Technology | 2009.04.16
Lance Price on the dangers to Labour posed by Damian McBride's smear emails
Cyber-sludge swirls around the blogosphere, but the government can\'t afford to get dirty
It should come as little surprise that some of Gordon Brown\'s closest aides have been swapping embarrassing stories about senior Conservatives, including David Cameron. It\'s what political hacks do. Gossip of this kind swirls around Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat offices constantly. The same stories are told and retold in every newsroom in London with equal enthusiasm, whether true or not. Most never reach the public because there is no evidence to support them. Journalists don\'t commit them to print, and Damian McBride was playing with fire the moment he put them in an email, let alone considering for a second seeing them published on the internet.
When I was doing a similar but more junior job to McBride\'s, I had discussions, some of them with Tony Blair himself, about the sex lives, health - physical and mental - and other perceived weaknesses of our opponents. I knew that at Conservative Central Office they were having the same discussions about us. Accounts of George Osborne\'s discussions with Peter Mandelson on board a yacht show us that senior politicians will even spread gossip with their enemies on occasion.
The late Alan Clark used to feed Alastair Campbell all kinds of gossip about his then leader, William Hague, including rumours he was "cracking up" under the strain. After one such tip-off I was caught peddling mischief myself. I told my old colleagues at the BBC that Hague had been admitted to hospital for a sinus operation. In my defence, Central Office confirmed the news an hour later. I hope I didn\'t imply there was more to it than blocked nasal passages.
Ten years later, the political smear has a new outlet in the multitude of blogs that have started to spread faster than the kind of rashes they discuss on Embarrassing Illnesses. These were once the preserve of relatively insignificant people with little better to do with their time. Now everybody is at it. Labour, drawing the wrong conclusion from the success of Obama\'s internet campaigning, wanted to add its own contribution to the swirling cyber-sludge. When you are in government, seeking to defend your record and persuade a sceptical electorate of your fitness to carry on, the risks of engaging in the kind of tittle-tattle favoured by many blogs will always outweigh any possible advantages. It is frustrating seeing yourselves slagged off with apparent impunity on a minute-by-minute basis, but getting down and dirty with your opponents is no solution.
Derek Draper, the recipient of the McBride email, has struggled to establish the reputation of his site, LabourList . After this he may as well pack up and go home. Blogging is always going to be easier for those attacking the party in power than for anybody seeking to defend it. Just read the abuse posted after any pro-government article on Comment is free and you will see what Downing Street and Labour are up against.
For McBride to get involved was insane. His name is associated in the minds of many journalists and MPs on both sides of the Commons with a sustained campaign of smear and innuendo on behalf of Gordon Brown. In short, he has form. It is unlikely Brown knew what he was doing on this occasion, but he is more than aware of the reputation for character assassination McBride and others have earned since they were all in the Treasury together. McBride had to be withdrawn from frontline briefing last year because ministers weren\'t prepared to put up with it any longer.
The prime minister was right to say there is "no place in politics for the dissemination or publication of material of this kind". From now on, anybody hoping to use the internet to boost Labour\'s chances at the next election will have to be very careful what they say. If that feels like playing the blogosphere game with one hand tied behind your back, that\'s tough. It\'s called being in government.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/[...]-osborne-emails-mcbride-draper
