SO A POLITICIANS SMEARS ANOTHER POLITICIAN. AND THE STORY IS...?

I have been into politics since I was a child and would consider myself a political junkie. However, I am struggling with the whole Damian McBride smear story. The media is reporting this as if its the death knell for Gordon Brown and as if the fact that one political party smears another is somehow an earth shattering revelation. It isn't.

Even the usually excellent Andrew Grice in the Independent is wading into the fray, predicting doom for Brown next year. The trouble is that none of these commentators recognises that this story is fundamentally parochial. It is a Westminster Bubble issue which the average voter facing redundancy or repossession could not give a stuff about.

This, in my oh-so-humble opinion, is what gives politics a bad name. The country is falling to pieces around their ears and all politicians care about is name calling in the playground.

Maybe, in a nutshell, this is why Vince has become such an icon: because he is tediously interested in proper issues, like the economy and bees, the kinds of things which people actually care about.

To me the real story remains the fact that the Tories are playing all the right mood music but they still remain completely devoid of any substance. If the pundits are to be believed - and I wouldn't, would you? - the Tories are strolling to electoral success on the back of a sharp suit and a bunch of flowers.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to see someone say that the Damian McBride issue is simply not an issue and the devastation being wreaked all around us in the 'real world' may perhaps be given a slightly higher priority by the good people of Westminster.

Sadly, it isn't going to happen and the election next year will be decided on looks not substance.