True lies?

After months of criticism, Management Today has finally really gone for Alistair Darling - and reckons he needs PR advisors telling him to cushion the truth, as his honestly policy is screwing the economy.

Journalists practically begging politicians to fib? It's absolutley shocking, particularly given that the media always reports a complete and unpointed version of the truth, with no agenda whatsoever. Well, apart from all that Helen Mirren (though she is cool) nonsense in Metro today, which was nothing but a blatant excuse to stick HM The Queen and drugs into the same headline.

But back to Darling. Yes, whatever PR advice he is getting currently seems warped. But surely when the man supposedly managing the economy starts making open confessions about its state when most of the electorate would rather be painted a rosier picture it's time to go back to the drawing board on how PR is used in politics?

Has the age of the spin doctor finally been ended by what may well turn out to be its sickest patient?