Europe needs to get real on defence; Britain needs to get real on Europe
13 February 2025
Post
18 January 2010
2 minute(s) read
Recent Posts
13 February 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
500. Japan, China, and the Fight for Taiwan (Question Time)
Are Japan and China closer to conflict over Taiwan, after the landslide victory for Japan's 'Iron Lady', Sanae Takayichi? Does Trump’s crumbling American-Hispanic vote explain his extreme reaction t... Continue12 February 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell’s diary: Am I still a friend of Peter Mandelson? It’s complicated
I find it hard to think he didn’t hear and see things that made him feel he had to get Epstein out of his life... Continue11 February 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
499. Is It Game Over for Starmer?
As Starmer begins to lose his key aides and allies, is his departure from Number 10 now a matter of when, not if? Is the UK actually becoming ungovernable? Will the latest revelations about the level ... Continue9 February 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
I’m sleepless, angry and anxious over this – and I know I’m not alone
Editor-at-large Alastair Campbell on the reaction to the Mandelson affair, the calls for Starmer to go, and what happens to this government - and the United Kingdom - next... Continue9 February 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
175. Ex-Director of GCHQ: China, Russia, and the Threats Facing the UK (Jeremy Fleming)
Do Russia or China represent a bigger risk to UK national security? Why are we underestimating the threat posed by cybercriminals? Who holds the real power - ministers or spies? Rory and Alastair are... Continue9 February 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
498. Alastair Reacts to Starmer-Mandelson Turmoil
How should the government and politics as a whole respond to the latest revelations about the scale of Epstein's influence, and Mandelson's abuse of power? If Starmer goes, who and what comes next? Do... Continue8 February 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
174. Taking On Europe’s Last Dictator: The Fight Against Lukashenko and Putin
How did Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya go from being a housewife to leading a Belarussian government in exile? How did Aleksandr Lukashenko become the last dictator in Europe? Why was Segei, Sviatlana’s h... Continue6 February 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
What a wonderful way to start the blogoweek. Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. And so believable
Keep it up. And as you found at OT on Saturday, the media have no idea how much the public dislike and disrespect them. Their coverage of your appearance at the inquiry, and the inquiry more generally, was the latest eg of bias. I read in a German newspaper last week that Iraq’s economy is growing faster than at any time in history and that the deaths there are lower than since pre Saddam. I cannot claim to read every UK newspaper but I have certainly head nothing to that effect here.
Whoever put that together deserves the Order of Lenin! I saw the Nick Griffin one, but this is funnier. And the great thing is that because I have no idea what Dacre looks or sounds like, because of his paper, I imagine him to be like this
‘One of the most evil men in Britain’!!!! A bit of hyperbole perhaps but still quite amusing.
Personally I liked the abuse of Oborne, though the casting wasn’t too good as that actor didn’t look like he’d lunched well.
As a complete aside, where is George Osbourne these days? Is he being kept in a locked room, out of the way?
Tee hee! Poor Mr Dacre, how awful to go through life without a sense of humour. No wonder the paper he edits contains so much bitterness and envy.
But I have good news. Although the Mail is Britain’s second best selling newspaper it still only reaches about one voter in ten and I know one regular reader who doesn’t believe everything she reads in it.
So, unlike Mr Dacre apparently, we live in hope…
Give it a rest Alastair! It sounds like you’re the one with the obsession with Paul Dacre, rather than the other way round. You never shut up about him. He’s obviously got under your skin!
Just been watching your former colleague Mr Powell. Interesting to see you both attacking the former ambassador, Mr Meyer, whose evidence made me understand rather better why Prime Ministers might want to bring their own trusted advisors rather than rely on people like him. What a creep!
Hi Alastair, I’ve been thinking how Blair should answer this ‘growing’ thing that the enquiry is obsessing on. He should simply say: ‘as sanctions eroded and inspectors were not allowed back and cooperated with fully, the threat could only continue to grow. This is what I interpreted from the intelligence information and the message I was trying to get across to the public; that if we did not face up to this threat the programmes would only grow’.
I bet the staff at the Mail love the vid almost as much as Dacre loves AC.
Do you honestly feel the whole sorry saga of the invasion of Iraq was ‘decent and good’, that not just the deaths of many British servicemen but of several hundreds of thousand ordinary Iraqis was ‘decent and good’, that cribbing from a decade-old thesis found on the net to cobble together a half-hearted justification for the invasion was ‘decent and good’, that the hounding of the pensioner at the Labour Party conference was ‘decent and good’? Or Blair exempting Formula 1 from the tobacco ad ban for a £1 million backhander from Bernie Ecclestone? Do you honestly think that was decent and good? If so you really must be a sandwich short of a picnic rather as I have long suspected Blair was.