The Mail on Sunday, in a disgraceful smear on Labour’s candidate in the Eastleigh by-election, John O’Farrell, have grossly distorted words used in Things can only get better, his comic account of “eighteen miserable years in the life of a Labour supporter” under Thatcher and Major to claim that “he wished Margaret Thatcher had been murdered in the IRA attack on Brighton’s Grand Hotel.” Andrew Neill has since joined the attack.

O’Farrell’s book is in any case a piece of comedy, though it deals with serious issues – “the heartbreaking and hilarious confessions of someone who has been actively involved in helping the Labour Party lose elections at every level“. However, his words were not only taken out of that context but their meaning was also seriously distorted. Continue reading →