A few exceptionally well-informed and far-seeing individuals manipulated events in the aftermath of the Second World War, so that they gained control of a public relations machine of unprecedented power, according to Richard Milton in his book The Ministry of Spin: How Politicians Became Addicted to the Power of PR. The Ministry of Information had been created by the British Government at the start of the Second World War to counter German propaganda, but it was supposed to be wound up after the war, rather than being appropriated for peacetime political use.
The book describes how Herbert Morrison, the deputy prime-minister in Britain’s post-war Labour Government, secretly re-purposed much of the Ministry of Information machinery, using its propaganda abilities to push through the Labour party’s nationalisation program. Hundreds of skilled media professionals were pressed into service to promote the government’s social engineering schemes.
Although the author also describes how Anthony Eden’s conservative government used similar propaganda techniques to induce support for an unjustified war with Egypt over the Suez Canal, most of the book is devoted to describing the machinations of Clement Attlee’s government and how the mostly sincere believers in social reform justified the use of propaganda, funded at public expense, to persuade the public to support their programs.
It is an interesting tale, demonstrating a strong correlation between government public relations and misuse of public resources. The production of large numbers of government films including animated films forms an interesting part of the story. The book provides a fascinating insight into the misdeeds of a government more than 60 years ago, and leave one wondering how writers in 60 years’ time will view the misdeeds of current governments.