Jury out on the death of spin

By Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent

Campbell was synonymous with spin

Spin is dead - long live spin.

That is the inevitably suspicious view that is already doing the rounds in Westminster.

Thanks to a widespread mistrust of just about everything that comes from the Downing Street communications machine, there is a huge reluctance to take the shake-up of that machine at face value.

That breakdown in trust is, of course, precisely why Tony Blair has decided he needs to carry out this reform.

And it is not just cynical hacks who claim that.

The independent inquiry into the government communications operation found there had been a "three way breakdown in trust between government and politicians, the media and general public".

Labour's sleaze

And, in words that go to the heart of the government's worries, it found the result of this breakdown was that "the public now expects and believes the worst of politicians and government".

That is exactly what Tony Blair is afraid of. It plays directly into the damaging Tory attack that "you can't believe a word he says".

Spin, it is feared, has become to Labour what sleaze was to the Tories - and that could be fatal.

Hill is widely trusted

The prime minister's previous attempts to put it behind him - notably with Alastair Campbell retreating to the back room - failed dismally.

The spin continued as hard as ever, with the Cheriegate row further undermining Downing Street's credibility.

So now the prime minister has finally admitted his 1997 decision to give Alastair Campbell unprecedented power over the civil service and even cabinet ministers has been a failure.

He is abandoning that approach and going back to the previous communications system - sort of.

Stop doing it

He has separated the purely political role from the civil service role, with veteran Labour press chief David Hill taking the political job.

A civil servant will handle the non-political aspects of the media job as deputy to a new, over-arching Permanent Secretary who will head the media team and have direct access to the prime minister.

That might work. But the real problem here was never entirely structural. It was always a matter of will.

If Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell had ever really had the will to abandon spin they could have done so long ago.

It didn't require a shake-up of the entire media machine.

But that sort of radical reform has now become essential as a symbolic act. And appointing Mr Hill, a well-trusted and liked operator, also points in the right direction.

But these changes will not be accepted at face value until they have been seen in operation.

It will, ultimately, be by their deeds that they are judged.