WAS THAT IT?

by RAY FLEMING
EVERY step Gordon Brown takes in the McBride e-mail affair leads him further away from an acceptable conclusion to it. Yesterday, during a visit to Scotland, he said “I'm sorry about what happened”. Some reports interpreted this as the apology that has been widely called for. But it is far from what is required. In my first comment on this business earlier this week I said that Mr Brown should have immediately spoken by telephone to those maligned in the McBride e-mails -- Mr Cameron, Mr Osborne and Nadine Dorries. He did not do so but, apparently under pressure, later wrote to them. The letter to Ms Dorries has been published. It is awful. It contains no apology beyond expressing understanding of “the embarrassment caused”. Incredibly, it begins by drawing her attention to a letter he has sent to the Head of the Civil Service calling for a revision of rules for political advisers -- as if that would be the first thing she wanted to hear from the prime minister after an e-mail drafted by a senior member of his staff had falsely hinted at her misbehaviour with another MP.