But What Can I Do?: Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It

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Alastair Campbell: Why I no longer want to be readmitted to Labour". The New European. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 . Retrieved 3 February 2020. In March 2017, the newspaper The New European announced that it had appointed Campbell as editor-at-large. [48] Final Say: Alastair Campbell to answer questions on Reddit". The Independent. 19 September 2018. Archived from the original on 11 October 2018 . Retrieved 11 October 2018.

McCoid, Sophie (29 April 2021). "Alastair Campbell to take over as GMB host despite 'dreading it' ". Liverpool Echo. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021 . Retrieved 29 April 2021. I have worked in politics and media all my adult life. I have never been more in despair about both.‘ That question is the inspiration behind this book. It's a question regularly posed to Alastair Campbell, not least in reaction to The Rest is Politics, the chart-topping podcast he presents with former Tory Cabinet minister Rory Stewart. His answer, typically, is forthright and impassioned. We cannot afford to stand on the sidelines. If we think things need to change, then we need to change them, and that means getting involved. Mutating the genetic DNA of our Parliamentary system is a seminal strand running through Campbell’s book, its imperative force gives Promethean fire to the kindle fuelling the flames of his core argument. I put it to him that ingrained tribal bias, ignorance and internecine conflict, not to mention rank self-interest characterising much of our political landscape, paradoxically serve to make his argument more valid, but less appealing to those he urges to act upon it :

We need big change in the way politics is done. I strongly favour lowering the voting age, compulsory voting, and political education in schools, including primary schools, just on the basics of what politics is and why it matters. Children need to learn how to argue and how to communicate and make decisions. I also think we need greater devolution to the nations and the regions of the UK.” Members of the public get a chance to become prime minister in new show". The Independent. 18 May 2022. In May 2016, the International Business Times announced that Campbell had joined it as a columnist. [47] Campbell was born on 25 May 1957 in Keighley, West Riding of Yorkshire, son of Scottish veterinary surgeon Donald Campbell and his wife Elizabeth. [1] [7] Campbell's parents had moved to Keighley when his father became a partner in a local veterinary practice. [8] Donald was a Gaelic-speaker from the island of Tiree; his wife was from Ayrshire. [9] Campbell grew up with two older brothers, Donald and Graeme, and a younger sister, Elizabeth. He entered into a civil partnership with British journalist Fiona Millar, on 30 March 2021, after being together for 42 years. [92] The couple have two sons and a daughter, the comedian Grace Campbell. [93] [94] Stage and screen portrayals [ edit ]

Though he never liked Margaret Thatcher, she never sank this low. Boris Johnson, however? “I have considerable experience of prime ministers,” he writes. “Whether Tory or Labour, none were liars. Johnson was, and is. Fact.” Mayhew, Freddy (31 May 2016). "Alastair Campbell and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown among new IB Times writers". Press Gazette. Archived from the original on 14 April 2017 . Retrieved 13 April 2017.

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As such, it was a surprise, as I settle down in his living room to chat, to hear that Campbell now argues that something more than an election campaign is required to change the world for good. For all his vociferous partisanship, which remains undimmed by the years, he insists that the country cannot be turned around with an election win by itself. Campbell moved into government when Labour won the general election in May 1997 and served as the Prime Minister's chief press secretary until 2000. In government, he implemented many radical changes to both procedure and operational management. He persuaded Cabinet Secretary Sir Robin Butler that government communications had to be modernised, and the government set up the Mountfield Review. He created a Strategic Communications Unit which gave Downing Street the power to co-ordinate all government activity, using what became known as "the grid" as its main apparatus. He set up a rapid rebuttal unit similar to the one he had used in opposition. He put Downing Street briefings on record for the first time, and although he was only identified as "The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman", he became one of the most high-profile and written about figures in British politics, earning the epithet "the real deputy Prime Minister". He opened briefings to the foreign media, which were among a raft of modernisation and efficiency strategies he introduced. [19] In 2001, Campbell claimed that the days of the bog standard comprehensive school were over due to educational policies of the Labour government. [20] [21] [22] It probably is a bit of a campaign” he says, reflecting on the many conversations he’s had with young people up and down the country. The conversation will continue when Campbell comes to speak at UCL in the first event in this years Department of Political Science, Policy in Practice series.

In March 2022, Campbell launched The Rest is Politics podcast with Rory Stewart, a former Conservative Member of Parliament and candidate in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. The pair discuss current news stories and reminisce about their old jobs. [79] Personal life [ edit ] Most importantly in the second part of ‘ But What Can I Do?’, Campbell lays out a roadmap of what people – young people in particular – can do to get involved. He also dedicates several chapters to the skills required to be an effective changemaker and offers a hopeful outlook that these skills can be developed to ensure that anyone with a passion for making change can have an impact. According to Campbell the most important skill for dealing with the day-to-day brutal combat of modern politics, is a word that he is determined to get into the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘persevilience’.Curtis, Polly (2009). "The end of the 'bog-standard' comprehensive". theguardian.com. "The day of the bog-standard comprehensive is over"

Populism, polarisation and post-truth politics,’ largely define modern politics, both in the UK and abroad believes Campbell. Much of the reason for the current stagnation and polarisation lies at the door of this creeping populism which Campbell believes is part of the reason behind the rise of Boris Johnson as prime minister. The Blair Years". The Random House Group. Archived from the original on 18 February 2009 . Retrieved 13 August 2007. In the end, that’s what it is all about. As Campbell puts it, “we do what we can do” and we hope others do the same. The book is also hypocritical. He describes how polarisation is used in modern day politics, using the 'us' and 'them' tactic then later in the book calls up young bright voters 'us' to overturn the norm elected by the 'them' older voters.

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Alongside compulsory voting there would need to be comprehensive political education at school, starting young, so that we never again face the kind of situation where, the day after the Brexit referendum, one of the most googled questions in the UK was “what is the EU?”. In May 2012, Campbell took a role at PR agency Portland Communications, at the invitation of Tim Allan, a former adviser to Tony Blair. [39] [40] Along with Tony Blair, Campbell has also provided consultancy services to the government of Kazakhstan on "questions of social economic modernisation." [41] [42] [43] Campbell is a master communicator. He knows the power words have to change the world. Such is his love of language and the ideas it conveys, he’s even coined his own neologisms. Combining ‘reliance’ with ‘perseverance’ saw him invent a word sitting at the epicentre of his thinking and his book’s can-do optimism - ’Perseviliance’… Perhaps the most important reform needed, however, is a change in how we elect our MPs. There is no such thing as a perfect electoral system. But our first past the post system is so far from perfect that it too must be revised and made fit for the very changed politics of today. Campbell became a central figure in the handling of the aftermath of Princess Diana's death after the head of the royal household, the Earl of Airlie, asked Tony Blair to second Campbell to help prepare the funeral, saying they knew it would have to be different. Campbell is widely reported to have coined the phrase "the people's princess" and to have persuaded the queen to make her broadcast to the nation more personal, not least by using the phrase "speaking as a grandmother". Campbell's character appears in the 2006 film The Queen, but he has said most of it was fictional.