The Second Coming

On Sunday 27th September, out of a clear blue Brighton sky, Andrew Marr suddenly asked the Prime Minister if he took pills 'to help him get through the day'

Why did he ask about bloody painkillers? Every journalist in Britain remains terrified of the a-d word. This morning (while interviewing the Paralympic Pentathlon Champion Gordon Brown-Trousers) Marr joined those ranks....and the comment threads both on the Beeb and in the nationals were dominated by the question, 'Painkillers? What the fuck's he on about?'

Anyway, at least the subject of pills is out. The Sunday Times had the brazen nerve to refer to 'false claims circulating on the internet' about strong anti-depressants, minus only the evidence to back up the 'false' part. But online there was a rapid change of Times tune, and kick-bollock-rejig-page once Marr asked the question everyone in Westminster's been boffing on about for three years.

"I think it is a sign of our times" said Brown, "that such questions have entered the lexicon of politics".

What a bloody steaming great hypocrite: who expanded that lexicon then, Gordy? Not you by any chance - with your disgusting below-the-belt slurs and leaks which were enough to stop anyone else standing against you? Surely not.

I have sympathy for the man's illness; but the live by the sword and die by it rule applies here - in spades.

Ask a silly question, get another answer...and other nasty tactics. I'll go into what a surreal helter-skelter-upside-down-backwards day today has been anon. In the meantime, I'll make a few points about the way this disgusting mob called 'New Labour' (or the Cameroons for that matter) work:

1. On CBS news in the US, Brown is asked about his eyesight. He says "I'm very fit, I run every day".

2. On Marr, he is asked do you take pills. He says "I've had my eyesight tested, and it's fine - it's not declining at all".

3. Peter Manglesum is asked for a comment on the rumours about Brown's health. He says "This is all the work of ultra right-wing bloggers smearing Gordon Brown for their own political ends".

4. Suddenly (again) the blogosphere is alive with slurs about me being 'a right wing nutter thrown out by the Conservative Party'. They (the real spinners) know perfectly well that person is Councillor John M Ward in Kent, not me.

5. On Radio 4, Mary Ann Siegart defends my stance on the right to know; the Tory MP hoffles and woffles about 'Ooo good gracious me how awful' etc etc. Mind you, he would - his very own Anthony Eden conducted the whole 1956 Suez shambles on amphetamines.

Let us be clear about this....as the Minister in a corner always says: I am neither right-wing nor right-on: I just want more people in public life to do what's right.

I really, really hope that this time the spine-free Thompson pillock and his Governors do not harbour any silly Neville Chamberlain-style ideas about throwing Andrew Marr to the wolves: he has done us all a service, and I for one salute him.

Lord Mandelsmear’s slur about me being an extreme right-winger is potty and pernicious. I am as anti-Tory clubism as I am New Labour mendacity.
I came upon the story quite by chance, from a source who leaked ‘unconsciously’. If it was a plant, then the source missed his way: he should’ve been an actor. The rumour was not at all new: the scoop was in the proscribed foods.
We must all ask ourselves why in New York Brown avoided the medication question on television - and then talked about his eyesight: precisely the same tactic he adopted with Andrew Marr . What I find fascinating at the same time is how Mandelson has been ultra-careful in every public utterance to call dependence on pills ‘ridiculous’. To date not one member of the Government has denied either Brown’s depression or the use of anti-depressants. With your Marr, Brown denied ‘other pills’. Modern anti-depressants are not physically addictive – hence the concentration (perhaps) on dependence denials.
In 1956 Prime Minister Anthony Eden took speed throughout the whole ghastly Suez escapade, and many historians have pointed out that his intemperate tone was what finally made Ike decide to stamp on the operation. The idea that a PM’s health is not a matter of public concern is risible – and again suggests a contemporary desperation to shout down any further questions on the matter.
Being a marketing researcher and communication strategist by original commercial discipline, I’ve made a point since Sunday of doing a daily audit of mainstream Beeb/major nationals’ comment threads on the issue. The views are running 16:1 in favour of Marr's question which – as a research nerd – I can tell you on that sample size has a tiny margin of error. The fact is that fully 84.5% of those who take part in such threads do not believe Gordon Brown’s alleged health problems are a private matter. While this maintains my faith in voter common-sense, sadly it shows yet again just how woefully out of touch the current Labour Party is.

All of us involved in researching this story (and there were quite a few) knew the Knitting Circle would stick the smeared boot in sooner or later. On balance, I'd say the ruse failed: most observers saw the whole episode as spin finally eating itself...a man who had lived by the ice-pick of slur was now dying by the sword of credible rumour. Very apt.

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