Spin, it appears, was invented by Peter Mandelson sometime in the 1990s in order to explain away what the Labour government were doing. He made Tony B. Liar stand in front of the nation, usually on telly, and tell total untruths while smiling nicely in the faint hope that someone would think what a nice man he was.

He had a lot to answer for. The art of spin has now overtaken good old fashioned lying in the hearts of good old fashioned PR people in racing. We could cope with good, old fashioned lies, they were easy to spot and just as easily dismissed for what they were/are. Not so now.

You would expect that PR types would be at their strongest in MotoGP. It is the blue riband class after all and the shop window for both manufacturers and sponsors.

But no. Riders have their own, individual media briefings every night and everyone is allowed in. They can ask questions and the riders will answer to the best of their ability with PR managers biting their nails in the corner. But it works. At least for us on this side of the fence.

You ask a question, they answer, they don't lose their jobs. We get to write good stories, the paying public get to read something about their heroes. Job done, everyone is a winner.

During the Oulton Park BSB weekend, I asked a rider about his qualifying performance compared to his free practice effort, which had been shocking. He was very outspoken about the utter shitness of the tyre he had been given. It was massively out of round and he might as well have been using a tomato. And then he implored me to not quote that as he would have his pants pulled down by the headmaster for daring to criticise the product…

The product he is duty bound to use because someone else says he has to. It isn't even his sponsor. Surely if a rider has a tyre problem he should be allowed to say it. It isn't the first time. Shane Byrne had an awful drama at Snetterton which was never mentioned properly in dispatches, even though he was seen to punch his garage hoarding in disgust. It was On. The. Telly.

BSB isn't exciting at the moment. We have some great riders doing great things but it doesn't have any pizazz. Controversy is always good. Shane Byrne had clearly calmed down when he gave that 'John Hopkins is lovely' interview to Eurosport. He would have been spitting fucking bricks had they done it at Snetterton.

Racing is losing its edge. There are no great rivalries in BSB, or WSB for that matter. It would appear that everything is lovely. All the riders think all the riders are super.

Or so someone would have you believe. If it is so great, then where has last year's post-race atmosphere and barbecue culture gone…