Most reviews of political memoirs tend not to review the book at all. They tend just to review the writer and their motives. So, bucking a trend, the first thing to say about Power Trip is that it is an excellent read. It is well written, drawing you in so that you do not want to put it down. It is packed with interesting reflections on events that we are all familiar with but with plenty of colour thrown in.
But, of course, that is only half the story. Damian McBride has taken a huge amount of flak for writing the book. It is not hard to see why; he admits to briefing negative stories simply for revenge against those that slighted him or Gordon Brown. His amorality (at best) in terms of his overall approach jumps off the page. But I think that this assessment is harsh. He was, after all, a product of his time and the environment he worked in. He goes out of his way to try and protect Brown and co by muddying what exactly they knew. But McBride was seen as invaluable to the Brownites as they sought the keys to No 10 and afterwards. If they did not know what he was up to then they must be the only ones in Westminster who did not.
Others have attacked McBride for not showing enough contrition. They claim that, while he may say that he is a sinner repented, in reality he is clearly proud, even boastful, of much of what he did. But, again, this is harsh. Having left the fray so dramatically, I think he really has reflected on much of what he did and the nature of the world in which he worked. And he says that it was often not a great place to be and that, yes, some of what he did was unacceptable. But equally there is a strong sense of a man who feels that he did a top job in difficult circumstances getting strong Labour stories out or doing his best to stop bad ones hitting the press. And yet he will never get recognised publicly for that. As he says, the ‘bad stuff’ was only part of what he did. So if at times the book reads as if he is ‘bigging himself up’ then I think he is entitled to; he knows no one else will.
And finally McBride speaks warmly of Brown and much of the rest of the old gang. But in reality the picture painted does little to enhance the former prime minister’s reputation. You are left with a sense of Brown’s obsessive ambition, and of how he and his confidants then distorted this ambition to replace Tony Blair so that it was also unquestioningly in the interests of the Labour party and indeed the country. It distorted Brown’s thinking, the thinking of his team, and finally that of the party as a whole.
I suspect that unless and until McBride can accept this then moving on will be difficult. But then I suspect the same can be said for the Labour party.
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Peter Watt is a former general secretary of the Labour party
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Power Trip: A decade of policy, plots and spin
Damian McBride
BiteBack Publishing | 448pp | £20