There is no doubt these were silly juvenile ideas but that is all they were, juicy email evidence or not

By Derek Draper

You may have read about some emails I was sent in January and be wondering what is really going on. I am actually on holiday but I’ve taken an hour out to hit the keyboard and explain. Behind the hyped-up headlines the story is pretty simple. I’ve wondered for ages why the right wing have a near monopoly on websites that feature tittle tattle and teasing of their political opponents. But I felt strongly that such gossip wasn´t suitable for LabourList and kicked around the idea of setting up another blog, Red Rag, where such stories might be published.

I mentioned this idea to a few friends asking if they knew of any good gossip that was doing the rounds. Some of them said they weren’t interested, but one of them, who works in Downing Street, responded by sending back some details of stories that were being gossiped about in Westminster. In truth these were a bit juvenile and inappropriate and some were in bad taste though I have to admit some were also brilliant and rather funny. As anyone involved in politics knows, though, people come up with lots of daft plans that don’t make it off the drawing board. That’s why if you visit Red Rag you will see there’s nothing there.

Now, my Downing Street friend has admitted the emails were juvenile and apologised for sending them, and for any embarrassment he´s caused. The idea that this was some great smear campaign gives me and my internet work far too much credit and the idea that it was a big project orchestrated in Downing Street is ridiculous. The emails sent to me from my mate in Downing Street were the whole extent of his involvement, and they couldn’t have taken more than an hour or so to write. Now people are trying to drag others into this to keep the story going. I can assure you that it was all just a batting around of ideas. Are we really going to judge people for having silly ideas, even if they then put them in emails to mates?

Imagine if all your emails suddenly became available to people wanting to damage you. That is, of course, the other question that needs to be asked: how were these emails obtained? Was criminal activity and hacking involved? Believe me, these are issues I will be looking at when I return from my holiday. “Blog wars” are one thing but hacking into people’s emails is surely a step too far?

In the meantime there is no doubt that these gossipy stories were a silly juvenile idea but that is all they were, juicy email evidence or not. I regret having had the original idea even if it didn’t go anywhere, but doesn’t what’s happened show the nature of these right wing blogs? They will stop at nothing to attack Labour people – it’s me this week, who will it be next week? And they have the gall to talk of smears.

Let’s not forget that the reason we are being attacked in the first place is because of the fact that we criticised the racist comments on one of these sites. And, incidentally, they are furious that my friend in Downing Street emailed me about that too, calling my attention to it, but I am glad that he did.

At the end of the day, though, the lesson is that we should leave tittle tattle and gossip to the right wing blogosphere. We on the left should concentrate on ideas, policy and campaigns, which is what LabourList, whatever is thrown at us, will continue to do.