Featured

157. Ukraine, Diplomacy, and the Future of Europe (Dmytro Kuleba)

What is the current position of Ukraine in the Ukraine-Russia war? How delicate is diplomacy with Europe and with the US for the Ukrainian government? What are the differences between working... Continue

Westminster council’s attack on soup runs and the Big Society

Westminster council has often performed the role of vanguard experiment lab for Tory governments. It is doing so once more as it brings forward plans to remove rough sleepers from the streets. There i... Continue

19 March 2011

Hard to disagree with anything Cameron said on Libya today

Having devoted many words on this blog to pointing out David Cameron's failings, it seems fair to point out how well he has done with regard to Libya in the last few days. It looked highly unlikely a... Continue

18 March 2011

NHS could be back as Number 1 issue at next election

I missed Prime Minister's Questions yesterday but it seems from what I read and hear that Ed Miliband got the better of David Cameron. I hope so because these exchanges matter, and even if the actual ... Continue

17 March 2011

In defence of Number 10’s top civil servant in face of FT gossip column

Sue Cameron is a journalist on the Financial Times who specialises in painting a picture of senior mandarins as all-knowing and jolly clever and so much better than those terrible politicians they hav... Continue

16 March 2011

Britain least convinced of EU countries of need for massive cuts

It says something for the insularity of the UK media that The Guardian makes such a big deal of the idea of special reports from our European neighbours. Too often, the editor rightly says, the countr... Continue

14 March 2011

On the perils of shorthand and/or mumbling and/or not fully explaining

I don't know for sure that Euan Ferguson of the Observer does teeline (the form of shorthand in which I was once, many years ago, 120 words a minute proficient). But I think he might. Either that or I... Continue

13 March 2011

Is it such a bad thing that London is PR capital of the world?

Phil Stephens had a very measured column in the FT last week about the fact that UK PR companies always seemed to be on hand to help less democratic countries than ours with a bit of image advice. I h... Continue

12 March 2011

Fred Goodwin superinjunction underlines need for Parliament not media or judges to decide policy in this area

A few weeks ago I took part in a discussion at one of the big internet companies on something called 'the right to be forgotten.' The notion - which the giants of the web are not terribly keen on - i... Continue

11 March 2011

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.