McBride,the return

According to the FT's Westminster blog,Damien McBride will return

Don’t be surprised if he pops up again before long; not necessarily in politics but maybe working in the corporate world. “Disgrace” is a subjective state of being. Other figures once consigned to the wilderness have returned to the frontline; Mandelson, Whelan and Draper being the most obvious ones. Public relations is not always a pretty business: it is often downright nasty. Someone, somewhere, will value McBride’s “skills”.

Shanahan won't be on Tom Watson;s guest list

Shanahan in this morning's Sun seems to know exactly where the blame for the events of the last few days should be pinned.

There is another unsavoury creature lurking in the shadows who should join McBride on the dole.
And he’s not a civil servant like McBride but a minister appointed by Brown.
Treacherous Tom Watson, — a tub of lard who is known without affection at Westminster as “Two Dinners” Tommy — is suspected of being in this up to his bloated and bulging neck.

So no mincing of words there then

This scandal will end at the door of Brown

Smeargate is not going away just yet and Rachel Sylvester in the Times this morning writes that the McBride e-mail scandal follows a familiar pattern — the brutal and relentless undermining of opponents and rivals.

She describes the Prime Minister as

as well as waving his moral compass, he has always wielded a dagger and surrounded himself with thugs who are not afraid to use it on his behalf. Ministers speak of there being a split between “good Gordon” and “bad Gordon” and when the Prime Minister feels vulnerable it is Mr Hyde who triumphs over Dr Jekyll.

What starting as a blogging spat could turn be turning out to be the final nail in the coffin of New Labour.

This I feel will reverberate a lot more at the door of the Prime Minister.

A setback but Brown should still apologise says Campbell

The Damian McBride affair is a setback, a problem, an unwanted if not entirely unexpected event which temporarily at least gets in the way of the strategic direction of the government.

writes Alastair Campbell on his blog today but he also hints that Brown should consider apologising

there is the question of Cameron's call for an apology. There may be politics attached to it, but it is worth asking the question - if a Tory spin doctor had been found to be planning smears against the families of Labour politicians, would we have asked for, and expected, an apology? I think the answer is yes.

Whilst at Labour List,Mike Ion beleives that

So tomorrow morning he should come out onto the steps of Downing Street and look into the eyes of the assembled media and state clearly and categorically that he is sorry for the hurt that has been caused to all concerned, sorry for the embarrassment and shame that has been heaped upon our party and sorry for the damage done to politics in general. He should even consider writing to the likes of Samantha Cameron and Francis Osborne expressing his personal regret at what happened. Without any of this I think it will be very difficult to draw a line underneath this sad, tawdry and rather ugly incident.

And an apology from Derek Draper

So I am sorry. I am particularly sorry to the individuals mentioned in those juvenile emails, and especially sorry to Nadine Dorries, George and Frances Osborne and David and Samantha Cameron. I can understand why they – and others – may be sceptical but all I can do is absolutely promise that these stories were just daft ideas that never – and would never have - got off the drawing board.

Jackie Smith on Brown's other self

Jackie Ashley is definitely falling out of love with Gordon Brown.

In her Monday column in the Guardian this morning,she writes that

Almost every elected leader, surrounded by a hostile press and potential rivals, turns to the dark arts of briefers and ear-whisperers.

and adds that

The truth is that Brown has always been double-sided in his political personality and now the whole country knows it. The ideologically serious, morally driven statesman, whose steely determination was most recently on view in his successful handling of the G20, has lived his life with a sinister twin, spinning and dealing. McBride has been an extension of that other self.

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.