David Maddox: Soap opera: Bitterness, back-stabbing and a very dirty business indeed

Published on Wednesday 1 September 2010 20:12

THE fact that the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown went in various stages from being intimate to terminal is not exactly a secret.

But this latest episode in Britain's long-running soap opera has taken commentators slightly aback. The vitriol and strength of Blair's attack on his former colleague is shocking enough, but the allegation of blackmail by Brown just to get his way on a policy issue is even more so.

And if we are left to wonder whether the attempt to use the cash-for-honours scandal as a means of blackmail was born out of Brown's frustration over waiting for the leadership, there is another tale from before they were even in government which suggests the darker side of his nature was evident then.

Blair implies that Brown tried to frame him when John Smith became leader. Brown, who at the time was supposedly close to Blair, was apparently pretending to be interested in running against Smith in what is implied as an attempt to get Blair to refuse to give Smith his support - a move which would have severely damaged his career.

Without naming the woman who is now Rochdale's most famous pensioner, Tony Blair has essentially offered us another Gillian Duffy insight into the personality flaws of Mr Brown. The image of the highly moral, considerate, thoughtful son of the Kirk that was his public persona is not the true personality exposed once the doors are closed and the public cannot see.

Just as Brown was able to insult a pensioner then, he was able to drop his moral virtues in Blair's office.

But then again, should we really be surprised? Certainly, a lot of Labour MPs yesterday said they were not.

Politics is, after all, a very dirty business and politicians have always used tactics beyond the strength of reasoned argument to get their way. So why should Gordon Brown be any different?

Was Tony Blair himself above such things? One suspects not and the former prime minister himself gives a small taste of his own behind-the-scenes plotting, first in trying to remove Neil Kinnock as leader and then to block John Smith.

True, the allegation about Brown shows the depth of malice that the Blair/Brown relationship reached, but Blair's book in his depiction of his former friend and rival is, arguably, no less malicious.

We all just now await Brown's side of the story.