Somebody had to say it to his face…
…it’s just a shame it had to be Michael Howard saying it.
From Newsnight last night – as much as it pains to agree with the former Tory leader, he pretty much nails it.
Campbell doesn’t really try to deny it. He doesn’t seem to have much of a response other than petulance.
There’s been so much written about what he’s done to politics in this country that the chances that everybody’s making up is surely approaching nil.
It’s a line I’ve used before but if you had a child who conducted themselves like Campbell you be desperate to know what you’d done wrong in bringing them up. If you had a friend like that, they probably wouldn’t be your friend for long. And yet we allowed him to help run the country. He might not have made the decisions but he did the necessary lying, smearing, threatening, bullying and ’sexing up’ (if that’s your preferred euphemism for facilitating war) to allow those decisions to be made.
If there’s a hell below, Alastair’s gonna go.
(Cheers to Paul Linford.)
And another thing: Once Campbell’s self-serving, self-justifying, self-kerching! and almost certainly humourless and illiterate memoirs are consigned to the remainder bins, one imagines he’ll be reduced to a much deserved and desperate obscurity. Puppy dog journos won’t be hanging on his every word once Tony’s coining it in America. Look out for Alastair learning to play an actual fiddle (as opposed to a political one) in a new series of ‘Play It Again‘.
Posted on May 11th, 2007 at 2:06pm under UK politics
| Related posts... • You don’t say • Matthew Norman: Campbell, with the best bits left out • The tyranny of hope |
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• 12 Comments |
I caught Howard’s attack while channel-hopping between Newsnight and Question Time. I was trapped between agreement and the fact that Campbell was being called ugly by a frog.
[...] Hat tip: Chicken Yoghurt [...]
This is quite uncomfortable for me – I’m agreeing with Michael Howard. As someone who, as a journalist, was on the arse end of Campbell’s rants a number of times I found a warm glow spread across me as Howard said that.
I watched this last night, and wondered how long it would take to make it to YouTube. It was a riveting moment. You could have heard a pin drop. Howard looked as much like a creature of the night as he has ever done, and Campbell would, you suspect, have given every penny of his book deal to have had a stake handy.
Great TV. And, of course, he’s absolutely right.
I’m so glad it made it to YouTube. I watched it last night and was mesmerised by Howard’s coolness and Campbell’s attempt at nonchalance as he tried to hold back his rage. As you, say it was a pity that it was Michael Howard that said it, but somebody had to. If only it had been said earlier.
Don’t blame alcoholic Al – He only made up the lies, other people used them.
…. and the Opposition sat there and lapped them up without question at the time.
[...] As on of the many journalists who got ‘Campbelled’ it is great to see the newsnight clip on YouTube getting so many viewings. I got my link from the hugely entertaining chicken yoghurt [...]
It’s what now?…
Bloody hell… it’s Friday already! Where did my week go? PS – Some ‘Guido’ news here and a summary here. Oh, and this… you have to see this…….
Now, who else can we think of who is bullying and lying their way across our political life?
PS – I do note that Iain’s credit link to you in this post is somewhat lacking in exactitude. Perhaps you could tell him that you personally do not fear the dark, shadowy lands of Deeplink.
[...] Just for posterity, here’s an immensely satisfying clip of Newsnight that I watched when Blair resigned. The pinnacle of Michael Howard’s career, surely… (via bloggerheads and chickyog) [...]
Talking of Hell… I’m told that barratry is the selling of civil positions of authority and that, in Dante’s Inferno, barrators are punished by being immersed in a lake of boiling pitch while being tormented by demons.
[...] Chicken Yoghurt finds himself in the unfamiliar position of agreeing with Michael Howard. Alastair Campbell has a funny way of uniting people… [...]