BACK IN THE SPIN CYCLE?

Now here's a thought.

In these parlous times for New Labour, is it worth wondering how different things could have been? In the bad old days of Bliar, the man himself would have chosen (essentially) to sit back and ride out the storm - spinning the "well ... umm ... I'm a pretty straight sorta guy" line for as much as he was worth. And, to be fair, this tactic proved uncannily reliable in making sure that not too much (if any at all) effluent or excrement stuck to him. Like it or not, he was superb at that particular part of the politicians' stock-in-trade.

But he - or his underlings - would also have seen an opportunity in the current frenzy (and, on occasions, undoubtedly took advantage of it), namely to 'bury' any bad news stories that might be lurking in the Westminster/Whitehall undergrowth.

Now, the Great Bottler wouldn't try that on, would he? After all, he maintains the Bliar approach has been binned now that he's in the hot seat. We..ell ... the week-end approaches when the Westminster tribe seems to assume some sort of collective narcolepsy and this whole scrutiny thingie goes down the pan. I can't speak for anyone else but I'm going to make sure I'm keeping a pretty close eye on Departmental press releases for the next few days (perhaps even weeks or months if, as looks likely, the donation scandal continues to foment amongst the media).