Rumours from the village

Morning all,

Well, in place of a normal post, here's a run down of this mornings main leaks, sorry stories.

The Spectator are reporting that Damian 'Trigger finger' McBride is back, with an email account.

Gordon Brown shall, in around 10 minutes, set out details of the Iraq inquiry. It shall undoutedly appease some factions of the party whilst being a barbed shot at the Blairite elements.

Isn't that right Former Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon...

+++ More shit to hit the fan +++

Just as Gordon began to hope the Smeargate story was running out of steam, his now arch nemesis Guido Fawkes runs with this banner:

'Smeargate II: More revelations on this blog tomorrow'.

Essentially, two stories are emerging from Westminster.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, The Times are reporting that Ed Ball, the school secretary, has been running a 'black-op' smear operation from No. 10. His aim it seems was to challenge potential rivals to the Labour leadership following the lose of next year's election.

Then secondly, and directly tied in with the previous stories leaked last weekend, it appears a great deal more from No. 10 knew of the 'Red Rag' project than has previously been claimed. The News of the World is claiming that Labour's General Secretary chaired a meeting regarding Red Rag in the company of the now infamous Dolly and McBride. Furthermore, it implicates the close ally of Gordon, Charlie Whelan.

These new revelations make it increasingly difficult for the Prime Minister to merely brush off the claims of smears as a low-level activity. Rather, it demonstrates that very senior figures within the party and government were committed to the Red Rag project and prepared to take administrative steps to establish the site and the smears.

These stories demonstrate a party and government out of control and unable to deflect attention away with new policy initiatives. James Pernell's nice attempt earlier this week (regarding drug users having benefits cut) was over 9 months old. Talk about a rehash. Perhaps most damaging though is the latest sets of polling figures that accompany these headlines.

They reveal that whilst Gordon may not (yet) be directly implicated, the emails they have done his personal standings no good what-so-ever. The Conservatives now lead with a hefty 46% compared to Labour's 26%.

Expect plenty more in the days to come as both bloggers and the main stream media have demonstrated that this story has plenty more mileage yet.

Incidentally, whilst Gordon may be facing the shit - Sebastian Vettel, the Red Bull F1 driver, looks likely to have a ball at today's Chinese Grand Prix. You can guess what Mr Relations shall be watching behind his morning paper...

Martin Bell - a warning from history.

Now, I suspect the name may not mean an awful lot to a large amount of people. You may remember him as one of the BBC's war reporters. He did however, aside from reporting on the troubles in the Balkans, successfully stand on an anti-sleaze ticket in the '97 election.

He won, overturning a Conservative majority of 20,000 in Neil Hamilton's old seat.

I wonder if many Labour MPs will have considered this in the wake of smeargate.



The smears, as Will Self points out, are nothing new. Indeed, the 'team' behind the attacks are somewhat of veterans to the new approaches to communications adopted following the '97 election.

Blair, and Brown, were determined their governments would avoid the contagious virus of sleaze. After all, they did spend much of the early 1990s documenting Conservative sleaze.

Yet, I would argue it is not sleaze itself which is so damaging. Damian McBride emerged looking like a twat but not immediately did Gordon. It is quite simple and relatively effective to simply admit you've made a mistake. It incidentally apparently shows a human side to the suit. Rather, it is the handling of the incident which shall ultimately determine the outcome of this episode.

That is where Brown comes unstuck.

Yesterday Gordon wrote to all concerned and expressed 'regret' at the incident. The pragmatics of the letter avoid any legal implication but as David Crystal, speaking on BBC Radio Four's PM programme, neatly surmised it simply doesn't do the job.

And it is the calls today, made by mainly Blairites, which ultimately shall prove far more dangerous than any blog article. Fields, Millburn and Byers have all joined the bandwagon and effectively shown Brown than there still remains deep divisions within the party. The accumulative effect of 'sleaze', as a general banner, with MPs expenses and now smeargate add to party divisons.

Remember, it was Thatcher's own party which triggered her downfall.

I suspect many ministers and Labour MPs have already begun to consider their own electability, rather than that of their party now. Gordon is seen as an electoral liability. Frank Fields eloquently put it that, 'MPs are staring into the abyss'. This kind of talk not only demonstrates discontent but, so near to an election, acts as a rallying call. There has already been open civil war under Gordon and he shall be only too aware of the underlying tensions.

Indeed, the fact that this story has now run for well over 6 full news days, and shows little sign of abbaiting, perhaps demonstrates the popular level of discontent with Gordon's management of government.

Now, where's David Milliband in all of this?

Morning view

Good morning all!

Enjoying those Cheerios? I don't suspect Gordon shall be.

Today's view comes from the rather excellent Peter Brookes of The Times. Note the two figures clearly on their way out, Dolly Draper and McBride.

Fraser Nelson has a good take on the damage limitation underway at the moment.

Interesting questions ahead....

++All shit has hit the fan++

Edit: The Sunday Times has full details of the emails and a great deal of their contents.

Jesus, the story goes, was nailed to the cross tomorrow and passed over. Tomorrow, I suspect, Damian McBride shall be nailed to the Sundays. He won't pass over quite so easily.

What a holiday story.

In essence, Guido Fawkes has used this slow news weekend to break the story that Mr McBride, and his Downing Street email account, have been rather naughty. It seems the grand scheme was to smear several Conservative MPs (including Cameron and Osbourne) with stories relating to their personal life. Rather graphic stories at that too. One MP is said to be considering legal action.

Expect full details in the News of the World and The Sunday Times.

This email was sent to Derek Drapper, amongst others. This is the same man who denies any involvement with Downing Street's backroom staff. His proposed new site, 'Red Rag' was where the smears were intended for. The site and the smears have not, until now, come to fruition.

ToryBear nicely highlights this story.

However, it is the mere plotting and planning of McBride from the Downing Street bunker, being one of Gordon's closest allies, which shall do so much damage. It already comes on warnings that the coming election shall be the dirtiest to date.

Expect plenty more tomorrow morning and a fair few red faces all round.