But What Can I Do?: Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It

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That is the opening line of Alastair Campbell’s new book, ‘ But What Can I Do? Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It’. The ex-Labour communications chief is a prolific writer and has turned his attention and considerable political experience to the question in the title of his book. It is the question Campbell says he gets asked more than any other; its answer required a book. The Speaker spoke to Campbell about his new book, and about why young people should get involved in politics. Last Christmas I almost killed myself. Almost. I've had a lot of almosts. Never gone from almost to deed. Don't think I ever will. But it was a bad almost. Onstage at the Royal Hall, Harrogate, Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart view a clip from Newsnight when Campbell lost his temper with Alex Phillips, the former Brexit party MEP. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer I remember when the Hutton Inquiry into the death of government weapons inspector David Kelly was under way. I got a fax while on holiday in France saying that Lord Hutton wanted to see my private diaries.

Johnson’s rise] has nothing to do with the genuine needs and interests of the country and everything to do with his ambition, so though we might well already have been on a path of decline, and though I think austerity was overdone for political rather than economic reasons, I cannot help thinking that if Cameron had won the referendum and stayed on as PM, the country would not be in the mess to which Johnson and Brexit took it.’ I have worked in politics and media all my adult life. I have never been more in despair about both.‘ Overall, a solid 4/5. Somehow, I still do allow the pessimism to triumph over my optimism and say, “it really is not that easy.” But more than anything, it is motivation - I am more than willing to put myself out there into the political ring. I even landed a new political job while in the midst of reading this book, which certainly sourced some of my courage to take it over another opportunity. Campbell, 65, is well-placed to opine on the subject. A former communications director for Tony Blair, he seemed less Machiavellian than, say, Dominic Cummings, and instead determined – often belligerently – to do the right thing by his country, even if half the country was convinced he was wrong. But then, such is politics. Despite quitting in 2003, he’s never really left the field because he can’t. People, he suggests, are always coming up to him, either to blame him for New Labour’s failings, or else to ask what “we” can do to improve things. His book is, in part, an answer.For Campbell, Brexit is the reason for the state we’re in. It was the Leave campaign, he argues, that fundamentally changed the way politics operated, openly encouraging MPs to become wilfully duplicitous, “to seek to divide, create chaos, dominate the airwaves with insults”. Absolutely. It is frankly shameful, and an indictment of the parties, the media and the education system that the day after the Brexit referendum the most googled question in the UK was “What is the EU?” We teach our kids that PE is good for them. We should do the same with citizenship and we should make sure that anyone who goes through the schools system has a basic sense of how our politics works and their role within it.’ Campbell and Stewart are quite different people, and they bring radically different kinds of knowledge and experience to the podcast. Campbell began his career as a reporter at the Mirror, leaving journalism to become Blair’s press secretary shortly before the 1997 election. From 2000-03, he was the Downing Street director of communications and strategy; he also worked for Labour in various guises during the election campaigns of 2005, 2010 and 2015. Yes, he has since written many books, including novels and a volume about mental health (he suffers from depression). But it is his political diaries that take up most space – several metres, at this point – on the nation’s bookshelves. What follows is, in essence, a reprise of what I heard earlier, with the addition of a few knobs and whistles. The audience claps and cheers when Stewart describes how he once refused to be bullied by George Osborne, and laughs uproariously at footage of him determinedly explaining that, no, a flood defence had not been breached; the water had simply come over it. Campbell talks everyone through his Burnley ties, which are, after all, a great deal more sensible than the Privy Counsellor’s uniform Stewart wore to the coronation; there is also some peculiar sporran talk (both men own more than one). Campbell then plays, by way of a finale, a lament he has composed for the lost of Northern Ireland on his bagpipes, a tune he transmogrifies into Happy Birthday in honour of someone in the balcony.

pärast seda, kui meile tehakse veel kord puust ja punasest selgeks, kui pekkis kõik on, tuleb raamatu teine pool, kus lubatakse seletada, mida me siis teha saame. kahjuks selleni ka ei jõuta veel tükk aega, sest enne miskipärast on see osa, et kuidas. minu vanuses olen ma kõiki neid nõuandeid juba kuulnud. eesmärgid ja strateegia ja taktika, enesekindlus ja juhioskused ja meeskonnatöö ja kuni selleni välja, et päriselt ka soovitatakse rohkem vett juua ja šokolaadi asemel puuvilju süüa ja trennitegemist mitte unustada. It's an interesting book for anybody, not just those who have experienced depression themselves. Everybody gets the occasional low mood, and some of the self-help tips may be widely applicable. Personally, I am extremely fortunate in never having experienced proper depression of the kind Campbell describes, yet his techniques for getting out of a trough were fairly familiar to me. Many, if not most, people will know someone who gets bouts of depression even if they don't suffer with it themselves, so it's useful to get this insider's viewpoint. Earlier, Campbell told me that in a forthcoming podcast in which they interview Jonathan Powell, Blair’s former chief of staff, Stewart can be heard losing his temper over Iraq (he has come to believe the invasion was a catastrophic error). “I could see his body start to shake,” he said. So why isn’t the matter a problem between Campbell and Stewart? (Campbell was involved in the preparation of the Iraq dossier, the briefing document that was ultimately used to justify Britain’s participation in the war.) “Well, we did two hours on it on the podcast for the 20th anniversary. We did it in real depth, and he managed to keep his cool then. But he does still mention it, yes.” By the time MPs have been there for 10 years, they’re not fully rounded human beings any more Rory Stewart From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada:

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It was not a happy time for me or for the family. I remember David Blunkett coming for dinner and I overheard a conversation between him and my daughter Grace.