Thursday 16 April 2009

You can't 'smear' a Tory: They have no credit to discredit

In my busy life 'Politico-mania' always ends up at the end of the queue. Today, however, I finally have a few moments to comment on the McBride & Draper emails. Basically they exchanged emails about possibly having a 'smear' campaign against certain members of the Conservative party on a gossip web site. It is a nothing story that keeps trundling on: today Gordon finally apologised, and still that is not good enough for the Conservatives.

Whilst I would have no time for the proposed site, I also have no time for the holier-than-thou attitude of the Conservatives or the media. I am sure that if the emails of Conservative MPs and journalists were open to the public there would be plenty of outrageous suggestions about the government. That doesn't excuse the behaviour of McBride, but it does remind us to keep it in perspective.

If the site had launched there would be a case for further investigation. As it is the Tories should accept the McBrides resignation and move on. This is nothing more than the party politics Cameron said he would put aside amid the global financial crisis.

Personally I don't see how it is possible to smear a Tory MP anyway. If you are willing to publicly stand for a party which backs the interests of the privileged at the expense of the underprivileged is there really any way down? Of all the suggested smears, I think "is a Tory" is the one I could never live down.