Wasn’t it amazing that The Australian’s Peter Wilson can churn through 1,235 words of puffery on that gentle genius Lynton Crosby without mentioning “asylum seekers”.

Crosby isn’t one to tamper with a winning strategy, and surely any boost in the polls for the Tories must have something to do with the Tories’ new inflammatory strategy of pumping up public hysteria over Britain’s miniscule problems over “border protection” and a looming non-crisis with people smuggling.

Surely a journalist of Wilson’s standing should have at least asked the question: are you or are you not playing “the race card”? Again? For Wilson, this piece is seriously below-par – indeed it reads like it has been dictated by the spinner himself, with ugly, uncomfortable topics off-limits. You can smell the air of rapproachement over that law suit with The Times, a fellow Murdoch publications.

CRIKEY: That’s a bit harsh. Read Peter Wilson’s interesting profile of Crosby and judge for yourself here: Crosby plunges on Tories