The recent The Thick of It special had a sub-plot involving Malcolm Tucker, the Scottish headcase spinmeister for the PM, getting caught posting propaganda comments on blogs. It is called astro-turfing in the spin-business.

It does actually happen – Mike Smithson’s PoliticalBetting.com gets astro-turfed by one very senior Labour minister’s team he tells Guido. When Guido has a particularly stinging story the astro-turfing comes out, usually to say it is old hat, boring etc. This is designed to put off journos from taking it up. It was particularly noticeable recently when Guido first started on the Sith that this happened. (More on them is coming.)

So it is with some amusement that Guido reads a comment from John McTernan, Downing Street’s Director of Political Operations, complaining about his write-up on this blog. They really don’t like it up ’em do they?