Rawnsley's book has caused quite a stir

That was the rebuttal issued by Peter Mandelson on the Andrew Marr show this morning in response to allegations in the new-look Observer.

The paper is serialising a book by its chief political commentator Andrew Rawnsley – The End of the Party – which charts the fortunes of the Labour party under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Chief among the allegations is that Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary, became so concerned by reports of Brown’s explosive temper that he looked into the matter and told the PM: ‘This is no way to get things done’.

To no great surprise Downing Street is adamant Rawnsley’s claims are untrue. As well as the aforementioned Mandelson interview, the Cabinet Office has denied any such warning was made. In addition, Brown himself moved to pre-empt the Observer’s allegations. ‘Let me just say, absolutely clearly, so that there is no misunderstanding about that: I have never, never hit anybody in my life,’ he said in an interview with Channel 4 News.

Rawnsley is sticking with his story.

‘I approached this subject acutely aware that a rumour is not the same as a fact,” he says in a piece published in the paper today.

‘I set a rule that I would not publish anything about an episode involving abusive behaviour unless I had secured utterly reliable accounts. Some incidents which came to my attention have been excluded even when I was convinced they were true because I was not quite satisfied with the evidence for them. Investigation of other incidents secured eyewitness accounts from impeccable sources of shocking episodes, some of which are included in today’s extract. Only once I was absolutely satisfied about the veracity of a story did it go in the book. The sources are 24 carat.’

Confronting criticism that the serialisation and publication of the book is simply a ploy to boost sales and circulation, Rawnsley says:

‘It is a journalist’s duty to both himself and to his readers to be unflinchingly truthful about the flaws of the powerful. It is equally an obligation to give credit where it is due. The book strives to offer a balanced account of Labour’s time in office, highlighting the achievements as well as exploring the failures. In today’s serialisation, you can also sample part of the account of the financial crisis during which Gordon Brown displayed some of his positive attributes as a leader. In October 2008, even those cabinet colleagues and civil servants who were otherwise in utter despair about the prime minister were admiring of the boldness and imagination with which he reacted to the crisis by producing a blueprint for saving the financial system which was broadly copied around the world.

‘The Good Gordon and the Bad Brown co-exist in the clever, proud, sensitive, raging, tearful, tormented, complex man who has ruled Britain for nearly three years and now asks for his tenure to be extended for another five. Before they make their choice, the public deserves to be fully acquainted with both Browns.’

I couldn’t agree more.

Civil servants and ministers have been advised on how to use Twitter.

In light of this I wondered what Gordon Brown would tweet if he was on Twitter… ]]> http://alanmcguinness.com/if-gordon-brown-tweeted/267/feed/ 0