Alastair Campbell in emotional defence of Blair on Iraq

[morningpaper]

Alastair Campbell in emotional defence of Blair on Iraq

Seven years of being asked the same question seems to be grinding him down

Andrew Marr's constant interupting makes him look like a bit of a bastard

Alastair cleared his throat, breaking the silence. He stared at his shoes for a moment, briefly feeling pleased at the gleam of the black leather.

"Sorry, what?" He flexed his toes, concentrating on the light flickering off the polished shoe, not wanting to raise his eyes.

Blair turned to him. "Look - " He held out his hands. "Look, Alastair... I don't know how to say this..."

Alastair raised his eyes to meet Blair's, inhaling with expectation. His whispered, "What?" was barely audiable. He cleared his throat again, as Blair struggled to find the words, his mouth opening and closing. Alastair stood up, slowy, pushing himself upright on the wooden arms of his chair. He took a step towards Blair. "What, Tony, what?"

right I will leave the rest to foxinsocks

Blair stood still, his hands out stretched, his mouth slightly parted, his breathing laboured. Alastair took another step towards him, reducing the distance between them to mere inches. He looked into his eyes.

"Tony, what, it is?" his voice tender, he moved his hands toward's Blair's, resting the tips of their fingers together for a second, before dropping his hands, self-consciously to his side.

Blair shook his head slowly. "Oh, God, I don't know what to say. This isn't ... just me, is it?" He dropped his hands to his side, searching Alastair's eyes for an answer to the question he couldn't bring himself to say out loud.

"Of course it's not just you, it's always been us, we're a team, for fucks's sake. What the fuck are you talking about? Where the fuck is this coming from? Have you been speaking to Sky? Fucking hell Tony - "

Alastair turned his back to Blair, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, and as he did so, Blair took a step towards him, placing his hands on his waist. Alastair froze, his arm still aloft. He felt the heat from Blair's hands through the thin cotton of his shirt, the slight pressure on the leather belt of his trousers where Blair's hands nervously rested.

Oh I don't know why you are all so horrid about Alastair. I think he's nice.

LMFAO at MP.

fucking furious that marr let campbell off the hook! WTF? it is the CRUCIAL quesiton, you can't cry to avoid answering it ffs.

AC has massively gone down in my estimation. unless this is just another tool in his arsenal and his lowness knows no bounds in which case: respeck to the total and utter immoral hounddog that he is.

this whole thing has just been one long fucking body swerve. marr didn't come across as a bastard at all, in fact he should have made mincemeat out of AC for implying that that whole thing is a BBC vendetta after hutton.

fuck off AC. were there WMD? no. did you know that? YES you fucking did. ergo did blair mislead parliament and take the country to war under false pretences: yes he fucking well did. the hague should be beckoning.

fucking c*nts.

sorry.

Alastair held his breath for a second, unsure of what to do. "I didn't sex anything up, for fuck's sake, I can't bear hearing about it any more, what the fuck can I do?"

Suddenly he felt the weight of Blair's forehead resting on his shoulder. A smell of soap and coffee. A tickling on his neck from his soft hair. He inhaled.

"Oh Alastair." Blair's breathing was hot on his neck. "Don't you see? You sex everything up." A squeak, or a groan - when he came to think of it later, he couldn't remember - but Alastair turned and suddenly their lips were on each others, pressing together. Blair's hands pulled Alastair tightly towards him, and Alstair's hands were around the back of Blair's neck, the roughness of his skin so different to Fiona's, so different so the young pretty journalists he'd drunkenly lunged at in the back rooms at his book launches - time seemed to slow down and speed up at the same time, as they were driven by years of thoughts unspoken and shared passions and furies. Alastair woved his fingers through Blair's hair, clenching his fist and pulling his head back slightly, as he backed his towards the desk, staring into his eyes

we are at the throbbing cock stage btw

yeah and it is a measure of my fury that even your fantasticness can't make me feel less angry. i really really really hope that for the rest of their lives people turn away from them when introduced and at dinner parties. cause that is the only punishment they are going to get it seems.

questioning the death toll.....what an absolute toad.

You're doing well - I'm agog .

Can you work "People's Fucking Princess" in there somewhere?

I thought you were going to say "Peter Mandelson"

do AC and Mandy get on?

and did you see Mo on C4?

I did see Mo

Thoguht it was great but love Walters

mandy came across as an absolute proverbial. as did blair.

they are not good men.

No, they are not good men. And I think the anger people are feeling is a hangover from that absolute conviction we all had in 97 that here, at last, were truly good men.

Mo was fantastic - Julie Walters did a great job.

I saw it and felt it was genuine upset. That doesn'tmean necessarily that his take is the complete balanced one as he was obviously close, but that was the impression I got, rather than it being some kind of emotional set up.

And who are these peoplewho can cry on command? I certainly can't.

really? that long pause? the pained look? and the result being - do NOT ask me this question because I do not want any focus on it...we are victims.

load of total tosh.

hassled i'm totally with you re post 97 disillusionment. not the normal disillusionment of 'oh well, absolute power corrupts' but rather the toxic sting of 'fuck, they were just power hungry bastards all along'.

yes we need the holy trinity in there morningpaper

excellent work, btw

MP, that is fucking brilliant

I dunno, I think the good/bad thing is unnecessarily Manichaean . I don't agree that Campbell is a 'bad' man (I won't get into Blair ); see his mental health advocacy, leukaemia fundraising, balls-out defence of state education, etc. I think he is bang on about some things. But obv. where Blair is concerned he was High Priest and Believer-in-Chief, and I wonder whether he simply can't, to this day, accept that Blair's judgement on Iraq was screwy. To put it mildly.

Bloody hell MP. My pistol is fully cocked and I need to discharge.

I bet this thread doesn't make the weekly round-up

I read Campbell's diaries recently ("The Blair Years". Very interesting. One of the things that stuck out was how carefully scripted every interview was - what the "feel" was going to be, what the message ("line") would be.

I have no doubt that Campbell's tears were scripted. Ditto Brown's.