Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Getting back into action after the break. Found that more or less everything I felt about the McBride affair is well put by Mr Eugenides on Monday. (It also introduced me to the term 'astroturfing' which I then promptly saw in the IHT.) Of course Brown knew what his man was doing in the only way that matters, just as it is hard to beleive that he would have invited Draper to Chequers if, how can I put this, Peter Mandelson had advised against it. The idea, as today's Guardian reports, that Draper is merely "considering" quitting his post made me laugh out loud. His Blairite self-pity and, you-know, protestion of innocence rings out the verdict on New Labour now: it's an Ex Project. In the immortal words, "Matey, I know a dead project when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now....Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your nine o'clock alarm call! ... definitely deceased, expired and gone to meet his maker. A stiff! Bereft of life."
If there is a larger aspect it is the implication for the whole of our political class rowing back from one of their own enforcers. If you want to know how Brown got 42 Days through the Commons and lined up the mediocracy who then sneered at David Davis for his well-judged protest, consider the implications of this tucked away eulogy by Patrick Wintour in the Guardian, and what exactly "the goods" are that he delivered:
McBride has a quick economic brain and can brief intelligently at lightning speed. He also knows many journalists personally, and even if he is combative, he had a strong circle of admirers who knew he delivered the goods.
