If I was a PR man, which thankfully I’m not, Tony Blair would be my Way, my Untruth and my Light. He would be my Great Lord and my Inspiration.

His genius, I believe, was to invent political humility. Alright, it was probably fake humility, but it convinced more often than not. The quality was evident in his self-authored epitaph which he declared yesterday: “I did what I thought was right.”

There is something winning about a leader who admits he is an ordinary, fallible, mortal, who is simply doing his best. I noticed it years ago, when I saw Blair, the young opposition leader, walking around the BBC’s Broadcasting House. He was talking to a producer and a presenter, sprinkling his star dust on them, but really talking to them. Other politicians who came round were more other worldly. They weren’t rude, but they were somehow like other beings. They sort of swept in and out of the BBC. There was something regal perhaps even super-natural in their bearing.

I can tell you something about Gordon Brown. He is never going to say that he thought he was right. When Gordon is forced out to face the public, which not that often, he bangs on about how everything does IS right. He just goes on and on about his record which is not just right, but is THE BEST.

But the conversational tone, which is exemplified by blogs, is now the modern way of communicating. You can spin or not spin, but you have to talk across to people, not down to them. This is why Gordon Brown cannot win a General Election.

The question we get asked most about our Storynory podcast is “What’s your business model?” At the Bologna Children’s Book fair last week, we explained it to a journalist from The Bookseller magazine. This is what she wrote in this week’s edition:

Free digitalbooks from Storynory.

Ghost writer Matthew Lynn and Hugh Fraser are offering free digital audiobooks in line with a mission to become “the Arctic Monkeys of children’s publishing”. Their website, Storynory.com, offers free-to-download retellings of classic fairytales and Greek legends, presented by a series of characters including Prince Bertie the Frog and Tick Tock Turkey. They are hoping to launch books and other media formats featuring the characters. Some 120,000 downloads are made from Storynory.com each month.

That’s it in a nutshell.

It’s been a reasonably good time for publicity. I was quoted in Newsweek , no less, recently about our Save Christopher Robin Campaign. Unfortunately it didn’t mention Storynory directly (”Hugh Fraser on his blog”) The lesson from Newsweek is always to give a journalist a snappy description of who you are and who you represent. I should have known that, having been one myself. Silly me!

We also looking out for a mention in the June edition of Nick Jnr Magazine which has a huge circulation in the US.

You don’t need a background in business administration to be successful but the extra knowledge can’t hurt.

We are all sometimes disgusted by our politicans spin on events - but when you look at Russia, you realise that our lot still have a few tricks to learn.

Last weekend the courageous Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya  - much hated by the Kremlin - was gunned down outside her Moscow flat.  President Putin has said that her killing has done more harm to Russia than even her articles (thanks Vladimir).  But even more outrageous than that, an article has appeared on the internet suggesting that the Kremlin’s other victims/enemies, the Yukos Oil company, ordered the killing to discredit the Kremlin.   Alistair Campbell eat your heart out.  Even your dark arts could not muddy the waters so deeply.

(LA Times)