Brown’s old habits die hard

I have to confess that I’ve been on hols and needless to say I attempted to read the obligatory 'holiday book'. Bearing in mind the recent launch of PRmoment, when I spotted, on the hallway shelf surprisingly enough, “Soundbites and Spin Doctors - How politicians manipulate the media and vice versa” by Nicholas Jones, I thought – that’ll do! It was a good read but one statement from 1992 (the book was written over 10 years ago) stood out more than most: "The apparent effortlessness with which Blair appeared to make the most of the access he was granted to journalists presented a marked contrast to that of his long time friend Gordon Brown. The greater Brown’s efforts to use and cultivate the news media, the more elusive seemed his goal of achieving a durable and fruitful relationship.” Sound familiar anyone?