United Kingdom: Fallout from a sleazy scandal
Damian McBride, until recently Prime Minister Gordon Brown's chief political strategist, was caught making up lies and planting gossip about senior Conservative politicians and their wives.
The prime minister’s top political advisor is a sleaze-monger, said The Sun in an editorial. Damian McBride, until recently the chief strategist for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, was “caught making up sordid lies” about senior Conservative politicians and their wives. The scandal broke last week, when a right-wing blog obtained and published an e-mail from McBride to another Labor Party operative, detailing plans to plant gossip about Tories on a left-wing blog. The smears included unfounded allegations that Conservative leader David Cameron had a sexually transmitted disease and that other Tory members of Parliament had had adulterous affairs. McBride immediately apologized and resigned.
But Brown still has a lot of explaining to do, said Jackie Ashley in The Guardian. McBride, known to reporters by his nicknames “McNasty and McPoison,” was not some aberration. He was, in fact, the heart of Brown’s “shadow operation” of spin doctors who spread rumors about Brown’s rivals—mostly, ironically, his Labor Party rivals, not his Tory opponents. Now, “even his greatest supporters know that Brown has run a kind of dual premiership, partly high-minded and principled and partly vicious and tribal.” The prime minister can’t get away with pretending surprise at McBride’s tactics, “as if he’d been walking around with a portly vulture on his shoulder for years without noticing.” McBride was a top strategist. If Brown didn’t know what he was up to, “he should have.”
Of course Brown was aware of McBride’s scummy tactics, said The Independent. This episode did not just come out of the blue. Several years ago, when Brown was chancellor of the exchequer and itching to replace Tony Blair as prime minister, he used McBride to smear Blair every chance he got. Last October, Brown was forced to remove McBride as his communications director, after McBride’s “attack dog” tactics alienated reporters and rendered the entire press office dysfunctional. Yet “instead of getting rid of him,” Brown made McBride his political strategist, a role in which the “pit bull” could use ��the darker arts of spin.” This affair proves that Brown runs a “secretive, sectarian, and cabal-ridden” government.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Welcome to the age of the blogosphere, said The Mirror. McBride was planning to plant rumors on a left-wing blog to counter the smears that routinely emanate from right-wing blogs. These blogs lower the tone of political discourse for the entire country. They are simply “cretinous, infantile forums of abuse dressed up as argument” where “pompous prigs of all political persuasions” try to pass themselves off as intellectuals. The best way to counter such drivel is to ignore it. These “small-minded attention seekers” have “seduced the real political world into thinking they actually matter. They don’t.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?
In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
By The Week Staff
-
'Seriously, not literally': how should the world take Donald Trump?
Today's big question White House rhetoric and reality look likely to become increasingly blurred
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK
-
Will Trump's 'madman' strategy pay off?
Today's Big Question Incoming US president likes to seem unpredictable but, this time round, world leaders could be wise to his playbook
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK
-
Democrats vs. Republicans: who are the billionaires backing?
The Explainer Younger tech titans join 'boys' club throwing money and support' behind President Trump, while older plutocrats quietly rebuke new administration
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK
-
US election: where things stand with one week to go
The Explainer Harris' lead in the polls has been narrowing in Trump's favour, but her campaign remains 'cautiously optimistic'
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK
-
Is Trump okay?
Today's Big Question Former president's mental fitness and alleged cognitive decline firmly back in the spotlight after 'bizarre' town hall event
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK
-
The life and times of Kamala Harris
The Explainer The vice-president is narrowly leading the race to become the next US president. How did she get to where she is now?
By The Week UK
-
Will 'weirdly civil' VP debate move dial in US election?
Today's Big Question 'Diametrically opposed' candidates showed 'a lot of commonality' on some issues, but offered competing visions for America's future and democracy
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK