Dream School has convinced me we need more not less politics teaching in schools

As I know from living with a virtually full-time State schools campaigner, education arouses enormous passions and very strong views. So it shouldn't really come as a surprise that Jamie Oliver's Drea... Continue

8 March 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

As Cameron slithers from tactic to tactic, Mandelson and Straw right to defend difficult positions

I may not have liked much about Peter Mandelson's book ("'insufferably self-indulgent' - Alastair Campbell" doesn't seem to have made it to the quotes on the cover of the paperback). However, I totall... Continue

7 March 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Everyone has a favourite teacher – here’s mine

Here is the piece from the Times Educational Supplement I mentioned yesterday, in which I was interviewed about my favourite, or most inspiring teacher at school. As I said in yesterday's blog, one of... Continue

6 March 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Big Society blah. Enemies of enterprise blahdiblah. This is Cones Hotline stuff

According to the pre-speech spin (I thought that was all in the past), David Cameron is going to declare war on 'the enemies of enterprise' today, and he is going to tell us that these include governm... Continue

6 March 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

An English lesson for Jamie Oliver; a lesson for us all that teaching is hard

I finally caught up with the first episode of Jamie's Dream School last night. May I begin by ticking off Mr Oliver for using 'less' when he meant 'fewer.' Tut, tut, as fellow teacher David Starkey mi... Continue

5 March 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Well done Dan Jarvis, and my latest litttle battle against the evil of the Mail

I've been away having laptop connection problems so apart from a couple of tweets I have not been able to congratulate Labour's Dan Jarvis on his excellent by-election win. And yes, of course I knew L... Continue

4 March 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

At home and abroad, Cameron sets up policies which cannibalise each other

It has been mildly comical to hear David Cameron for so long bemoaning the centralising, strategising ways of the Blair government, and now seeking to emulate the systems he decried. As his new Number... Continue

2 March 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Lessons in life from Ryan Giggs’ longevity and the relatively short list of team-mates

Come on, be fair, it is ages since I did a blog on football. There is only so much I can say about David Cameron's muddled foreign policy, his failure to explain the Big Society, or the ideological dr... Continue

1 March 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Shirley Williams talking sense on NHS, Philip Hammond talking sense on rail, but Big Society could derail him

For the second time in less than a week - well done Charles Kennedy on re-election as Rector of Glasgow University - I intend to be nice about a Lib Dem. I did not see BBC Question Time last week, bu... Continue

28 February 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Alastair Campbell is a writer, communicator and strategist best known for his role as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, press secretary and director of communications and strategy. Still active in politics and campaigns in Britain and overseas, he now splits his time between writing, speaking, broadcasting, charities and consultancy.