We tend to think of government communications as fumbling, unstructured messes – The Thick Of It but in real life.

And those from large companies as co-ordinated and slick, mostly.

I wonder if this is true, at least in terms of how those messages are received by voters who don’t have anything to do with corporate comms.

An example: DP World recently “stalled” on a £1 billion UK investment on the eve of the government’s big investment summit.

This was in response to the transport secretary describing P&O Ferries, which DP owns, as a “cowboy operator”, a correct description of its employment practices.

What followed? DP World’s threat was plainly strategic, it still paid up, and everyone paying attention was reminded about just how badly P&O behaved.

Meanwhile the government introduced new legislation to protect seafarers against rogue employers – if DP wanted to complain, it did not.

The “P&O Ferries scandal” was named specifically by the government in the legislation, so even if high-up ministers apologised to DP for the investment kerfuffle, Labour got what it wanted all around.

It might be a stretch to see this as a cunning PR strategy – to hang transport secretary Louise Haigh out to dry, but push for everything else as normal. But that is how it turned out.

If you asked almost anyone what Labour has done in its first 100 days, most would say “nothing”. There has been a lot of noise, but not much action.

In reality, the noise, on tax etc, has just covered up the pace of legislative change in areas such as energy, transport, employment, housing and the rest.

The Daily Mail can get cross about inheritance tax, German football managers and whatever else is leaving it slightly unhinged this week, and the government can shove through changes the paper finds too boring to cover.

In all cases, the new legislation is hardly pro-business, but the business lobby failed to get in the way. It was too busy jumping around about tax rises that will probably never happen.

Even if it thinks it is winning the PR battle, the supposedly powerful, entrepreneurial class is losing the actual battles, so who is playing who here?

Over at the FT, resident Critical Comms expert Rutherford Hall also thinks DP World won and the government lost in a column titled: What are things coming to if a multinational can’t humble a government?

For the avoidance of doubt Rutherford Hall is a spoof, not a how-to guide. Whatever happens, Hall claims victory and tells his clients to celebrate.

This is not the same as actually winning.

Please send candidates for press release of the day to: Simon.english@roxhillmedia.com