McBride and the omertà of Team Brown

Rhoda Klapp

Hands up all those who don't think this is all a pack of lies. OK, now hands down all the Guardian readers. Nobody left with their hand up?

thaggie

yes, he said brown lost the ability to speak properly when he told him, but as far as I can tell brown can't speak properly anyway.

Scary Biscuits

Conservatives should welcome him back, if only to remind voters of the moral bankruptcy of Labour.

The most disappointing thing, however, is how journalists still haven't confronted their own complicity in the scandal and their membership of the same mafiosi that has perverted our democracy.

The Bellman

'Robust loyalty of the most resilient sort' from a Cambridge graduate looks very similar to the material self-interest of the petty crook. As you say, he'll be back. This man stands to lose nothing as a result of his behaviour.
His 'good name' is as worthless as that of those he served.

And one should no more divorce his 'tradecraft' from its moral effect than that of an undetected serial sex offender. I salute neither.

Andy Carpark

The most reviled man in the country. But he does good narrative. So that's OK then.

"You have to salute his tradecraft."

As they say in Old Oz, pig's a*se, we do. What craft does it take to make cowardly anonymous briefings?

It seems that there is no specimen of the political class so debased that they will not find a doughty chamption in Matthew D'Ancona. My dear, the sport! The gamesmanship! The NARRATIVE!

TrevorsDen

McBride is a self serving piece of scum.

DW

I am sorry, Matthew...
Who the hell believes a single word that man says? He lied and spun before, he lies and spins again.
I do not for a second believe that that was Gordon Brown's reaction.
He's only back cos he's looking for work.

tenpin

Matt, I think the thing is McBride wants to come back to the fold (salary, pension, benefits, power). But it will be difficult. Brown is not really in the position to bring him back (and I think the recent interview is damage limitation rather than the foundation of a return). But in less than 12 months time Brown will face the electorate and may find himslef out of office, leaving Balls as the only hardcore McBride supporter. Balls' chance of becoming leader of the Labour party after the election I would say are pretty slim as he is a divisive character...on the flip side this would keep Labour out of power for some time...

Sir Graphus

(a) I don't believe him
(b) crying that you've let your Dad down illicits no sympathy over the age of about 16. He is a grown man his 30s. That means his character is defined by his actions, and if that means he's found wanting then he has to face up to it.

Will he be back? As Campbell found, once the spinner is a bigger story than the spin itself, he's finished. Any politician must ask himself what the public will think of him if he hires such a nasty piece of work. Has he any talent? Feeding his sort of nasty hatchet work to a willing press is surely not especially skilled work, is it?

Vulture

This, like many of the posts and articles you write, Matthew demonstrates - possibly unconsciously - why you and other commentators in the Westminster village don't, (can't) see things as those outside the loop do.

Your close proximity to those you write about, like hostages captured by terrorists, makes you, like a chameleon, colour yourself in their rancid shades of brown. You lack, in brief,
the much mocked 'moral compass'.

This comes out clearly in your habit of calling the monster
'Gordon', thus demonstrating your intimacy with him. But such intimacy means that his slime rubs off on you. Is this really what you want?

If you cannot see that McPoison is a low-life gobshite unfit to shovel sewage in Hartlepool then you too inhabit his putrid moral universe. God help you.

Publius

"Whatever you think of McBride, you have to salute his tradecraft. He’ll be back."

Mr D'Ancona, I think the most depressing part of this depressing piece was your final paragraph. It bears the moral stamp of one who praises a concentration camp doctor on the grounds that he was good at medicine.

The Laughing Cavalier

I do not salute his tradecraft. Mr d'Ancona, you are a Westminster village insider and it shows. You are far too impressed by and captive of this sort of dishonest behaviour. McBride is a vile back room spin doctor who was caught attempting to slander not just opposition politicians but their wives. He deserved everything he got and more. He will be back, but that is a comment in itself on the lack of standards in politics. Natural justice and common decency demand that he spend at least 30 years redeeming himself before being admitted to polite company.

Jeremy

"He’ll be back."

Oh lovely...something to look forward to, then.

Julian

Funny how those brought up with "regilous Scottish values" seem to be the most spiteful bullies, isn't it?

CS

Which two things are you arguing are not necessarily mutually exclusive, Matthew?

Being a Cambridge graduate and a lager swilling lad?

Or being a Cambridge graduate and a very clever man indeed?

Anyway, your whole analysis of the McBride article smacks of the mythical balls you lot at Coffee House swallowed hook line and sinker years ago.

Brown and his circle are geniuses of political strategy therefore anything they do must be interpreted as a brilliant chess move.

Could you please remove your head from whatever dark and noisome place it dwells and give us political commentary based on the facts and not your fetishisation of the bunker at No 10?

Any sane person reading McBride's "flawless performance" in the Guardian today would find it hard not to vomit at the self-righteousness. He clearly believes that what would have hurt his sainted father was not his son's dodgy morality but just the exposure of that dodgy morality.

Hence his belief that, so long as they never came to fruition, his planned smears were completely above board.

oldtimer

"He`ll be back" you conclude. Judging by the opening paragraph, with his smear comments on Coulson, he is back already.

As for the apologies, they sound like other NuLab apologies over the years - apologies for getting caugh; (cf explanations after the "a good day to bury bad news" story hit the fan).

This is yet another NuLab pre-election ploy. I do not believe a word of it.

Fraser

Brown was clearly so incandescent with rage that he couldn't fire him. A couple of odious dunces.

Jeremy

To Julian:

'McBride says of his own late father: "He was from a religious Scottish upbringing, very stern..."'

Perhaps he and the Prime Minister could recite this in unison, accompanied by choral singing and violins. God knows, that might be enough to convince me...^^

Pat

Not only in the Guardian, but an 'exclusive' on BBC Radio 5 dancing to the same tune today; who, pray, arranged that?
Most unconvincing performance, too many 'yer knows' for a Cambridge graduate and blaming the 'scurrilous'Guido Fawkes and the press for exposing his foul emails.
Most unpleasant and full of self-pity.

rmh

And we all know that it is utter b@ll@cks

And anyone who falls for it is just stupid.

Angry of SE1

Have to agree with Julian about Zanulabour's footsoldiers and their understanding of Moral Values.

If MacBride thinks not getting caught will keeps his conscience clean, he obviously has no moral compass whatsoever.Perhaps, dare I say it, his father had no compass either!!

Every time I hear Snotty refer to his Moral Compass learnt in the Manse - I long for the morality of the Bordello - that morality is at least straightforward and understood by all.

I hear Macbride intends to follow the example of Piers Morgan and Alistair Campbell and publish his "diaries". These, we hear,(to quote Blackadder) , will probably be "the greatest work of fiction since vows of fidelity were included in the French Marriage service".

In Macbride's world lies don't conflict with morality - if this is the case - What does?

AWoodward

Sorry Mr d'Ancona but you are way of the pace on this piece of sychopantic so called journalism. You are not by any chance secretly working for the BBC are you?
You have just completely destroyed my faith in the Spectator for its fairly unbiased reporting, so who do I read now?
I AM COMPLETELY FED UP, DISHEARTENED AND SICKENED BY EVERYTHING THAT SURROUNDS OUR POLITICS INCLUDING MOST OF THE JOURNALISTS THAT REPORT THESE SO CALLED STORIES.
GET OUT OF LONDON AND TALK TO 'REAL' PEOPLE FOR A CHANGE.

Frank P

CS

I was struggling for the right words to express denunctiation of this characteristic piece of Westminster Groupie bullshit, then I read your post and you arranged my thoughts perfectly. Thank you. I was beginning to think that I was the only commenter on this blog who doesn't subscribe to the self-righteous, self-congratulation of the output of post-Gramsci Academia whence the editorial staff of this magazine were spawned and nurtured. I think I exonerate Pete Hoskin from this general criticism; he does give the impression of earthiness that indicates that he occasionally extracts his head from his own fundament and looks outside that pus-filled small patch of SW1 that is poisoning our nation; but I shall be watching him carefully lest it is a ruse to alleviate the scorn of the older readers of this once conservative magazine.

Robert Raymont

I read the Guardian piece and it almost made me laugh out loud.

Such obvious and literally incredible spin.

Why would anyone believe it, even for a moment?

colin

It is reported that this odious oaf is about to start a job as "business liaison officer" at finchley catholic high school.Hopefully the press will ask the headmaster and board of governors to explain to the public and parents why this disgraced individual was hired.Or will they just say balls?

PP

I bet Gordon was angry. For being found out.

Marc Oliver

If Brown was in fact speechless it wasn't through an offended sense of common decency. This is just a disarmed hired gun cosying up to a dismantled Prime Minister. Just in case there is life after hell.

What's the opposite of a smear? - A hose-down? God, how this lot need it.

What's the opposite of a smear

biggestaspidistra

a cunning stunt

Liz Brown

But did he ever go away.......I strongly doubt that. Nor do I believe a word he says, said or will say and that goes for the other misguided son of a B*&*&c (oops of the manse) - gordo

Ian C

Stable-door, bolted, horse....

A very weak attempt at shoring up GB.

dave

if mcbride wanted to prove brown knew nothing he could take a lie detector . . .

Rhoda Klapp

What we really need to know is, when this object begins spinning from a position of anonymity again, will the Spectator tell us, or will it let him hide? He cannot do his malodorous work without the conspiracy of silence from various parts of the press. Will you be telling us? If you don't want to openly name the tainted source, why not give us a code phrase here which you can use when the time comes? An ex-employee of the Prime Minster said....

Jock

Gordon Brown is well known for his control freakery and micro management across the whole spectrum of government.

It is possible that he was blissifully unaware of the behavioural propensities and ongoing activities of a guy operating under his very nose - but not probable.

Plausible deniability?? Gordon is big on the deniablity aspect but I think he needs to work on the plausible bit

eeyore

So the PM was so wrathful he could hardly speak? Am I alone in remembering that Brown's first public reaction was to dismiss it as "a joke"? It was the best part of a week before that much-trumpeted Presbyterian conscience caught up with the rest of the nation.

"He may not know he is ignorant, but he cannot be ignorant that he lies." (John Bright)

David Ossitt

Matthew d'Ancona.

Sir; you are editing the wrong journal, your final paragraph, is truly sickening.

"This is robust loyalty of the most resilient sort. Whatever you think of McBride, you have to salute his tradecraft. He’ll be back"

You obviously admire this wretch; this loathsome oaf.

Just to see a photograph of him; or to read his words makes me feel soiled, bemired with filth.

G Adlam

This is Phase 1 - public contrition "What was I thinking..." Phase 2 after a decent interval he comes back in some "advisory role". Tories will complain, back comes the riposte -"everybody deserves a second chance" - ask David Cameron.
Straight out the Mandelson playbook. Pack of lies, crock of shallItellyou, pure New Labour.

Plato-Says

Matthew - did you write this after a liquid lunch?

Complete tosh.

a j scott

Can we please drop the Cambridge graduate sticker for a while? The rest of us admit there are (always)bad apples in the barrel, but you don't have to keep on reminding us!!

Boudicca

So Brown was speechless. That must be why they spent so long trying to save McBride. Brown didn't really say McBride was a bad lad but it was all just a bit of high jinks that got out of hand; or that no-one else was involved. He was actually struck dumb for 24 hours.

That must also be why McBride had to resign instead of Gordon firing him. Well, Gordon couldn't do that if he struck dumb, could he?

It all makes sense now.

a j scott

Can we please drop the Cambridge graduate sticker for a while? The rest of us admit there are (always)bad apples in the barrel, but you don't have to keep on reminding us!!

Andy Leeds

From what McPoison says it looks to me that 'Gordon the Moron' must have known what he was up too. After all you can't believe a word McPoison says, so it is a fair bet that the truth is the opposite of what this odious ghastly man says. He has no place in any form of public life.

Chuck Unsworth

Why should anyone believe a single word of McBride's latest utterances? Has he not been shown repeatedly to be a liar? As to his references to his background, well, so bleeding what?

J R Hartley

I seriously doubt he will ever be back. The moment he rears his ugly face in an official capacity, will be the moment the Schillings writs land on his lap. He's not a decent target until he fancies the action again....

He is a liabilty. He doesn't have the balls to do anything publicly and he won't get the remit to operate in the shadows any more - he's toast.

Charlie 'Mandy's Loan' Whelan, Alastair 'WMD' Campbell, Jo '911' Moore, Damian 'smeargate' McBride, Derek 'absolutely totally brilliant' Draper your boys took a hell of a beating.

Things can only get better!

UK Fred

This (the McBride interview) was clearly designed to take the heat of Moron McSnot-Gobbler or allow the burial of more bad news. I do not think that Matthew d'Ancona is admiring this appalling sociopath, but rather giving us a warning to watch out for more of his dirty tricks. I found it reminiscent of that oart of the Godfather movie where the grass is "persuaded" to exonerate the real villain and then commits suicide in for the good of the family.

I can only hope that he gets caught again and even better if McSnot-Gobbler is clearly seen to be involved.

Nicholas

Having been rehabilitated in the New Labour/ Guardian/BBC/Common Purpose/Commie Bastard fast track system for disgraced lefty resignees (drawing that line, learning that lesson, moving on, putting one over on the people once again) is he now going to be enobled, become Lord McPoison of Vitriol and Lies and then become a government advisor on how to read the moral compass?

Archie Wedderspoon

Just what is McBride trying to tell us about his dad? Is he claiming to be 'a son of the manse' too? Is it all down to the Kirk? I hope it is.

Frank P

biggest aspidestra

"A cunning stunt."

Steady on, Mr Spooner!

A Healy

Julian
July 20th, 2009 1:21pm

Funny how those brought up with "regilous Scottish values" seem to be the most spiteful bullies, isn't it?

A tad sweeping , don't you think ?

Right enough , you have been provoked by Brown's endless bleatings about his "Presbyterian conscience" , so I'll let you off .

This man's ego and the vile New Labour "Project" will defile anything good and pure in order to cling on to power for a few seconds more .

Try not to blame other Presbyterians . After all , we don't blame either Anglicans or Roman Catholics for Blair .

mitch

So his farther would be ashamed eh? well if he knows it why did he do it?
As for browns reaction.....cobblers, more like "how can I get out of this".
The whole piece is just spin and puffing brown up.Fails dismally on both counts.

Rhoda Klapp

""Frank P
July 21st, 2009 1:16am

biggest aspidestra

"A cunning stunt."

Steady on, Mr Spooner!""

OK, a shining wit.

IH

I am really surprised you seem to have been taken in - there were/are several others involved with McBride and Draper including Tom Watson (for sure) and Whelan - it's just the way they are - bully boys putting the fear of God into everyone, with Brown at the heart of it, though never actually getting his hands dirty - and they try to portray the Conservatives as the nasty party!!

One last point - I was really suprised to hear him speak because I was sure he would have a scottish accent.

mac

McBride: lies.
Guardian: complicity.
M d'A: credulity.

JohnAnt

It all reminds me of that classic early (1980s) Alex cartoon. Clive asks Alex: 'What actually is the minimum sentence for insider trading?' Alex replies:'"I'm afraid I appear to have been misled by an error of judgement, m'lud."'
(Did Brown give McB the idea for that 'what would my dear white-haired old dad have said' line?)