BOOK PLUG

Today’s paper of choice is the Sunday Times, not because it has the most sections, but because it has a couple of good pieces on Alastair Campbell, the unelected member of Blair’s inner circle for his first two election victories and a man considered by many as having far to much influence on policy than was democratically acceptable.

On the eve of the release of his book “The Blair Years” (plenty of thought went into that title didn’t it!) Campbell uses the paper to offer us little tit bits as to what to expect. The Times leads with the excuse that Blair actually wanted to resign before the Iraq war but was persuaded otherwise, both by events and his colleagues. If this is Blair’s opt out clause for the war i.e. I wanted to resign before it started therefore its not my fault, he is going to have to try a little bit harder on the excuses front. There is also a little snippet about Blair’s friendship with Diana. Nothing wrong with that, a couple of dinners and a little chit chat over a cup of tea. What is interesting is that Blair had the former HRH pegged up for a roving “world ambassador” roll; can you imagine the Queen's face when she got wind of that one!

Will I buy his book? Of course not, I wont line someone’s pocket who did more to undermine the authority of the House of Commons than Guy Fawkes ever could, but I will read the reviews and the comments, if only to confirm my view that this period of British politics was extremely damaging to the concept of constitutional representation, and that Campbell, despite his claims to the contrary, had an unhealthy control of government direction and policy, despite being unelected.