Almost farcically, Miliband has chosen former Unite assistant General Secretary Ray Collins to lead the party’s trade union review. Back in 2009 Collins denied knowledge of the Red Rag* attack site that sought to smear Tory MPs. Despite him being at a planning meeting held at Unite’s HQ with Damian McBride and Derek Draper.  On the Unite side were Charlie Whelan and Andrew Dodghson. Collins did not know of the specific intended smears, he did however know of the intention to launch the anonymous attack site. He can hardly claim to have no responsibility for the site  just because he didn’t know which particular smears were going to be used. He still helped plan and facilitate the setting-up of Red Rag…

*Unite now funds the PoliticalScrapbook blog, which is tamer than the one originally envisaged by its union backers.