10 Downing Street - Dods Monitoring

has been brought in to monitor the situation
north of the border as Scotland moves towards
a referendum, Veena Hudson, once Clegg’s
researcher and now advising on the DClG,
Transport, and Defra briefs, and the affable
figure of John Foster, formerly of Tim Farron’s
office and latterly an aide to health minister
Paul Burstow. He has the challenge of keeping
the DPM up to speed with the latest tricky
developments at the Departments of Health and
Work and Pensions.
Clegg also has his own civil service
spokesman, with James Sorene brought in to
lift some of the burden from McGrory and
allow him to focus his attentions on more
overtly political stories. Back at lib Dem HQ,
a four man press team is led by the highly able
duo of James Holt and Phil reilly, with the
latter recently running the media operation
behind Brian Paddick’s mayoral campaign.
Conclusion
There have been ugly moments across the
government, and some spats amongst the
Downing Street press team itself since the lib
Dem and Tory teams merged.
There are complaints too: bloggers say they
are ignored by the top spinners, while senior
lobby figures complain that they are denied
access to “someone who was in the room” and
are instead fed lines by well-briefed mouth
pieces. Whether a post-omnishambles reshuffle
addresses these issues remains to be seen, and
how a joint press team continues to remain
cohesive as a general election approaches is
utterly unpredictable.
However, two years since that rose Garden
moment, the press teams remain merged and,
given the many spats and feuds which have
played since 2010, remarkably functional.
Sam Macrory is political editor of The House
Magazine
APrIl 2012 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | 51