Matthew Norman writes:
At the 2006 Labour conference, The Sun’s political editor whispered a verbal billet-doux into Tom Watson’s ear.
“My editor will pursue you for the rest of your life,” cooed George Pascoe-Watson. “She will never forgive you for what you did to Tony.”
Watson had just orchestrated the demi-coup which forced Tony Blair to give a departure date, and his chum Rebekah Brooks was livid. Whether the intervening years have mollified her is not clear.
It could be that Watson’s subsequent pursuit of News of the World phone-hacking, which obliged her to resign as News International chief executive and stand trial, softened her heart.
Equally, it may not.
In those nine years, Watson has twice resigned himself (first for acting as Gordon Brown’s enforcer in the removal of Blair; later as deputy chairman over the MP selection scandal in Falkirk), yet now finds himself deputy leader of a party looking to him to save it from annihilation in the savage civil war made inevitable by Jeremy Corbyn’s election.
Until a few days ago he held a strong hand, having the potential to be Corbyn’s protector or assassin as expediency demands.
Then the tragicomic weakness of the Leon Brittan child abuse police investigation he encouraged the police to make was exposed, and the feud with Brooks was reactivated.
A leader in The Sun on Sunday, the replacement for the title Watson helped to close, reported his Commons statement that Brittan was “as close to evil as any human being could get”.
What it forgot to mention was that he was quoting an alleged victim, and the personal animus behind the vitriolic conclusion that “he has behaved contemptibly”.
He has done no such thing.
While under a clear duty to report accusations to the police, he did not excite the kind of hysteria – like Brooks when News of the World editor – that led a dyslexic mob to attack a female paediatrician mistaking her for a paedophile.
Nonetheless, by overplaying his hand, the man who teased James Murdoch for being a mafia boss has given his enemies a gigantic gift.
And these are not enemies who look a gift horse in the mouth. These are people who leave its severed head on the pillow while you sleep.
Whether Watson can survive this escalation of Brooks’ lifelong pursuit is not really the point.
The question is whether a serial resigner, whose bulldozer looks and juggernaut reputation mask a brittle and sensitive nature, has the will to endure the ensuing torment.
At the 2006 Labour conference, The Sun’s political editor whispered a verbal billet-doux into Tom Watson’s ear.
“My editor will pursue you for the rest of your life,” cooed George Pascoe-Watson. “She will never forgive you for what you did to Tony.”
Watson had just orchestrated the demi-coup which forced Tony Blair to give a departure date, and his chum Rebekah Brooks was livid. Whether the intervening years have mollified her is not clear.
It could be that Watson’s subsequent pursuit of News of the World phone-hacking, which obliged her to resign as News International chief executive and stand trial, softened her heart.
Equally, it may not.
In those nine years, Watson has twice resigned himself (first for acting as Gordon Brown’s enforcer in the removal of Blair; later as deputy chairman over the MP selection scandal in Falkirk), yet now finds himself deputy leader of a party looking to him to save it from annihilation in the savage civil war made inevitable by Jeremy Corbyn’s election.
Until a few days ago he held a strong hand, having the potential to be Corbyn’s protector or assassin as expediency demands.
Then the tragicomic weakness of the Leon Brittan child abuse police investigation he encouraged the police to make was exposed, and the feud with Brooks was reactivated.
A leader in The Sun on Sunday, the replacement for the title Watson helped to close, reported his Commons statement that Brittan was “as close to evil as any human being could get”.
What it forgot to mention was that he was quoting an alleged victim, and the personal animus behind the vitriolic conclusion that “he has behaved contemptibly”.
He has done no such thing.
While under a clear duty to report accusations to the police, he did not excite the kind of hysteria – like Brooks when News of the World editor – that led a dyslexic mob to attack a female paediatrician mistaking her for a paedophile.
Nonetheless, by overplaying his hand, the man who teased James Murdoch for being a mafia boss has given his enemies a gigantic gift.
And these are not enemies who look a gift horse in the mouth. These are people who leave its severed head on the pillow while you sleep.
Whether Watson can survive this escalation of Brooks’ lifelong pursuit is not really the point.
The question is whether a serial resigner, whose bulldozer looks and juggernaut reputation mask a brittle and sensitive nature, has the will to endure the ensuing torment.
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