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OBE for the chief burier of bad news
Last updated at 22:37pm on 30.12.06
Honoured: No 10 diary chief Paul Brown
The Downing Street spin doctor in charge of 'burying bad news' has received an OBE in Tony Blair's final New Year's honours list.
No10 official Paul Brown is the keeper of the "Grid' - the diary that lists Government events.
Mr Brown is also responsible for ensuring that potentially damaging announcements emerge on busy days and so receive minimal publicity.
The civil servant is believed to have been involved in the timing of the Prime Minister's interview with the police in the cash-for-honours affair - which was overshadowed by the official report into the death of Princess Diana.
The award comes despite Labour pledges to clean up the honours system, which has been mired in controversy.
John Scarlett, the MI6 chief who helped to 'sex up' the Prime Minister's 'dodgy dossier' on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, an episode that led to the suicide of Government scientist Dr David Kelly, was among the other Blair cronies to be honoured this weekend. He was knighted.
Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said: "It is quite unbelievable that a man like John Scarlett should be honoured in this way. This is a man who compliantly helped Tony Blair dig himself out of a hole of his own making on Iraq and David Kelly.
"And giving an OBE to a man like Mr Brown, who is the Prime Minister's fixer, shows how debauched and discredited this Government has become."
The honours to Scarlett and Brown offer a glimpse of what might come in Mr Blair's resignation honours list when he finally quits No10. He is expected to use it to reward cronies such as Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell and Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell.
Mr Brown, who is in his 50s and lives in Beckenham, Kent, has worked for Mr Blair since he was elected in 1997.
The official chairs a weekly meeting with senior Whitehall spin doctors in which Government announcements are scheduled. The "Grid' began as a useful guide for officials but, thanks to Labour's obsession with controlling the media, evolved into an all-powerful blueprint for the Government. It lists by day the major events in Whitehall, Parliament, Britain and the world and allows important positive Press conferences to be scheduled for quiet days, while bad news is 'buried'.
One of Mr Brown's roles is to reprimand Press officers who deviate from the strict timetable laid down by the Grid and he has often clashed with Gordon Brown's Treasury officials.
One of the most notorious examples of bad news being buried came earlier this month when police entered No10 to question Mr Blair minutes before Sir John Stevens called a Press conference to unveil the finding of his investigation into Diana's death.
A Whitehall insider told The Mail on Sunday: "Paul is a career civil servant - not a Labour Party special adviser.
"He would not have been the fixer who actually spoke to the police but it is inevitable he would have been part of the process. It is all part of the service he provides to Mr Blair."
