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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Alastair Campbell

111 replies

PerfectParisian · 07/10/2017 21:50

What are your thoughts? Bit of a twat or perhaps very intelligent but also misguided in terms of his career and misunderstood? I'm on the fence tbh.

OP posts:
birdsdestiny · 08/10/2017 10:35

I agree, he is bright and knows how to handle himself on tv, it's what they were good at after all. It's why he keeps getting invited back. I would have given anything to hear those in the current Labour party speak about Europe in the way Campbell does.

CockacidalManiac · 08/10/2017 11:16

MinervaSaidThar

Anyone involved in politics in that level tends to be morally compromised. They’ve all got skeletons.

RoseWhiteTips · 08/10/2017 11:18

There is definitely something about him.

Marinade · 08/10/2017 11:23

www.theguardian.com/politics/wintour-and-watt/2011/jan/16/alastaircampbell-tonyblair Alistair Campbell has admitted his involvement in the devastating description of Gordon Brown as pschologicallly flawed when he was Chanceller. Seems like his mental health narrative is as sincerely held as his belief in WMDs.... He is utterly self serving. Gordon Brown was not perfect but I remember reading how destroyed he was by that statement. Alistair's ties to Tony Blair were so strong that he was willing to go to such extreme lengths as this. Awful.

GinisLife · 08/10/2017 11:58

Political life:he's a twat
Personal life: I'd say he's interesting & good company. He speaks well when interviewed and comes across as a decent bloke.
I can't get past his politics, Dr Kelly and WMD though so that wins over however personable he may be

Original poster
PerfectParisian · 08/10/2017 14:43

GinisLife you've put my feelings into words really well - I couldn't agree more.

I knew that I felt ambivalent about him, but couldn't quite work out why - you're exactly right about why.

I think it's because I only first started hearing about him and seeing him on the TV/radio in the last few years, even though I was aware of him when he was in government.

I only really started to listen to him and watch him when he properly left government, so that explains why I have a lot of time for him in some ways but none at all for a lot of the things that he did in government, for example.

Not to sound wanky, but I see a lot of myself in him (lots of similarities - we both did Languages at Cambridge, both support the EU and against Brexit, both obsessed with Jacques Brel Grin) but I really can't get over the fact that he can come across as really ferocious and aggressive. That really puts me off.

OP posts:
ChelleDawg2020 · 08/10/2017 15:12

He's a twat.

Blairandchuck · 08/10/2017 15:16

I've met him and thought he was a really nice in person and love his work on mental health.

However then when I look at the politics side of things and all the spin stuff he did at the time, total tosser.

mejol · 08/10/2017 15:27

What is the point of him, thats what I'd (like to) ask.

Handsome in a way. Almost like the neighbour opposite in Dr Foster!

But his politics. Was he a liberal? What does that even mean? Was he like Bliar, totally deluded grinning fool full of hot-air. He has no spiritual or religious motivations as far as I'm aware. He's hardly the son of the toiling working classes, so what was his raison d'etre?

He just seemed like another-all-over-the-place Blair party official. No country. No principles (really). No dream. Or anything that was palpable.

It never comes across in his interview or his work.

Just his addiction, and how he overcame it. Personally that is something positive, but I'm not sure how that relates to his public political work. So, no idea at the end of it all, and not impressed.

mejol · 08/10/2017 15:28

Why did he even get involved in politics? Like Blair, this was never clear.

birdsdestiny · 08/10/2017 17:32

He had a very very clear vision for the labour party and made sure it happened. You may not like that vision but you can't pretend it didn't exist. His vision was for the labour party to be electable. He achieved that.

Original poster
PerfectParisian · 08/10/2017 21:38

I also think that what massively worked in his (and in Labour's) favour was the nature of the media at the time they were in power - i.e. daily newspapers and TV channels that only broadcast news a couple of times a day rather than the 24-hour news coverage from a load of different sources we have now (harder to control/influence and more unpredictable, IMO, than just one or two sources of news).

OP posts:
LuluJakey1 · 08/10/2017 21:48

Astute, interesting, attractive, clever. Hot.

tygr · 08/10/2017 21:49

Haven’t RTFT. I really like him. Disagree with his politics but respect him a lot.

tygr · 08/10/2017 21:50

He was great at the EU rally in Manchester last Sunday. Rousing speech then played the bagpipes. Hard to argue with that!

ComingUpTrumps · 08/10/2017 22:42

I find him so magnetic Blush not actually sure why. Maybe because he expresses himself really well? At the same time, he does seems to have quite a high opinion of himself, which pisses me off a bit Blush

CatWranglersAnonymous · 09/10/2017 23:09

Was about to come on to say that he's done quite impressive pro-EU speeches lately. I think he talks a lot of sense about Britain staying in the EU. (I'm still praying for a miracle re: Britain remaining in the EU....)

ginghambox · 10/10/2017 00:30

Typical pro Eu cunt.
And he supports Burnley.

RangeTesKopeks · 10/10/2017 01:17

gingham guessing you're not a Burnley fan then? Wink

CockacidalManiac · 10/10/2017 10:50

Typical pro Eu cunt.

And yet the right wingers on MN whine that the abuse comes from the left.

lostinpost · 10/10/2017 10:56

Awful man. On the same level as Mandelson.

MargaretTwatyer · 10/10/2017 11:07

Twat. Hate his politics. Would bang him.

Original poster
PerfectParisian · 10/10/2017 12:49

lost urgh same can't stand Mandelson.

OP posts:
Spudlet · 10/10/2017 13:01

Anyone - or almost anyone - who does well in politics will have some degree of personal charisma. Any of them. They can all turn on the charm when they need too and they can all be personable - it's an essential part of the game. So it's not surprising that AC has that. Hell, I've met Nick Griffin and although he was something of a charm vacuum, that didn't stop him giving it a go (eurgh).

He also instituted some interesting ideas when he was in power - the grid, for instance, detailing every announcement every government department wanted to make on any given day. I don't think that level of coordination existed before, which is crazy when you think about it.

Politically I think he was a believer - he wanted Blair in power, and he was willing to go to more or less any lengths to achieve that. The moral compromises he made to do that weren't great.

Like a lot of political figures, he's a lot more likeable out of power than he was in it.

Spudlet · 10/10/2017 13:02

OMG, the shame of typing 'too' when I meant 'to'! Please can we have an edit button? Blush

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