The great clunking text message
Fraser Nelson 4:13pm
So what will the new Brown era be like? No more of that nasty spin? Those who attended Anthony Browne's leaving party on Tuesday evening found out different. As Chief Political Correspondent of The Times, he has been asked to get the Treasury's response to the newspaper's extraordinary scoop that Gordon Brown had been warned about the damage his 1997 pensions raid would do. Reply came in the form of a text message from Damian McBride – a former VAT press officer now special adviser to the Chancellor.
"Only just picked up yr voicemail. I'm confused - we've been debating all this openly for the last 10 years & we are happy to argue it was the right decision based on what the treasury had been advising back to Nigel Lawson. So what's the news?"
This, bear in mind, was the story the Treasury had spent two years trying to suppress by seeking to refuse The Times' Freedom of Information request. It knew very well what the “news” was. Incredibly, Mr McBride went on to suggest the pensions story was a vendetta as Mr Browne was leaving to run Policy Exchange, a think tank. His text message continued:-
"Then again i suppose your err... 'new' tory employers will be delighted so I can see why you personally are trying to turn it into something. Disgusting really, for someone still being paid by a so-called paper of record… I just wish you'd try for once to get past your cynical tory halfwit Harold Lloyd schtick to try and be a genuine journalist. It's presumably cos of your inability to do so that you're off to earn a crust at some tory think tank instead. Pathetic."
All this for asking Mr Brown’s top press spokesman for a quote. Alastair Campbell said far worse, but transmitted his wrath verbally, not electronically. That’s why he was never caught in the act.
Mr Browne’s disclosure gives us a rare glimpse into the Brown spin machine in action. For years, the Chancellor has appeared to consider those who disagree with him either malign, or confused. Critics – journalistic or political – are successfully portrayed as anti-Brown obsessives. Nasty stories appear in diary columns. That’s how to play hardball in Westminster.
And Mr McBride plays his game very well. He is courteous and helpful to journalists he considers strategically important, and while he is not much liked by those he dismisses few would deny he is an exceptionally effective operator. This is why he will doubtless be at the centre of the Brown media operation to be assembled next month. But perhaps banned from electronic communication.
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Comments
Red Flag
May 10th, 2007 7:50pmCan;t stand the heat get out of the kitchen! Toughen up
These texts seem pretty tame. Harmless banter
Disraeli's ghost
May 10th, 2007 8:11pmDo we pay McBride's salary?
Observer
May 10th, 2007 9:03pmCan't we simply shoot these little weasels who peddle lies for a fee ? You would think they were lawyers the way they wrap themselves in webs of deceit.
Time for Colonel Thomas Pride to purge the House of cOmmons and lock them up in Hell as he did last time.......dear Cromwell return and free us from these weevils
Typical Labour bullying tactics!
Ciaran Austin
May 11th, 2007 10:28amI think all this does is show that McBride is not up to the job. He doesn't have the judgement. It's fair enough to tell a journalist what you think of them. It's also fair enough to point out that said hack is a Tory and therefore not on the side of a Labour government. It is the epitome of hubris to do all of this in a way that will be quoted back at you with 100% accurracy for ever.