Watch it, propagandists
Special courses (complete with resident devil's advocate) have been run by the Tories' Central Office to accustom their chosen marketeers to apologise well on tele- vision. New propagandist pamphlets now stream out of Smith Square. And Rippon himself, in a burst of characteristic frankness, said to the Guardian's Hella Pick : 'I do believe that in the next few months we have got to have a tremendous campaign to put before the British people . . . We shall use whatever means it is appropriate to employ ... We shall use the Government's platform in Parliament and elsewhere and we will also use wherever appropriate the inform- ation services at the Government's disposal.'
This chirpy cocksureness has been duly noted among uncommitted members of the Cabinet, some of whose members, and others, think it both premature and improper for Rippon to announce the impending use of the 'information services at the Govern- ment's disposal.'
It happens that authoritative guidance on the use of the information services is laid down, in a book published this week, by Sir Fife Clark, Director of the Central Office of Information, who makes it clear that while controversial legislation is in progress or on issues on which the political parties may hold differing views and before any new scheme has been passed by Parliament 'no money from public funds is spent on pub- licity of this kind'.
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