+++ Mission Accomplished - McBride Fired +++

SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2009

SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2009

+++ Mission Accomplished - McBride Fired +++

Maybe he can start a blog?

+++ Rumour McBride Fired +++

Warning, this is as yet unconfirmed.

Labour Calls for McBride to Go

Grassroots comments on LabourHome suggest that Labour activists would be happy to see the back of Damian McBride.

Charles Clarke calls for McBride to be sacked.

Derek Draper has admitted that Mcbride told him what to write in order to contrive a smear of Iain Dale and Guido on his “independent” website - something he lied about to Iain and live on the Daily Politics when we debated.  Fancy that, Derek Draper is a self-confessed liar.

Deconstructing the Downing Street Spin

Downing Street is trying to downplay this as a“blog story” knowing that journalists and the public won’t be so interested in another online spat. 

That attempt to spin the story away has failed, because everyone realises that it is in reality a story from the heart of Downing Street.

Downing Street’s press office has been trying to get prominent Labour  supporting bloggers into the studios to do rebuttal.  So far they have been unable to find someone credible to defend the indefensible.  It is also Downing Street that is quite deliberately hyping the Derek Draper angle - clearly he is disposable - but it cannot be emphasised enough that he is not the only recipent of these smears ideas.  Other well known spin doctors from the Brown camp are involved.

They have two objectives - to keep Gordon out of the story and save Tom Watson MP.   It is probably already too late for Damian.   Where is the Minister for Digital Engagement today?  What was his exact role in the smear operation?  He is referred to in  Damian McBride’s emails, he sits next to McPoison in Downing Street, and he of course is notorious for his use of the dark arts.  He also was involved with Sion Simon in a previous cringe making online attack video on Cameron that backfired badly - he has previous.

The smears are not  of the usual rough and tumble  of politics - they are obscene and sexually explicit - Guido spoke to Nadine Dorries MP last night, she told Guido that she will be consulting lawyers on Tuesday.  Can the Prime Minister’s official Political and Press Adviser, a civil servant, survive losing a case for defamation to an opposition MP?

If Gordon Brown keeps Damian McPoison in place, he is condoning his behaviour, again.  Where have they hidden Gordon’s moral compass?  It certainly isn’t anywhere to be seen in Downing Street.

McBride Spinning for His Career

Damian McBride is desperately trying to throw a smokescreen up tonight with a planted frontpage story in the Telegraph which downplays what he has been up to.  Andrew Porter, the Telegraph’slobby correspondent, is Damian McBride’s  regular drinking companion and tame mouthpiece, so it is no surprise whatsoever to Guido that theTelegraph is being used by Downing Street for damage limitation.

The Telegraph implies that Guido has sold the story to the Sunday newspapers - that is completely untrue - Downing Street tried that same line against the Home Office whistleblower.  They are also trying to make out that the story is just about Damian McBride sending gossipy emails to his pal Derek Draper.  Utter lies.

Damian McBride did however in fact write the LabourList article for Draper to use to smear Guido and he also did the same for smears against Iain Dale.   Draper merely cut and pasted them on to his “independent” site.   That is just a relatively minor aspect of the bigger story, but it is how Guido came to learn more of the full story.  The Telegraph doesn’t have a fraction of the facts - laughably they don’t even name McBride in their story - they really should have given him the byline.

Downing Street under Gordon Brown has been particularly vicious in smearing opponents.  Other well known Labour insiders besides Damian McBride - including a government minister - are involved in the operation.  Guido has hard evidence that Tory MPs have been smeared, and that a particularly vicious concerted smear operation was mounted against George Osborne, smears that Damian McBride - a civil servant - knows and admits in writing are untrue, yet he was still instrumental in spreading.  Some well known lobby journalists have knowingly gone along with it.  This is a lot bigger than some minor bloggers spat.

Downing Street are deliberately trying to make out that this is just another round in the Draper v Guido battle - that is why the Telegraph have slanted their story in the way they have.  It isn’t.  It is about a poisonous long term smear operation based in the heart of Downing Street and run bythe prime minister’s press and political adviser, Damian McBride.  Names will be named and shamed…

+++ Developing +++

UPDATE : The BBC have an anonymous Downing Street source claiming that no-one else in Downing Street besides Damian knew about all this - simply not true and contradicted by the evidence.