The health denials that emanated from Downing Street throughout Autumn 2009 are now revealed in almost every detail as a tissue of cynical lies from start to finish. Following the Mail’s extracts from Peter Watt’s new book Inside Out, Guido Fawkes last night as good as confirmed our story of 4th September 2009, which had alleged that the evidence for Mr Brown being on anti-depressant drugs and going blind was compelling. Fawkes’ new piece openly headlines ‘He’s Bonkers’.

From the start of the ‘Gordon Bonkers’ saga, Guido has been just a tad behind the music – as we shall see; but his now-at-last-revealed account of lunch with ‘a former senior Downing Street advisor’ in Autumn 2009 mirrors Nby/Slog editor John Ward’s experience exactly. The advisor cited by Guido refers to the Prime Minister as ‘a narcissistic, manic depressive’.
To judge from Guido’s latest post, you’d never know I had anything to do with revealing this story. But the reality is that The First Post’s Mole column picked up my September 4th piece – as did Blogosphere rising star Anna Raccoon, and via her the irrepressible Old Holborn. The more conservative Guido Fawkes was not minded, at that time, to go with it…..until The Independent took an interest.
Still, it’s good to see Guido confirming it now. And adding, tantalisingly, ‘there is lots more of this to come out about Brown…’
Indeed there must be – for the Guy News Man (very much a member of the Establishment these days) tends to keep his powder dry until he has his facts in a row.

Even without Guido’s late entry as a runner re this one, there is already plenty to confirm the accuracy of nby’s original story in Watt’s book. The author’s wife, having shared a supper with Brown, refers to him openly as ‘bonkers’. Peter Watt himself writes of Gordo as ‘not fit to be Prime Minister’ – a near-identical phrase to the one my original source used. He also gives several examples of irrational behaviour by Brown, including:
*Running the country ‘by making it up as he goes along’ and acute indecisiveness: classic symptoms of clinical depression.
*Being unable to tell lies from truth – first pointed up by Matthew Parris in the Spring of 2009, and confirmed by the revelation in Watt’s book that Brown told blatant lies to Marr on live television (in October 2007) about ‘hand on heart’, never seriously considering an election.
*How Brown ‘walked out of a Downing Street dinner party with US politicians because they sat down without his permission’ – again, grandeur delusion associated with manically narcissistic phases of bipolar disorder.

Let us now revisit the key points from nby’s September 2009 revelations:

*'”The Prime Minister of Great Britain is a man too ill to be holding the Office.” This was the conclusion last week of a senior civil servant liaising regularly with Gordon Brown’.
*’One of the main sources of this story told us, “It’s a farce, and utterly disgraceful. There isn’t a mandarin in Whitehall who’s unaware of Brown’s condition”‘.
*MAOIs: ‘this older class of drugs has one huge advantage: for severe (ie manic)depression…it remains very effective’.

Remember too that we revealed Brown’s deteriorating eyesight before any other news medium. This too was denied, then leaked, then farcically half-confirmed.
And as the anti-depressant usage speculation spread, each of Mandelson, Balls and Bradshaw smeared nby on television by referring to the allegations as ‘fantasies and lies from an extreme right-wing blogsite’.
The mendacity of all three men is largely assumed these days. But after such fervent denials, news media (although not Raccoon and Holborn) steered clear of the Editor’s new revelations. These too have proved to be robust: in particular, Alistair Darling’s remark to an aide (about Brown) “that man has to go”; the spat between Balls and the Chancellor; the site’s persistent conviction that Brown ‘will not make it to the election’ because of his continuing problems; and the Editor’s contention only two days ago that, despite the Hoon/Hewitt fiasco, destabilisation of Brown would continue.

Not Born Yesterday stands by its sources, and on its track record. We predicted in May 2007 that Brown would ‘unravel in public’, based partly on the allegation we’d already heard (amongst other things) about Brown’s anti-depressant usage a year before then. We led the pack on his likely mental health and eyesight problems. In this process, Guido Fawkes hung onto our coat-tails – but now claims the suit as his. Well, plus ca change: but based on my own enquiries over the last week, my instinct is that – late runner or not – this time the Gunpowder plotter is right enough: there is more to come out about what has been kept cynically from the electorate by Government spinners and Opposition cynics alike.
More and more real journalists are working harder than ever to nail the story once and for all; but in the immediate term, what might Guido have up his cavalier sleeve? Here’s a tip: there is a certain well-placed lady who just might – after many sleepless nights and much persuasion – go public at last, and sink the multiply-torpedoed ‘leader’ that is Gordon Brown today.
Stay tuned.