Faced with the near impossible task of adequately reporting on the
poison all around us I fall back on quoting wholesale the CH Blog’s
resume and links. I’ve seen other resumes but this appears to cover
the field best and I give it for the record without further comment
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CONSERVATIVE HOME 12.4.09

"Vile and vicious": Details of Damian McBride and Derek Draper's
email exchange aimed at smearing senior Conservatives are published
"The shocking extent of planned smears against the Tories which led
to the resignation of Gordon Brown's most trusted aide last night are
revealed today by the News of the World... We can disclose that the
unfounded smears included a story that Conservative leader David
Cameron has an embarrassing medical condition... McBride and Draper
also planned to plant a story about the fragile mental state of
George Osborne's wife Frances in the wake of the Yachtgate row over
claims Mr Osborne sought a £50,000 party donation from a Russian
billionaire while on holiday. There were absolutely no grounds for
such a claim." - News of the World
"The scurrilous suggestions and lurid language in the e-mail
triggered panic in Downing Street yesterday but one person was
clearly impressed. “Absolutely totally brilliant Damian,” fired
back Draper 20 minutes after receiving McBride’s message in
January. “I’ll think about timing and sort out the technology this
week so we can go as soon as possible.” If the smear campaign being
hatched by McBride had gone ahead, it would have set the scene for
one of the dirtiest general election campaigns in recent history." -
Sunday Times
Chris Grayling demands an apology and explanation from Gordon Brown...
"The detail of these emails that are now emerging is shocking and
completely unacceptable. These are blatant lies cooked up in Downing
Street by one of the Prime Minister's key advisers. Mr Brown hasn't
even had the decency to apologise. His statement was unacceptable.
This is an exceptionally serious matter and he needs to explain
immediately what happened and how such defamatory comments came to be
issued from Downing street." - Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling
quoted by the Press Association

...as does Nadine Dorries, who threatens legal action against McBride
"A Tory MP featured in the ‘smear’ emails sent by Damian McBride
welcomed his resignation last night – but warned she may still sue
him for defamation..
McBride has slandered me in these emails and I am currently
consulting lawyers. I also want a personal apology from the Prime
Minister, who must have known that these sorts of dirty tricks were
going on'." - Mail on Sunday
Questions raised about the involvement of Cabinet Office minister,
Tom Watson
"Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office minister, was also facing questions
after it emerged that McBride referred in one of the emails to Watson
"looking at other stories for Labour List", Draper's website on
leftwing policy. However, Downing Street sources insisted Watson had
been discussing an entirely separate announcement about Labour party
staffing, which could be posted on the authorised site, rather than
being involved in the gossip project nicknamed Red Rag." - Observer
Matthew d'Ancona:
The McBride scandal shows just how out of touch
Labour is
"The voters have really, truly, definitely, had enough of Labour. And
a few smears directed at the Conservatives aren't going to change
that, however vicious or salacious. In the end, that kind of
campaigning only signals to everyone how bare the cupboard actually
is. He who smears, fears." - Matthew d'Anona writing in the Sunday
Telegraph
Labour is
"The voters have really, truly, definitely, had enough of Labour. And
a few smears directed at the Conservatives aren't going to change
that, however vicious or salacious. In the end, that kind of
campaigning only signals to everyone how bare the cupboard actually
is. He who smears, fears." - Matthew d'Anona writing in the Sunday
Telegraph
"Juvenile or not, the buck stops with Brown"
"Downing Street tried to limit the damage caused by the emails
smearing leading Tories by dismissing them as ‘juvenile’. It is a
tactic that the perpetrator Damian McBride – a man steeped in New
Labour’s toxic culture of spin – probably suggested himself before
he was forced to resign. But it won’t work. Gordon Brown stands
starkly implicated by this affair... The Prime Minister has a track
record for licensing political thuggery, dating back to the days when
he used Charlie Whelan as a battering ram against his Blairite
enemies." - Mail on Sunday editorial
"When he accepted the Labour leadership and the premiership of this
country two years ago, Gordon Brown promised “a different kind of
politics”, one that was more open and honest. He would be guided, he
said, by the “moral compass” that had been provided by years of
listening to his father’s sermons... The prime minister, having
promised a new era, is knee deep in the worst aspects of new Labour
spin." - Sunday Times editorial

McBride's resignation is a "victory for the blogosphere"
"It is a clear victory for the blogosphere over the political
establishment. Mr McBride's emails found their way to Paul Staines,
who blogs under the pseudonym Guido Fawkes. The spin doctor was then
effortlessly unspun. The lesson is clear. The command-and-
approach to information, mastered by New Labour, looks outdated in
the digital age." - Observer editorial
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