Brown considered ditching lobby system

My attack on the Westminster lobby system was badly phrased.

It is true the government lets it be known there are “meetings” of the lobby: the detail of when, where, and who is giving the briefing has been published for some time.

But it remains the case that you must be a “member of the lobby” to attend, and you may not say who said what.

Thus you have never been allowed to say that “Damian McBride said in the briefing room at Downing Street at 4.15pm today that black is white”.

It continues to have to be disguised, dressed up – that’s what I’m getting at.

Of course, you can say when and where the briefing is, but never the connection between that and the spin which then emerges…

And therefore there is a kind of conspiracy between the media and the political classes. It hoodwinks the voter about how information emanates from the government they have elected.

The Guardian has further McBride briefing revelations today dating back to 2004.

My own revelation, thanks to yesterday’s posting, comes from a journalist on the Treasury beat who tells me (off the record you understand…) that before he left the Treasury, Gordon Brown seriously considered dumping the lobby system altogther, but thought better of it.

In so doing right now, he would do much to purge the McBride stain.

He would also finally do something that would distinguish his administration from the Thatcher, Major and Blair regimes that went before.

He wants to make cost savings of £15bn in Whitehall – here’s one!