Demonising Damian

Catholics and non-Catholics have appreciated Pope Francis's message of mercy and forgiveness. So why is Damian McBride, a former Head of Communications at the Treasury, then special adviser and spin-doctor to Gordon Brown, and finally Head of Strategic Planning in Downing Street during Brown's premiership, subjected to self-righteous criticism in the pages of The Tablet?

After detailing his 13 years' work as a civil servant and then spin-doctor, McBride apologises for being the person he had become during that time - in his own words 'a cruel, vindictive, and thoughtless bastard'.

Raised in north London, McBride was educated at Finchley Catholic High School and attended Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read history. A heavy drinker with an aggressive and ambitious personality, McBride eventually overreached himself by planning with former Labour campaigner Derek Draper to post made-up rumours about Tory politicians on a controversial Red Flag blogsite. After this plan was leaked to or copied illegally to a Tory blog, Mr McBride resigned, without any compensation, and Gordon Brown issued an apology for his 'juvenile and inappropriate emails'.

After his boozy 'Rake's Progress' in the civil service and world of politics, talented and penitent McBride applied to work for the Church by using his undoubted talents first for his old secondary school and then for the Catholic charity Cafod. Despite Tory Lord Finkelstein describing McBride as virtually unemployable after he was sacked by Brown, his old school and Cafod followed proper selection procedures before hiring him.

All then went quiet until Damian published his biography Power trip: A decade of policy, plots and spin just before this year's Labour Party Conference. Cafod was then heavily criticised in the Letters pages of The Tablet for accepting McBride's offer of half the royalties from his book (the other half was destined for his old school). One letter writer even said Cafod should sack McBride forthwith.

Sir Bernard Ingham, Mrs Thatcher's spin-doctor who rubbished 'wet' ministers Mrs T wanted to dispose of and said he believed the Hillsborough Disaster was caused by a 'tanked-up mob', is now seen as a respected political commentator. John Profumo was forced to resign from the Macmillan Government in 1963 after lying to Parliament about his affair with showgirl Christine Keeler but he was then treated as a saint for working for an East End charity.

I decided to download the book and read it for myself. Allowing for Damian's over-the-top personality and lack of scruples, I was interested to find that his book was an excellent read, well written, and pacy. It is very interesting about the relationships of spin-doctors with the press, reliable source material on the Gordon Brown years, and Blair/Brown spin-doctored battles. Even though he describes Brown's personality problems, McBride's principal flaw seems to be that he hero-worshipped Brown and his handling of the banking crisis and would do anything he could - even character-damage - to aid his cause.

I am amazed that some of the now-critical mandarins and politicians did not rein in McBride's heavy drinking or control his expenses claims during his career with them.

Pressure on Cafod by some of their donors led to them refusing a generous donation from McBride and now Cafod are being criticised for still employing him. Yet Mother Teresa accepted donations from dubious characters and Rupert Murdoch, proprietor of the scandalous News of the World, was given a papal knighthood for his donations to the Archiocese of Los Angeles.

Is forgiveness to be denied by Catholics to a penitent heavy drinking spin-doctor who has written an excellent book about the dog-eat-dog world of politics?

Michael D Phelan is a permanent deacon in Beaconsfield