‘I Have No More Proof Than Anyone Else,’ Says PM-On-Pills Blogger

Ever since Andrew Marr put the medication question to Gordon Brown yesterday, the media has turned the spotlight on the political blogosphere.

Was Marr guilty of indulging in some web-based tittle-tattle, on the BBC no less? Had he fallen for another right-wing conspiracy in cyberspace? Or was the question of the PM’s state of mind a legitimate area for discussion?

Opinions are naturally divided – Charlie Beckett at Polis and Benedict Brogan writing on his Telegraph blog provide some of the more insightful analysis.

Meanwhile, the hunt was on for the blogger that had originally put the idea of the PM-on-pills into the public domain.

Some mistakenly thought it all started with Guido Fawkes, but the UK’s most renowned political blogger soon put them right.

The author of the original was in fact John Ward who blogs at Not Born Yesterday.

Earlier today, Ward told Channel 4 News:

The fact of the matter is I still have no more proof, and I stress proof, than anyone else that Gordon Brown is actually taking anti-depressants.

All I can say is that I was given a verbal list of foods he allegedly cannot have by a very senior civil servant at a social gathering. And as an occasional depressive myself in the past I recognised the contraindications immediately from many years ago to be those of an anti-depressant of the MAOI type that I have taken.

So no proof and a Downing Street denial, but an educated guess backed up by a verbal tip off from a “very senior civil servant”. It’s probably enough to legitimise it as a story out in the blogosphere.

But at the post-Gilligan BBC? I’m not so sure.

Related:
 – Sorry Guido, the BBC did for Duncan