The Legacy Of Our Spin-Doctors

20th October, 2011 by Matthew Howard

Campbell: King Of Mis-Communication? (c) Uni of Birmhingham via Flickr

Politics is a dirty trade, but none have muddied the waters of the Thames more than the modern spin-doctors, who have turned backstabbing into an art to rival any East-End gang. If there is one group that have discredited Parliament, these top the wanted the list.

If you want political office then the steep ascent has been made much more difficult by the mechanisation of slander by the likes of Ingham, Wheelan and Campbell, who tried to protect our most unpopular post-war Prime Ministers from legitimate criticism; Thatcher, Blair and Brown.

Benard Ingham has been called ‘the original spin-doctor’ for his role as Margaret Thatchers chief of communications. He was alleged to have briefed against ministers hostile to Thatcher and inspired future communications officers to treat backstabbing as the norm, not an exception.

Charlie Wheelan is said to have tolerated “a real culture of fear, and a climate of bullying” as Gordon Browns’ press officer between 1994-1999. (As political officer for Unite, he ‘won’ the Labour leadership for Ed Miliband, co-ordinating other unions to out-manouvere David Miliband.)

It was suggested in 1999 that the exit of Wheelan had ‘cleared the way for a deep-rooted change in the way British governments communicate’. Unfortunately, two years later Alastair Campbell was promoted to Director of Communications and Strategy at Number 10 after the re-election of Blair.

Where virtue might be the topic of debate and principal its guiding force, now, because of Campbell, slander has become the currency of politics and young people are choosing to express noble sentiment through charitable organisations over a sound-bite driven modern political culture.

If this sounds outlandish, lets remind ourselves that Dr David Kelly might still be around if it wasn’t for Alastair Campbell. Also, the country wouldn’t have gone to war in Iraq had New Labour been without a spin-doctor to use as a weapon against us. These doctors should be struck off.

Tags: Blair, Brown, Campbell, Ingham, Spin, thatcher, Wheeler