Damian McBride – Brains behind the Rangers Tax Case blog?

Damian McBride

On 11th April 2009 the SMEARGATE Affair was exposed when a Senior Advisor/Spindoctor of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown had to fall on his sword when emails surfaced of a plot to create a Blog to be called ‘Red Rag’ to smear & blacken the names of Tory MPs & ministers including David Cameron & George Osborne. A Right-wing blogger, Guido Fawkes, aka Paul Staines, broke the story and exposed the emails. That Senior Advisor/Spindoctor was Damian McBride aka ‘McPoison’. McBride took sole blame but allegedly behind the plot were other members of the Brownite cabal: Charlie Whelan [Gordon Brown‘s ex-spindoctor] who was copied in the emails & was to fund the smear website through his Unite union. Also on the offending emails was MP Tom Watson, ‘Tommy Two Dinners’, later starring in the News of The World phone hacking scandal.

I have no definite proof he is the RangersTax Case [RTC] leaker/blogger but his profile ticks a lot of boxes. What is really interesting is what is missing from his profile which should be there considering his heritage, contacts, motivations & background. To the point where the exclusions look suspicious & attract attention to him. McBride certainly had the HMRC contacts at the highest level to facilitate, even if he did not do it directly, the acquisition by the RTC blog & Mark Daly of the BBC Scotland of the HMRC Private tax & contract records of David Murray, MIH [Murray International Holdings] and Rangers FC.

Profile

• Joined the HMRC in 1996 he rose to a senior position in the HMRC becoming expert in indirect taxes i.e. VAT
• In 1999 he moved to the Treasury [HMRC reports to Treasury] where he eventually became Special Advisor [Spin Doctor] for Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor at Treasury then at No.10 when Brown became Prime Minister in 2007
  • Was a senior member of the Tax Policy team for indirect taxes [VAT] in the UK Treasury between 1999-2002
  • From 2003 was Treasury Head of Communications [Spindoctor] until 2007
  • He was called ‘Bloody Celtic’ at the Treasury http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/27/browns-first-day-in-no-10
• A Machivallian practioner of the Dark Arts of Spindoctoring [With Oak Leaf clusters] where he demonstrated an innate skill for devising smear story campaigns to damage his enemies
• He studied history at Peterhouse, Cambridge, under the guidance of Maurice Cowling where his 1996 thesis was called – Far More Important Than Politics? Public Policy And The Impact Of Urban Riots, 1964–68. As the Daily Mail said ‘he showed a positively alarming understanding of how to use disinformation’. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1171806/A-degree-spin-PMs-sacked-advisers-Cambridge-theory-use-rumours-riots.html
• As Special Advisor to Gordon Brown as Chancellor & Prime Minister he would have met Scottish Labour identities linked to Celtic FC like John Reid & Brian Wilson
• Had his desk in No.10 beside MP Tom Watson who was in Gordon Brown‘s cabal [and who is linked to anti-Rangers lawyers Aamer Anwar & Mark Leiser]
• Resigns as Special Advisor in April 2009 for being the ‘only’ person in the Brownite cabal behind the Smeargate email campaigns against Tories/Unionists
• Social Media savvy: he writes his own blog & tweets
• A Roman Catholic of Irish descent. His father had ‘a religious Scottish upbringing, very stern’ and family holidayed every Summer as a child in the old country in Donegal. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/20/damian-mcbride-interview-labour-spin
• At his interview with Gordon Brown ‘McBride’s CV caught Brown‘s attention. With Catholic family links in Co Donegal, McBride wrote that he was a lifelong fan of Celtic. The Raith Rovers-supporting chancellor grunted a question about how he could support Celtic.’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/13/labour-damian-mcbride-resignation
•  A football supporter he supports Arsenal FC as well as Celtic FC, the ‘Irish clubs’
• After Smeargate in 2009 he went to work as a ‘Business Liaison Officer’ at Finchley Catholic High School. His old school.
• Currently working, started April 2011, as Head of Media and PR [Spindoctor] for CAFOD [‘Catholic Agency for Overseas Development’ is the official overseas development and relief agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.] which is a member of Caritas International. Caritas International is a confederation of 164 Roman Catholic relief, development and social service organisations.
• Been on purgatory leave but been compiling a book so plenty of time to keep his hand in the dark arts. Graciously the book royalties will go to Finchley Catholic High School & CAFOD demonstrating intense loyalty for his grounding in the Catholic religion & his upbringing. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/biteback-signs-damian-mcbride.html

Something is Missing

Here is a Machiavellian figure, he’s practised in the dark arts of Spin & smear campaigns, of Irish Catholic heritage, he’s a big football fan & supports Celtic, worked at HMRC for years where he attained a high management position with peer contacts, worked at the Treasury to whom HMRC reports, worked for & has contacts in Labour & Scottish Labour. He has a Blog:    http://dpmcbride.tumblr.com/

and a Twitter account:

However there are NO blog posts and NO Tweets about:

Rangers going into admininstration/liquidation, their tax problems, the FTTT decision, the SPL EBT decision and gloating over their fall to the SFL Division 3.  

NONE on the Rangers Tax Case [ He worked at HMRC & was a Tax expert], NO retweets of Alex Thomson. NO retweets of Philth’s filth. NO retweets of Mark Daly’s doco.

Just a blog post about a St Patrick’s day songlist with Republican songs. And a Republican tweet about dominion over the 6 counties:

These appear to be the actions of a guy who wants to keep his head down and does not want any leads coming back to him. It’s too clean for such a controlling & manipulative guy. The best way to hide is in clear sight but he’s missing/airbrushed out. Very little is leaking which shows up the borders where he doesn’t want to be seen. Sometimes it’s what is out of place that leads to the target.

Osama Bin Laden‘s compound attracted attention because, although it was expensive, there was NO internet or landline phone service.

Watch the following SKY News broadcast on 11th April 2009 about the Smeargate Affair and tell me if the SKY News journalist, Peter Spencer, doesn’t sound like he’s talking about the Rangers Tax Case blog operations, manipulation and modus operandi. He talks about blogs being an ‘immensely powerful weapon’ in the wrong hands.

In recent months with Labour likely to get back in next election, McBride currently appears to be being rehabilitated after his years in the wilderness – he’s been writing articles in the Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/damian-mcbride

Giving submissions to a UK parliamentary select committee for Future of the civil service [talks a lot about Tax]: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=12684

Question: This guy has come back out of the shadows but what was he doing while in there?

Worked at HMRC & Tax Policy at the Treasury

‘Following a career with HM Customs and Excise, McBride joined the Treasury while Gordon Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and after coming to the attention of Mr Brown he was appointed Head of Communications at the department in 2003. Within two years he was working as Brown’s special adviser, and masterminded Brown’s campaign to become prime minister in 2007’

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damian_McBride

In total McBride worked 9 years in the HMRC & Treasury. As a civil servant, he joined the HMRC in 1996 and became a senior expert on VAT. In 1999, he moved to the HMRC’s controlling ministry, the Treasury, where he was part of the Tax Policy team until 2002 and obviously had continuous high-level contact within the HMRC during that period. In 2003, Gordon Brown as Chancellor, head of Treasury, appointed him via Ed Balls, who was Damian’s mentor, Head of Communications [Spindoctor] where as it says in Wikipedia he ‘masterminded‘ the elevation of Gordon Brown to his much yearned position as Prime Minister, while using the dark arts of spindoctoring to undermine Tony Blair & the Blairites through this period.

Mr McBride therefore has very senior management contacts at the HMRC & Treasury.

Labour, Scottish Labour Connections

Interesting connections between the Brownite cabal including Damian McBride and anti-Rangers personalities appear in the photo below from the Leveson hearings:

With Brownite cabal member Tom Watson are Aamer Anwar, Celtic fan, Glasgow lawyer & Pakistan travelling buddy of Paul McBride. Behind Watson, carrying the bags, is another anti-Rangers lawyer, ‘alleged’ Dunfermline FC fan but likely Celtic fan,  Mark Leiser sometimes called Law_bhoy 

http://pinterest.com/law_bhoy/

who has previously been linked to the RTC blog. [Recently on Mark Leiser‘s twitter TL even though Dunfermline went into Administration he continued to talk about the RTC [Rangers Tax Case] blogger and how there was no law under which the HMRC leaker of David Murray/MIH/Rangers tax records could be arrested. All the time there was nothing about Dunfermline.

Note: As well the Unite union being behind the funding for the Smeargate website via Charlie Whelan, Tom Watson‘s expenses to attend the News International AGM in Los Angeles at the height of the NotW scandal were paid for by Whelan’s union. Watson during the MPs expenses scandal was found to have rented a union flat from a Unite official ‘in a private capacity’.

Watson was almost caught up in Smeargate but escaped. ‘Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office minister, was also facing questions after it emerged that McBride referred in one of the emails to Watson “looking at other stories for Labour List“, Draper’s website on leftwing policy. However, Downing Street sources insisted Watson had been discussing an entirely separate announcement about Labour party staffing, which could be posted on the authorised site, rather than being involved in the gossip project nicknamed Red Rag.’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/11/damian-mcbride-forced-to-quit

Here is Andy Coulson during the NotW hearings baiting Watson about his involvement in the emails:

It is hard to believe that McBride, being Gordon Brown’s Special Advisor, didn’t meet Labour heavyweights John Reid, ex-Celtic chairman, ex-minister/current Celtic director Brian Wilson as well as the numerous Scottish Labour MPs who are Celtic fans. Being a Celtic supporter of Irish Catholic heritage there is no way he was not invited/drawn to Celtic Park for few games, drinks and a couple of folk songs. McBride said that Gordon Brown on private occasions gave a good rendition of ‘The Fields of Athenry‘.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/a-political-life-christmas-at-westminster-when-party-politics-give-way-to-plain-old-parties-8429540.html

Conclusion

Certainly Strathclyde Police and Levy & McRae, David Murray‘s lawyers, should look at Damian McBride.

Did any senior HMRC management not directly involved in the Rangers EBT tax investigation request physical or electronic copies of the David Murray/MIH/Rangers EBT investigation file – purely for research of course?

Did any HMRC senior management have contact with McBride and did he request and/or receive any of the private HMRC correspondence, letters & source materials pertaining to the David Murray/MIH/Rangers EBT HMRC investigations?

 All in the PUBLIC INTEREST of course. Wasn’t that what the Rangers Tax Case blog claimed it’s purpose was.

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