The experienced political journalist Peter McMahon has replaced David Whitton as press secretary, and three advisers have been appointed to support him. Two come from journalism, one being my old friend Bill Heaney, the former editor of the Lennox Herald and winner of many Scottish press awards. The third is Andy Rowe, a migrant from Millbank who, the rumour mill disrespectfully says, has special responsibility for McLeish's haircut. Bill Heaney has been given a specific task - to bypass the national papers and deliver the McLeish message that devolution is working for Scotland to local media. The first fruit of the new approach was an interview last month in the Aberdeen Evening Express in which the First Minister reassured its readers that the Executive was alert to regional issues, and explained how they could influence its decision-making process.
Regional newspapers can be less slanted than their metropolitan cousins.
They must take care to satisfy a broad constituency. But spin cannot be rusticated for long. It exercises a powerful grip on politicians. McLeish's men will soon enough be driven back to the major media, and to the tried, though not trusted, devices of the sound-bite and the leaked exclusive. Perversely, the Blair spin machine has tended to favour newspapers ideologically hostile to New Labour, presumably in the hope of disarming them.