Darling's Revenge Dish Served Cold

Demob happy Darling has served up his cold revenge in an outspoken TV interview, claiming Bully Boy Brown's henchmen unleashed "the forces of hell" against him for daring to tell the truth over the dire economy. Confirmation from Brown's own chancellor that attack dogs were ordered to brief against him. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

In Rawnsley's bombshell book The End of the Party Darling's wife, Maggie, is quoted: "The f*cking c*nts are trying to stitch up Alistair!"

Though Darling now seems to be suffering from a bout of amnesia over the 'fruity' language.

Claims that top civil servant O'Donnell warned Bullying Brown about his treatment of staff. Now claims that henchmen, McBride and Whelan, led briefings against Darling.

Bullying Brown presided over a regime which even involved attempts to bully his chancellor. McPoison runs through the blood of Downing Street.

What galls the Orange Party is that some Fleet Street hacks and lobby cronies still suck up to this ruthless bunch of reservoir dogs and take their cue from Brown henchmen.

Brown unleashed “the forces of hell” on Darling after he warned in a 2008 Guardian interview the country faced the worst recession for 60 years.

In a remarkably frank TV interview, Darling pointed the finger at Brown's former spin doctor McBride, who was forced to quit last year over Smeargate and a planned dirty tricks campaign against top Tories.

The timing of Daring Darling's decision to spill the beans on the bullies is decidedly odd.

Darling must have gone into Tuesday's interview knowing full well a Bullygate question was on the cards and could have flanneled around. Instead, on his command he 'unleashed hell'.

Perhaps it's a ploy to get his own way over the budget. Or he's just an ardent Gladiator fan. But bully for him.

The Guardian interview raised quite a few eyebrows after Decca Aitkenhead popped over to see Darling at his Isle of Lewis holiday home.

“I remember the weekend after we came back and I’d done this interview and the forces of hell were unleashed,” he told Jeff Randall on Sky News.

The Brown sauce spinners have been working overtime to put a lid on Bullygate trying every trick in the book to refute Rawnsley's allegations that Brown bullies his staff.

But Darling's comments support another of Rawnsley's claims - that McBride had tried to knife him in the back, "spreading poison" about Darling following the Guardian article.

When pressed on whether two key Brown allies at the time - McBride and ex-Brown press chief, Whelan - might have been the culprits, Darling replied: Frankly, my best answer for them is: I'm still here. One of them is not.”

For the Tories it's manna from heaven, jumping on Bullying Brown's tight cabal of henchmen: The "happy and united team" has been blown apart. 


The Orange Party believes Darling is a decent soul if a tad misguided. How he must hate working with a bunch of thugs.

And how he must have hated the Brown Balls briefings against him last summer, when the struggling Supreme Leader tried to ditch him for pal Balls.

And how he must hate the fact that his dire economic predictions turned out to be so correct:

"What I do know is, unfortunately - and it's not a great source of pleasure - but what I said did turn out to be true."

Team Brown will be furious that Darling has stoked up the Bully Boy Brown fire, further fuelling Rawnsley allegations that he is a bully, just as it seemed Bullygate had lost its legs.

For the Orange Party the appalling last straw was Woolas' attack on the unfortunately named Mrs Pratt, calling her "that prat of a woman". Bullying the boss of an anti-bullying charity who spilled the beans on the climate of fear in Brown's office.

Bully Boy Brown? Oh, You Nasty Man.

Scandals, they're everywhere, They're in the air and who put them there, You, you and you, you nasty man...

Mid cartoon: Peter Brookes, The Times

'Oh, You Nasty Man'. Alice Faye's risque performance (1934).

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Phew, What A Stitch-Up

A phone hack 'scandal' is rocking Cameron's boat in the dog eat dog world on the Street of Shame. Dirty Digger's in the frame after coughing up to gag the victims. Cameron's spin doctor is in the thick of it. It's payback time and New Labour cronies are milking it for all it's worth. This smells like a stitch-up.

A hairy old hacking hack's tale with a good dose of political bitching and a Fleet Street battle thrown in for good measure.

Blair's ex-spin doctor Campbell was in like a shot blogging for all he was worth while the Guardian "bombshell" was still hot off the press. The old hack couldn't contain himself - Gotcha. Methinks the man doeth protest too much.

At the centre is the shock 'revelation' that newspaper hacks on the News of the Screws went to illegal lengths a couple of years ago with phone hacks to try to dish the dirt on the high and mighty, all well-publicised at the time.

And to cap it all, there's the shock 'revelation' that NoW boss, Murdoch, paid off victims with a wad of cash to keep schtum.

How on earth does a hungry hack gets a scoop? Not by sitting on their bums all day. Hacking mobile messages is just the newest simplest trick in the book, making "thousands of calls" until you strike gold with an easily cracked voicemail PIN. Any tabloid hack worth their salt would give it a go - as long as the boss is shielded from any come back.

Hacking into voicemail messages at the centre of the Guardian claims is small-fry. GCHQ does much more with a massive eavesdropping operation. The Royal Mail has a special unit to intercept post. Spooks pass on juicy titbits to the tabloids when they fancy another 'Squidgygate'. If the government can get away with it why not hacks? As long as it's in the public interest not just to interest the public.

But hold the front page. Who was the News of the Screws editor at the time? Step forward Andy Coulson, now Cameron's right hand media man. It's McBride and Smeargate all over again. Or is it?

Shurley shum mishtake. McPoison was working alongside Brown while hatching a squalid plot to smear top Tories. Coulson? This happened years ago in his other life at the NoW before he was a twinkle in Cameron's eye.

Coulson quit when the newspaper got in a right royal pickle caught in the act in a hairy old hacking affair, saying he took “ultimate responsibility”.

As for the pay-off. More likely no-one wanted their dirty washing hung out in a public court case and this was a chance to make a fast buck on the back on a bit of dirt.

But quick as a flash Prezza got stuck in - calling for heads to roll and the Old Bill to get stuck in. The BBC was lovin' it, giving Prescott all the time in the world to rant away all a-huffin' and a-puffin' his way through his spin-doctor script.

Yates of the Yard has been called in do his duty with another pop at the nasty Tories. Not be left out, Mandy has joined the fray calling for a fresh police probe.

And this is the same Prescott caught lording it up at Dorneywood when he was supposed to be running the country (Mail), caught with his pants down with his secretary (Mirror) and caught on two loos (Telegraph). Having a go at the NoW he seems to have got his wires crossed.

Prezza and Campbell will no doubt keep pumping away. Others are jumping on the bandwagon in a game of ya boo sucks. After all, the mighty Murdoch empire is backing Cameron in the race for Downing Street.

The heat is on. But those calling for Coulson or Murdoch's head should be careful what they wish for. There's a lot of muck out there waiting to be raked up.

Cameron is said to be "relaxed" about the whole thing. Only hard evidence linking Coulson directly to phone hacking would bring about his certain downfall. Hacks cover their tracks.

But still smarting from the Guido/NoW McBride smearing scandal, revenge is a dish best served cold by a New Labour supporting Guardian in cahoots with the BBC. If the pressure is relentless and something truly fresh turns up, Coulson may have to go.

To its credit Murdoch's posh paper, The Times is reporting New Labour calls for Cameron to sack his trusted aide but it's no big deal at the old Thunderer. The Mail, Mirror and Telegraph? Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.

Spin doctor Campbell is no stranger to dirty tricks spinning for his New Labour cronies. He's there large as life in a wonderful expose by none other than author of the Guardian 'revelation' - Nick Davies in his book which blew the lid off Campbell's Fleet Street cajoling, Flat Earth News.

Meanwhile outside the cosy Westminster village and the Street of Shame the public doesn't give a toss. They are worried about hanging onto a job, paying the bills and making ends meet.

Now thanks to Telegraph hacks they know which MP is spending their taxes living the high life with dodgy second homes deals. Now thanks to the stirling work of hacks and the blogoshere they know which fat cats are milking the system, screwing taxpayers for all they're worth.

And now thanks to leaks to the media they can see through the spin of this discredited government and economic mess. And decide for themselves who is best to run the country.

UPDATE 6pm: Yates of the Yard has ruled out a fresh probe into the hacking hacks.

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Can Brown Shake Off McPoison 'Link'?

Twice Brown has been forced to deny dealings with his disgraced spin doctor McBride. Twice he was forced to stand at the commons despatch box and deny any links. Spiteful Tory trouble stirring to ruffle Brown's feathers? Or is McPoison back already? There's something fishy going on.

For the Tories the name of Damian McBride is spat out through gritted teeth. Forced to leave Brown's side in shame with his tail between his legs after being exposed at the centre of a nasty email smear campaign against top Tories.

Revenge could be a dish best served cold at the dispatch box.

Since McBride went to ground, many political observers have raised the vexed question. Where's McPoison? What's he up to now? Is he up to his old tricks offering "informal briefings"?

The mere suggestion forced Downing Street to put up the story that he's turned his back on the dirty tricks of politics, short listed for another job as an "outreach worker" for his old school. Some kind of penance perhaps or maybe taking the outreach just a little bit too literally?

The Orange Party was taken aback somewhat when for the second week running a Tory asked the PM a planted question during PMQs over links with McBride. The Westminster Mole is pondering the same intriguing question with equally intriguing conclusions.

The first week's question to Brown was messed up. Woolly, imprecise, asking only about alleged "informal briefings", that allowed Brown to get away with a simple denial. Tory high command was furious.

Not so this week. A very tight, detailed, precise question designed to pin Brown down, which had all the hallmarks of being drafted by Tory central office.

Tory backbencher James Duddridge demanded to know whether Brown had had "any correspondence, emails, telephone conversations or texts from McBride". Brown again brushed it aside with: "I have not" but here's the rub - the MP asked him to send his answer to the Commons Standards watchdog. Outch.

MPs cannot accuse one another of lying in the House. But they can force someone to account for themselves if what they've said is a bit dodgy. A prime minister caught lying to the House and its curtains for Brown.

Are the Tories onto something? What is clear is that all communications between a prime minister are routinely monitored by Downing Street and the spooks. It goes with the job.

It's designed to protect a prime minister from any false accusations and to give Downing Street a steer on a PMs thinking. Blair never had a mobile phone, Brown has. The record is there on the grounds of national security and in the best interests of the state.

Falling into the wrong or right hands and it's a case of Gotcha.

Ex-spin doctors have a habit of turning up like a bad penny. Disgraced Campbell is doing quite well with his feet under the Downing Street table blogging for the Blair brand.

And why not. Nice work if you can get it. Old habits die hard and McBride could well have offered some kind words of advice. Some lines to take on a vexed issue. No one would bat an eyelid.

But now Brown has been forced to deny it to the House. It only takes one transcript of a text message, one mobile phone link and he's toast.

The Tories maybe on to something. Or just giving Brown a taste of his own medicine. The McPoison wounds of Smeargate ran deep. What is clear is they won't give up, if only to make the struggling Supreme Leader sweat.

Picture: McBrown and McBride in happier days

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Ode To Dolly Draper

Shamed spinner Derek 'Dolly' Draper has been left wandering the wilderness after quitting as 'editor' of LabourList. Full of regret and spinning to the end, his parting shot was to call on the Party to rally round Brown. 

Set up to rival other hugely popular political blogs, Draper's LabourList had a lot going for it. But it was plans for another scurrilous site, Red Rag, with grossly unfounded smears against top Tories which led to his downfall. Smeargate exposed the lies, deceit and corruption at the rotten heart of Number 10.

ODE TO DOLLY DRAPER

So Farewell Dolly Draper.

What a strange name.

Sounds a bit like Dolly the Sheep.

Were you a New Labour clone, 

Or just following the flock?

A wolf in sheep's clothing? 

Now we will never know,

As you head off into the wilderness, 

Without even a hard drive 

To remind you of the good times.

LabourList won't be the same without you.

All those nice decent people you'd lined up. 

They'll just have to find a new Labourhome,

Or leave comments on Guido with silly names.

Red Rag was a good name. 

'Tis a pity she's turned out a whore.

Branding Tory smears as "absolutely totally brilliant"

Was not one of your better ideas. 

Getting caught out by Guido even worse. 

You gave the world Smeargate 

And the BBC has given you a nice obituary.

So shave off the scruffy beard, 

Get some proper psychotherapy 

And come back a new New Labour man.

Or just Go Forth and Multiply. If that's OK.

PS: How about some smears about peers and their dirty tranny habits.

Yours 

Dame Ian McBride

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Smeargate II-Abandon Hope All Who Enter

Smearing Sunday has thrown up a two-pronged attack on Brown's tightly knit cabal of henchmen, as the spinners slide down the slippery slope of smears. Abandon hope all who enter.

A rotting carcass either eats away at itself from the inside or blows up and explodes. Both sickening spectacles are laid bare today in an attack by the Murdoch stable, as Brown's reservoir dogs plot to smear anyone and everyone who get in their way. 

A commons vote of no confidence could be getting closer, as shadow chancellor and one of the smear victims, George Osborne, says Brown must be "held to account" for the people around him. 

The News of the Screws turns on the screws with revelations that Labour Party boss, Ray Collins, was in on the plot to set up scurrilous website, Red Rag, at the centre of the sickening Smeargate campaign to smear top Tories. 

Meeting Brown's now defunct aide, Damian 'McPoison' McBride and ex-spin doctor, Derek 'Dolly' Draper, a month before vicious unfounded Tory sex smear emails mails were sent, the NoW now screams: New Smear Email Nails Labour Lies 

Was that before or after Brown and Dolly had a jolly lunch at Chequers? Maybe Guido, who blew the gaff on the whole sordid affair, could write a book about it. 

One thing's certain, McPoison was dripping everywhere with Brown's unofficial Mr Fix-It and former aide, Charlie Wheelan and government cyber minister, Tom Watson, firmly in the frame. 

Over at the Sunday Times in "an explosive new twist" it's revealed Brown's side-kick Ed Balls, stuck in a rut as schools, children, playgrounds and school dinners secretary, was up to his neck running a Downing Street smear unit, using disgraced spin doctor, McBride to stab in the back rivals as he plotted to have a stab at the premiership after the Supreme Leader's inevitable downfall. 

In a stark headline the Sunday Times tells it how it is: Ed Balls ‘Ran’ Labour’s Smear Unit with more on the ruthless band of brothers. 

According to a "mysterious" No 10 insider, Balls, "master of dark arts and dirty tricks", was the mastermind behind a “dark arts” operation. Blair boy spinners Mandleson and Campbell must be happy bunnies. 

The Orange Party has long fingered Balls who has a knack of hiding behind the smokescreen of 'accountability and responsibility' both over the Baby P scandal and the Sats fiasco, where his cover is set to be blown later this week. 

Smeargate is slowly unravelling, albeit slowly and for the sake of journalistic objectivity is should be pointed out that everyone denies, well, everything. 

What is clear is that Downing Street's spin that this was all just a 'prank between two blokes' has spectacularly backfired.

All roads lead to McCavity Brown, who of course didn't touch it, smell it, shake it or move it, while mercilessly ripping out his political rivals' throats, using his attack dogs to do the dirty work. 

With every twist and turn the disreputable band are being forced to crawl out of the woodwork with lame denials as the plot thickens, the rot sets in and the Blairites and Brownites tear each other apart.

The Smeargate fall out continued yesterday with long-standing true Labour stalwart, Alice Mahon, quitting the Party with a withering attack on Brown and New Labour saying she can no longer stomach how it operates and feels betrayed, citing the recent smearing scandal as the last straw which left her feeling "sickened''. 

Disgusted, fed up and betrayed, many card-carrying Party members are finally waking up to the mess the disreputable political elite of the New Labour brand have made of the country and their Party. 

As the Tories gain more ground in the polls on the back of Smeargate, the question now is can voters trust the Tories to turn off and turn around the rot? 

Peter Oborne, laying bare the media hype, spin doctors and skulduggery in the Observer isn't quite sure:

"But at this grim moment in our national life, Britain doesn't just need a change of personnel at the very top. We urgently need a new decency and morality in government and to get rid of the stinking and corrupt regime that has brought the idea of British democracy into such deep disrepute over the last few years."

The Orange Party feels it's time to unwind with a large Laphroaig and reread Oborne's 'Triumph Of The Political Class', now rushed out in paperback - followed by Dante's 'Divine Comedy'.

Picture: The inscription at the entrance to Hell from Dante's Divine Comedy

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'Sickened' Party Stalwart Quits New Labour

Long-standing Labour stalwart Alice Mahon has quit the Party with a withering attack on Brown and New Labour saying she can no longer stomach how it operates and feels betrayed. A rebel with a left-wing cause, Mahon is not the only one "sickened" by New Labour, leaving members 'staring into the abyss'. 

The Smeargate fallout continues with Mahon, 71, a Halifax MP for 18 years and a party member for more than 50, resigning her membership citing the recent scandal smearing top Tories as the last straw which left her feeling "sickened''. 

She told the Yorkshire Post: "My stepdaughter Rachel said to me: 'How could they do that to people like David Cameron and his wife Samantha when they had recently lost their son Ivan? What kind of people think it would be a good idea to smear them?'

"I was sickened by that – that is not the Labour Party that I joined all those years ago.''

No doubt New Labour spinners will try to play down her resignation but she was a rare breed, an ardent critic of Blair's government and the illegal Iraq war - and Brown.

Telling her Halifax Labour Party she had hoped that under Brown "we might go back to being a really progressive and caring party'' a dismayed Mahon said "but in the event I could not have been more wrong''.

Brown, she says, has "shown zero contrition over privatising public services and failed to tackle the excesses of the bankers", echoing views that chime with many voters as well as rank and file members.

And she heaped scorn on the welfare reform bill saying: "This Labour Government should hang its head in shame for inflicting this on the British public just as we face the most severe recession any of us have experienced in a lifetime.''

The Labour Party veteran said: "I can no longer be a member of a party that at the leadership level has betrayed many of the values and principles that inspired me as a teenager to join.''

Mahon, a self-proclaimed socialist with a long record of peace activism, was one of the most vocal critics of the war in Iraq and the way the Blair government sucked up to the Bush regime, now followed by Obama's Brown poodle: 

"Brown has just announced plans to send another 900 troops to Afghanistan, billions to be spent on an unwinnable war and pensioners dare not turn on their heating because this Government will not tackle the energy fat cats.''

But she said: "My final reason for leaving the party is because it is no longer democratic. Quite simply I have had it with New Labour.''

Despite failing eyesight, Mahon is still active in left-wing politics and groups such as the Stop the War coalition and CND. A rebel against New Labour since 1997 and  a eurosceptic, she opposed the government on a range of issues from cuts in lone parent benefits to Trident.

Mahon, showed here in a BBC interview, captures the feelings of so many rank and file Labour Party members "left staring into the abyss", captured so well by current backbench rebel MP, Frank Field. 

Once again, as so often noted here by the Orange Party, this highlights the long running battle between the true Labour Party and the bunch of ruthless and arrogant chancers who hijacked the Party with a lust for power and glory under a now discredited New Labour brand. 

Facing a wipe-out by the Tories at the general election, the vexed question for Party members and MPs who are left with a shred of dignity is do they follow Mahon's example and quit the Party in disgust or hang on in there, trying to fight a rearguard action from within? Maybe another true Labour veteran, Tony Benn, could provide the answer?

The 60s anti-war anthem on the right side bar is for Alice. The words are as true now as they were then.

Picture: Yorkshire Post

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Two Damians, One Spinning Sorry Brown

After days trying to put a lid on Smeargate, Brown finally played the 'sorry' card to milk it for all its worth, in a feeble attempt to kill two Damians with one spinning stone. 

As a beleaguered Brown belatedly muttered the S-word, many were left wondering if saying sorry was dreamt up on a good day to bury bad news.

The prime minister had finally uttered the S-word but not before the shameful disgrace of trumped up charges against Tory MP Damian Green were dropped and his disposable home secretary Smith was under fire.

As home office leak charges against Green were being dropped and a committee of MPs slated civil servants for "exaggerating" the seriousness of the alleged leaks, which led to the heavy-handed police raid and arrest of Green, a bad hair day for Brown and bad news for home secretary Smith was just getting worse. 

So, out of the blue, up pops the prime minister, with the much-demanded 'sorry' over the smear emails from Damian 'McPoison' McBride in the Tory sex smears scandal.

A tad late in the day for an embattled Brown, in a blatant attempt to distract attention from the Greengate scandal and his beleaguered home secretary: 

No apology then for Damian Green and his family who've suffered the indignation of an anti-terror raid on their home with trumped up charges hanging over his head. 

Instead an apology for just one of Brown's tight cabal of attack dogs lurking in the bowels of Downing Street, dreaming up the next pre-election Tory attack.

Just another piece of good old Brown spin which the deluded prime minister keeps insisting is all behind him but will only go away when his tight cabal of spinners and henchmen have bitten the dust.

Brown and his bunch of amateur reservoir dogs really don't get it. Where news is concerned, big or small there's room for all.

Brown's 'sorry' will linger for a little while but the shameful smears of Smeargate and the disgraceful treatment of Damian Green will leave a bitter taste for months to come. 

Picture: Still from TV Special: 'Gordon Brown's S-Word', with walk-on part by hard hat guy

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