"McPoison"

By William Green on Apr 12, 09 01:59 PM

So another quiet bank holiday claims another victim amid a media frothing at the mouth. That's how some might see it.

But I think it is fair to say that Damian McBride was not well-liked by some members of the Parliamentary lobby, the group of journalists that work in the Palace of Westminster.

Emails fired off by Mr McBride to his mate Derek Draper - a former spin doctor himself and hubbie of GMTV presenter Kate Garraway - led to his resignation as a closer adviser to Gordon Brown.

The online conversation suggested vicious rumours about Tories, including David Cameron, and the possibility of setting up a website to disseminate them. Guido Fawkes has been a pioneer of this sort of stuff and indeed he sparked the whole "crisis" now circling No 10.

But as the author of Guido Fawkes, Paul Staines, acknowledges it was timed to coincide with the Easter break - when journalists are off, politicians are off and the news cycle slows to a snail's pace.

The other really interesting thing is that the story broke on the internet first, which shows how political blogging and news is becoming vitally important.

The net allows a freedom not necessarily available in other media formats - although it can become very unpleasant and pointed.

And it still took the involvement of the print media to get the story on the front pages and into people's living rooms via the TV.

But it is highly dodgy using a work email - and a No 10 one at that - to send "juvenile" tittle tattle and there may well be more to come out of this one. It will be interesting to see what happens to Tom Watson, another Brown ally and internet fan.

UPDATE: I understand that Tom Watson has told colleagues he has nothing to do with the emails in question.

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