The Dark Side.

Mr Smith has previously chronicled the strong connections between Scotland's media and political communities. But is appears that the New Year has already brought the defection of a member of the Fourth Estate to the Dark Side with the appointment of STV political journalist Michael Crow as the Scottish Conservatives' new spin doctor.

"TELEVISION journalist Michael Crow has been appointed as a senior strategist with the Conservative Party in Scotland, it was revealed yesterday. Mr Crow, a political correspondent with STV and the presenter of its Politics Now show, will leave the station to take on the post of director of strategy and communications with the party north of the border."

It will be interesting to see what impact, if any, Mr Crow, has on the political fortunes of the Tories north of the border. Mr Smith suspects the appointment demonstrates the triumph of Mr Crow's style over a lack of Tory substance, which won't bring long term benefits to the Tory Party. But who would want to be a journalist anyway these days?

Spun Off.

Mr Smith thinks more and more of Gordon's team of spinners will be trying to find themselves new berths as the General Election approaches.

"Gordon Brown was last night said to have suffered a "huge embarrassment" after it emerged that his Scottish spin doctor is quitting No 10 to work for an American PR company just weeks before the Glenrothes by-election. Paul Sinclair, who had previously worked as a special adviser to Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, moved to Downing Street three months ago to focus on Scotland."

Embarassing ... probably not, but he can't afford to lose his backroom team. That will just make things even worse for the PM.

Spin Unspun.

Another example of "bury the trash day" in action at Westminster.

"Prime Minister Gordon Brown was under fire last night after revealing his government now employs 73 spindoctors, costing taxpayers £6million a year. He presided over an increase in the size of the Whitehall PR machine, despite his pledge on taking office to end the era of spin which typified Tony Blair’s reign at Number 10 ... The rise was disclosed in the Commons as MPs left for their summer holidays."

Has Mr Brown done anything he said he would do before he took over from former PM Tony Blair?

Saints And Spinners.

"SCOTLAND'S police spend around £3 million a year on an army of spin doctors, a Sunday Mail probe has discovered. The teams of mostly civilian PR staff cost taxpayers the same as 160 new officers pounding the beat. Scotland's largest force, Strathclyde Police, headed by chief constable Steve House, employ 49 people in corporate communications. The annual £1.4million budget is equivalent to nearly 64 constables."

It makes you wonder why the cops need all of these PR people to get their message across when the public are naturally predisposed to the police view on so many issues. But it puts the previous commitments of the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police to get more cops back on the beat into some kind of perspective. If the Chief had fewer "communications" officers he could put a lot more officers back on the beat.

Abrasive Wendy.

Mr Smith asks who would want to work for Scottish Labour Leader Wendy Alexander MSP.

"SCOTTISH LABOUR'S new spin-doctor made a series of damning criticisms of his colleagues weeks before he accepted the job as the party's head of communications. Gavin Yates used his blog to describe Wendy Alexander as "abrasive", labelled shadow health minister Andy Kerr as "simply uninspiring", and blasted Jack McConnell for being a "lame duck leader" when in office. He also said the fledgling SNP government had a "long and impressive" list of achievements, while describing first minister Alex Salmond as "a great example of a politician on top of his game".

Wendy really ought to give up employing people who have such mixed views about the Labour Party as well as nationalistic inclinations. Will Wendy need to find someone else to fill the role of her spin doctor? Mr Smith suspects not ... after all she is running out of candidates. Scotland only has a population of five million after all.

He's a spinner.

So, a bad week for Gordon Brown, which just got even worse.

"AN ICM survey for BBC's Newsnight revealed that 61% of respondents thought that new Prime Minister Mr Brown was as big a spinner as Mr Blair. Indeed, some 15% thought he was more likely to spin, while 20% thought he was less likely."

Mr Smith would suggest that the public probably aren't surprised at the fact that Mr Brown has been attempted to spin ... what they are surprised about is that he doing it so BADLY.