Charlie Whelan, Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor, writes a r
egular column in PR Week where he champions the Labour government. And he continues to massage Brown’s poorly deflated ego.
According to Whelan’s latest column, Labour did "slightly better" than expected in the recent Crew by-election. How much worse could a 17.6% swing against them be?
He unbelievably accuses the Conservative Party of fighting "the most negative by-election campaign in history" – with no mention of Labour’s facile "Tory toff" tactics which clearly turned off voters. Or the reasons why Labour lost.
He also accuses the media of Tory bias, urging the Labour Party to put some "real political pressure on Aunty Beeb", that only then is it likely that the rest of the media "might end this madness". This is laughable too, considering the Labour bias the BBC is renowned for. There are some examples of this on Wikipedia , including Iain Dale’s accusation that the BBC was "doing Labour’s dirty work".
My, how the tide is turning…
Oh, and if Whelan actually read PR Week and checked his facts, he would know that Guto Harri did not leave the BBC to work for Boris Johnson, he was working for public affairs agency Fleishman-Hillard as a senior policy adviser when offered the job as communications director with the new London Mayor.
It’s time Whelan stopped spinning…
Morning all.
Hi Matt, another early bird, good morning to you too.
Labour is out of touch with the populace and poor Mr Whelan appears to be out of touch with reality.
I really have to hand it to someone who can put any sort of spin on this disaster!
I agree that there is bias against Labour.
But it’s not media bias.
The public is, quite rightly, biased against the most disastrous government in history.
Whelan, it’s a democracy. Get used to it.
Jonathan, I guess it takes longer for some to get used to it.
The best columnist in PR Week is Anthony Hilton. By far . . . . once I have checked that we are not in it (for good or bad reasons!) I race to his column. Gold plated common sense dished up in a great style. Worth the cover price on its own.
David, I’m surprised Whelan is allowed to use PR Week as his political sounding board so frequently. Whatever party you are, it must be a turn off. And what is the guy doing these days?
Anthony Hilton is a totally different animal and is very professional.
Yes, I enjoy reading about Edelman since I have met you, it is mostly good. Being keen on environmental issues, I found the Abu Dhabi project really interesting, right up my street:
http://www.prweek.com/uk/search/article/811171/INTERNATIONAL-CAMPAIGN-Abu-Dhabi-plans-zero-carbon-future/
I would love to know what you are doing with match.com as one of my former clients runs a dating agency in Cambridgeshire.
Do you read Peter Hitchens, Ellee ?
http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2008/05/by-elections-do.html
He’s one of the few people who make sense to me.
For example – it is madness to focus on knife crime when people are dying by the boot, the gun, the club and the fist too. This is well covered on his blog. Give ME control of home affairs and I’ve have crime sorted in six months.
When will you realise that the politicians only exist to oppose and to tax us ? They go native once on the gravy train.
http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/
Utter brilliance. The Tories are a bunch of prats.
I think Charlie Whelen forgot to mention that there were pigs flying in the air in Crewe, wearing red rosettes. All they wanted to do was spread love, however, some nasty pigs wearing blue rosettes attacked them. It was a ‘hambush’, I believe.
Honestly, you do wonder about how someone can take such a humiliation for the government and try to put a positive spin on it.
The Conservatives fought a sensible campaign and got their reward.
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
I vote EK for Home Secretary
Can spin be separated from Whels?