Downing Street's smear operation against senior Tories set to be exposed

I suggest you keep a close eye on Guido Fawkes' blog this weekend.  Guido alleges that a Downing Street operation, co-ordinated by Damian McBride - the Prime Minister's political and press adviser - has attempted to smear Conservative MPs, including George Osborne (and possibly David Cameron himself).  Iain Dale describes the operation as "Nixonian".  In a pre-emptive rebuttal Downing Street is trying to suggest that only McBride was involved.  A spokesman for Number 10 told the BBC:

"Neither the prime minister nor anybody else in Downing Street, except the author, knew anything about any of these private emails. The author of these emails has apologised for their juvenile and inappropriate nature and for the embarrassment caused. All staff will be reminded of the appropriate use of Number 10 resources."

Not so says Guido.  He blogs that a "government minister" was also involved and, of course, LabourList's Derek Draper.  It is all completely believable.  For years the team around Gordon Brown briefed heavily against Tony Blair.  That Downing Street is still pursuing the politics of character assassination is all too plausible.  If the Sunday newspapers reveal the full nature of the "juvenile and inappropriate" emails from within Downing Street it is difficult to see the key players keeping their jobs.

Tim Montgomerie

Comments

[Span Ows]

Looking forward to more details...I'm sure these decent, upstanding gentlemen couldn't posssibly be up to such naughtiness.

NOT!

[Gawain]

Guido implies that the political correspondents, including the Telegraph's were complicit in these shenanigans. This is alarming. The Telegraph has been badly dumbed down in the last five years and has been suspiciously supportive of Gordon Brown since he became PM. Does this incident mean that we can no longer regard the Telegraph as a "Tory" paper ? Is the free press now to be found on the internet ? This is as much a story about the print media as it is about Brown's scurrilous politics.

[jailhouselawyer]

What a shame we no longer get a little blue bag of salt with our crisps, because that's what is needed here is a pinch of salt to go with the mutterings of Guido Fawkes.

[ken]

That is the end of buying the Daily Telegraph as far as i am concerned.I shall read it for free on line instead.

[Gawain]

"a pinch of salt to go with the mutterings of Guido Fawkes"

Granted. But, a shovel full of salt to go with any statements from Downing Street or anyuthing printed in the Telegraph !

[Bernard from Horsham]

I would read whats going to emerge first before judging on the outcome of all this.
It has all the potential of a messy little story getting very big.

[JGS]

The Telegraph has really got itself in a pickle: their version of the story online yesterday evening was well nigh incomprehensible.

[SMF]

The Telegraph would be a lot better if Con Home didn't poach their top scribes! :-)

[Vincent Wall]

A bad day for The Telegraph yes but a much worse day for Downing Street.

[Stephen]

Guido claims that the Telegraph's correspondent has indeed been complicit in the spin that McBride is putting on this - in fact, Guido claims that the Telegraph lobby writer (who does not even name McBride in the article in the Telegraph)is a close drinking companion of McBride. Ho hum, if you sleep with pigs etc.

[Sally Roberts]

If there is any mess to come out (and for all we know this could be a PsyOps tactic by the No. 10 Machine) then surely far better it does so now rather than 2 days before Polling Day!

[Concanvasser]

I work for an organisation that advertises (or used to) in the Daily Telegraph. I attended a presentation at their new Buckingham Palace Rd HQ and was told absolutely straight forwardly by a Director of what they new call "Telegraph Media" that the DT prefered Brown to Cameron and that they had not decided whether to endorse Brown at the next GE.
I promise this is true.
I have read the Times now for over a year and find it greatly improved and now superior to the DT. It is such a shame as the DT was my paper for years. Not going to improve till the Barclays lose enough money to call it a day.

[Sally Roberts]

" was told absolutely straight forwardly by a Director of what they new call "Telegraph Media" that the DT prefered Brown to Cameron and that they had not decided whether to endorse Brown at the next GE.
I promise this is true."

It doesn't surprise me in the least. So...No longer the "ToryGraph" then?

Jonathan, you had a lucky escape!

[Scott]

Dizzy has already posted that the Telegraph article contains at least one verifiably false statement from McBride.

[Super Blue]

None of this is unexpected - it is good to see it exposed, particularly that a "civil servant" is at the bottom of this. As for Draper, we know a lot about him as well!

[HF]

Porter at the Telegraph is a disgrace for failing to name McBride.

[Tony Makara]

I doubt that Gordon Brown would sanction such guttersnipe behaviour. Whatever people think of Mr Brown, he is, at heart, a serious politician and surely will condemn this vile rumour mongering.

Nontheless, This whole fiasco does expose a certain culture that has developed in the blogosphere. One in which earnest debate has been soiled by ill-mannered bitching and even slander. Sadly even this website has failed to exercize a strict enough editorial policy and has allowed the loud and lewd to ruin worthwhile debates.

If the blogosphere is to develop a political credibility then it has to change direction. The 'Oz' style blogs must be exposed, named and shamed, for the kitsch analysis and tactics that they propagate.

I hope that this disgusting attempt to tactically smear senior politicians will spark a debate beyond the blogosphere itself.

[martin sewell]

The Tories need to insist in one simple thing. Brown must get all his special advisors in and insist they tell him everything. From then on he has to sack - or be complicit if further revelations emerge.

If Brown cannot trust his special advisors to act with probity why are we paying for them?

[Cleethorpes Rock]

This demonstrates a couple of key things that a) vindicate Guido and b) expose Dolly Draper as a big fat liar following their exchange on the Daily Politics the other week, namely:

1) Derek Draper's claim that Labour list is independent of the Number 10 and the Labour Party is in tatters. Labourlist has no credibility left (if it ever had any) as an independent voice of the Labour grassroots.

2) Damian McBride (a civil servant let's not forget, paid for by you and me) IS fundamentally involved in instructing and controlling smear campaigns to be conducted via the Labourlist organ.

I think the blogosphere will flame Dolly Draper and Damian McStooge for this. What our party needs to do is hammer home the fact that, yet again, Labour has mis-appropriated taxpayers' money for political campaigns and operations. Something along the lines of "Brown aide drew up Cam smear plan as Tory leader grieved for his son" should have the public suitably repulsed.

[Patsy Sergeant]

jailhouselawyer @ 07.56

I would suggest that Guido Fawkes is worth his WEIGHT in salt - salt/gold, both were considered of great value, when value was uncorrupted.

[David Cooper]

Interesting that the subsidiary article on page 2 of the Telegraph, profiling the two protagonists, should introduce Draper with the headline "Ex-Labour adviser combats 'black propaganda' " and Guido with "The gossip monger yearning to be taken seriously". Definitely not the Telegraph's finest hour.

[oldrightie]

"I doubt that Gordon Brown would sanction such guttersnipe behaviour. Whatever people think of Mr Brown, he is, at heart, a serious politician and surely will condemn this vile rumour mongering."

The last 12 years seem not to support that glowing statement. His ousting of Blair is just one example of his character. A devious, cunning and mendacious man. If The makaras of the world keep to this approach then voting fraud and all sorts of behaviour will put Labour in power for years. Wake up, please. They are the nasty party led by a nasty man.

[YMT]

Labour want to grasp onto power at all costs, I wouldn't be surprised if they have a stockpile of dirty politics tactics ready. I would not be surprised if the Telegraph was complicit in some way. It would be the ideal paper with its connotations of being the "Torygraph" to launch lurid allegations against conservative party members.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

Does this mean we should now be referring to the "Dolly Telegraph"?

[ToryBlog.com - Fight the Drapists]

Go Guido.

It is not only Labour who can play dirty and we have the additional benefit of 12 years of anger to carry us through.

I guess the correct term for the New Lab dirty trickers should be 'drapists' as they have done so much to the country without our consent.

[Phyllis Crash]

@Cleethorpes Rock,

Very good!

[Bernard from Horsham]

Drapists? it must be curtains then.

[The Bishop swine]

You have to take Guido with a lot of salt I think. A very effective operator he may be but 100% reliable...no his record is derisable at best.

[Steve Horgan]

This is a very important story and it is a great credit to Guido for having broken it. I cannot understand why people here are running him down. Instead the question is if we didn't have a strong and independent blogosphere would we ever have known about this or would we just have read the smears as they mysteriously rolled out across the media?

This is very serious stuff. The machinery of government not being used for the making of public policy for the benefit or our people, instead being subverted for a malicious campaign to destroy the government's enemies. Iain Dale was exactly right to describe it as Nixonian. The no.10 line is that McBride was acting alone. If that were true than it would be bad enough, he is a senior and close advisor to the Prime Minister, but I don't believe it. This speaks to something going very badly wrong in this government and we may just have just seen the our equivalent of the Watergate burglary, with much more to come. Labourhome have called for McBride to be fired, which does them enormous credit. That he hasn't gone speaks volumes.

[sjm]

The Bishop Swine - Guido is right far more often than he's wrong. Remember Peter Hain and Wendy Alexander?

[Ross Warren]

"I cannot understand why people here are running him down"

Sensible keeping a safe distance from a loose Cannon.

"This is very serious stuff. The machinery of government not being used for the making of public policy for the benefit or our people, instead being subverted for a malicious campaign to destroy the government's enemies"

A very serious allegation indeed ! Guido's head is on the block if he is disproved.

[Myles Bailey]

Wow a Left wing centralising bureacratic government engages in smearing its opponents? Never seen before...ackhem...Eastern Europe 1945-1989...koff, koff...After the example of half a century of socialism in the so called German Democratic republic et al. why oh why did the British people entrust their governance to Labour?

[Watervole]

More lurid details on here - this goes right to the top and is not in the least bit accidental.

http://plato-says.blogspot.com/2009/04/red-rag-meets-deep-throat.html

[johnfromcamberley]

Ross Warren

The quotation was "This is very serious stuff. The machinery of government not being used for the making of public policy for the benefit or our people, instead being subverted for a malicious campaign to destroy the government's enemies"

And your comment was "A very serious allegation indeed ! Guido's head is on the block if he is disproved [sic]."

We have a senior government official, constructing lies and smears in a conspiracy with a senior Labour propagandist. He did so in his work time (paid for by us), in his office at No.10, using computer equipment and an e-mail address all provided by the government (i.e. paid for by us). All these are acknowledged facts, they are the things that McBride has had to apologise for (though, I notice, the apology was to his colleagues, not to the people who paid for it all, i.e. us).

Surely the fundamental points made by Guido are already proven? In other words, Ross Warren, do keep up!

[Sally Roberts]

Thank you for the link, Watervole.

This gets more sick-making by the minute.

[Ross Warren]

"Surely the fundamental points made by Guido are already proven? In other words, Ross Warren, do keep up!"

So are you expecting no fall out ? no shrapnel flying about. If it is so proven then we can expect to see a few prominent heads rolling ? The proof of this pudding being in the oven is one thing its delivery quite another. If these allegations are provable , to think otherwise is to assume an awful lot. Of course we could be engaging with the government to keep a lid on this.
In which case the powder wasn't as dry as maybe it was claimed. This hasn't blown up yet. Who do you imagine fed this to Guido?

[Gwendo]

Well said 'oldrightwinger'
Tony Makera, you can really say you esteem Brown after the way he got rid of Blair, aided by his henchman Watson- Brown is the biggest plotter of them all.

[John Moss]

McBride has resigned.

[Malcolm Dunn]

Whatever ones political view it is beyond doubt that new Labour attracts the scum of the earth to its ranks.

[MG]

Just do as I've done and stop buying the Telegraph, it's completely lost its way.

[Tony Makara]

It is not my aim to deflect from Gordon Brown's record as chancellor or as prime minister. However, from what I have seen of Mr Brown's character, I do not think he would stoop so low as to supporting crude tabloid type slander.

As I stated earlier, this sort of slanderous gutter politics is very much the norm with certain Conservative blogs, so one has to raise an eyebrow at the two-faced insolence displayed by certain people when complaining about Labour's equally disgusting behaviour.

Those interested in making a serious contribution to political life via the internet have to stick to the issues and stop using personal abuse as a short cut to undermine the opposition.

I feel that much of today's sanctomonious posturing has been the very hight of hypocrisy from a whole bevy of nonentities who use the internet to cultivate an image for themselves.

The likes of Damian McBride and the editors of certain Conservative blogs need to grow up. Our country is in a time of deep economic crisis and all these little boys want to do is bitch like drama queens.

[The court of Public Opinion]

You have to take Guido with a lot of salt I think. A very effective operator he may be but 100% reliable...no his record is derisable at best.

Posted by: The Bishop swine | April 11, 2009 at 12:53

NAME ONE!!!!

Go on name one story he has not been correct on

I await with baited breath

[The court of Public Opinion]

if the blogosphere is to develop a political credibility then it has to change direction. Posted by: Tony Makara | April 11, 2009 at 10:01

No tony, it has to stay precisely as it is because if it had changed direction you / me and others would not know what Labour are really about.

Or perhaps that's your entire point?

[The court of Public Opinion]

Posted by: Tony Makara | April 11, 2009 at 20:51

BWahahahahahahahahahahahaahah....

[Ronski]

Please dont keep knocking the Telegraph, it's great for holding fish & chips