Two days later, The Guardian reported that Mr Marsden was said to be “close to a breakdown”. On 28 October, The Mail on Sunday reported that anonymous Labour sources had claimed that the rebel MP was gay and about to defect to the Liberal Democrats.The inside story: Mr Marsden is a married father of two who maintains that he is not close to breakdown. He says when he rang The Guardian to ask who had raised the question of his mental stability, he “was told that it had come from No 10 and that it was the same person who described Gordon Brown as having ‘psychological flaws’.” He did, however, defect to Britain’s third party, despite having said before: “It is a lie, I would never join the Lib Dems.”Smear rating: 6/10. The public has learnt to take with a pinch of salt rumours of psychological disorders. And even joining the Lib Dems was not, the last time we looked, a certifiable offence.MURKIEST SMEARVictim: Bob Kiley, sacked chairman of London Transport.By: Anonymous figures at the Treasury and London Transport and, allegedly, Jo Moore, Stephen Byers’s special adviser.The smear: On 3 May, the London Evening Standard reported that “Treasury briefers cast Mr Kiley as a New York fashion item past his sell-by date, one who anyway did not really improve New York’s subway”. On 20 July, Polly Toynbee of The Guardian reported that a “surprisingly well informed letter to this paper… abused Kiley and his ’sainthood in the British press’, saying he knows nothing about buses.” The letter was from a London Transport employee who requested anonymity.

In October, The Independent revealed that Jo Moore had asked a junior civil servant in July to bring to journalists’ attention an independent report on the safety aspects of London Underground, commissioned by Mr Kiley, which had allegedly been altered by one of his staff. The civil servant refused.The inside story: Kiley, who formerly ran the buses and the subway in New York, commented: “Personal vilification is the last resort of people who are unable to defend their position.” Mr Kiley’s staff say they did not doctor the report. Stephen Byers defended Ms Moore’s actions, saying that there had been “no dirty tricks” and that “people had the right to know” about the alleged alterations made to the report.Smear rating: 6/10. Serious damage intended, but the smearers, particularly the now-infamous Ms Moore, seem to have come off rather worse then the smearee.FEEBLEST SMEARVictim: Mark Thomas, Channel 4 presenter.By: Richard Caborn, the minister for TradeThe smear: In January, using his legal rights under the Data Protection Act, the presenter discovered that – following his public criticism of the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) over its support for UK businesses involved in the building of Turkey’s Ilisu dam – an internal e-mail was sent round the ECGD, saying: “Caborn wants… to gather as much background dirt on him [Thomas] in order to rubbish him…”The bloke is an out-and-out nutter,” it continued, “and he more or less agreed he was when he rang me later. If, however, Mark Thomas has the gall to ring me again for a reaction (I can’t think that he will) he will probably get one!! (off the record of course).”The inside story: On 7 January, when the e-mail (which was actually sent on 17 July 2000) came to light, Mr Caborn attempted to shift the blame on to the official who wrote the e-mail, whose identity has not been revealed.

The minister said that he was “unaware of the contents of this e-mail, and since the contents came to light, the official concerned has received a warning over the incident”. He said he had never asked for dirt to rubbish the comedian, but had merely “made a purely procedural request for background on Mark Thomas and his programme, as a result of the programme’s continuing interest in the ECGD and its projects” Meanwhile, no actual dirt seems to have been disseminated. Thomas may be both eccentric and persistent, but the suggestion that he has ever been locked up by the men in the white coats seems to lack plausibility.Smear rating: 1/10.. The terrorist attacks on America may have helped to avert a humanitarian catastrophe that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by the world, MPs said yesterday. Tony Baldry, the Conservative chairman of the committee, said: “Afghanistan had the potential for a humanitarian catastrophe of huge proportions before 11 September and the media and other people were not in the least bit interested.”The Labour MP Tony Colman added: “If 11 September did not happen, we could have had many millions of people dying because the world community would not have responded in the way it did.”The committee urged the Government to increase its spending on aid to 0.7 per cent of national income, and to ensure that pledges of support were converted into hard cash.