With the Russell Brand sexual assault allegations receiving wall-to-wall coverage in the press since Saturday, the left are swiftly creating as much distance between themselves and their ex-best mate as quickly as possible. Marina Hyde has written a powerful piece today in The Guardian about her – and by implication her paper’s – failings with regards to Russell Brand. She writes how she is “just one of the many people who got many different things wrong about how that story should have been covered and framed“. If the allegations hold, Hyde has hit the nail on the head…

• In 2013, Brand guest-edited the New Statesman, rallying the troops for some kind of political “revolution“. Yet another New Statesman alumnus who’s hit headlines for all the wrong reasons recently… 
• The Guardian, which is now claiming Brand was a “misogynist in plain sight“, had Brand as a regular writer for nearly 10 years.
• Owen Jones probably won’t be in a hurry to sign first edition copies of The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It, which features Brand’s name on the front cover. He also claimed Brand’s endorsement of Labour in 2015 should “worry” the Tories. In fairness to Owen, today he has admitted he “regrets” that, and it’s “fair” to criticise him for it.
• Of course Miliband himself appeared on Brand’s YouTube series “The Trews” in 2015 to kiss the ring. Look how that worked out…
• Until just days ago, Brand’s ‘poetry‘ was set to appear in Jeremy Corbyn and Len McClusky’s “Poetry For The Many” tome. Those hoping to read Brand’s words will just have to read the Guardian columns…

There will be more to come. The acid-washing has just begun…