Benefits are not an easy subject to get your head around: we have a benefits system with enough acronyms, assessments, taper rates and tax credits to make your head spin. That’s why this Government is finally undertaking a hugely important and long-overdue reform of benefits. Universal Credit will replace the complicated mix of tax credits,

With his profane and aggressive manner, it had widely been assumed that Alastair Campbell was the inspiration for The Thick Of It's fearsome spin doctor Malcolm Tucker.

I am posting a comment I made on David Osler’s blog earlier today. It’s about the recent statements made both both Ed Miliband and Ed Balls followed by the response of some union leaders. To me the Labour leadership is making a serious mistake and it has the smell of their press Svengali Tom Baldwin

Thoughts on the recent USN rescue of Iranian fishermen: To be sure, this version of the rescue represents public relations spin, but soft power often amounts to framing narrative for the purposes of public relations. The Iranians’ claim that Iran frees pirate hostages all the time without the same degree of fanfarerepresents an implicit acknowledgement of the success of the hostage resc...

The story being briefed out of the year’s first Franco-German Summit is that President Nicolas Sarkozy won the backing of Chancellor Angela Merkel for a tax on financial transactions, a levy that the British government objects to and that Ernst and Young say would leave a €116bn hole in Europe’s public finances. But before the City begins building barricades and the PM puts on hi...

Last night's debate in New Hampshire was most notable for proving once again that Republicans and especially conservative Republicans should avoid the dinosaur media like the plague. Last night's debate was hosted by ABC, and moderated by George Stephanopoulos - ex-campaign operative, Senior Advisor on Policy and Strategy and press spin jockey for President Bill Clinton, who walked into ...

Supergravity theories are often said to be the only consistent theories of interacting massless spin 3/2 fields. Discuss.

Chuka Umunna MP, Labour's Shadow Business Secretary, responding to the Prime Minister's comments on executive pay this morning, said:

So, voters finally got to have a say in the GOP presidential race, but why is there so much fuss over the Iowa caucuses?

I do wish the media and journalists would sharpen their questions for 2012. I am getting fed up with the old spin that seems to have been hanging in the air for so many years. Wouldn’t it be good, for example, to put behind us the old lie that we have to accept everything the