Spun doctor

zoom

zoom

In the shadows: Campbell was former PM Tony Blair’s right-hand man from 1997 to 2003.

zoom

Family man: since leaving Number 10 Campbell has more time for his wife and children.

The phone rings, a voice crackles over the line. Alistair Campbell is half asleep and loving it. Well, sort of. During our chat the UK government's former director of communications to the Prime Minister admits to missing the cut and thrust of dealing with his old mate Tony Blair, pesky newspaper hacks and the murky world of politics, but then again he doesn't. He's now got time to relax, write, do public speaking and charity work and follow his beloved Burnley Football Club.

"I'm a lot softer than I was," he says. "Of course I'd be lying if I said it was as fulfilling as what I did before, but equally there's part of me that enjoys the fact that it's not nearly as pressurised.

"I can honestly say I don't have a day-to-day routine anymore, even the Dubai trip I'll be doing, I have something like that every week. I do a bit of writing when I feel like it, I do a bit of journalism when I feel like it, I do a lot of sport, I kind of live a nice life don't I?"

Campbell will be in Dubai later this month between October 28-30 being paid handsomely for "a day with" session as part of the emirate's PR Congress event. The only problem, he admits, is that he's getting "slightly tired" of speaking about PR and communications and over the next few years explains that he slowly wants to "get away" from the subject. Somehow, however, with his reputation and background I doubt he ever will.

"Coming to this conference in Dubai looks more interesting than most, they actually want a bit of interaction, but to be honest part of me is very keen to get away from all that. When there was the big issue of the BBC controller resigning, there was a never ending round of people saying ‘do you want to say something about it?' and the answer is I don't."

And no wonder. Campbell is and forever will be associated with his seven-year tenure working behind the scenes at Number 10 Downing Street and in particular his involvement in the alleged "dodgy dossier" controversy in February 2003. A dossier on Iraqi concealment of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and human rights abuses under Saddam Hussein was published and said to be based on intelligence, however it was alleged that a large section had been taken from a PhD thesis available on the internet. Not long afterwards Campbell was involved in further controversy after BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan broadcast claims that the government had included evidence it knew to be false (famously described as "sexed up") in an earlier dossier about Iraqi WMD's. The BBC's source, Dr David Kelly, then identified himself to his employers at the Ministry of Defence. The government released the news and under questioning from newspapers desperate to identify the source gave sufficient hints for his identity to become public. Kelly tragically committed suicide shortly afterwards and the Hutton inquiry into the circumstances of his death pushed Campbell further into the limelight. After successfully coming through a nervous breakdown in 1986 when he was political correspondent at British newspaper The Daily Mirror and numerous other controversies during his time beside Blair he is now after a much quieter and more fulfilling life.

Despite being offered countless jobs in the corporate and political worlds as well as some "ridiculous" offers of TV media work, he is now simply content to do whatever he wants to do. So would a distress call from Gulf royalty change his mind, and lure him back into "the real world of work", I ask? "You're the second person to ask me that today, and I'm going to give you the same answer," laughs Campbell. "A very polite ‘no thanks'."

"I'm very London, Britain based. I don't think I'd move out there," he adds carefully considering his options as any good PR person would. "No, I don't think I would. I mean I have children, two in university and one in school and it would have to absolutely top notch for me to move over."

"Maybe I'll find some sort of big project that I really want to do but for the moment I'm quite happy with what I'm doing. I don't want to rush into something just because people say ‘why aren't you doing the job'. It would have to absolutely right," Campbell adds. One thing he has been busy touring the world with, however, is his self-penned book The Blair Years, a weighty tome recounting his time with Tony. Campbell says "that book" took up "a lot more time than I thought" and that he is still in the "aftermath" of the massive media attention it and he received. But it's not over. The ex-spin doctor has promised his publishers that he will sit down and commit to writing the entire two million-word diary, a diary that he wrote almost religiously everyday of the week after an 18-hour day alongside Labour's head honchos. "There's still a lot to be said," he explains as I imagine him cracking a grin as he says those words.

"I'm still in the aftermath of that to be honest. I say aftermath but also I've given a commitment to publishing the whole two million-word diary. It's a long-term project but nevertheless I have to keep tabs on that in terms of time."

One element of his time at Number 10, however, was deliberately left out - the alleged fractious relationship between Blair and his former Chancellor and successor, current PM Gordon Brown. In the introduction to The Blair Years Campbell indicates that he did not wish to make matters difficult for Brown in his new role as Prime Minister, or to damage the Labour Party that he still occasionally helps out at fund-raising events. Not a bad move considering Brown's recent fumble over the handling of whether or not he should call an early general election. As soon as I mention the election mishandling, however, Campbell immediately pins his colours to the mast. "I said at the time at the party conference that I wasn't persuaded it was the right time to have an election. An election is a very, very big moment in national life and people have to understand that every four or five years there has to be one, but I think to have one outside that timetable there has to be a very, very good reason," he reveals.

"It was unfortunate that this impression was given that it was all about opinion polls, because I always say that opinion polls are the junk food of politics. Put it this way I think he's [Brown] come to the right decision, I think it's just unfortunate we've had this two-week media barrage," Campbell adds.

He even goes as far as to slam Brown's current team of communications advisors and ironically, and somewhat bizarrely, says that "in the end politics for all its focus on spin, focus groups and polls and presentations, is all about policy". This seems strange considering he was behind some of Blair's best and arguably worst PR decisions between 1997 and 2003.

"The most important thing is policy. In the end politics for all its focus on spin, focus groups and polls and presentations, it's all about policy. I think Gordon's strength is seriousness and substance. He has to get back on policy. Those of his team that are around the place talking the whole time about election timings and polls, he should just tell them to get back in their box and get the focus back where it should be which is on policy." While not currently in the media spotlight as much as he used to be, there is still one thing Campbell is still very good at. And that's keeping in touch with the right people at the right time. His philosophy: you never know when you might need your old friends. But once again, as with several snippets of our conversation, he constantly refers back to missing, but then "not missing" being in the thick of it. "I speak to him [Brown] from time to time. I don't just speak to him, but people like David Milliband (secretary of state for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) who I worked with for many years. I'm not involved in the same way to be honest I don't want to be.

Print | Email | Discuss this article |

READERS' COMMENTS

View all comments (1)

Have your say

Lord Hutton has whitewash on his hands
Posted by Richard Tobin, Wellingborough, UK on Monday 22 October 2007 at 15:00 UAE time


It was Mr Blair who called for an urgent inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly. It was the findings of this inquiry which ultimately supplanted the process of the coroners inquest, whilst deflecting national attention from this fundamental with the shenanigans between Downing Street and the BBC. Dr Kelly is the only British citizen who has been a single victim of an incident resulting their sudden death and yet not had a coroners inquest return a verdict. 
 
The Hutton inquiry was not the appropriate means by which to conclude the cause of Dr Kelly's death. Lord Hutton's remit was to 'urgently' examine the 'circumstances surrounding' the death of Dr Kelly. An inquiry of this type usually relates to an incident - such as a rail disaster - where individual's cause of death is not so much at question but rather to question the cause of the incident itself. The terms of reference given to Lord Hutton are no wider in their scope. 
 
The coroner, Nicholas Gardiner, should have been allowed to concluded his inquest before the Hutton inquiry commenced. Failing this the coroner should not have subsequently waited for Lord Hutton's findings. His delay in reconvening the coroners inquest anticipated Lord Hutton may drawn a conclusion in his report as to the probable cause of death. Lord Hutton should not have attempted to draw a conclusion as to the cause of death as this was outside of his remit and the "rigours that are normally undertaken at a coroner's inquest simply were not fulfilled" (I quote coroner Dr Michael Powers). 
 
Nothing obvious was to be gained by so very 'urgently' commencing Lord Hutton's inquiry. Indeed it was inappropriate to have urgently commenced the inquiry without the coroner having first confirmed how Dr Kelly died. From the outset this was a prejudicial conclusion of the Hutton inquiry. An inquest's verdict of suicide and murder has to be established beyond reasonable doubt. If the coroner had returned an open verdict the thrust of the Hutton inquiry would have been wholly different or perhaps not occurred at all.

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Security Code *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM