Europe needs to get real on defence; Britain needs to get real on Europe
13 February 2025
Post
11 September 2009
3 minute(s) read
Recent Posts
440. Question Time: How To Start A Centrist Party
Why do the Lib Dems still fly under the radar? Is Trump quietly setting the stage for an authoritarian takeover? And, why does Alastair swear so much? Join Rory and Alastair as they answer a... Continue21 August 2025
Posted by Alastair Campbell
439. The Pro-Putin President: Are Zelensky and Europe sleepwalking into disaster?
Is appeasing Trump and Putin a recipe for disaster in Europe , or simply a pragmatic approach? Why was JD Vance so silent in Zelensky's second White House visit? With mass protests on the str... Continue20 August 2025
Posted by Alastair Campbell
149. Nicola Sturgeon: On Margaret Thatcher, Alex Salmond, and the Push for Independence (Part 1)
What is the difference between class distinctions in Scotland and the rest of the UK? How did Nicola Sturgeon's childhood in Scotland inform her politics? What was Margaret Thatcher's influen... Continue18 August 2025
Posted by Alastair Campbell
438. Inside the Trump-Putin Summit: What Really Happened in Alaska?
What does 'no deal' mean for Ukraine and Europe? What was agreed behind closed doors? How will Zelensky respond? Join Rory and Alastair as they unpack Trump and Putin's historic meeting in A... Continue16 August 2025
Posted by Alastair Campbell
148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali)
How does Guyana balance its unprecedented economic growth, largely due to oil discoveries, with environmental sustainability? How does Guyana perceive and address the historical scar left by... Continue15 August 2025
Posted by Alastair Campbell
437. Question Time: Farage vs Corbyn: The UK’s Next Prime Minister?
Is Starmer too afraid to take on Farage? What does Germany’s turn away from Israel signal? And, how much should kids know about geopolitics? Join Rory and Alastair as they answer all the... Continue14 August 2025
Posted by Alastair Campbell
436. Is Trump Gifting Ukraine to Putin?
Have Zelensky and Europe lost all leverage over Trump and Putin? What’s behind Vance’s ‘odd relationship’ with UK foreign secretary David Lammy? Why does Rory think Starmer’s terror... Continue13 August 2025
Posted by Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell’s diary: What cricket tells us about life
Americans may have Apple, Amazon and the lead in the AI race, but Donald Trump is killing their soft power... Continue13 August 2025
to be a good floor trader you need quick wits,a nimble brain and a carefree manner… should suit you really…. good luck with your fundraising
“You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.” Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Name dropper (again). I bet it was great fun and all in a good cause. Good luck.
Yes to Stephen Fry tickets … I think he’s great.
Overjoyed to see comments posted on your blog attempting to rise above the pots and kettles, peddling the latest bitchy trivia on David Cameron
More so, to have you replace him by alluding to distinguished actor, Gregory Peck. His character portrayal in the 1962 Oscar-winning film, To Kill A Mockingbird, of the protagonist Atticus Finch, lawyer in the Depression-era South, defending a coloured gentleman against an undeserved charge of rape, and his children against racial prejudice, the perfect example of racial heroism
Just as the film credits for “All In The Mind” will include the words, “ … based on a novel by Mind Champion 2009, Alastair Campbell …” – so too, if you watch the credits roll, you’ll see the film, To Kill A Mockingbird, that too was based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, of the same title
Here’s the bit that worries me. That’s the ONLY novel Harper Lee’s ever published. Preferring to stay put in her hometown of Monroeville in Alabama, she’s even refused point-blank and repeatedly to comment on her novel, her work or herself since 1964: that’s over the past 45 years. Without peeping behind-the-scenes for the background detail, some might find that odd behaviour, for someone thrown centre-stage, into the glare of the spotlight
Or maybe just another case of “creative malady” – but the list continues to lengthen: Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill
Now, how soon before someone dares to admit the current Prime Minister’s name, Gordon Brown, belongs among them?
Okay, if his specialists wish to update their psychiatric andy medical jargon to “psychologically-flawed, treatment-resistant clinical depression”, fine by me
But they have to do more than label the condition, feed its symptoms with MAOIs. Or check if the Prime Minister is suffering from a profoundly-daft “vitamin P deficiency” – (he’s not swallowing enough SSRIs to make him feel better) – like the anti-depressant capsules, P-P for Paxil (Seroxat) and the famous P-P for Prozac, especially as these have been allegedly tried, but failed to deliver him improvement or result
It’s shaming to think the incessant whispered twitterings around Westminster wouldn’t crescendo into an all-out-in-the-open volume, long before now
Strikes me if you all continue dithering and “looking the other way” then within months, you’ll have a lot more than how shallow and prissy that David Cameron really is
Better to tackle the bigger problems first, as urgent priority, I’d say
Trevor Malcolm
////////////////////////////////////
//////////////
Winner Alastair Campbell: Nearly Another First –
This time in Iain Dale’s Total Politics Annual Blog Poll 2009
=======================================================
SATURDAY, first thing in the morning, and may we all be among the first to congratulate you, sir, on your success in the Total Politics Annual Blog Poll awards, just announced?
The prizes Mr Dale will be handing out to the “winners” are likely to seem beneath your status and reputation, so you’ll be grateful you came no higher than fourth place in the Blog Poll
Just missing out on what the top three means there’s no “pro bono” Acceptance Speech you’re obliged to write, this time
Still, nothing like abit of good, old-fashioned fun. To illustrate, judging from the look in your eyes as you smile into the eyes of the fit and athletic-looking, Ms Jade Johnson, of Leukaemia Research, (in the photo of you both manning the phones in aid of fundraising), well, looks like you’ve got more pressing pleasures on your mind, so who’d give a toss about blog poll results?
Had you shown that Mr John Prescott a photo of Ms Johnson and promised him she secretly yearned for him to ask her to dance, (but make sure Prescott stumps up the cash donation, first), then he wouldn’t feel half as miserable finding out his Go Fourth blog didn’t “go fourth” – yours did. In fact, his efforts crawled in at fifteenth position, limping wounded. That poor sod, he “Went Fifteenth” – that’d be just behind the Raving Loonie Party
Also, you can see how the three candidates placed above you in the results, are all intent on interacting more directly with guests who visit their blogs. Especially those leaving thoughtful or provocative comment, before departure
Guess that ruse makes their supporters feel more valued, their contributions genuinely appreciated, like saying “thank you for comin’ by …” A more satisfying experience all round
At least, better than left a-wondering, does anybody even READ this comment stuff, anyway?
Trevor Malcolm
//////////////////////////////////
//////////////
“Before you criticise someone walk a mile in their shoes – that way, when you criticise them, you are a mile away and you’ve got their shoes.”
there would be a lot more city workers if we had not flooded the country with workers from the 3rd world on “inter company transfer” visas bypassing the work visa system and throwing hundreds of thousands of europeans out of work, quite how europeans are supposed to compete with 3rd world nationals prepared to work for nothing and sleep 4 to a room? charity?, the very nerve of it
Read from The Official Site of Liverpool FC that you will be at Anfield. Happily the game is on Finnish tv, too. I hope that Kevin McDonald and Guerrero or Eagles start along with Nugent as after Chelsea we need more speed and power.