SMEAR TACTICS....AIDE RESIGNS

I've never been asked to contribute to LabourList, Derek Draper's blog of Important People. Too left and too far away from London, I suspect. But I did get a largely positive mention from my NUJ colleague Paul Routledge in this week's Tribune, for which thanks. A right of reply will be filed over Easter.
Tomorrow, all hell is apparently going to break loose about plans by Draper to set up a scurrilous blog called "Red Rag" with help from one of Gordon Brown's advisors, Damien McBride, with whom he exchanged some rather damning, allegedly obscene, e-mails . There is the usual talk of resignations and unacceptable "spin" from the leading players in the Westminster village. So we'll see what the papers say tomorrow. UPDATE : McBride has now resigned.
Allegedly, the plan was to use personal smear tactics to have a go at the Tories. If that's true, it is unacceptable and inane. Exactly the kind of tactic used in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election - with dire results. If we can't win elections on policy and principles, we shouldn't be in the business. The problem is , of course, that smear tactics sometimes get results. But that is never an excuse to use them. Here in the Calder Valley, we know that more than most.