Spin unit had become the story

SO the much-maligned Strategic Communications Unit is to be wound down following a review by the Secretary General of the Department of An Taoiseach, Martin Fraser.

The review, not surprisingly, exonerated the SCU from claims of politicisation but also found that it was damaging the Government’s work on Brexit and the economy.

In other words, the SCU, which was established to streamline government communications, itself became the story. This is a real no-no in politics. The story of the SCU reminds us how strange new politics Irishstyle really is. Last week, the Government lost a vote in the Dáil, calling for the SCU to be disbanded. This had no standing but after that vote the SCU had no chance of surviving. Everything it did would be seen through a prism of suspicion and no government could live with that.