It’s been a rather demeaning Easter weekend for British politics, to see the dirty side of political campaigning, played out in all it’s unpleasantness.

I’m sure I’ll not need to bother to point you in any particular direction to read about the nasty political campaigns hatched in Downing Street, either on the web or in the press. Iain Dale’s Diary is perhaps the best jumping off point to access all the comment on the subject.

In summary, this scandal, for it is one, had it’s gestation when Labour were last in oppostion. Stories of conservative sleaze offered handy ammunition to fire at the Tories, and provided cover for other less well-founded accusations. It was in this cauldron that a mixture of desperation for power, and desire to exert control over media stories and messages that this toxic attitude was born.

Soon after Labour regained power, any non-compliant member of civil service press corps was fired, and it was then subsequently politicised.  Disastrously so, resulting in Alastair Campbell exercising of a malign influence over the government media management and output, along with Derek Draper and Charlie Whelan. Michael Howard’s analysis of this can’t be bettered.

The resignation of Alastair Campbell did not change things. The policy of unhealthy political dissemination remained.

Until Gordon Brown publicly repudiates these policies and rids Labour and government of them and all the people involved, then the opprobrium for these events will stick to Gordon Brown.

I do not see this as some silly spat between opposing members of the blosphere. Far from it. It’s at its root it’s a plain old battle between good and evil, principle versus the venal, and so on.