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Smeargate - The beginning of the end


No doubt the focus tomorrow by the majority of political commentators will be on the broadsheet reaction to Gordon Brown's statement.

However, let us not forget the reaction of what is probably the most influential paper amongst swing voters across the UK, namely the Sun.
In their leader article for Tuesday, the paper states:

"Damian McBride couldn’t just hang his head and admit he had heaped shame on Downing Street, the Labour Party and his publicly-funded position. No.
Because spin is so ingrained in Labour’s psyche that admitting a damaging truth is never an option.
McBride, caught making up sordid lies about senior Tories and their wives, quit merely because “when a backroom adviser becomes the story, their position becomes untenable.”
Cabinet Office minister Liam Byrne circles the wagons, downplaying the smears and praising McBride’s forced resignation as “honourable”.
Downing Street, incredibly, gives McBride credit for deciding not to make his own lies public, while McBride hilariously claims he is “sickened” someone else did.
McBride’s sidekick — arch plotter Tom Watson — runs for cover, denying everything, even though he is said to have been sent the emails too.
Meanwhile dodgy bighead Derek Draper claims he and McBride were just mates shooting the breeze and that McBride didn’t deserve the axe.
Don’t believe any of it. This was not banter between pals. This was an orchestrated strategy of dishonesty.
The scandal is not that unfounded allegations were made public. They are patently false. It is that the PM’s head of strategy and planning believed making up a pack of lies to discredit the Tories, and thus to deceive voters, was a legitimate tactic.
And that Draper, a Labour aide, thought the idea “totally brilliant”.
Credit, then, to ex-Transport Minister Tom Harris for calling a spade a spade. The emails were odious, he said, and had damaged Labour. Everyone involved owed their Tory targets an apology.
Which is quite right. Though the truth of the matter is this:
It’s done a great deal more damage to Gordon Brown than to David Cameron"

Has Rupert Murdoch finally abandoned Gordon Brown and the Labour Party?

This article seems to suggest that if he hasn't yet, it won' t be long in coming.

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