Burying bad news on spin

Burying bad news on spin

By Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent

Moore symbolises government spin machine

Ministers and their spin doctors will be hoping it is a good day to bury bad news.

More than 18 months after Jo Moore sent her infamous memo suggesting 11 September was just such a day, a powerful committee has demanded tough new controls on the activities of special advisers.

If Sir Nigel Wicks' reforms are adopted by the government they would signal the much-demanded death of spin in Whitehall. So don't hold your breath.

The major concern underlying everything the report touches is that, under Labour, advisers have crossed a line.

They have invaded Whitehall in greater numbers than ever before, and have attempted to politicise the civil service.

In other words, the government has seen the civil service as just another arm of its spin machine.

Media manipulation

Concerns had been growing since virtually the day after the 1997 general election.

But things came to a head over the antics of former department of transport adviser Jo Moore.

Thanks to her memo suggesting the twin towers atrocity could be used as a cover to sneak out unpopular announcements, Ms Moore has come to stand for everything that is wrong with the government's media manipulation machine.

But Ms Moore was never the problem, she was merely the symptom.

She was just doing her job. Badly, insensitively and ineptly maybe, by sending the e-mail, but it is only what was expected of her.

She was just one of the army of fresh faced and eager young advisers - branded Mandy's muppets or Peter's pets after their "creator" Peter Mandelson - charged with the task of spinning the Labour party to power.

During the decades in opposition, their skills were hugely useful in transforming the public's view of the Labour Party.

A new image was created and any journalist refusing to believe the hype was targeted for special punishment. They were frozen out, fed misinformation and regularly abused.

Impartiality

The real trouble started, however, when Labour stormed to power and continued in government with the habits it had adopted in opposition.

Whitehall press offices were cleared out, with just about every existing head of information removed - one way or another.

Government "spies", in the shape of advisers effectively appointed by spinner-in-chief Alastair Campbell, were placed in every department.

And there were reports that civil servants started coming under intense pressure to abandon their traditional role as impartial government information officers.

The claim was that they were expected to become part of the spin machine. And, like journalists, those who refused to play along were targeted.

Will Blair take notice?

It all got deeply unpleasant and after the second general election victory there were signs that the government accepted it needed to change.

But, as the standards committee has found, this was an addictive habit and, despite some cosmetic changes and increasing anger amongst civil servants, business continued as normal.

Tuesday's report, therefore, comes as no surprise to anyone who has anything to do with the government or Whitehall.

The big test now is whether the government - and in this case that really does mean Tony Blair - takes a blind bit of notice.

The fear amongst many MPs, however, is that, thanks to the war and the budget, this is another piece of bad news that can be safely buried.