Spin

Damian Mcbride, the one on the left

The life of the energy producers had been tranquil until Ed Miliband bared his teeth at the Labour party conference. They did business upon the back of barmy green energy policies that Miliband's party, spinners and MPs alike, had endorsed. But before that moment we had all been agog at the sight of Damian McBride basking in the limelight. It has suited the MSM and McBride's publisher to paint him as a bad boy. But he is not. He is a faithful servant and there is more to him than you might think.

If we go back to the dawn of Nulabour the three central characters were: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson. In time a pattern emerged with each of those three being associated with their sidekick-cum-spinner. Blair and Alastair Campbell merged to become the double act of the world's most deluded smarmy git and his Northern thug. It's hard to say that McBride is wicked but pretend that Campbell was not working the same trade, because he was then and is now.

The BBC finding that Blair is now beyond their reach uses Campbell as a stop-gap; a sort of cheap-and-cheerful elder statesman who can deliver the 'I was there' history lesson and rent a quote without blushing. Mandelson's sidekick was Benjamin Wegg-Prosser and, like Blair and Campbell, they too followed the money and still work together.

Our Will (collective will?)
One of the many strange things about Nulabour is its stance on the hereditary principle. On the one hand they do all they can to mess up the House of Lords, which was not without faults but working well when they came to power. But on the other hand they are without shame when it comes to finding jobs for their own kith and kin. The ever tedious Tony Benn is always willing to push one of his younger relatives into 'a nice little earner', a job in politics. And of course the ultimate job, seen as a birthright for some Nulabour heavyweights, is a seat in the House of Commons. Philip Gould, the pollster Tony Blair depended on, has watched his daughter, Georgia, try and fail to get a seat. Also Tamsin Dunwoody tried and failed to win her mother's old seat, Crewe and Nantwich.

As said before, strange is the word. Emily Benn, the latest member of Clan Benn with natural governing tendencies, was just three years old when grandpa quit the House of Commons. But there she is with him in tow on the campaign trail without a hint of embarrassment; was he really an advantage? What will she do next, wear her mother's clothes? Very strange as us older folk remember Tony working his socks off to get rid of the family title via Peerage reform; how times change.

Safer than Afghanistan?
The yawning gulf between the public, our politicians and their advisers can be seen in the resignations from the official drugs advisory body. Home Secretary Alan Johnson’s dismissal of Professor David Nutt, the senior scientist on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, has turned into a major but predictable multi-dimensional upset for Nulabour. The MSM is full of this row between the government and the Advisory Council and for obvious reasons. First this is a wonderful story. Also its got, so some in the MSM think, the same sort of news value as another splash about Amy Winehouse.

Frankie Howerd

As predicted the death toll of UK soldiers in Afghanistan has exceeded 200 in 8 years. This totemic figure will ensure that the media spotlight will shine brightly, for a while, on a number of issues given a trial run recently - equipment shortages is an obvious one. But let's wait and see for it's unlikely that anything related to strategy will be part of a wider public debate.

Tragic as the 200 deaths are they have to be seen alongside the 30,000 over 5 years in NHS hospitals from superbugs, reported in the Telegraph. Over the same period as the war in Afghanistan this would be 48,000 deaths. What a strange world it is, the deaths of soldiers only jars the national conscience when the figure has a certain resonance, yet deaths from superbugs appear to be running at over 100 per week. But the only hint of a debate, which soon turns into a bipolar rant, is when MEP Daniel Hannan makes his opinions of the concept of 'Big State' as related to health provision known on a US TV news programme.

Bouncing ball
What is going on? Rather like a bouncing ball Damian McBride is back with us. This week there have been articles about McPoison in the: Guardian, Daily Mail, Spectator and on the BBC website. Why should this be?

When it comes to bouncing this is supposed to be the sole province of our PM, Mr McEyebags. He is the one, according to the spinners, who is always just on the verge of being hailed, yet again, by a grateful nation as their saviour. This theory is flawed in that is does not explain, but admits to, the fact that the fortunes of the PM go down as well as up.

In that respect it's like the claim of the PM, ridding the nation of boom and bust, not one but both banished forever. However, all too painfully plain to see, is not only the ex-iron Chancellor, now rusty PM, still with us and flaking away merrily in the mother of all busts, but his nasty little sidekick too.