FOR A man who was once a self-confessed obsessive about press headlines, Alastair Campbell has worked himself up to indifference about the media.
The star turn at this year’s Trim Swift Festival used to be regarded by his detractors as the personification of spin.
The feeling was entirely mutual as the relationship between Tony Blair’s spin doctor and the political correspondents whom he saw as hostile to new Labour deteriorated to the point that he quit the job in 2003, claiming he had become too much the story.
He was in Trim last night to talk about the two things he knows best, media and politics.
He went from being a journalist to Tony Blair’s right-hand man and confidant, a role which he chronicles vividly in the first unedited volume of his memoirs Prelude to Power 1994-1997, which have just been published.
“I am one of the few people who have been on both sides of the fence and politics is in many ways a more noble calling, the people within it have more integrity. I find the public will buy that,” he said.
He believes the power of the print media to influence the electorate is on the wane and that this is no bad thing either. This, from a man, who once flew half way across the world with his boss to persuade Rupert Murdoch to give Labour his backing before the 1997 British general election.
Since then the advent of the internet has empowered people to make up their own mind. Moreover, he sees a relentless cynicism in the British media which he summarises as “starting from the point of view that I hope you guys f**k up” which is at odds with public opinion and indeed with the Irish media which he sees as essentially more optimistic.
He sees Labour’s election loss as essentially a victory of sorts given that the party deprived the Tories of an overall majority despite the hostility of the majority of the British press.
The Sun switched to the Tories while the Guardianand Observerbacked the Liberal Democrats.
“During the last election, although Cameron is prime minister and to that extent he has won, the reality is that with the media support that he had, he did not do very well, he said. “That says two things to me. They [the Tories] are not as good as the media think they are and too many politicians still think the media is way more important than it is.”
A long-time visitor to Ireland, Mr Campbell believes Mr Blair’s role in the peace process would mark him as out as “one of the great historical figures” but he does not get credit for it at home.
The novel Tory-Lib Dem coalition, the public spending cuts and just this week the proposed referendum to reform the UK’s electoral system, all with their parallels here, have exposed the Irish political system to greater scrutiny from across the water.
He sees similarities between new Labour and Fianna Fáil. Both came into power since 1997, both have been blamed for the economic meltdown, both have an unpopular leader not elected by the public, both were or are heading for meltdown at the polls.
But Mr Campbell cites a conversation with a taxi driver as heralding hope for Brian Cowen.
Recalling that the taxi driver said Mr Cowen was getting too hard of a time, he said the public often had a more “nuanced” approach to their politicians than is apparent in the media.
“The public know it is quite difficult what politicians do. They have a different take to the media. I think it is important that people understand that politicians are just human beings. That is one of the reasons I have done my diary. We are talking about the sort of persons who are willing to put their heads above the parapet and take all the s*** that gets thrown at you.”
