Leave Derek alone

Reading these “reviews” of Derek Draper’s new book on Amazon.co.uk, I’m beginning to feel a bit sorry for him. Yes, he’s made some silly mistakes, but I’m not sure he deserves quite such a beating. Watching someone being turned into a national hate figure is never pretty and in this case the moral opprobrium being heaped on Derek’s head seems a tad excessive. If he’d gone ahead and published the anti-Conservative smears on an anonymous website that would have been one thing. But he didn’t. All he did was describe them as “brilliant”.

I can understand why Guido Fawkes has gone after him. It was dirty pool on Derek’s part to accuse Guido and Ian Dale of being racists — that’s a disgusting accusation that shouldn’t be bandied around lightly. I’ve been on the receiving end of that accusation myself and it’s an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But Guido has now won this particular boxing match — in spectacular style, I might add — and I don’t think there’s any need to continue to kick Derek now that he’s bleeding on the canvas.

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With the benefit of hindsight, Derek’s biggest mistake was trying to combine being a practising psychotherapist with being active at the sharp end of British politics.