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You will have noticed Alastair Campbell is up and about a lot at present. Well, he never really left the public space. A master of self-reinvention, he is now a sought after commentator on Brexit and Labour, an author, an expert on mental health issues, and a booming co-podcaster with his now political bestie, the ex-Tory minister Rory Stewart.
Campbell’s new book, But What Can I Do? Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It is top of some bestseller lists. So why is he still tetchy and so easily triggered, even by reasonable people asking reasonable questions?
The book is about trust in politics, which is broken because of Brexit, Boris Johnson and the Tory Party. On BBC’s Newsnight recently, Campbell was out there, a truth-teller, full of wrath, so damn rude, so self-righteous, that presenter Victoria Derbyshire – always unimpeachably fair and informed – terminated the discussion with, “I am not going to take that from you, with respect, Mr Campbell”, perhaps a subtle reminder of his past life as a devious spin doctor. He later apologised to her.
Machiavellian messaging and manipulation
This seemingly happens every time any interviewer or fellow panellist – in this case former Brexit MEP Alex Phillips – brings up his role as a propagandist for Tony Blair’s Iraq war. His Machiavellian messaging and manipulation, millions of us still believe, misled the public. When these matters are raised, he angrily hits back, saying six inquiries exonerated him. What six enquiries? I have searched and searched the internet and can only find two: The Butler Inquiry in 2004 and The Chilcott Inquiry in 2009. There may have been some others, but not six.
In 2002, Professor Stuart Weir, ex-editor of the New Statesman and expert on democratic accountability, gave evidence to the Public Accounts Committee about Blair’s disregard for established rules of government. There was this telling bit about Campbell: “He possesses unprecedented powers for an unelected party political adviser… his contract gives him the power to direct government communications and to present the government’s affairs ‘in a political context’.
“He may give orders to civil servants. He attends cabinet meetings and directly advises the Prime Minister… His aggressively partisan conduct, manipulation of the media and special deals with selected newspapers and journalists go virtually unchecked either by his political master, the head of the civil service or Parliament.” A precedent was set.
Britons and Americans were misinformed
Twenty years after the “shock and awe” invasion which devastated that Arab nation, left countless dead, maimed and homeless, the key players still cannot admit the manipulations and mendacities. Blair still claims he was right to join George W Bush and that Iraq was a threat to the world order. Those two inquiries used the obfuscating establishment language, but even that could not veil the fact that Britons and Americans were misinformed, and, I would say, knowingly sold a false prospective.
Chatham House is a place full of serious, objective and cautious foreign policy experts. This March, senior research fellow Dr Marion Messmer wrote this in a paper which is on the Chatham House website: “20 years on from the fateful decision to invade Iraq, it is generally accepted that the US and UK governments overstated the evidence available for them to justify military action. The central claim to defend invading Iraq was that the country had continued its illicit nuclear weapons programme and had retained illegal stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons. None of these claims supported an imminent threat justification nor could any hidden caches of WMD be found by the US Iraq Survey Group after the invasion.
“The Chilcot Inquiry found that the Blair government greatly exaggerated the threat Iraq posed to the UK, and that government arguments were based on the Prime Minister’s personal beliefs, as well as his promise to President Bush to support the US invasion.”
She also believes that this undermining of faith in international law, opened doors to “whataboutism”, and, “Russia’s false justifications for invading Ukraine”. Not only is Iraq still a broken country, but the world is less safe, thanks to Blair and Bush.
Honesty and grace needed
Campbell is highly intelligent. He must know this. But seemingly can’t go there. That is the problem and the pity. Instead he focuses with intensity on Brexit lies and liars. I agree with him. Too many Brexit voters were duped. And leaving the EU has been disastrous for the nation.
But hundreds of thousands of our nationals were not obliterated. Our cities did not fall. Some lies kill. Campbell needs to acknowledge that with honesty and grace. Only then will Britons join his anti-Brexit crusade.
Moving forward
The immigration debate will get uglier. Whenever Britons go through hard times, they pick on unknown strangers and blame them. So easy, no? Those sinister invaders in the English Channel! The Somali neighbours! The black man who parked his car badly! The brown and black skinned patients in waiting rooms! Hate them, release your frustration.
Other nationals do it, too. Italians and Greeks left their lands, went elsewhere and created little ethnic enclaves. Yet today, in Italy and Greece, they moan about the numbers of migrants and how they don’t integrate and can’t belong.
An excellent new drama series on the BBC, Ten Pound Poms, takes us back to the tough post-war years when many white Brits were invited to emigrate to Australia. The “poms” had high hopes, but were given dirt poor wages for low skilled jobs. They were abused, scorned, and expected to be grateful. Caribbeans went through all that here. Only connect, as E M Forster wrote. If only they would, today’s bigots who pursue and detest migrants.
A conversation I had this week
Had lunch with mates at a curry house on Sunday. I’ve known him, a Scotsman, for over 20 years and her, an Asian, for 40. The food was fab, conversation flowed. We are very different and often argue, but somehow, the friendships survive. But a wedge that is developing now between us could change that. Halfway through lunch they said they hated Meghan. He had gone on about her at our house at a dinner party previously. This time I simply asked them: “How can you hate someone you don’t know?” They stopped, then agreed they didn’t know the woman at all.
I admittedly hate some politicians, and don’t really know them personally. But their views, their political acts and behaviours are out there and verifiable. Meghan, she has been monstered by whispering insiders and partisan royal correspondents. Her candid interviews and public appearances are pored over and damned, often unfairly. She can do nothing right in the eyes of many. People I love, too. How do I process that?
Yasmin’s pick
The Design Museum in London has a new exhibition titled The Offbeat Sari which goes through the many incarnations and history of this ancient Indian garment. Today’s young sari designers are creative and defiant, political and unapologetically modern. They make saris with metallic fibres, saris for rock climbing, sexy saris, feminist saris, saris for trans women. Go see it. It’s free and fantastic. I was so enthralled, I’ve decided to write a fuller feature on the display soon in this paper.
This is In Conversation with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a subscriber-only newsletter from i. If you’d like to get this direct to your inbox, every single week, you can sign up here.