Alcock & Brown…low-flying devils

Is any of it connected to Hackgate?

The Slog wrote several pieces early in 2010 about the Brown plot to oust Blair during the 2005-6 period. Most people knew by then that they two men hated each other, so the Daily Telegraph’s confirmation of this another fifteen months later is hardly news.

There are two pieces of new news in the story, though: that Balls was working overtime on hunting down mud that might stick to Teflon Tony; and that half the current Labour leadership – including Big Ed himself – was busily engaged in deposing a sitting Prime Minister while Britain faced a huge security threat from Islamist bombers. With its usual level of sanctimony, the newly Mailised Telegraph plays this one for all its worth: the self-obsessed careerists slithering up the Greasy Pole while Blighty stood defenceless against the terrorist hordes etc etc.

In fact, the current Tory leadership actively connived in hiding Brown’s parlous mental state at the time, purely to further their own cynical thirst for power. This marks out the huge divide between the Telegraph and the Slog: it remains my favourite paper alongside the FT, but its agenda is to get rid of anything to the Left of the Tory Right. So be it Vince Cable at Business or Eds Miliband and Balls on the Opposition front benches, the gameplan is to depict all those involved as poisonous, but spineless, jellyfish. The Slog’s agenda is to remind thinking people that there is barely an MP anywhere among the overpaid 650 worth a light. The Tory Right, for all its noise, is the same bag of wind that characterises nearly all the Westminster Wallies: it talks a good game, but rarely acts except in its own narrow interest.

However, The Slog’s main interest in the Labour succession soap has remained exactly the same since I first became aware of it in late 2008: clearly the plotters had stuff on Blair….but which particular bit scared him enough, in September 2006, to make him run away with all haste?

This question runs throughout the Slog’s analysis of the Brown succession – brought together now for the first time in a new section, Brown, Blair and Blackmail – an archive with a permanent link above the Home page picture.

In the meantime, it seems there is more to come from the Barclaygraph. The fragrant Holly Watt is involved, so it will fun finding out how she got the dossier. As to whether it will provide any ammunition for the Chilcot Sheep, that remains to be seen. It might even provide a more solid political dimension as to what the Wapping Liars were up to during this period….and who it was working alongside in its grubby trade.

But don’t hold you breath about that last possibility. Kettles, pots, black and so forth.

Related: Hackgate Day 146: were the Brownshirts hacked during 2005-6?