As Guido revealed in his Sun on Sunday column, an unlikely alliance has been forged over beers. The gruesome twosome of Damian McBride and Grant Shapps teamed up for a Macmillian charity pub quiz night last week. McBride tells Guido how Grant “demolished a round of cryptic clues to underground stations”, with the pair finishing second overall. Shapps was rather more coy about his new friend…

The news that McBride’s book will upset Labour conference has caused a flutter today. Many of his old allies have popped up to help the re-branding exercise. No doubt they will be salivating at the prospect of the serialisation rights, hence why no one has noted that the deal will earn Mad Dog far more than the royalties he has pledged to give away. Looking back at his recent blogposts shows the level of detail we can expect about the Brown years; one thing stuck out about his latest musing though:

“As our internal polls used to tell us, there were a number of Tory leaders who could potentially have beaten Tony Blair in 2005, and Hague was arguably one of them.”

You have to wonder what a Civil Servant at the Treasury was doing having access to “internal polls” in 2005. What internal polls? Surely the Treasury were not polling this sort of information? A Labour source familiar with that particular period does not recall any Labour Party poll commissioned on the subject. Was this done by that famous impartial charity the Smith Institute? If not, who paid for it and was money declared? What else will Damian let out of the bag about doing Gordon’s leadership dirty work on the taxpayer? 

Despite his involvement in Smeargate, Iain Dale’s publishing firm Biteback has secured Damian McBride’s long expected memoir. A five figure advance was paid:

“Royalties from sales of the book will be split between Damian McBride’s current employers, CAFOD (the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development), and the appeal by his former employers, Finchley Catholic High School, to build a new sixth form centre.”

Redemption and a touch of score settling. What could go wrong?

Saturday: McBride and Draper reunion in Bradford for Gloria De Piero's wedding—
Eye Spy MP (@eyespymp) July 30, 2012

Sounds “absolutely brilliant”…

The Sunday Telegraph’s Patrick Hennessy has gone big today on his mate Damian McBride’s confirmation two weeks ago of the truth of a Guido story about a secret email system dating back from 2007.

Hennessy’s rival John Rentoul over at the Sunday Indy mocks the vintage of the story:

Nice one @PatJHennessy! A news story soc.li/STlOz8l out of a @DPMcBride blog from 2 weeks ago dpmcbride.tumblr.com via @blairsupporter—
John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) July 14, 2012

Truth will out. Eventually.

After dipping his toe into the blogging world on key occasions this year, Damian McBride has created plenty of ripples. Speculation has been spreading that the disgraced Brown spinner was touting for a book deal by giving us a glimpse of what such a tome would be like. Needless to say there have already been offers, which do not come as a suprise to anyone who has read his illuminating posts.

McBride denies he is interested though and says he has rejected deals.

Guess he will have to stick to the blogging.

Guido could use the competition…

Fearless campaigner for transparency Tom Watson signed a commercial contract with a Allen Lane to co-write a book that will generate earnings, but he has not declared this contract to Parliament. Since the book’s subject matter relates directly to his work as a member of the Culture Select Committee, this lack of transparency is doubly odd. Watson is profiting while quoting Bob Dylan and grandstanding on the Committee…

When Guido raised this earlier Watson went on the attack, forcing the Chairman of the Committee to rein him in. One thing for was clear – Watson didn’t want to talk about it:

Dial M for Murdoch came out well before today’s report, yet page 312 explicitly states that the Committee would find that News International had misled Parliament – it was a leak from a position of privilege with commercial implications. John Whittingdale, the Committee chairman, said he did not know of any breach committed by Watson – well now he does. Not only has Watson undermined Parliament, but he did so to line his pockets. A fit person for the committee?

Damian McBride’s 4 a.m. blogpost about the formulation of budgets has got plenty of his old drinking buddies and once loyal hacks excited:

Fascinating @DPMcBride insight into making a Budget bit.ly/GKVqvp clocked by @PatJHennessy—
Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) March 22, 2012

Top #Budget 'scorecard' analysis from ex-HMT @DPMcBride bit.ly/GKVqvp—
Patrick Hennessy (@PatJHennessy) March 22, 2012

A brilliant behind the scenes piece on budgets by @DPMcBride tinyurl.com/72oc6z5—
Iain Martin (@iainmartin1) March 22, 2012

for anyone who hasn't yet read @DPMcBride on how Budgets are put together, it's worth it bit.ly/GKVqvp—
Gaby Hinsliff (@gabyhinsliff) March 22, 2012

This tinyurl.com/72oc6z5 by @DPMcBride is great. Though I do recall him assuring me on Budget Day 07 there were no losers from 10p tax.—
Robert Hutton (@RobDotHutton) March 22, 2012

Everything you need to know about how a budget it put together from @DPMcbride dpmcbride.tumblr.com/post/197173197…—
JamesLyons (@MirrorJames) March 22, 2012

Currently Damian is marking time as head of spin at the Catholic overseas aid charity CAFOD as part of his political rehabilitation programme. As interesting as the behind the scenes look is, the timing of this re-entry into the fray is highly suspicious. Given that Balls wants McBride back in his operation, Guido reckons this will be the first of many such interventions…

Damian McBride has surfaced. As a blogger…

Returning to the fray, so far we have been treated to some Whitney and a post about booze.

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery…

Having recently joined Twitter, it was only a matter of time before Damian McBride would be back to doing what he does best: slagging off Labour MPs. Last night during Andrew Neil’s “This Week” he sent this tweet:

Is that really fair?

Hic.