Matthew Norman on Monday: "British Obama" Chuka carries Blairite torch Back to Jack Straw, who lashes out at Gordon Brown over his visit to troops in Basra in the autumn of 2007, identifying this as a brazen bid to deflect attention from the Tory conference at which George Osborne made his inheritance tax bribe. It is not an original point. Yet however delayed, this accusation that Gordon abused his office carries crushing force from one whose role in facilitating the handing of Libyan dissidents to Colonel Gadaffi remains unclear. No one has Jack's integrity. How a man of such steadfast principle masked his disgust at the grubby tactics of his colleagues for so long, I will never understand. It must be the heat, but this infernal fad for skirmishing afflicts David Cameron and his one-time idol Mr Tony Blair. "I cannot be expected to know the client list of everybody I speak with," the PM snippily responded to questions about Lynton Crosby's tobacco links, as if he may once have met election supremo for two minutes at a drinks party. If I did, I don't think I have enough paper in my office to write them all down. Miiiiiiaaaoooww. Mr T's responded that talking to the PM about the Middle East, on which he continues to sprinkle the magic dust of peace, can't be compared to lobbying for fag firms. The bitch-slapping must cease. It would be a wicked blow to national morale if the love match that sustained us through the economic gloom were disbanded now with the green shoots of recovery apparently visible. Speaking of Crosby, we seem to have exaggerated his influence. "Ed Miliband's attack on David Cameron over the scrapping of plain cigarette packs is a pathetic attempt to spread the sleaze in the wake of the Unite scandal," rails a Sun leader. He wants an enquiry because a Tory election aide no one has ever heard of has links to a tobacco giant. Technically this is incorrect. Take the Sun's own Trevor Kavanagh, the shorthand secretary who transcribes Rupert Murdoch's innermost thoughts. Trev has heard of him and regards him as more than just an aide. When Crosby joined the PM's office, Trev described him as an "election mastermind."