It is one of life's little oddities that the concept of political spin is still associated with yesterday's men – Blair, Brown, Campbell and Mandelson. But it should now be admitted that, when it comes to disguising nasty policies with warm words, the current administration is in a league of its own.

Over the past few weeks, the Government's overhaul of the planning system, which would mean a financial bonanza for builders and developers, has been presented, in the words of George Osborne and Eric Pickles, as a bold contribution to "young people's future prosperity and quality of life".

Now it appears that the genesis of the National Planning Policy Framework (or NPPF) is altogether seedier. It is not so much a gesture to future generations as a gift-wrapped present to Tory politicians' pals in the building industries. In fact, for any millionaires hoping the Government will help them make yet more money, the way planning policy has been prepared and is now being promoted provides a useful step-by-step guide.

1. Bung the Conservatives some cash. Over the past three years, property developers have invested £3.3m in their future – by donating the money to the Conservative Party.

2. Join a Tory breakfast club to gain access to ministers. For a mere £2,500, key players in the property industry can gain regular access to ministers and senior MPs through an organisation called the Conservative Planning Forum.

3. Ensure the drafting committee is stacked with friendly faces. Of the four men whom the Government asked to draft the new planning policy, three were directly involved in the industry. One is director of land and planning for the builders Wimpey, another is leader of a council which has set up a housing company, and the third is a planning consultant whose job is to help developers.

4. Work closely and secretly with the Government. The British Property Federation (or BPF) is very happy right now. The Government minister Greg Clark is "delighted with the BPF and hugely grateful for our effort", a leaked email from the group's policy officer to major developers has revealed. The minister's plans "align with ours ... we have earned more brownie points than we could ever imagine".

5. Disguise the operation with greenery. The useful, if on this occasion empty, adjective "sustainable" has been appended at every opportunity to this policy. It is unclear how the accepted definition of sustainability in development would be applicable in what one senior MP has described as "state licence to print money".

There perhaps is the clue. If you are a modern Conservative, wellbeing will tend to be a question of how the bottom line looks. Forget localism and the connection made in every survey between green space and contentment. Ignore the fact that there are brownfield sites and empty houses to fulfil the need for homes. Turn a deaf ear to the combined expertise of English Heritage, the National Trust and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England warning of the effect on the landscape and on people's lives. The most important freedom as far as this administration is concerned is the freedom to make money.

The National Planning Policy Framework describes development as " a golden thread running through plan making and decision taking". At least we now know where the gold is going.

Times change, but Sixties geezers don't

That most-glamorised decade, the 1960s, is due for another turn in the spotlight with the publication of Joanna Lumley's autobiography Absolutely. A headline over the book's serialisation – "It was too groovy" – sets the tone.

A rather different view of those times has emerged from the little spat between two of Lumley's fellow-groovers, David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton. The photographer helped establish Shrimpton as one of the faces of the Sixties when she was an 18-year-old model, and they became a beautiful young couple in swinging London.

Shrimpton very sensibly left the fashion industry, and has run a hotel in Cornwall with her husband for the past 30 years. Bailey, she recently commented, had "made a lot of money out of me". The photographer, who is still working and as keen as ever on money ("I'm commercial – like Raphael or Michelangelo") has responded nastily. It was "all bollocks" he said. "Some women get a bit odd as they get older."

Others might reach a different conclusion as to where the oddness lies. The Sixties were a time when the young, pretty and female were cheerfully exploited by older, less lovely men in the name of liberation. Bailey has merely shown that for him, a chick is still a chick, even if she is now pensioner.

A humble fruit with stellar PR

In every survey into food and health, one can rely on the humble blueberry getting the most glowing reference. According to the British Nutrition Foundation, blueberries have a powerfully positive effect on behaviour. Apparently they contain compounds called flavonoids which activate an enzyme increasing blood flow to the brain and making a person happier and brainier.

Cocoa and red wine are said to have a similar effect but, such is the media's fascination with this rather dull fruit, it is the blueberry which has grabbed the headlines. Could there be a Blueberry Marketing Board at work?

terblacker@aol.com