PR Executives at Reading Borough Council have denied accusations of political bias after it was revealed that out of 103 press releases in 2007, 89 of them contained comments only from Labour councillors and the 14 'neutral' releases were mostly about the Mayor's charities and urging people to register to vote. There was also an unexplained 33% jump in the number of Press Releases in the run up to the local elections.

Josef Goebbels head of sanitised news stories at Reading Borough Council told us: "Of course there's no bias, we know that Reading citizens are eager to read about Steve Waite's views of National Nappy Week, Catherine Wilton's comments about planting two trees or Pete Ruhemann's thoughts about the lack of canoeing after the scout hut burned down. How dare anyone suggest that we publish their fatuous and banal comments to give them free publicity at council tax payers expense? However, if anyone would like a photo-op with any of the council officers, give us a call. The Chief Executive is quite happy to be available for publicity pics supporting the one way IDR. Pass the sealing wax!"

The local Labour party have denied putting undue pressure on Reading Borough Council officers. "Why would we?" said one insider, "when we have Martin Salter to do that for us."