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

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This is a book for supporters of democracy,” he states, and in many ways it is everything a manifesto should be: heartfelt, hectoring, impassioned, rousing. We need big change in the way politics is done. I strongly favour lowering the voting age, compulsory voting, and political education in schools, including primary schools, just on the basics of what politics is and why it matters. Children need to learn how to argue and how to communicate and make decisions. I also think we need greater devolution to the nations and the regions of the UK.” Jones, Nicholas (2000). Sultans of Spin: The Media and the New Labour Government. Orion Books. ISBN 0-7528-2769-3. I’ve written it in three parts. The first is an analysis of how we got to this state of affairs, with the global financial crisis a key moment, and the 3Ps of the modern age, populism, polarisation and post-truth politics, exploited by opportunistic politicians around the world to change the nature of political debate in a way that threatens to undermine democracy itself. Chapter 5, The Threat of Fascism, underlines how seriously I think we need to take the danger. Chapter 6, on the perils of disengagement, acts as a bridge to Part 2. Campbell diaries to be published". BBC News. 16 October 2008. Archived from the original on 18 February 2009 . Retrieved 16 October 2008.

In July 2017, he was invited to speak at the French National Assembly to the newly elected MPs of President Emmanuel Macron's victorious En Marche party. This was after Campbell had met and advised Macron during the campaign. He urged the French to be patient with the United Kingdom and to give them a chance to change course and reverse Brexit. He said Macron had been bolder than Tony Blair in setting up a new party and leading it to power within little over a year. [60] [61]Campbell has published a number of books, including eight volumes of memoirs. In February 2018, he wrote, with Paul Fletcher, a novel on football and terrorism in the 1970s, Saturday Bloody Saturday. The book has a front cover quote from commentator John Motson describing it as "the best football novel I have ever read". [104] The author is obsessed with BJ and fails to analyse his own or New Labours' role in poisoning british political habits and discourse. It's almost like the Iraq war,headline obsessed spin culture,undermining of civil liberties,overuse of referendums, and widespread dishonesty didn't occur during 13 years of new labour politics. The fanboy love of another proven liar President Clinton doesn't seem to have abated either. Surely, third way political corruption and mismanagement has fed into the current crisis and created widespread apathy ? In May 2022 it was announced that Campbell would appear in the Channel 4 political entertainment series Make Me Prime Minister, due to broadcast at the end of September 2022. [98] [99] There are many reasons for political disengagement. But one of them, among the young in particular, is that they do not feel their voice is heard. Too few young people in elected positions; too many places where majorities are so large for one party or another as to be undentable; and policy skewed towards older people because politicians know they are more likely to vote. Alex Jennings (I)". Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on 7 February 2009 . Retrieved 25 July 2009.

Campbell returned to England, preferring to stay with friends near Cheltenham rather than return to London (and his partner) where he did not feel safe. His condition continued with a phase of depression, and he was reluctant to seek further medical help. He eventually cooperated with treatment from his family doctor. [13] Return to work [ edit ] 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”. In August 2016 Campbell's older brother, Donald, who had schizophrenia, died at the age of 62 due to complications resulting from his illness. Campbell has talked extensively about how Donald, the Principal's official bagpiper at Glasgow University and a competitor in high-level Piobaireachd competitions, had inspired him to fight for better mental health services and understanding, and to become the ambassador for several mental health charities. [80] [81] There is an indisputable star quality to Alastair Campbell. After a extraordinarily high profile - and controversial - career at the very top of politics, the former Labour spin doctor is now one of the most celebrated political podcasters in the world. And someone who can sell out the Albert Hall in a matter of hours with people who want to listen to him talk about politics.a b "Alastair Campbell 'expelled' from Labour Party". BBC News. 28 May 2019. Archived from the original on 20 October 2019 . Retrieved 28 May 2019. Campbell moved into government when Labour won the general election in May 1997 and served as the Prime Minister's chief press secretary until 2000. In government, he implemented many radical changes to both procedure and operational management. He persuaded Cabinet Secretary Sir Robin Butler that government communications had to be modernised, and the government set up the Mountfield Review. He created a Strategic Communications Unit which gave Downing Street the power to co-ordinate all government activity, using what became known as "the grid" as its main apparatus. He set up a rapid rebuttal unit similar to the one he had used in opposition. He put Downing Street briefings on record for the first time, and although he was only identified as "The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman", he became one of the most high-profile and written about figures in British politics, earning the epithet "the real deputy Prime Minister". He opened briefings to the foreign media, which were among a raft of modernisation and efficiency strategies he introduced. [19] In 2001, Campbell claimed that the days of the bog standard comprehensive school were over due to educational policies of the Labour government. [20] [21] [22] I personally found his insights riveting, his cornucopia of highly pertinent anecdotes both entertaining and didactic, and his sharing of knowledge and understanding profoundly interesting. I put it to him that the book had much to offer a youthful mind, entirely forgetting that it had broadened my own with its penetrating truth :

Campbell, Alastair (2007). The Blair Years. Random House. entry for 6 April 2002. ISBN 978-0-09-951475-6. When I started writing it, Boris Johnson was in Downing Street. Two prime ministers later, the mess the country is in is greater than ever. But though the UK is the country I know best, I try to range far and wide in showing how the trends doing such damage to politics here are having a similar corrosive effect elsewhere. And while I do not hide my distaste for the Tories, I genuinely hope to offer ideas and insights that help people of all political persuasions and none, including those who are unsure what they believe in as yet. I hope, too, that current politicians read the book, and reflect that they, and the way they do politics, are a big part of the problem. They need to change, or be changed. Halliday, Josh (23 May 2012). "Alastair Campbell gets job at PR agency Portland". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 23 May 2012 . Retrieved 5 July 2013. Alastair John Campbell (born 25 May 1957) is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster and activist, known for his political roles during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party. Campbell worked as Blair's spokesman and campaign director in opposition (1994–1997), then as Downing Street Press Secretary, and as the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson (1997–2000). He then became Downing Street director of communications and spokesman for the Labour Party (2000–2003). He returned as campaign director for the 2005 general election in Blair's third win.Exclusive interview: Alastair Campbell". MHT. Archived from the original on 9 November 2017 . Retrieved 5 May 2020. Our politics is a mess. We have leaders who can't or shouldn't be allowed to lead. We endure governments that lie, and seek to undermine our democratic values. And we are confronted with policies that serve the interests of the privileged few. It's no surprise that so many of us feel frustrated, let down and drawn to ask, ' But what can I do?' His first published work was Inter-City Ditties, his winning entry to a readers' competition in Forum, the journalistic counterpart to Penthouse magazine. This led to a lengthy stint writing pieces for the magazine with such titles as "Busking with Bagpipes" and "The Riviera Gigolo", written in a style calculated to lead readers at the time to believe they were descriptions of his own sexual exploits. [11] In 2007, he appeared on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice as project manager, having several clashes with Piers Morgan including his comment of "again?" when Morgan got fired, which went viral. [30]