I don't think politics is soiled, I think life is soiled and politics is little different. Humans can be nasty little creatures and there is no reason to think politicians would be special or less scummy than the rest. There are good and there are not so good and what this scandal does is highlight that Labour are more soiled than the rest. This kind of behaviour is not common to British politics, it is common to Labour and other left wing parties.

The is no point getting obsessed with cleaning up politics to the point it vanishes all together because it wont work. If we have human life with organised society and rules, we will have politics, there is no other way that works. Are we conservatives or not? Politics being a battle is one thing, but what Labour are doing is far beyond what is acceptable.

[Hawkeye]

Yogi said: "I must say that Brown has a pathalogical inability to utter the word sorry"

I'm sure that Brown can say sorry. He just cannot bring himself to utter it to anyone outside his circle of sycophants. As for apologising to tories.....

[Sally Roberts]

I like the approach Cleethorpes Rock has suggested - simply that we move on to other matters, primarily the Economy - but if others ask US about it then we have our answers well prepared....

[Derek Smith]

No one seems yet to have criticised Health Minister Johnson for his reiterated comments on the BBC that Brown has "nothing to apologise for" because he "didn't know".

So much for Brown's judgement in appointing staff, his control of the Downing Street machine and his willingness to act as captain on the bridge. He deserves to go down with his ship!

[Cleethorpes Rock]

I think the way David Cameron has stayed above this affair has reflected very well on him. Turning the other cheek and moving things onto the economy would place Cameron and Osborne on an altogether higher moral level. The public will pick up on this.

Cameron focussing on the economy while Brown goes to ground in the bunker will show the British people who's really fit to run the country.

[Peter Buss]

I believe we really should move on now or else we really will be seen as self obsessed by the electorate. Guido has got his scalp - the Press (hopefully) will now be less scared of the Brown machine and the stench from this sordid affair will linger long over the Govt.Lets show we can ise above all this muck and focus on the issues that really matter to ordinary folks.
Cheers

PS Whilst I really do applaud Frances Osbourne for taking this further, I do now think its in the redoubtable Nadines' best interests to observe a peiod of silence. I'm not at all sure that she is doing herself any favours by her constant appearances on the media circuit.

[John B. Pope]

Unfortunately the legs are artificial

[Conand]

@ Cleethorpes Rock @ 09:29

I basically agree, although 'calling a Cameron/Osborne press conference' would make us look a bit defensive.

Better to just keep our noses to the grindstone and present our policies. I'm worried that the housing policies presented by Grant Shapps last week might have got lost in the guff. This would be a great pity.
Some of our MPs won't be able to resist pointing out how upset The Foreign Secretary must be about the personnel changes in Number 10.

[Sally Roberts]

"PS Whilst I really do applaud Frances Osbourne for taking this further, I do now think its in the redoubtable Nadines' best interests to observe a peiod of silence. I'm not at all sure that she is doing herself any favours by her constant appearances on the media circuit."

Agree with you, Peter Buss. Yes Nadine suffered an unpleasant and untrue slur but it would be rather more grown-up to be seen to be able to move on from it rather than do repeated interviews on the subject, the most recent of which rather made her come across as a Princess Diana sound-alike!

[A Reformed Labour Voter]

It shows the Brown led Downing St operation up for what it is - a cabal of dysfunctional individuals, obsessed with holding on to power at any cost.

And Gordo's G20 'world stage' antics (costing the tax payer a further 50 million quid) have been utterly sunk by Mr Jacqui Smith's porn habit and Damian McBride's poisonous lies.

[Tristan Downing]

I don't mind Nadine continueing with this story, or various back benchers, but as for Cameron and Osborne specifically, they should now go on the offensive with the economy. Take Brown on two fronts with the economy as the main drive.

Does anyone ever tell them the things we write?

[Tristan Downing]

Pardon the spelling.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

Tristan, I'd hope after recent days, politicians would be paying even more attention to the blogs!

Just in case they haven't seen this, can Tim or Jonathan use their good offices to get the message through that the grassroots are ready to get back to business and deal with the economy while Labour are consumed with this affair?

[Councillor Paul]

Brown is cancerous and should be cut out of the body politic, maybe there are some good and true surgeons in Labours midst that can do the dirty work

[RichardJ]

"Whilst I really do applaud Frances Osbourne for taking this further, I do now think its in the redoubtable Nadines' best interests to observe a peiod of silence."

Agreed, she seems to get regularly fisked by both left (Liberal Conspiracy) and right (Devil's kitchen). Less talk, more thought perhaps.

[The Rifle]

First they attacked the fact that their e-mails had been made public. Hacked into or whatever. Then they tried to shift the focus onto the code on civil servants' behaviour. Now they're attacking blogs.

Anything except admitting guilt and SAYING SORRY.

Has anything changed since McBride went?

[strapworld]

How many are aware of this:-
Wrinkled Weasel has this on his excellent blog.

Gordon Brown tries to shut down the European Parliament.

Credit for this story goes in full to Craig Murray. It is just that I had not seen it, until Daniel Hannan mentioned it in passing and I wonder how many people have. It should certainly see a wider audience.

After Hannan's momentus vivisection of Gordon Brown at the European Parliament, Brown, who, if you remember the viral video, smirked like a schoolboy throughout and doodled on a notepad, was so angry that he immediately ordered his flunkies to make sure it does not happen again.

Murray writes:

staff in the UK Mission to the European Union (UKREP Brussels) were horrified to receive an instruction from the FCO to ensure that the situation when Gordon Brown was obliged to hear a speech against him in the European Parliament from MEP Daniel Hannan, could not happen again...

..my friends in our mission in Brussels consoled themselves that Prime Ministerial pique would die down, and with the G20 summit keeping Brown frenetically busy in London, the whole thing would be forgotten. But no! As they opened their offices at 8am Brussels time this morning, there was a missive from No 10, demanding to know what progress has been made.

Read the piece in full here: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/04/gordon_browns_e.html

Brown and New Labour are doing everything in their power to squash criticism at home and abroad. This is a chilling example of just what Labour are prepared to do to hang on, including shutting down debate in the European Parliament.

Brown is already contemptuous of Parliament and when he does attend PMQs he does not answer questions. My reason for posting this is simple: Brown is already an unelected leader and has no greater mandate than the one given him by the people of Fife. In is disdain for public scrutiny he has a long history of simply not being there when it is inconvenient. Now that he has to be present, as Prime Minister, he has set about making sure that all means are used to neutralise dissent, whether it be from a dirty tricks department or brazen requests to change the processes and procedures of the European Parliament.

[Nick in the naughty corner]

Perhaps Gordon Brown still has not apologised because he isn't actually sorry. It is looking increasingly likely that his only regret is the fact that the squalid activities of his attack dogs were exposed.

[Peter Buss]

Cleethorpes Rock - the BBC reported at lunchtime that David Cameron had decided that it was time to draw a line under this sorry business and for the Tories to focus on the economy etc. How reliable that info is I wouldn't of course know. Interestingly the BBC (Radio) are still going big on this one this pm. Perhaps now bullyboy McBride is off the scene they feel less scared to go with stories that are not favourable to the Govt. Perhaps the DT will rediscover its backbone as well!!

[Cleethorpes Rock]

Peter, I'm encouraged to hear that. I think we've wrung every last drop out of this for now. People can tell when you're flogging a dead horse. Let's get back to the economy.

[Tristan Downing]

I hope that is true, but I have seen that the BBC is now reporting the David Cameron is accusing the PM of creating a culture of spin and smear in Downing Street. I haven't seen anyone talking about the economy. The only other political news I've seen is the issue of stopping benefits for alcoholics that don't get treatment. Sounds like a good plan to me, I'd stop most handouts, but it is weird seeing Labour for the plan and the Tories against it. I guess there might be more votes to be had this way.

[Tim Montgomerie]

@Tristan,

Watch Cameron say exactly that here:
http://playpolitical.typepad.com/uk_conservative/2009/04/the-downing-street-culture-that-allowed-damian-mcbride-to-do-what-he-did-is-proof-that-labour-has-be.html

[Mark Hudson]

Keep the moral high ground and move on. The public is going to get increasingly bored of this and it'll all blur into another bad month for British politics. The vast majority of people are concerned about their jobs, mortgages, savings and pensions, not who might have e-mailed what to whom.

I have to say I may be doing Nadine Dorries a severe injustice, but her comments about Brown's letter to her smacked of a truly unpleasant dig at his blindness in one eye. If she didn't mean that, I apologize. If she did, shame on her.

[Paul Seaman]

The truth is that most Tories, most voters, don’t care one way or the other about the truth of the latest allegations. Had they been true - which they were not - they would have done little harm. It is the slimy, amateur, conspiracy that shocked us most, and which has backfired hilariously.

Message to Damian McBride and the remaining Labour Party spin-machine: Barack Obama, arguably the most respected politician on earth, said of himself: “Junkie. Pothead. That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man . . . I got high [to] push questions of who I was out of my mind.” More on my PR blog:

http://paulseaman.eu/2009/04/only-nlabour-thought-thered-be-mileage-in-gossipe/

[Delta]

Isn't it Guido they should all be having a go at - after all the emails were private until he gave them to the press so isn't it him responsible for smearing the Tory MPs. . .?

[ToryBlog.com - Not a roon]

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[Freddy]

BROWN is the worst PM this country has ever had!

[Jill, London]

Like Super Blue, I’m still enjoying this too.

Comrade Brown tried so hard to pretend he was nothing like B-Liar, but has [correction – had] a special adviser who made Comrade Campbell seem ‘tame’!

And LOL at the Comrades’ ‘damage limitation’ exercise by attempting to pin the blame on anybody but themselves! Yet this is par for the proverbial course because the Comrades never take responsibility for their own actions – it’s always somebody else’s fault. Oh, except Comrade Brown taking the credit for the economy having been left in a fantastic state when we left office in 1997.

It also beggars belief that Comrade Brown was so unaware of the antics of HIS Special Advisor who seems glued to his side in various newspaper photographs. As the ancient Chinese proverb says: “Fish rots from the head down”!

[pp]

In not letting this go, but calling for Brown to go, Cameron has called this 100% right (IMHV).

Brown has damaged himself (and labour) in the eyes of many labour supporters, core labour supporters that the tories could never have dreamt of reaching with any of their messages.

To keep that group from supporting labour in the next election it is crucial to keep browns self-degradation in their minds.

Overall Brown and McBride have executed a brilliant smear campaign - unfortunately for them it is the Brown and Labour who they have smeared.