The Wages of Spin [Paperback]

It is often forgotten that Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher's Chief Press Secretary, was a civil servant, bound by the convention that civil servants provide advice but do not make policy. Ingham joined the civil service in 1967 and immediately withdrew from all political activity, allowing his Labour Party membership to lapse to maintain his neutrality. Over the years he served another six government ministers, Barabra Castle, Eric Varley and Tony Benn from Labour and Robert Carr, Maurice McMillan and Lord Carrington for the Conservatives. He was an efficient publicist and was regarded by the Labour Party under Neil Kinnock as a praticiser of the black arts of spin.

In a chapter entitled "Case for the Defence" Ingham destroys the myth that he centralised power at No.10, pointing out that his first act as Thatcher's Chief Press Secretary, was to speak to heads of department information divisions urging them to be positive in communicating with the public rather than waiting for clearance from No.10. This contrasted sharply with Alistair Campbell's approach under New Labour. Campbell saw his role as service to New Labour, not to the electorate. The first casulty was the government information service. During the first term of New Labour, all bar one of the eighteen departmental information officers had been removed. The last one went shortly after the election of 2001. Within one year of New Labour taking office, twenty-five of the top forty-four top posts in the Government Information Service had been moved on or out.

In their place came a plethora of party hacks such as Jo Moore, special adviser to Steven Byers at the DTLR, who cynically wrote within a hour of 9/11, "It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury. Councillors' expenses?!" Moore, whose activities had previously caused problems in the department, was warned about her action by the permanent secretary and allegedly received a personal reprimand from Byers. However, it was not within the power of the department to sack her. That was reserved for No.10. Unable to learn her lesson, Moore tried to release unfavourable information on the day of Princess Margaret's funeral. The newly appointed departmental Director of Communications, Martin Sixsmith, stopped her. Moore's position was untenable, although Byers forced Sixsmith out too.

Ingham's beef (and one which was shared by successive Speakers of the House of Commons) was New Labour's practice trailing information in the press before informing Parliament. Old policies were repackaged as new initiatives. Gordon Brown claimed the government would spend £19b on education over a period of three years. The actual amount was £10b in three annual tranches of £3b, £3b and £4b. For most people that amounted to £10b. However, Brown counted £3b for year one, then added that amount to the second year £3b to make £6b to which was added £4b in year three consisting of the two previous years cumulative £6b for a cumulative figure of £10b. This changed 3 +3 +4 equals 10 into 3 + 6 +10 equals 19. In the first three years of New Labour 8636 government targets set for the public services. It was spin without substance, promise without delivery with the result that in 2001 Blair was returned to office with the lowest electoral turnout since 1928 and 12 percentage points below 1997.

While no one doubts Ingham could be rough at the edges he did not resort to the thuggish tactics of Campbell. As he writes, "results speak for themselves". The F1 affair, Mandelson's mortgage, Steelgate and the relationship between Paul Drayson's £50,000 donation to the Labour Party and his company's subsequent successful bid for a £32m contract to provide smallpox vaccine for the Health Department, combined to produce an atmosphere of sleaze against which Labour had previously campaigned. It unravelled when Drayson was criticised for selling out of date and unsafe products. He quickly sold the company for £500m, gave £1m the Labour Party and served as science minister until the 2010 election. Ingham characterises the Blair administration's strategy as "government by media". Not just any media. When the Daily Mirror planned to feature Bill Clinton, who was in London for a G8 meeting, making an appeal to the Northern Ireland electorate to support the Good Friday agreement, its editor sent a draft copy to No.10 for editing. He was then disgusted to find his copy providing an exclusive for the Sun. Campbell claimed, "I did this for peace" to which Mirror editor Piers Morgan restorted, "Sure, peace with Murdoch."

Ingham provides an excellent overview of Parliament's relationship with the press. He reveals that none of the Ministers he served were publicity hounds (including Tony Benn) and all bar one of them (Robert Carr) suffered dreadfully from nerves before speaking in the House of Commons. He surveys the history of the relationship between politicians and the media. In simple terms politicians have always distrusted the media. Under New Labour they made love to it. Ingham has no sympathy for those newspapers who bemoan spin, accusing them of complicity in their own downfall as independent critics of government actions. In his view they have conspired to undermine democracy by fostering spin doctoring. He would like to see a return to the old system of civil servants providing advice in the national interest rather than spin doctors seeking party political advantage. Good book, well written, worth five stars.