Palace's fling with sultans of spin runs out of momentum

YEARS from now, when historians come to write the definitive account of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, their chapters on her use of Blair-style media management will be blessedly short. Buckingham Palace’s flirtation with the modern era’s sultans of spin appears to be over.

Simon Walker, Her Majesty’s second ever communications secretary, is to leave by the end of the year. It is understood that she plans to give an internal candidate his job rather than bring in another heavy hitter from the private sector.

Buckingham Palace first called for outside help in spin-doctoring in 1998 after a difficult time for the Royal Family. Simon Lewis was seconded from British Gas and was instrumental in rebuilding the standing of the Queen following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the criticism that flowed from the Palace’s slowness to react to the outpouring of public emotion.

The Palace worked closely with Blair’s office. This was seen most clearly in the Queen’s address to the nation when she eventually returned from Balmoral after the Paris car crash. Alastair Campbell is credited with inserting the line about her coming before the nation as “your Queen and as a grandmother”.

Lewis, who was friendly with Peter Mandelson, developed a strategy of highlighting the Queen’s duty and service, which Walker, who was seconded from British Airways, continued when he took over in 2000.

He plotted the successful jubilee celebrations and apart from a few blips — he advised the Countess of Wessex to give her “my husband is not gay” interview — is regarded as a success.

Nevertheless, his replacement is expected to be Penny Russell-Smith, the Queen’s 46-year-old press secretary. A “jolly hockey sticks” type, she is regarded as an efficient day-to- day manager rather than a strategist from the Blairite mould.

“She gets on well with the Queen, of course, but she is also well liked by some of the more difficult members of the family,” says a friend “She is also very much liked by the Duke of Edinburgh.”

Hastings cut by royal remark

The Queen could so easily have exacted a bloody revenge at the investiture of Max Hastings, left, whose recent memoirs contained barbed anecdotes about the Prince of Wales. Instead, she restricted herself to a singularly magisterial putdown, inquiring if he was “still editing”. Hastings left the Evening Standard early this year to write his memoirs, in which he tells of the Prince taking his own loo roll when visiting friends and specifying the texture and size of his sandwiches in advance of any occasion. He said the best outcome for the monarchy would be for Charles to "live in happy retirement with his garden and Camilla Parker Bowles", leaving Prince William the throne. Yesterday he put a brave face on the Queen’s cutting comment. “I said I was jolly grateful that I did not have the responsibility any more. I am absolutely thrilled,” Sir Max gushed.

Iain Duncan Smith goes in solitary

A FURIOUS Iain Duncan Smith believes that the Government is trying to sabotage his national “quiet man” tour. On Tuesday he went to the Thorn Cross Young Offender Institution in Warrington, Cheshire, but had to leave his press entourage outside.

Officials at Conservative Central Office say that they had permission from the prison’s governor and that specific inmates had been lined up to talk to IDS. They suspect that the Home Office’s “ridiculous” last-minute ban was prompted by the news that Andrew Marr, the BBC’s political editor, was thinking of attending.

“The Government should stop being so nervous about allowing the media into jails,” says Nick Wood, the Tory leader’s head of media.

A Home Office spokeswoman insists that she told the tour organisers from the beginning that “it’s a longstanding rule that the media can’t go on political visits to jails. It applies to Labour, Tory, anybody.”

PS

• Delirious scenes at the Soho party thrown by the publisher Canongate after its book, Life of Pi, won the Booker Prize. But standing off to the side of the crowd of back-slapping publishing flacks was a somewhat bemused figure: one Yann Martel, the winning author, looking nothing like his publicity photograph.

  “A year ago I had to take on a second job because I could barely make ends meet. Now look at this," he said when he was finally identified. Every now and again a guest would look around the room and ask: “So when’s the author getting here, then?”

• Why was Tony Blair wearing a poppy at Prime Minister’s Question Time yesterday, but not Iain Duncan Smith? Simple; the foyer of No 10 was one of the first places in London to receive a poppy box.

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