Colleagues On The Make

I was sad to see that Roy Shaw is standing down from politics due to ill health. Roy was a good friend and wise adviser to me when I started working for the Labour Party back in 1996.

Roy's motto "I care for no man" proved invaluable to me as I developed my own political position and I learned a lot that I subsequently applied in Hackney as I sat in the bar with him on a Saturday night, listening to his wonderful tales of life in Broadmoor.

Meanwhile my boss at work - former Labour Party Chief Press Officer Colin "Living In Spin" Byrne - has (unfortunately for me) not decided to stand down, so I'll have to put up with him for a bit longer.

Colin was hired by Mandy to work as the Party's Chief Press Officer from 1988 to 1992 and he worked on the successful 1997 and 2001 General Election campaigns.

In the true spirit of PR, Colin has been prepared to work for everyone from the Devil to Christ and back - his clients include Shell, IKEA, the National Grid, British American Tobacco, the BBC, Nestlé, the South African Government, President Putin of Russia, the British Government, the Columbian Government, BNFL and Oracle. He was unfortunately described as "touting" the Government's Academy scheme.

Colin's most "difficult" moment came when he was an adviser to Shell at the time when it came under criticism for its role in the Nigerian government's 1995 execution of playwright and indigenous activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. He has now turned blogger with this excruciatingly boring website. Mind you, unlike me he can spell properly (well, except for "experential" and "buildling").