Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell
Alastair John Campbellis a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of Communications and Strategy for prime minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003. He resigned in August 2003 during the Hutton Inquiry into the death of David Kelly...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth25 May 1957
people four mental-illness
One in four of us will have a mental illness at some point. That is a lot of people.
people want sells
Failure, it is thought, is what sells, and what people want to hear and read about. I am not so sure.
tombstone flower long-ago
My closest friend, who died not long ago, is buried near Marx's grave in Highgate cemetery, so I see the gaggle of admirers laying roses at the foot of his tombstone regularly. I have never been tempted to leave flowers there myself. Great theories, shame about the practice. Marx did many things. But inventing class was not one of them.
meaningful team games
Like most meaningful activities, campaigns are team games.
political stories junk
The junk food of political journalism...all reshuffle stories are crap.
games play america
Jeremy, are we going to play your games?
eye obstacles daredevil
The day of the daredevil reporter who refuses to see obstacles to getting the truth, and seeing it with his or her own eyes, seems to have died.
self media regulation
Paul Keating told us before we were elected that you can do deals with [Rupert] Murdoch without saying you were doing a deal. Did we do that kind of thing? Maybe. But from around about the turn of the century, I felt strongly that we had to do something about media ownership and self-regulation. Tony [Blair] disagreed.
taken eye media
The bad news for journalists today is that the media, however seriously people who are in the public eye take it, is not taken as seriously as it once was - by the public.
self males alpha-male
My public caricature - that of a self-confident alpha male - is only partly accurate.
believe political way
I will continue to help the political causes I believe in in any way I can.
jobs war lying
I never met David Kelly, but I knew from what he told other people that this was not his view. The BBC were saying that Tony Blair was making up lies so that he could send young men and women to war, maybe to die. I think that if the BBC had done their jobs professionally, they'd have realised that you couldn't justify what they said. And nothing has emerged since to justify that report.
routine life-is used
I used to be very routine-based and the new thing in my life is not having a clear, full-time existence.
thinking
I think I'm highly loveable.