Oh Andrew, what a chump! Now DON'T hide in a log cabin says JONATHAN AITKEN: One libel loser's advice to another... shamed Tory MP Andrew MitchellÂ By Jonathan Aitken For The Mail On Sunday I know what it feels like to be in the depths of despair after a libel case disaster, writes Jonathan Aitken, right, beside former wife Lolicia, left I know what it feels like to be in the depths of despair after a libel case disaster. In 1997 I made an even bigger chump of myself than you when I arrogantly and untruthfully pursued a fatal libel action against The Guardian. So I have been where you now are. As a result I might just be able to separate the wood from the trees more clearly than you now can in the gloom that encircles you. In the coming days you will be offered an avalanche of advice from both well-wishers and ill-wishers. Take none of it for the foreseeable future! I say this because you will be far too shattered and shell-shocked to think sensibly. The trauma of the career car crash which you and I brought on ourselves is too destabilising to be coped with in a short space of time. Your healing will be a long and painful process. Do not rush your fences as life changes direction. On every front you have assets and liabilities. Assess them realistically. You have a strong (at times too strong!) character and a wintry courage which will help you make difficult choices. My weaknesses led me into worse mistakes than yours. I ran away the day my libel case had to be withdrawn and spent weeks hiding in a log cabin in the coastal wilderness of Sonoma County California. In those lonely surroundings I had my darkest periods of feeling depressed and suicidal. Because you are resilient and have both a loving family and a stalwart group of friends around you, I am sure you will be steered away from such black moments of peering into the abyss. But however much your nearest and dearest help you, the toughest struggles will come within your own heart and soul. Be cheered by one encouraging signpost from this fellow bruised pilgrim â€" 17 years on from my calamitous lawsuit I am happier and more fulfilled than ever I was in the heyday of being in the spotlight of Cabinet power and vaulting ambition. So there is life after a libel catastrophe and it can be a good life. May I offer you one or two thoughts on how to find the paths towards it? You and I fell because we displayed the unacceptable face of personal and political arrogance. So on the road ahead in your new life, hubris has to be replaced by humility. A change of heart and mind is essential. As I see it you face four crises â€" in your constituency, your career reassessment, your finances and the challenges of forgiveness. If you hope to remain in the House of Commons you will need to eat a large helping of humble pie in front of your Constituency Association in Sutton Coldfield. Their trust in you will have been shaken but not destroyed. They like you. They respect your hard work as a conscientious MP. You may benefit from their sympathy for the disproportionate consequences of your errors. If you now reach out to your electors with the right mixture of humility, apology and hopeful continuity for the future, then I will bet on you retaining both the nomination and the seat even if there are bumpy moments on the way. Andrew Mitchell and I fell because we displayed the unacceptable face of personal and political arrogance If you are re-elected next May you will have to tread delicately. You will need to work your passage as a backbencher with a becoming modesty that is not your usual style. But your good reputation will not be buried for ever. You have been damaged but not ruined. Insiders will remember your achievements. So even if the glittering prizes of high office may now be denied you, you could re-emerge as an influential backbencher and in time a Select Committee chairman. Once you have repaid your debts and found your feet on the lower slopes of parliamentary achievement I believe you will be a far more empathetic public figure. The day will come when your colleagues and the public will respect you for coming through the fire, learning from your mistakes and changing the tone of your stance to the world. This hopeful scenario all depends on how you handle your third crisis â€" the challenge of putting wrongs right. Because your train wreck was so avoidable there are several people you have badly let down whom you may have to ask for forgiveness. They start with your family. They have borne the brunt of your faults and may well face the disruption of their home being sold to pay lawyersâ€™ bills. I know how agonising such upheavals can be because I inflicted them on my own children. Secondly, whatever was or was not said at the gates of Downing Street, you will need to consider what you should say to the officers involved. Here you have been helped by the olive branch extended to you by one of the officers on duty, former PC Ian Richardson. In an interview on the Today programme on Friday he was conciliatory towards you and critical of the Police Federation. This was generous. For in the cold light of contrition you have to admit that it was the flame of your anger which started the fire. You raised the stakes (as I did) by suing in the High Court, which is a cruel furnace. In libel cases many are burned and the loser gets immolated. Now surely is the time for applying the healing balm and extending the olive branches. Please consider how you might reach out to your nemesis in the case, PC Toby Rowland. His version of events has been upheld by the trial judge. But even though his reputation has been vindicated, he too has been through the fire. He also has had a terrible two years. His family has suffered. So perhaps you must consider asking for his forgiveness? That would send a signal that the old leopard is changing his spots. I end as I begin this letter on a note of human sympathy. I truly wish you good luck on your journey of recovery, change and restoration. May you come through your present turmoils to find the contentment I have reached.