The author of Deadly Spin, former PR man Wendell Potter, is posing as a whistleblower with something useful to reveal. But a quick look at his book’s main theme suggests that he’s talking nonsense about his trade because he doesn’t like its paymasters.

My essay on corporate image building forms part of a new book from The New Culture Form, A Sorry State: Self-denigration in British Culture, edited by Peter Whittle with a foreword by the historian Michael Burleigh. You are welcome to attend the launch event: see below. Read on ›

Tony Blair’s memoirs are the most confessional in years from a world leader. The devout Catholic convert explains why politicians stray from their wives (not him so far as we know), escape to the loo for peace, and seek comfort in drink (in his case shockingly little of it). Read on ›

There’s been a hullabaloo about how Tony Blair’s gift of £4.6 million profit from his book to fund a Royal British Legion rehabilitation centre backfired. So allow me to defend Tony Blair’s acute sense of aligning his PR with the public mood. Read on ›

Robert Crampton opines in The Times that Zurich “scores top marks for utter bone-breaking tedium”. I guess he’s writing this stuff as a warning to wannabe tax exiles. So allow me to give them some informed insight into elite and popular lifestyles in Zurich.  Read on ›

Thanks to Richard Edelman I’m flagging an upcoming book every PR should read: Capitalism 4.0 by The Times economics analyst Anatole Kaletsky. Here’s a preview. Read on ›

Unlike the BNP, self-respecting political parties don’t hold their Emergency General Meetings in East London’s notorious Elm Park pub. I know. It is where I roughhoused, before I made a bid for respectability and left. My memories of the place are bitter-sweet. Read on ›

Despite having more off-side affairs than Tiger Woods, despite deceiving us all as Dad of the Year, while he dumped the kids to play away, I’m backing John Terry’s claim to remain captain of England. Read on ›

My football club has been sold to pornographer David Sullivan and to Ann Summers‘ naughty lingerie-chain owner David Gold. Am I worried? Am I heck. Read on ›

Out tomorrow, a film that’ll mean a lot to me, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, a biopic of my hero from Upminister, Ian Dury. I’m not sure I’ll be able to watch it without crying. Read on ›