The Guardian’s interview with Damian McBride illustrates why “McPoison” was much more than an assassin for hire: he was a very clever man indeed, a Cambridge graduate as much as a lager-swilling lad (and since when were the two mutually exclusive?). Whether through calculation, instinct, sincerity or a blend of the three, this really is a flawless performance.
It is, for a start, the opposite of Lee Harvey Oswald shouting “I’m a patsy”. McBride declares himself unequivocally to be the “lone gunman”, dismissing the notion that the smear e-mails he sent to Derek Draper were part of a Number Ten conspiracy or even in tune with the prevailing culture of the Brownite inner circle. When he re-read the emails, reproduced by Guido Fawkes, his first reaction was not (he claims) “I am busted” but “Bloody hell, what was I thinking?”
He does invoke the Brownite way of doing things, but only to mimic Gordon’s high-minded invocation of his father’s influence upon the formation of the Brown “moral compass”.
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