The god-like genius of Paul Richards

Eddie Tucker reviews How to be your own spindoctor by Paul Richards (Take That Ltd, £9.95).

The man who was the scourge of the left as a leader of the Labour Co-ordinating Committee, who thinks Labour's new defence policy is the best thing since sliced bread and who LLB columnist Geoff Martin described as "Boris Karloff after a bad night at the graveyard" has finally written a major contribution to political activism.

At last we have an updated version of Pluto's masterpieces -- McShane's How to Use the Media and Drinkwater's Get it On -- packed with humourous examples, quotes and checklists.

The title may be opportunistic, but behind the gloss and the namedropping is a book that provides everything the spindoctors don't want you to know. Drawing on his own experiences, the man who as Labour candidate for Billericay managed to get Newsnight to a Labour Party plant sale, helps you understand how journalists work and teaches that dealing with the media is a skill not magic -- "there are tricks of the trade and techniques that can be learnt."

Even seasoned campaigners can pick up tips: on radio "smaller stations have very few staff, especially at weekends, and so it is important to make the right approach. You can make a world of difference between phoning at five minutes to the hour, when the news presenter is desperately finishing off scripts...and five minutes after the hour when the bulletin is over and the presenter has time to talk."

The best spindoctors, as the book repeats, are those you haven't heard of, and Richards nearly joined them with his reported press conference at which the total media attendance was...nil. Richards describes LLB's web site as having "the best link page"; this is simply "the best book on how to use the media".

He may not have Geoff Martin's looks (Huh? -- editor), but he has his ability to use the media. And he's shared it with us. Apparently even the Sultan of Spin Peter Mandelson turned up to the book's launch -- what greater accolade could Richards have had?

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