The aftermath of Damian McBride’s resignation is tinged with bathos; the excerpts from the Downing Street e-mails published in the News of the World have clearly been heavily edited to excise the most offensive material, but leaving enough to demonstrate the depths to which the Prime Minister’s advisers were prepared to stoop. The repercussions of the affair will, however, continue to be felt for some considerable time.
In one of his e-mails to Derek Draper, McBride wrote: “We’ve got to keep the momentum going.” However, he, more than anyone, will have been astonished at the extraordinary momentum the story gathered in an incredibly short period of time and the rapidity with which he was ejected from his position of considerable power at No 10, almost before he could work out what had happened.
At 7.03 pm on Thursday, 9 April, Guido posted on his blog a picture of McBride’s forehead superimposed with the cross-hairs of a sniper’s rifle sight. Apart from its title, “He Who Lives by the Smear…”, the post was wordless.
At 8.36 pm the same day, Guido published a further post about a dirty tricks campaign being planned in No 10. McBride’s name appeared in it, but only, apparently, tangentially.
At 12.13 am on Saturday, 11 April, Guido posted his principal attack, under the title McBride Spinning for his Career.
At 5.01 pm the same day, Guido announced: “Mission Accomplished – McBride Fired.” Within a period of less than 48 hours, he had succeeded in politically assassinating the Prime Minister’s most trusted lieutenant.
The McBride operation, conducted from the very heart of Downing Street, in retrospect looks very much a relic of the 20th century. Draper’s Red Rag was the stillborn product of 1997 campaign veterans who were aware of the enormous potential of the internet but hadn’t a clue how to harness it. In taking on Paul Staines, they were messing with a man who fully understood the power of the web and, more importantly, how to use it with ruthless efficiency.
Not only have Labour been made to look sleazy by this affair, they have been made to look stupid, inept and outmoded. The Prime Minister’s own position has been compromised; questions about the degree of his knowledge of the black ops department in No 10 will continue to be asked.
Derek Draper has been made to look the biggest loser of all. He may as well wrap up LabourList immediately; it was always a turgid, plodding read, but now it has become the web link nobody will want to be found on his laptop.
The damage the McBride affair has done to Labour and their campaigning reputation cannot be underestimated.
It has demonstrated, in the most embarrassing way possible, that, despite their very worst efforts, Labour are finding it a struggle to grasp the communication techniques of the 21st century.
Is their nothing that the Labour Party won’t stoop to, to win (Hah! Fat chance) the coming General Election?
It beggars belief that there are still, “apparently” 30% of the electorate who are still thinking of voting for the Labour Party.
I didn’t realize that we had so many stupid / corrupt people now living in this country.
From an onlookers perspective, there appears to be a ‘yob culture’ sneaking into our politics, particularly in relation to many Labour Ministers. When questioned on TV, they are defensive arrogant and self-righteous. It as if many of them are morphing into an image of their boss.
The problem is, I don’t think they have any idea how they are seen by the voting public, which is very sad indeed. This current behaviour is damaging not just to the Labour Party, but politics as a whole. MP’s of all parties need to concentrate on regaining the confidence, trust and respect of the electorate, well before the next election. If they don’t I suspect we will see a late rush towards many of the minor parties, if only to see new faces representing us.