Gordon Brown finds his high ideals sucked down into the swamp. In seeking to dis­associate himself from his aide, Damian McBride, the prime minister has been tormented by a persistent problem – not of his making, but not of his rejecting either. That is that the conduct of politics today now appears to demand the kind of skills in character assassination displayed by Mr McBride in his series of e-mails to the former Labour aides, Derek Draper and Charlie Whelan.

Once political parties and programmes decline in importance, once the news media become increasingly concerned with the reporting of personality and once the internet – with its instant response ability, its tendency to destroy secrets and its vast memory – becomes the dominant medium, then scandal, gossip and personality come into the foreground as main elements in the political struggle.