Featured

Europe needs to get real on defence; Britain needs to get real on Europe

Below is the text of a speech I am making this evening to the Labour Movement for Europe, urging a change in approach by Labour, to be bolder in the terms of the "reset" that is promised, clearer in ... Continue

Did nobody at the eurozone crisis summit ask Papandreou about the R-word?

Did the word 'referendum' cross anyone's mind, let alone anyone's lips, at the eurozone crisis summit last week? It certainly didn't appear in any of the coverage I read. Could it be, once more, that... Continue

1 November 2011

About time too – government recognising public money sometimes needed to get private money flowing

No cliche is being left unturned to emphasise the Prime Minister's determination to kickstart the sluggish economy. He is straining every sinew. He has found his passion (er ... again). He is on an al... Continue

31 October 2011

Royal and honours tinkering, and an odd suggestion re women – short haul for Cameron’s long haul flights

Perth in Western Australia is a lovely place, but I suspect David Cameron wishes the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting could have been held in the equally lovely Scottish namesake. No matter ho... Continue

29 October 2011

With crisis seemingly averted for now, Europe’s leaders need to explain the issues better

The mood music out of the eurozone crisis summit was pretty good, the reactions not bad, and so the sense is of disaster averted. The problem is that further difficult steps now have to be taken, and ... Continue

27 October 2011

Ian Holloway and Paddy Harverson popular winners at PR awards

To the PR Week awards last night, to present 31 trophies, the first of which received one of the loudest cheers of the night. Some of the judges were worried that their peers would not quite understan... Continue

26 October 2011

Cameron looking weaker under twin attack from Sarko and Eurosceptic backbenchers

You'd have thought President Sarkozy would still have been in post-Libya mutual backslap mode with Dave, added to which a new baby usually puts a man in a good mood for a few days. So our PM must rea... Continue

24 October 2011

Osborne right to be gloomy – politically we’re out of the euro but economically we’re all in this mess together

I promise I am not going soft, but I am beginning to feel a little bit sorry for David Cameron and George Osborne. As a regular attendee of European summits when Labour was in power, I always feel a b... Continue

22 October 2011

Norway still refusing to play the blame game. The benefits of a Daily Mail free land

Just back from a run round still dark but very clean and pretty Oslo. My hotel is opposite the government buildings where on July 22 a bomb ripped through the heart of the city, in part as a decoy for... Continue

20 October 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.