In the light of Number Ten’s photography ban, the Slog is reduced to using library pictures of Flashman Gordon

Being one step ahead of the others has nothing to do with special powers held by The Slogger: it’s more to do with culturally unethical predictability

Late last night The Slog posted this as an expected response from Downing Street to cover up the latest Brown disaster:

‘The spinning will now go into overdrive. No doubt by tomorrow morning one of the following ‘explanations’ will have surfaced:
1. It wasn’t Brown at all. It was other people.
2. The complainants conspired to undermine the Prime Minister having been bribed and drugged by members of David Cameron’s inner circle…’

I predicted ‘one of’, which was wrong: they used both.

Earlier in the day The Slogger put this on Robinson’s BBC blog:

‘…Mr Brown is not on trial here. He is merely a top politician arguing vehemently that he is a man of good, ethical and caring character. As you so rightly say Nick, based on the consistent mountain of evidence laid out above, the People must now decide whether the PM’s self-image is reflected by the reality of his behaviour…’

This is what Bruce Anderson wrote in The Independent this morning:

‘A blend of Heathcliff, Lear on the heath and Frankenstein’s monster, his vile treatment of his officials should be kept constantly in mind, especially when he next prates on about his values and the decencies which he absorbed during his childhood in the manse. Anyone who can talk about values and behave like Gordon Brown deserves a Pulitzer Prize for hypocrisy. Criminals are serving prison sentences for less morally culpable behaviour…Mr Brown retains the affection of Ed Balls: judge the owner by his dog. ‘

So in return Bruce, we’ve used your dog line…which is a corker.

Anderson’s comments (from the paper that yesterday devoted its front page to declaring Gordon entirely innocent of all charges) are mild compared to some of the stuff out there.

But either way, the line has been toed now: it’s a Tory plot, and somebody hit the secretaries and ran away, officer.

Next Up: The Mandelson File….stay tuned