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Alastair Campbell: New Labour and the Rise of the Media Class
 
 
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Alastair Campbell: New Labour and the Rise of the Media Class (Hardcover)

by Peter Oborne (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 230 pages
  • Publisher: Aurum Press Ltd; First Edition edition (Sep 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1854106473
  • ISBN-13: 978-1854106476
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 521,466 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #52 in  Books > Biography > Political > Britain > Labour & Socialism

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Product Description

Product Description
Alastair Campbell''s title is Press Secretary to the Prime Minister. Thanks to the presence of this tabloid journalist, this is the first fully fledged media-class government, driven as never before by the need to dominate the headlines.'
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An anti-hero of our time, 10 Aug 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Alastair Campbell (Paperback)
This meticulously detailed but fast-paced book explains how Alastair Campell, ostensibly the Prime Minister's Press Secretary, was allowed to create his own job to accommodate his volatile and driven personality. Secondary legislation (Orders in Council) were implemented to enable Downing Street staff to be both Special Advisers and Civil Servants (and so to give orders to the hitherto impartial executive). The immediate result was a "purge" of the Government Information Service and the crowning fiasco was Campbell's (and Jonathan Powell's) part in coordinating the Iraq intelligence dossiers.

Campbell reached the heights from inauspicious beginnings. At Cambridge, he did little else other than play football for his College and drink himself blind in the "Late Night Bar" before, when he could manage to scrape himself off the floor, sallying forth into the night "to beat up an upper class twit". After a spell drifting around on the Continent, playing the bagpipes and exercising the ferret, he won a prestigious traineeship on the Mirror, eventually becoming political editor in his early thirties.

Oborne and Walters develop the thesis that from early in his career, Campbell's vocation was to act as Grand Vizier to someone who enjoyed extensive power. Robert Maxwell provided one dry-run for this ambition, Neil Kinnock another. Apparently Campbell developed a suspicion and antipathy towards the Parliamentary lobby as a result of their vicious treatment of Kinnock in the late 80s.

The second Mandelson resignation, "Cheriegate" and the vendetta against the BBC cumulatively made his position untenable - not least for asking for the PM's backing against his own wife - and suggest that the psychological demons once led to a (manic depressive?) breakdown have not been laid to rest.

It is difficult to know how his career will develop now. None of the (friendly) Murdoch papers have offered him a column and his roadshow he has bewildered audiences with boring asseverations of loyalty to Burnley FC and foam-flecked phillipics against the Daily Mail. He may be a vindictive bully (and auctioning a signed copy of the Hutton report didn't leave the sweetest taste in the mouth) but Campbell also emerges as supremely talented as well as loyal to a fault. I for one hope that he finds something fulfilling to do with the rest of his life.

To conclude, his unofficial biographers have blended constitutional exposition, psychological dissection and the drama of decision-making in the Downing Street nerve-centre with consummate expertise and I recommend their book to anyone.

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An absorbing insight into the power behind the Blair throne, 28 Nov 1999
By A Customer
Peter Oborne is a political correspondent who manages to step beyond the daily "splits" and "backing down" verbiage that passes for political journalism. His analysis of Campbell's character-change (after a drink-induced breakdown) is fascinating. And his analysis of his subject's power is useful:a combination of a "Napoleonic" centralising of power by Balir; the sidelining of Parliament and representative institutions; and the importance of the "media-class". It's a good read. I recommend it heartily.
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4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A canny look into New Labour's heart, 26 May 2000
By A Customer
Oborne goes straight to the heart of the New Labour machine.

The media dominates Blair's administration - arguably keen media management got him elected in the first place.

Oborne is insightful but not dull - truly revealing the mind of our new masters.

The best political book I have read for ages.

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