McBride - a bit of perspective, please

There'll be those who tell you that it has been a good week for right-wing bloggers. Certainly, Guido has chalked up another victim, and given the reports about his personality, it can only be a good thing that Damian McBride no longer holds a position of any power or influence in the UK. And a story effectively started in the blogosphere has dominated the headlines over a Bank Holiday weekend.

Yet it is worth sounding a note of caution here. Yeah, this story was high profile over the weekend, but against any standard it was quite a slow news weekend. And McBride was a special advisor to Brown; a particularly unpleasant one, but those ministers who have been taking the piss through their incompetence and greed still very much have their place at the trough of the public purse. And - farcically - Derek Draper still seems to be running LabourList. Although if that site is to truly become independent, then it needs a new editor. In fact, if it want's to survive as anything other than the butt of a whole lot of jokes, it needs a new editor ASAP.

But above all, Brown is still in power. And whilst he has been mildly damaged by the actions of McBride, his position looks as safe now as it was when I went home on Thursday. Which means that we still have an incompetent, socially inept embarrassment with a hard-on for spending money he does not have on our behalf and at our expense in Number 10. And it doesn't look like he'll be going anywhere until next year. So for all the celebration at the demise of McBride, it is worth noting that it is nothing more than an entertaining sideshow. The real enemy - the incompetent fuck in Downing Steet at the moment - is still in place. And whilst he may be damaged, he's still going to fight on.