I'm not a big fan of his, but I thought his performance today was pretty impressive. He seemed to deal with the occasional pettiness of Sir John Chilcott extremely well. Makes you realise/understand, why Blair had such a close relationship with him.

Big room, big gun – the world would be a better place.

…his performance today was pretty impressive. He seemed to deal with the occasional pettiness of Sir John Chilcott extremely well.

Of course he did well. That's his whole flippin' job. But don't be sucked in. A crocodile's smile is very broad.

The only real labour man worth his weight in anything was John Prescott. No Alastair Campbell needed for him!

He only made one mistake that I could tell from the coverage I've heard, in that he didn't qualify his continued support for the dossier with the words "on the basis of what we understood at the time" – that would have given him – and Blair in a few weeks time – some wriggle room.

I'm no fan of his or Blair, or the illegal war they got us into in Iraq, but I'd sooner have the guy on my side rather than against me!

I'm Surrounded By Idiots – Premier Member

Big room, big gun – the world would be a better place.

I'm sure many here would agree and even have a whip round to buy you a gun, but personally I don't think suicide is the answer. 😈

Of course he did well. That's his whole flippin' job. But don't be sucked in. A crocodile's smile is very broad.

Good point, well made 😀

Welll he's not going to admit to all the lies is he, probably got all the questions in advance to he could prepare his answers.

He seemed to have no regrets about the whole sorry state of affairs.

I might be sticking my neck out here, but I think he is a principalled, honest, open bloke. Not someone you would want to be on the wrong side of, perhaps, but someone who I believe thought he was doing the right thing. The more I know about him, the more I like him. That's not to say I think they did the right thing in going to war with out a UN mandate.

The only real labour man worth his weight in anything was John Prescott.

Yeah, right. Freeloading **** just like the rest. The difference with Prescott was that he claimed to be "working class" whatever that is. Despicable ****.

I might be sticking my neck out here, but I think he is a principalled, honest, open bloke.

Are we talking about Alistair Campbell here? I'm amazed.

Not someone you would want to be on the wrong side of, perhaps…

He's a bully.

…but someone who I believe thought he was doing the right thing.

That's Blair's defence as well… "I did what I thought was right". Well that's alright then. Clearly Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, Alexander, etc. etc. all thought they were doing the wrong thing. Glad we cleared that one up.

I think he is a principalled, honest, open bloke.

Well if that's true, then I hope he never applies for job as a spin doctor.

As the art of spin is to, misinform, mislead, gloss over failings and blunders, and to polish turds to sell to gullible people.

I'm sure he has principles. You could say the same about Stalin, Gengis Khan, Pol Pot and Robert Mugabe. Doesn't make any of them people you want to share the same planet with. He's the sort of bloke who, when he wants your opinion on something will give it to you, probably with the main points in highlighter. Vile man, along with that creep Mandelson. And who voted for him, anyway?

Yep, thought I was sticking my neck out. A lot of the people who know him as a person rather than a media protagonist/antagonist have very good things to say about him. Speaking as someone the media might describe as a spin doctor myself, perhaps I have more sympathy for him than I should, but I bet he'd be a very good mate.

A lot of the people who know him as a person rather than a media protagonist/antagonist have very good things to say about him.

So what's that got to do with it ?

You would struggle to find a human being on this earth, who hasn't got someone who will say a good thing about them. I remember shortly after Fred West's arrest how a neighbour of his told what a really helpful person he had always found Fred West to be.

And the issue here isn't what sort of mate, brother, lover, work colleague,whatever, Alastair Campbell happens to be, but his role as "a media protagonist/antagonist".

I might be sticking my neck out here, but I think ……

Yep, thought I was sticking my neck out.

So what does "I might be sticking my neck out here" mean in spin doctoring land ?

……….a couple of people might disagree with me ?

Latest Private Eye says it all:

Chilcot Enquiry Day 94: Evidence of Mr Alastair Campbell

Sir John Chilcot: Thank you very much for coming in Mr Campbell. I know you are a very busy man.

Alastair Campbell: Don't patronise me you **** Whitehall ****. I know all about you and I know where you live and the same goes for the rest of you scumbags sitting there on your fat arses. You can all **** off.

Sir Johm Chilcot: Thank you very much indeed Mr Campbell. I think that covers everything.

Its a load of manipulated shite

Ah well, we'll soon be able to see how much better and more principalled the Tories and their spokespeople will be…

Earnie – I know I wasn't really sticking my neck out. You're right, what I meant was I guess people will disagree.

Cheers doing the puffer. That's cheered me up before bedtime.

The swearing in both TTOI and ITL were priceless, though one of the best (and most apposite) is "I will hound you to an assisted suicide."

I once went to see Campbell speak in Manchester. He was on his "farewell" tour coining it in. It was smug, arrogant and dangerous. But, by f***, could he deal with a heckler.

I don't know if anyone else noticed the moment of comedy genius on Newsnight last night

As Campbell walked into the inquiry entrance, a photographer shouted: "Malcolm! Could you just turn round?"

Inspired!

bol – Member
I might be sticking my neck out here, but I think he is a principalled, honest, open bloke. Not someone you would want to be on the wrong side of, perhaps, but someone who I believe thought he was doing the right thing. The more I know about him, the more I like him. That's not to say I think they did the right thing in going to war with out a UN mandate.

Thats the biggest load of sh*te I have heard in a long time, that man is responsible for the largest amount of misleading sleazy spin in the history of politics, and totally pulled the wool over everyones eyes about New Labour and Tony Blair and what the supposedly stood for. Can you really believe anything that man says. There is no justification of Alastair Cambell & Blairs actions leading up to the war, they totally lied to the country about Iraq & WOMD. It was his job to manipulate the media and the Country.

Binners, I missed that! Chapeau to whoever it was, though, that's inspired!

My favourite Malcolm/Alaister moments

Please do not play if anyone's around sensitive to swearing. Utter unbridled genius though

You'll like this then: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/war/traffic-slows-down-to-stare-at-alastair-campbell-201001132374/

Regime change was the best reason to rid Iraq of its destabilising henchman leader. It does not seem to me a hanging offence for Mr Blair to indicate that he would support the US in removing Saddam if he did not disarm.

What Mr Campbell and his Number 10 allies did, however, was shift the argument, because they concluded that this case was unlikely to convince the wider public.

That is the big wrong he cannot admit. It explains almost everything about the lamentable performance yesterday. The stubborn arrogance on display was like all the worst bits of the Blair years in one performance: laddish, cocky and evasive.

Asked if the phrase “beyond doubt” should have been used when, as Lord Butler's earlier inquiry had concluded, the actual evidence was “limited, sporadic and patchy”, he denied that this meant that Parliament had been misled.

I'd happily see him up against the wall blindfolded.

As I see it, the Americans decided to start the war. Tony and pals decided that on balance, it was best to go with them, regardless of legal or parliamentary opinion. So there was no proper, independent justification. The dodgy dossier et al, were used as justification after the decision had been made. The failing is that matters of war should be for the Law and Parliament which have been ignored and mislead. They acted in an autocratic style beyond their authority and have wriggled and postured about this ever since.

Other European nations did not follow suit, which speaks volumes about our "special relationship" with the US. (If/when we scrap Trident, that will evaporate IMO). Generals had enough doubt about the legality they had to extract legal statements to protect soldiers from accusations of war-crimes. And now we have these enquiries.

It stinks IMO.

What I don't understand about all this is this.

Saddam had WMD. Of that there is no question whatsoever. He very publically used them against the Kurds and the Iranians. He also had ballistic missiles, he used them against Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran. He waged agressive war against his neighbours invading both Kuwait and Iran. It is a given that many of these weapons cannot just be either dismantled or assembled without a trace. My understanding is that not only did they not find WMD, but they didn't find any trace whatsoever.

So two questions spring to my mind which are

1) At what point did Saddam stop being the bad guy and Blair et al assume that mantle?
2) What happened to Saddam's shit?

Anyone??

Berm:

We know that toxic gas was used to kill Kurdish dissidents years earlier. But no WMDs were used on US/UK troops during the invasion and none were found during the occupation. There was nothing to indicate a short-notice launch system either. WMDs and "45 minutes" were at best crap intelligence, at worst a political smokescreen.

We all agree that Saddam was an evil **** and a danger to his citizens and neighbours, but so are many other world leaders. but lots of people don't think it's US/UK responsibility to decide to declare war and depose a recognised national government on this basis.

I saw that Daily Mash thing as well, excellent writing! It's back on form at the moment, it had a couple of weeks where it was rather average.

Berm Bandit: We know he originally had WMD, we sold them to him! Saddam was effectively disarmed after the first Gulf War though – sanctions and weapons inspectors saw to that. After the invasion when there was no find of WMD the politicians changed the phrasing slightly going from "he has weapons of mass destruction" to "he has weapons of mass destrution programmes" (ie the *intention* to acquire WMD at some point). Subtle but kind of an important point when you're about to invade a sovereign state.

Didn't Malcolm also change the nature of the "45 minute" mobilisation in his "evidence" yesterday? When it was being used as a justification it was left sort of open ended to suggest that it could mean WMD being used against other nations/UK. Didn't he say in his evidence yesterday that it should have been made clear that it was battle field able in 45 minutes, not a long range threat. But that some statements had been left somewhat open ended and shoudl really have been clarified. Yes. Could it have been the Chief of No 10 Communications job to do that? If only we knew who held that position!

"Mr West, we're asking you here today to present the evidence for the torture, murder and burial of a number of young people at your home. Would you like to present the evidence for these accusations?" "Yes m'lud these events never happened and there should have been more clarity in any statements that accuse me of these crimes". "Fair enough, you're free to go".

Malcolm Tucker – "Ollie, Olie's a f*$kin knitted scarf"…. priceless. The best swearing ever filmed. With the possible exception of Trains, Planes and Automobiles at the airport car rental desk and all of Nil By Mouth.

The best swearing ever filmed.

Hugh Grant at the start of Four Weddings is pretty ace too, especially as we've all done it! (I've also done the whole "sit at a table with ex-girlfriends comparing notes about you thing" too. Not nice!)

the fish interviewed by mark kermode.

can't say i like the guy but he's not stoopid. interesting piece and i'd prob agree with his last point regarding the media's portrayal of politics/politicians.

Buzz: Could I just correct you on this point?

but lots of people don't think it's US/UK responsibility to decide to declare war and depose a recognised national government on this basis.

Apparently that is not so, as under the democratic system which we operate the government that did so was returned for another term at the General election following that decision.

That apart no real argument with you. The point I was making was that none of Saddams Chemical weapons or the process of manufacture have been detected, which is odd given that we knew where they were originally.