When Harold Wilson made his dramatic first speech as Labour leader to his party's 1963 annual conference, offering a new vision of socialism and a Britain "forged in the white heat" of a scientific and technological revolution, his words were hailed as a portent of an exciting future for the country, whose voters rewarded him with his first election victory the following year. It was only much later that the role of David Kingsley emerged as, arguably, the first "moderniser" in British politics and the first "spin doctor", many years before the phrase had even been imported from the US.
Kingsley, who has died aged 84, was one of the "three wise men", as they became known, brought in to help Wilson in 1962; his particular expertise was in advertising. He, Peter Lovell-Davis, a media-management expert, and Denis Lyons, from the world of public relations, formed a team of unpaid advisers to the leader, deliberately situated outside the party hierarchy. They were responsible for the campaign slogans "Let's go with Labour and we'll get things done" in 1964 and "You know Labour government works" in 1966. The optimism they helped convey on the party's behalf, which lay behind the "white heat" speech at Scarborough, offered an alternative to the austerity of the postwar years and would serve to end Labour's 13 years in parliamentary opposition.
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