Politics and government [ edit ] Campbell lecturing at the LSE series 'From Kennedy to Blair,' 7 July 2003

I know my depression will always be a part of me. I’ve accepted that now. I still have suicidal thoughts and dark days, and I always will. But at least now I can recognise them, I feel them coming on, and I can deal with them better than I used to. There may one day be a vaccine for Covid-19. But I doubt there will ever be a vaccine or a cure for depression. It is part of the human condition; it is certainly part of mine. I’ve spent decades learning to live with that. And now, through trial and error, through medication and therapy, through highs and lows, above all through grief and love, I have finally got to know my enemy. I live better for having dealt with it. And I deal with it, through living better. I hope that for some of you out there, this book can help you do the same.The dynamo I normally feel 24/7 whirring inside me is switched off. Literally, you feel as if there is a power cut. Energy gone. Power gone. Desire gone. Motivation gone. The ability to feel anything other than the numbing pain the cloud has brought into you – gone. Everything gone, gone, all gone. The openness we have found in recent years, me telling her when the cloud is coming, has really helped us both’: Alastair Campbell with his partner, Fiona Millar. Photograph: Grégoire Bernardi/The Observer 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.’ 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. Campbell returned to England, preferring to stay with friends near Cheltenham rather than return to London (and his partner) where he did not feel safe. His condition continued with a phase of depression, and he was reluctant to seek further medical help. He eventually cooperated with treatment from his family doctor. [12] Return to work [ edit ]

Lewis, Jason (29 October 2011). "Oil rich dictator of Kazakhstan recruits Tony Blair to help win Nobel peace prize". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 30 October 2011 . Retrieved 5 July 2013.In 2012, Campbell made his first appearance in an acting role with a small part in an episode of the BBC drama Accused. [37] Iqbal, Nosheen. "Politics, privilege and podcasts: at home with Alastair Campbell". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019 . Retrieved 11 June 2019.

In May 2012, Campbell took a role at PR agency Portland Communications, at the invitation of Tim Allan, a former adviser to Tony Blair. [38] [39] Along with Tony Blair, Campbell has also provided consultancy services to the government of Kazakhstan on "questions of social economic modernisation." [40] [41] [42]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.

Sengupta, Kim (23 October 2010). "Forget conspiracies: the official version is scandalous enough". The Independent. London: Independent Newspapers Ltd. p.11. Archived from the original on 24 October 2010 . Retrieved 24 October 2010. a b "Alastair Campbell 'expelled' from Labour Party". BBC News. 28 May 2019. Archived from the original on 20 October 2019 . Retrieved 28 May 2019. Mason, Rowena (30 June 2013). "Tony Blair more truthful about war than liar Winston Churchill, says Alastair Campbell". telegraph.co.uk. London. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013 . Retrieved 1 July 2013. But there are other things, too. For instance, as previously discussed, Boris. “Yes! His loss was a real threat to the podcast. We had an amazing nine months of being fantastically rude about Boris. Then Liz Truss came along. There was a moment after she left when I thought: who’s going to listen to this any more? Our audience is here to be angry about Boris and Truss, and Rishi Sunak is just not as awful.” What about Campbell? Has he come to like him? (I know: it’s as if I’m Derek Batey, and this is Mr and Mrs.) He grins. “The accusation my friends make is that he’s grooming me to join Labour.” This, he says, will never happen.So if one and 10 are out of bounds, how does the rest of my scale work? Two feels great. I wake, having slept well; Fiona [Millar, a journalist and education campaigner] is alongside me and I feel blessed that she has stayed with me for four decades of considerable ups and downs; I have a day ahead that will keep me busy, motivated, doing something vaguely important. Three and four are slightly downscale variations on the same themes. Campbell, 65, is well-placed to opine on the subject. A former communications director for Tony Blair, he seemed less Machiavellian than, say, Dominic Cummings, and instead determined – often belligerently – to do the right thing by his country, even if half the country was convinced he was wrong. But then, such is politics. Despite quitting in 2003, he’s never really left the field because he can’t. People, he suggests, are always coming up to him, either to blame him for New Labour’s failings, or else to ask what “we” can do to improve things. His book is, in part, an answer.