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  1. Politics
10 September 2010

Quote of the week

Former Tory MP Michael Brown on a text message from his old friend David Davis

By James Macintyre

Just catching up with some of the comment pieces of this week, an extraordinary anecdote caught my eye, somewhat buried inside a column by the Independent‘s Michael Brown, the former Tory MP. Brown says this of his old friend David Davis:

Something odd has happened to the former Tory leadership contender over the past two years. Last year I was interviewed, on Mr Davis’s regional Yorkshire BBC TV news programme, on the occasion of the anniversary of his bizarre 2008 by-election. I said that he was an outstanding shadow home secretary and should have remained in his post but I was rebuked by an astonishing text message from him. “If ever I need help, remind me not to ask you. Goodbye.” Such is how a 40-year friendship in politics and journalism can end when apparently thwarted ambition, ego and vanity turn to bitterness.

Ouch.

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