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

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These are difficult questions to ask and to answer and I have agonised over them all, while blaming myself for not being able to help until Alastair agreed to see a psychiatrist rather than try to cure himself. This watershed moment followed a terrifying incident on Hampstead Heath when fear, anger, helplessness, loss of purpose, self-loathing – I will never know which – caused him to start punching himself in the face. I enjoyed reading this. Read it in a day and enjoyed Alistair's honest reflections on his depression/alcoholism/workaholicism and his family history of various difficulties.

Living Better is Alastair Campbell's honest, moving and life affirming account of his lifelong struggle with depression. It is an autobiographical, psychological and psychiatric study, which explores his own childhood, family and other relationships, and examines the impact of his professional and political life on himself and those around him. But it also lays bare his relentless quest to understand depression not just through his own life but through different treatments. Every bit as direct and driven, clever and candid as he is, this is a book filled with pain, but also hope -- he examines how his successes have been in part because of rather than despite his mental health problems -- and love. I find it difficult to believe that somebody with Campbell’s career history and behavioural tendencies, and who has spent so much time in the company of mental health professionals, has never had it suggested to him that narcissism might be at least part of the explanation for his mental health struggles. And yet the word narcissism doesn’t feature once in the book, which leaves me wondering whether he has been more selective in what he exposes about himself than he purports to have been. And as soon as doubts start to creep in about the reliability of the narrator, the whole concept of the book starts to feel quite deeply flawed. I do know people who felt they couldn’t stay with partners once serious mental health issues threatened their own wellbeing, and it would be dishonest of me to say there haven’t been a few moments when I questioned if it was right to stay. But we now know it is possible to live better with depression, and that is what I would wish for anyone existing in the shadow of this terrible illness. In the old days, I would live with that feeling, get up, carry on, pretend I was fine, drink to drown the depression, work to chase it away. Now I tell Fiona straight away. She always asks, though she knows what my answer will be, “What triggered it?” and I say, “I don’t know.”Does the scale help? I find it does. Ruling out one and 10 helps, but I have definitely been at nine. In Australia recently, where I was announced as a global ambassador for Australians for Mental Health, a road transport official talked to me about the official suicide statistics. He said the real figures were totally underestimated “because so many road traffic deaths, which are classed as accidents, are actually almost certainly suicides.” That really resonated with me.

Ultimately real change will almost always involve the legislative process. And so I want to encourage those who feel the world needs to change to campaign for what they believe in but at least to consider going into politics itself because we must broaden the gene pool from which we take our politicians. I list in the book many campaigners who have made a real difference and their work should never be underestimated. But ultimately most power flows from the top. We might wish it were not so given some of the people who have been in charge in recent years. But it is.’ Though there is a lot of sadness and grief in what I am saying, I hope you also find… hope. The sub-title of my book is important – Living Better: How I Learned to Survive Depression. It is about how I survived depression. The thinking and exploring I have done in writing it has undoubtedly helped me add to the strategies I deploy to stay, most of the time, pretty well. But I also hope the book serves a broader purpose, to help change the lens on the way we think, speak and act in relation to mental illness. Overall, a solid 4/5. Somehow, I still do allow the pessimism to triumph over my optimism and say, “it really is not that easy.” But more than anything, it is motivation - I am more than willing to put myself out there into the political ring. I even landed a new political job while in the midst of reading this book, which certainly sourced some of my courage to take it over another opportunity. Some of the frameworks Campbell presents seem quite basic but can be very useful to structure one’s thinking (like the OST - Objective - Strategy - Tactics; referencing Obama campaign’s Respect, Empower, Include framework; or roles of Leaders - Warriors - Talents within teams), others are more motivational and akin to a self-help guide. But that is fine - Campbell always shows how he personally uses the techniques to get through his own struggles, rather than saying they are a mental health panacea.That is the opening line of Alastair Campbell’s new book, ‘ But What Can I Do? Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It’. The ex-Labour communications chief is a prolific writer and has turned his attention and considerable political experience to the question in the title of his book. It is the question Campbell says he gets asked more than any other; its answer required a book. The Speaker spoke to Campbell about his new book, and about why young people should get involved in politics. Absolutely. It is frankly shameful, and an indictment of the parties, the media and the education system that the day after the Brexit referendum the most googled question in the UK was “What is the EU?” We teach our kids that PE is good for them. We should do the same with citizenship and we should make sure that anyone who goes through the schools system has a basic sense of how our politics works and their role within it.’ It offers you the chance of really changing the world. I’m not saying there aren’t other ways of doing that, but that political context will always be there. If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find Us 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.