“The emails were ‘inappropriate and juvenile’, while the sending of them is among ‘such actions (that) have no place in public life’. So Gordon Brown grovels, like a wounded Cyclops, goaded out of his No 10 cave by those brave Argonauts, the Tories. Meanwhile, the media is falling over itself to huff and puff – yet I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many commentators and politicians being so surprised by so predictable a happening.
“I don’t believe anyone who takes any interest in British politics can have been remotely shocked by the antics of Damian McBride and Derek ‘Dolly’ Draper – the latter may now be a qualified psychotherapist, but clearly this transference was only ever psyche-deep; for underneath his conscious pose as a principled pundit, there lurk the instincts of an immature – yes, the PM had it right – anorak.
“McBride is another of the same genus: the obsessively politicking nerd, willing to go to any lengths in order to advance his party, much as a rougher lad will crack the opposing football team’s supporters’ heads, in the erroneous belief that this adds lustre to his own side. I first saw these types smearing their opponents, rigging ballots and briefing journalists, when their candidate was up for election as blackboard monitor at primary school. There’s something about politics – and elections in particular – that seem to attract them the way excrement does flies.”
To read the rest of Will Self’s First Post column, go here.
