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
586. Trump’s Midterms Disaster: What Happens Next?
Why did Trump concede defeat so quickly and pledge to work with Democrats, and what does this mean for the final two years of his presidency, including his influence on the world stage? Was this a cos... Continue4 November 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell’s diary: My biblical battles with Zia Yusuf and Jacob Rees-Mogg
The faithful have long since abandoned the promised land of Brexit – but the false prophets won’t admit it... Continue4 November 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
585. Rory Goes to a Trump Rally and Will the Youth Protests Spread to Britain?
What has Rory uncovered on the road through JD Vance country, and how did he feel attending a Trump MAGA rally? What is driving the wave of youth protests sweeping across Europe, and could we see simi... Continue3 November 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
213. China and the USA: The Most Important Relationship In The World? (Kevin Rudd)
What do Xi Jinping and Donald Trump actually want? How much does Beijing back Putin, and could it ever pressure him over Ukraine? How likely is a conflict over Taiwan, and when could it be? Rory and ... Continue2 November 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
David Blunkett on Blindness, Adversity and Why Politicians Give Up Too Easily
To hear the full episode, and the whole seires, sign up at therestispolitics.com This week, Alastair sits down with someone who – in his opinion – is the most persevilient person in politics, Sir... Continue31 October 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
584. Why Is Trump Losing Voters and Will Texas Turn Blue?
Why are these US midterms so important, and what has Rory been seeing on the ground in Ohio? Could the Democrats really flip Texas, and is Trump alienating the Hispanic voters that were crucial to his... Continue30 October 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
583. Is Burnham’s Budget Too Safe and How Brazil Defied Trump
With the UK’s new Chancellor, John Healey, announcing his first budget and Kemi Badenoch asking him, “is that it?”, how will the public judge his plans? With Lula making an historic return to Br... Continue28 October 2026
Posted by Alastair Campbell
Watch! Alastair Campbell and Mishal Husain live at Cadogan Hall to discuss new book Persevilience
Listen back to our evening with broadcaster Mishal Husain to discuss my new book, Persevilience... Continue28 October 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.