TO MANY people at Westminster they are the new demons of politics - Labour's spin-doctors. Many MPs - especially the left-wing ones - and several Ministers - especially the not very competent ones - see them behind every sinister story.

They believe they are more important than the politicians, poisoning the well-springs of New Labour.

And certainly some of the spin doctors are perceived by some as extremely important - as with Chancellor Gordon Brown's bag-carrier Charlie Whelan.

A man who felt able to co-star with the second most important man in government in a TV documentary aimed at doing down the contribution of their colleagues both to the election victory and in government is no shy retiring press office wallflower!

Others who are less publicity conscious are certainly important.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman and Burnley fan Alastair Campbell tries to play down his role - but it is undoubtedly important.

Like the last Clarets fan to hold the post - Margaret Thatcher's faithful Press Secretary Bernard Ingham - he knows his master's mind intimately and can tell the press what he is thinking without having to check.

And like Sir Bernard, Mr Campbell is an important sounding-board for policy and its impact on voters, as well as co-ordinating the presentation of policy. Indeed, his whole style of abrasive, sometimes aggressive and often funny, briefing to the Parliamentary lobby owes not a little to his fellow Yorkshireman.

Similarly, his weekly briefings for Whitehall's department information chiefs is once again required attendance.

But he lacks Sir Bernard's advantage of anticipating the opposition view.

A recent defector from the tabloid press, he may be able to second guess editors but not always the Tories.

He is too close to the New Labour project and Tony Blair.

Initially, Sir Bernard - a Labour supporter and ex-Guardian journalist - brought the different perspective to policy discussions with his boss.

By the end, their views may have been indistinguishable. He may now claim his tenure in the job is totally different from Mr Campbell's, but to insiders the similarities are clear.

But his claim that all this media manipulation will all end in tears may well be right - he has seen it happen.

For while the term spin-doctor may be a US-import applying to New Labour, the main principles were clearly set out by the Tories, who had an army of them.

Their real gripe with the government is that they believe - as the election result showed - Labour's troops were better at it than theirs.

Other observers might point out that so were their policies!

For, as what has happened since the election has shown, too much spinning can have damaging effects.

Mr Whelan's operations have three times seriously backfired on the Chancellor - the TV film, the European Single Currency briefing fiasco and the Paul Routledge "authorised biography" - and on a number of other occasions been less than helpful. In Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw's case, there are some in the senior ranks of Labour who think that his special advisers Norman Warner and Ed Owen have not been entirely helpful.

Mr Warner - the policy brains - is considered to lack the populist touch of his boss while Mr Owen - who does the press side - is accused of becoming too keen on national tabloids.

The latter view is supported by reporters in the regional press who accuse him of "forgetting" who his friends were before the election.

The endless work of Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's advisers over the Arms to Africa affair seems to have done little to damp things down.

Indeed it is those Ministers scarcely concerned about image who appear to have done best.

Health Secretary Frank Dobson and Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar seem unconcerned about image and, despite having their own advisers, manage their own PR to great effect.

The greatest image man in the government - Minister without Portfolio Peter Mandelson who is desperate for a Cabinet post - ironically has the worst public perception of all.

He might be great at redesignating Labour as New Labour, turning red flags into red roses and projecting Tony Blair, but he is appalling at promoting himself.

Which only goes to show that - as any marketing man knows - you need a decent product in the first place!

Mr Blair is eminently sellable to the public.

But the MP for Hartlepool is not.

Indeed, when Mr Campbell and his Downing Street team have been attempting to cover over unpleasant incidents - Grand Prix boss Bernie Ecclestone's one million pound gift to Labour and the exemption of Formula One from the tobacco advertising ban, the £650,000 refurbishment of Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine's accommodation and Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson's offshore tax haven - their actions have made things worse not better. Which only goes to suggest that the importance of spin-doctors is vastly exaggerated in the minds of these PR-gurus themselves and those political reporters who rarely get to speak to Ministers themselves.

And that as Sir Bernard himself has said, in the end it's the soundness of the product - the policies - that matters, not how slickly it is marketed.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.