After the Labour conference in Manchester, Iain Martin wrote a very funny post imagining how the whole Ruth Kelly 3am resignation might have leaked out because the Peroni in the bar run out. As with all the best satires, it was the element of truth in it that made it so funny: there was an awful lot of Peroni drunk in Manchester that week and a lot of information was exchanged in hotel bars.
The joke, though, gained a life of its own. A lot of people thought it was true—one Labour figure told me, in all earnestness, that it summed up everything that was wrong with the Brown operation. It added to the pressure on Brown to reform his Downing Street operation, a reform which this week has seen Damian McBride moved away from his frontline briefing duties.
Iain has now written another post—‘my bit part in Damian McBride’s downfall’—explaining how the story gained such legs.
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