Gordon Brown’s attempt to spin out of the smeargate scandal by writing a letter to Gus O’Donnell to demand that writing smears is specifically excluded in the Special Advisers’ Code of Conduct, is ludicrous even by New Labour standards.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/13/email-smears-gordon-brown-letter
The implication is that McBride was doing this because writing stories alleging things about opposition MPs and dildoes is not covered in the code.
Here are some more things not specifically covered in the code, but which now will be specified. The new Gordon Code will say that Special Advisers may not:
– Murder Mrs Irene Tomkinson of Weybourne St, Cromer or any of her children
– Rob banks during office hours or while wearing civil service trousers
– Score goals in football internationals using the “Hand of God”
– eat human liver
– impersonate a Chelsea pensioner for the purpose of pecuniary advantage
– concoct false intelligence dossiers for the purpose of launchng illegal wars and killing hundreds of thousands of people.
I understand that Gus O’Donnell has advised that the last one goes too far and would interfere with the smooth working of government.
The real reform this country truly needs is that “special advisers”, or party hacks (Stalin would have called them political commisars) should be paid by the party, not the taxpayer.