Apologies- due and not

Over the past few days we have seen the McBride scandal emerge.

This is a man who worked in Downing Street in the heartof Gordon Brown's government operation. The tone and content of the planned smears are frankly abhorrent and exposes a rottenness at the heart of government.

Gordon Brown says that he knew nothing of the emails. That may well be true, we have no way of knowing. What is clear however is that Gordon Brown has set the tone of the office that allowed those working for him to believe that they were doing the right thing by him in planning to smear political opponents and their families. In that sense, he knew all right. He set the tone, he set the scene.

What is really bizarre however is the Liberal Democrats who have popped up demanding that David Cameron apologise for the actions of a former candidate in Watford. This is nothing more than blatant opportunism as bad as the Governments shenanigans.

Clearly what happened in Watford was outrageous, and it was dealt with both by the party and the full force of the law. To draw any sort of parallel beyond that is simply crazy.