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If you haven’t booked a holiday yet, you should try Albania. Promise

I would normally wait a few days before posting a New European column, but an editing malfunction means those who have got the print version - which despite this malfunction I strongly recommend ... Continue

Cameron facing in confusing (not to mention hypocritical) directions. Needs Plan B

I am confused. David Cameron is arguing for austerity at home. But blaming Angela Merkel for damaging the eurozone through her commitment to ... er ... austerity. I am also confused ... because the T... Continue

20 May 2012

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Plenty for Cameron to be nervous about as confident Hollande takes the reins in the rain

I was in Paris for part of the aftermath of former Presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn's spectacular fall. The mood in the Parti Socialiste at the time was one of real anxiety, for all the con... Continue

16 May 2012

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Francois Hollande could be the beneficiary of Merkel-Sarko election pact

Yes that was me tweeting in German last night, digging into my modern languages education to remember all I could, and surprised how much that was. Truth is, as I am about to say to a conference in Be... Continue

30 January 2012

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Europe’s leaders need to be honest about what they really think, and what they really can and cannot do

Another day, another summit, another round of ups and downs, then stand by for another set of bold declarations that Europe's leaders have found the solutions to the current crisis ... again. With eve... Continue

8 December 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Merkel, Sarko and Cameron will need all their communications skills to win the new arguments in Europe

I'm off to Dunkirk today for a conference of French communications professionals, Cap' Com, asking themselves whether the public still believe 'la communication publique.' The answer is that sometime... Continue

6 December 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

Rarely can the summit smiles, backslaps and trumpeteering have seemed so incongruous

I suppose our leaders have to do that smiling thing as they arrive at summits (though I can't think they and we would all be happier if a lot of the ceremonials were scrapped, the trumpeteers confined... Continue

3 November 2011

Posted by Alastair Campbell

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

Posted by Alastair Campbell

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

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.

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