Two major contributions but a fatal error

There is an interesting aside from the Economist's Bagehot as the McBride affair dominates the news coverage this Easter weekend.

He writes that he

made two big, almost invaluable contributions to Gordon Brown's embattled premiership.

The courting of the right wing press and secondly that his rallying cry helped keep Brown in a job when leadership speculation hit an all time high last autumn.

Unfortunately

Mr McBride and his associates have made enemies. Other less-favoured journalists were irked by his partiality. Lots of ministers and Labour MPs were angry and distressed by the vicious briefings that were attributed, wrongly or otherwise, to him. People once well-disposed to Mr Brown were alienated by the methods he seemed to sanction and the company he was keeping.