Britannia Radio

One of the most honourable men in politics, Frank Field, is in 
despair.  He personally suffered at the hands of his own party.  When 
told to go away and "think the unthinkable" about the welfare state 
he did just that and was promptly sidelined at once and has never 
been able to exercise his great talents again.   He ends this 
anguished cry with "Poor old Labour party."   While wishing him well 
personally my answer to his party is "Serve them b****y well right!".

Then there are a number of other comments including one from a victim 
of Brown's destructive tactics,  Alan Milburn, for whom I hold no 
brief at all,  but just comment on the irony of him breaking silence.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX CS
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FRANK FIELD'S Blog 14.4.09
Frank Field MP, Birkenhead (Labour)
Darkness at the Heart of the Labour Party
Harold Wilson asserted that the Labour party was a moral crusade or 
it was nothing. The McBride affair has left Labour members looking at 
nothing. That is the reality check that McBride has wrought on the 
party.

The whole of the government's energy should be spent on governing now 
and building a programme from which, within a year, we will be 
seeking permission to rule for another five years.

Far from helping sketch out a new roadmap, the McBride activities 
shine a searchlight on the paucity of the government's programme.

Week after week MPs have been turning up but with almost no serious 
work to do. There is the odd bill to be sure. But there is no 
legislative programme to speak of. Even the debates that are put on 
to fill in time are ones that deny MPs a vote. The whole exercise is 
vacuous.

Labour MPs are left staring into the abyss - that nothingness of 
Harold Wilson's statement. There is a wish amongst all sections of 
the PLP for the government to start governing. We wouldn't care too 
much whether the ideas were Blairite or non-Blairite, as long as we 
could give the impression of supporting a government that was using 
the next year to mark out why we should stay in office.

We have lived through an age of record public expenditure provision, 
but are now entering one of increasing cuts. There have been some 
beneficial results from this huge tax-payer largesse, but they in no 
way match up to what radicals predicted would be the outcome.

Have we been on the wrong track, and if so, what should now be our 
approach? Or is the task to look much more carefully how each pound 
of tax-payers' money is spent so we get a much bigger bang for our buck?

Instead of this debate, we see the energy at the heart of Number 10 
going into trying to smear the opposition.

It is this contrast between how we should be behaving, and what has 
been exposed, that is the real killer. A necessary government 
information machine has been corrupted by a spin that seeks not to 
inform but control and, if needs be destroy. And it has been in 
existence for over a decade.

McBride sat on the Prime Minister's political War Cabinet. If this is 
the war the Prime Minister thinks the country wants he is in for a 
very rude awakening. In the meantime, Labour supporters are left 
bewildered and wondering what happened to the moral crusading side of 
our mission.
Poor old Labour party.
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EVENING STANDARD 14.4.09
Downing Street must abandon these dark arts
Chris Grayling, Shadow Home Secretary

WE'VE had welcome expressions of regret. We've had a promise of new 
rules.

But as Downing Street made clear last night, Gordon Brown just can't 
bring himself to say sorry for the scandal of the emails sent from No 
10 and designed to spread lies about Opposition politicians.

Mr Brown needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

He assures us that he was not involved in, and knew nothing about, 
the emails that were being sent out from his own office. But people 
should be in no doubt that it is the Prime Minister himself who must 
take responsibility for the culture in Downing Street under his 
leadership.

He certainly knows that his key lieutenants have been planning a very 
personal campaign against David Cameron in the run-up to the general 
election. They've hardly made a secret of it.

What's more, Damian McBride was not a peripheral figure. He was a 
civil servant paid for by the taxpayer, and he was personally 
appointed by the Prime Minister and directly responsible to him. He 
worked alongside the Minister for the Civil Service, Tom Watson, at 
the heart of the Prime Minister's office. He was to Gordon Brown what 
Alastair Campbell was to Tony Blair.

So this is not a situation where simply re-writing a code of conduct 
will do the job. Indeed the existing code for special advisers 
already says explicitly that personal attacks are strictly forbidden. 
The problem is not that the rules were not tight enough, but that one 
of the closest associates of the Prime Minister thought he could 
ignore those rules and get away with it.

There remain many unanswered questions too. Mr Brown needs to explain 
whether he was aware of plans to set up a special website to smear 
Conservatives - even if he did not know the details of the smears 
themselves.

He needs to make clear that Mr McBride will not receive a taxpayer-
funded payoff from his job at No 10. [Apparently, he won't -cs]  That 
would be completely unacceptable. He also needs to make it quite 
clear that he will sever all ties with Mr McBride and the former 
adviser, Derek Draper. [Whom he entertained at Chequers after this 
scheme had started -cs]

Gordon Brown's advisers are like the mythical hydra. You chop their 
heads off, but they just grow another and keep on coming. Damian 
McBride has been sidelined before, as was his predecessor Charlie 
Whelan. But in the end Gordon Brown couldn't do without them, and 
brought them back.

If that happens in this case, for example in a general election 
campaign, it would be nothing less than an admission of guilt by the 
Prime Minister.
We need a proper explanation of the role played by the Cabinet Office 
minister Tom Watson. He was named in the emails, and sat next to 
Damian McBride in Downing Street. The Cabinet Secretary needs to 
investigate whether any of his actions breach the Ministerial Code.

And also there needs to be a proper investigation by the Cabinet 
Secretary to ensure that nothing like this is happening elsewhere in 
either No 10 or the Government.

But above all Gordon Brown needs to understand his own role. For 10 
years he has been working to undermine political friend and foe 
alike. But he is Prime Minister now - and in the midst of a national 
economic crisis. So he has to change too.

His job is to sort out the mess in our economy. And he should make it 
clear that his Downing Street will now abandon the political dark 
arts that have characterised too much of his career so far. Nothing 
less will sort all of this out
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POLITICS HOME    14.4.09
COMMENTS
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BBC - "The World at One"
Milburn: McBride smear campaign plan "plumbs new depths"
Alan Milburn, Labour MP

Mr Milburn said that the news of the smear campaign planned by Damian 
McBride against members of the Conservative party plumbed new depths 
in negative political campaigning.

"In politics we are all used to cut and thrust," he said, but added: 
"What has happened really does plumb new depths".

"Frankly, I felt sick to my stomach when I read what was being 
proposed," he said.  "It is morally unacceptable and it has inflicted 
huge damage on the Labour party and the Labour government".
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Sky News + BBC News + "The World at One"
Maude: Brown is "constitutionally incapable of saying sorry"

Francis Maude, shadow Cabinet Office Minister

Sky News
Mr Maude said that Gordon Brown is "constitutionally incapable of 
saying sorry", and added that culture in Downing Street is that which 
has surrounded the Prime Minister throughout his political life.

Put to him that Gordon Brown had expressed his regret over the smear 
emails he said, "it's not as if he's said he's sorry. The idea that 
he's throwing up his hands in horror...is absurd.

"He knew Damian McBride, he knew what kind of person he is. Not for 
nothing was this man known around Westminster as 'McPoison'.

"This is the culture that has always surrounded Gordon Brown's life 
in politics."

He went on to say that the Prime Minister is "constitutionally 
incapable of saying sorry", and added "no-one's waiting with bated 
breath for Gordon to say the magic world 'sorry'".

13:05 BBC News

Shortly afterwards Mr Maude said that Gordon Brown's  "stock in trade 
has been denigrating, smearing his political rivals".

"We want the whole act to be cleaned up, and the culture changed."

He added that Gordon Brown's, "stock in trade has been denigrating, 
smearing his political rivals, his political opponents. He knew 
exactly what he was hiring.

"This is much worse than spin. It is fundamentally different"

13:10 The World at One

Later Mr Maude reiterated that the kind of tactics employed by Mr 
McBride had long been clear.

Gordon Brown had hired him for his combative style and it came as no 
surprise when "the attack dog snarls and bites," he said.

He also said that what was needed was a complete change of culture in 
Westminster. As the Prime Minister was "incapable" of bringing about 
this change what was needed was "a change of government".

"Politics doesn't have to be like this" he said.

14:05 BBC News

Mr Maude later said he'd be horrified if a similar incident to the 
smear emails happened from within the Conservative party, and added 
that politics doesn't have to be conducted in this way.

"We want to be satisfied that the culture at the centre of government 
has changed.

"I'd be horrified if anything like this was done by anyone involved 
with the Conservative party. Politics really doesn't have to be like 
this. It needs to be cleaned up.

"Get the right people, decent people, and the culture will change."
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