Who else would want to embarrass Brown over his support for Scotland?

On the face of it yesterday’s Mail on Sunday story quoting from a 13 year old article that Gordon Brown had written about his support for Scottish football was just something to chuckle about.

But on closer examination it looked more serious than that. For what could be more embarrassing than for Brown’s comments such as his saluting of the Scottish hooligans who tore up the Wembley turf and broke the crossbar after a victory over England, to be highlighted just as his “Britishness” initiative gets under way.

So who could have done such a thing with such immaculate timing? Was somebody out to get Gordon?

Two words in a paragraph towards the end of the feature appears to explain everything. For it stated that the Brown article was published in 1994 in a book that had been edited by one Alastair Campbell. Yes him.

The question for anybody betting on the Labour leadership must be – “Is the former spin-master be out to get Brown – and if so how seriously should we take it?”

I have no idea whether Campbell had anything to do with yesterday’s article or not – but the fact that he must have known for years what was in the book that he edited and the extraordinary convenience of the timing makes me suspicious.

And if Campbell is working against Brown then might we see more “revelations” like this. After all Campbell knows where all NuLab’s bodies are buried.

If Campbell is getting involved with moves like this then Gordon’s chances of the top job are a little bit less certain than they were last week.

Mike Smithson