Purnell’s speechwriter pushed for trashing Brown

Not so long ago, James Purnell released a speech on Microsoft Word format. This excites Tory researchers, who inevitably get hold of it, as they can interrogate the document – look for any revisions and, of course, the author. The “author” of the Purnell speech was one Phil Collins, who used to do work for Tony Blair. The smarter Tories (and I include Purnell’s shadow, Chris Grayling, amongst them) would have realised this is bad news. Collins is one of the more clued-up Labour people, who gets what Brown doesn’t and can find a vocabulary to reach out to the people now deserting Labour in droves. So news that Collins has been sent packing, due to a disobliging (but entirely accurate) piece he wrote about Labour’s current state of affairs, is truly news to cheer the Tories. The more distance Brown puts between his party and the ideas that won it three elections, the larger the Cameron majority will be.