Gordon Brown Pretends to Apologise for the Smears

Gordon Brown has performed an act that typifies this Government. He has attempted to give the impression something has happened or is being done, but actually doing it is not on the agenda.

He wants to give the impression of apologising for the smears.

Let us see what he said:

"I am sorry about what happened.

"I said all along that when I saw this first, I was horrified, I was shocked and I was very angry indeed.

"I take full responsibility for what happened - that is why the person that was responsible went immediately.

"I wrote to those people, I expressed my deep regret. Everything is being done to clean up politics in our country. I ensured that there were new rules, so that this won't happen again."

Gordon is sorry for what happened. He is sorry his attack dog was found out, sure. I am certain he is even sorrier that his initial attempt to downplay the story failed and then he had to send his pooch off to the pound. Is he sorry that people were to be and in some cases actually smeared? No sign of that. None whatsoever.

Of course, countless scoundrels caught out are horrified, shocked and angry. Those terms are meaningless in the context he has placed them.

So Gordon takes full responsibility for what happened? If so and we believe his next statement, Gordon should have resigned already. The person who "went" - McBride - did not go immediately, but only left after the damage limitation exercise failed. Two wrongs in that sentence don't make a right, Gordon.

Errors, in this case, matey, follow the log scale.

Then he states about everything being done to clean up politics. That is such an untruth, such a worthless platitude. It is disingenuous pap. If you want to clean up politics, you need to get the State out of so many areas to remove the temptation and point of corruption. Jacqui Smith is still in office, for a start. How can not punishing Senior Cabinet Ministers - No3 in the Government for crying out loud - be cleaning up anything except fat wedges of unearned cash?

There is no need for new rules here just as there is no need for new regulations on the banking industry, expenses or a host of other situations when all that is needed is for the existing rules to be applied properly, consistently and with vigour.

Gordon did not apologise for the lies that were created and then discussed by those he hired. That would mean he acknowledges the acts and thus the fatally flawed culture that operated in No10. This has been my point about this whole affair since it broke - the issue here has never been the lies or the emails, but the culture of No10.

This is not an apology. This is like a crook saying they were guilty of nothing more than being caught.