Draper, McBride and Brown – Triplets of Different Mothers?

Liam Byrne, the Cabinet Minister, was on BBC News this morning stating the government and Gordon Brown's position on Smeargate debacle. He said not once but several times that Mr. McBride sent these emails to "a friend" and engaged in "juvenile banter". It's as though Derek Draper, the 'friend' had nothing to do with Labour and this was just a couple of 'lads having a laugh'. Draper is the editor of Labourlist, for which we can assume the Labour party have been paying handsomely. How long will Draper be in that position? Draper has written a piece on LabourList justifying his actions and in the comments section he's been attacked by just about all the commentators. Interesting too that the minister in commentating about McBride always referred to him as "Mr." It's as though they barely knew one another when in reality they worked together on a daily basis.

Of course Gordon Brown didn't order McBride to do what he did, but he knew exactly what kind of person McBride is and what in general he was up to in his capacity as his tame spinner. If Brown didn't know, why didn't he? You don't employ someone like McBride, who incidentally is paid for by us, and not know what he's doing, do you?