You would imagine Damian McBride was virtually unemployable after Smeargate. But he has miraculously landed a job as a business liaison officer at his old school, Finchley Catholic High, in north London. Its motto is: “Grant that we may always be truly wise.”
He is even proudly listed as one of the school’s Famous Old Boys, where his name is sandwiched between screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin, who scripted The Italian Job, and Father John McDonald, former Chaplain to the Catholic Stage School.
Here are some of my favourite quotes from his interview in today’s Guardian, the first one the former Downing Street spin doctor has given since resigning three months ago.
"I let them down appallingly. No 10 should have stuck the boot into me much harder.”
and
"Of course I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the damage I did to Gordon and the reputation of No 10. And I’m sorry for the offence I caused to various people by writing those emails about them. But I can’t say sorry for the emails being published because that had nothing to do with me, and I never wanted it to happen. As far as I was concerned, those emails went in the bin shortly after they were written … and that’s where they should have stayed."
and
“I knew I’d have to resign. It was the equivalent of coming home from a night at the pub and being told that the entire time you’ve been chatting with your mates someone’s been recording the conversation."
and
"I lost my dad three years ago. He was from a religious Scottish upbringing, very stern, and he would have hated reading those emails. I remember thinking: ‘Thank God my dad didn’t have to see this’, but the way Gordon reacted to me that day, it was as bad as telling my dad."
Saved by his old school, how lucky is that. I think the school is very misguided in its judgement, and should observe the ethos behind its motto.
