Brown should apologise for what his adviser and his lunch companion did

Dirty Euro

Allie campbell was far worse look at the kelly scandal. What is it? all these Blairites acting like they are shocked by this. Mandy spread made incinuations about the PM during the blair leadership election.
The tories have Coulson who ran newspaper when it worked the royals.
McBride had to go, but if the dark arts are to be removed then half of the MP in the commons will have to go.

Wilhelm

''Alan Johnson is busy claiming that "Gordon Brown had nothing to do with this. You apologise for the things you are responsible for".

Er um Tony Bliar apologised for the slave trade which he had nothing to do with.

Broon is never, ever, never, ever going to apologise about anything because he's a little man full of resentment .

Perry

So how come Bliar apologised for slavery?

Or was that another cynical exploitation?

No answer required!

Bluebottle

Johnson is wrong. Brown may not be to blame (although it is inconceivable that Brown knew nothing about what his trusted lieutenant was doing) but as the man in charge he is responsible. It's called vicarious liability. Johnson should look it up.

John Page

Nadine Dorries' claim that journalists were raising the allegation with her "long before" - confirmed by Iain Dale - throws an interesting light on Fraser's question yesterday whether the story would run into the sand, which drew many replies on the theme that the journalists should get off their arses.

Now that part at least of the allegation is out there, should not the journalists who approached her be fessing up to what started it running, and when it all happened?

They are part of the story now.

TomTom

If Brown is not responsible for what emanates from 10 Downing Street he should seek a new line of work

Steve.W

Eating disorder?

I wonder if the Brown/Draper lunch at Chequers in November last year will end up as much of a land mark as the Brown/Blair meeting at Granita pre 1997?

oldrightie

Apologise? He should resign and call an election. Trouble is his nastiness, there for all to see, will cause him to rig the ballot.

strapworld

It would be very interesting to learn who the other luncheon guests were, at Chequers. Incidentally the week after McBride and Draper created the website Red Rag or whatever!

Brown is in this mess up to his scalp! He knows it and I believe most of the people are coming to that conclusion.

Unlike the Daily Telegraph, who apart from telling us IT broke the story (to Number 10 perhaps!!) are saying, in its editorial that NOBODY believes that Brown knew anything.

For the record, I BELIEVE that Brown knew everything. Where is BALLS? strange he has not offered himself up for interview?

Brown will never say sorry. He is incapable.

Susan Hill

The buck stops...... remember the man of Honour Lord Carrington resigning for just that reason. How in another lifetime does that seem?

Oscar

Perry is right. New Labour are the people who think it's right to apologise for slavery. If they're so keen on saying sorry for things they didn't do - why can't they actually apologise for what is clearly their responsibility?

Dee

"It would be very interesting to learn who the other luncheon guests were, at Chequers. Incidentally the week after McBride and Draper created the website Red Rag or whatever!"

Try the FOI, if the dinner was a Chequers you should be able to find out.

Denis Cooper

In my view, all decent people of all parties and none should welcome this - earlier this morning, on the blog of one Craig Murray:

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/04 /formal_request.html

"Formal Request for Criminal Investigation of McBride and Whelan"

"I have today sent the following to Tom Watson MP:

Dear Mr Watson,

This is a formal communication to you in your ministerial capacity. I write as a former senior civil servant and a life member of the FDA.

It appears to me that there is the clearest of prima facie cases that Mr Damian McBride has committed the criminal offence of misconduct in public office. There appears a strong prima facie case also against Mr Charles Whelan.

I believe that you have a ministerial duty to draw this concern to the attention of the appropriate police authorities so that an investigation may be undertaken. No doubt you will wish to consult the Cabinet Secretary, but in the case of a credibly alleged breach of the criminal law, not only of the Civil Service Code, I believe you are also under an obligation to consult the police.

Yours Faithfully,

Craig J Murray

Ends

The criminal case against McBride and Whelan is explained here:

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/04/mcbride_whelan.html "

teledu

It's impossible to believe that Brown was not responsible/did not know that his spin team were to employ smear tactics. Therefore he owes an apology.
A football manager who gets his team to play "physically" may not make the tackle that breaks an opponents leg, but that doesn't mean he is not to some degree as much to blame as the player that makes the tackle.

Andrew Barnes

Agree with Bluebottle. A fish rots from the head.

Baghdad Blue

Brown - What did he know and when did he know it?

Argie

Paragraph 6 of the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers says:

“Special Advisers should not use official resources for Party political activity. They should avoid anything which might reasonably lead to the criticism that people paid from public funds are being used for party political purposes.”

McBride was in clear breach of this. But who else is responsible? Paragraph 3.3 of the Ministerial Code has the answer:

“The responsibility for the management and conduct of special advisers ... rests with the Minister who made the appointment.”

Alan Johnson says “you apologise for the things you are responsible for”. Er … sounds like the PM to me.

Ian C

If the content of the emails is as bad as suggested then why should Cameron be shy of reading from them in public/PMQ's with the intent of embarrassing GB into disowning them utterly - or otherwise?

Without knowing their detailed content, it seems to me that DC has much to gain and little to lose.

strapworld

Tom Bowyer, Brown's Biographer on Sky News gave his opinion that Brown would have known "He is a control freak-he wants to know everything" He could not envisage any circumstance in which Brown could not have known.

kevin

red rag was registered by ollie cromwell who coincidentally has an exhibition of his stuff at chequers where his descendants lived until the early 20th century.do you think that's where they got the idea for the registered name.was it an in joke.

john miller

Good old Alan. Nailed it right on the head. The good old-fashioned socialist mantra "All the authority, none of the responsibility".

Ed Balls rules education, but is not responsible for the sorry mess of the whole sector.

Jacqui Smith is not responsible for her own expense claims or the sorry mess of her own department.

Hain runs for deputy leadership but is not responsible for the donations to his campaign.

Brown is in charge of Downing Street but is not responsible for anything that happens there.

A sad fact of life in Westminster is that nobody in authority is responsible for anything which is why the country is in such a mess.

TGF UKIP

Ian C, I quite agree with you and as I have posted previously surely the way to get these e mails in full into the public prints,if they would be so damaging to Brown and his gang, would be for Cameron and the other Tory targets to give an indemnity to the Press that no suit would follow publication.

And Dennis Cooper, while applauding Craig Murray's move, I must ask why aren't the Tories pressing for a police investigation.

Given that their outrage has been comparatively muted (certainly compared with what Labour's would have been if the boot had been on the other foot) I am increasingly getting the impression that they too would like to see this story fade soon away. Why on earth do they appear so reluctant to make full use of such a gift?

Marian C

Susan Hill; “The buck stops...... remember the man of Honour Lord Carrington resigning for just that reason. How in another lifetime does that seem?”

I would agree with you Susan, however, the operative words here are ‘man of Honour’; Broon has no honour, no morals, no scruples, and no manners. Broon is nothing more than a loathsome, vile pond life. Please don’t even get me started on Draper

johnny come lately

Cameron is livid! He has lost his tongue! Hague was wheeled out for a guest appearance this morning. Nobody else has appeared on my steam radio.

Perhaps this once in a thousand years, TGI UKIP has hit on something. Cameron wants this to die down.

Sadly, for him, I doubt that it will. It is now spreading to other people and surrounding Brown like a circle of covered wagons before the Red Indians attack.

Brown cannot break away and is looking at whom he can appoint to continue his work of killing off the Tories/Lib Dems and Cabinet threats....
Maguire? Richards? Polly Toynbee?
that Jeremy chappie umm Clarkson? Pierce of the DT, he's proved his loyalty! Kelvin McKenzie that loyal man of the cloth? Alex Ferguson, He'll put the boot in! Such a lot to do, so little time, must look at the possibility of another terrorist threat to change the subject?

Why can't people see I am a man dedicated to the job in hand, ensuring I keep this job!

john miller

Interesting point TGF. Had Harperson been smeared the whole NuLab girlie team would have been screaming for the big fat Tory bully boys to be locked up.

Harperson has stayed schtumm on this. Obviously feminine solidarity only extends tot he socialist sisterhood.

Tom Pride

john miller
April 13th, 2009 4:16pm

You are right about the socialist sisterhood. I once heard one say that The Lady was not really a woman.

Denis Cooper

TGF UKIP, it shouldn't really be necessary any politician or anybody else to urge the police to get on and start a criminal investigation - they see the news, like the rest of us. But of course they've been politicised, and to a large degree they're now the Labour party's police, now ours. I don't expect Craig Murray will get very far, but at least he's trying to get the law applied, unlike the Shadow Home Secretary.

Andrew E

The suggestion that Cameron and the tories want this to die a death are complete bollocks. Youi don't start knifing people when they are doing a damn fine job on themselves. NuLabour are tearing themselves apart and the tories are going to eait before delivering the coup de grace - possible emails implicating Watson and Whelan and perhaps even McCavity himself. There is still plenty of mileage in this inclusoing a criminal prosecution for McBride.

TGF UKIP

Denis Cooper, agreed and none more politicized than the Met.

I have posted previously that we should stop dignifying them with the word "police" and simply refer to the whole rotten lot of them as the Labour Stasi.

TomTom

Kate Garraway dines at Chequers...if she did not retire when the Snakes had brandy and venom her contract might be ending soon at GMTV. Who would believe she wasn't in on the McBride-Brown-Draper Slander and Libel Action ?

Peter

Who is Pushpinder Khaneka? I see that he registered a Red Rag domain in December 2008?

john preid

but mcbride the policy advsior did'nt advise goordon about spin, so if mcbride has brought himself into disrepute about spin its nowt to do with gordon employing him, and he had lunch with draper, they both use to have the same boss and are in the same party!