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

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Part of The Speaker’s mission is to inspire a new generation in politics and improve young people’s understanding of politics; from breaking down complex stories, or delivering resources to teach about our political system. Campbell makes this a large theme of his book and he is a strong believer in the importance of good political education in schools.

Quite a loose narrative appears from time to time, and some chunks feel a tad forgettable. Campbell details his early life and relationship with his brothers in vivid detail and a level of honesty that surprised me, but the latter half of the book feels rather underwhelming. Pacing does feel like an issue to some degree, with some chapters ending far too soon, others eating up whole swathes of paper. There is certainly value to be found within, but much of it comes from the odd line here or there, rather than the chapter on the whole. It’s worth digging through the build-up to see what pay-off there is. Some advice feels rather obvious, but without the explanation before it would be just an empty gesture, so it’s nice to see Campbell explains the simplest of quips used when combating stigmas surrounding mental health. For Campbell, Brexit is the reason for the state we’re in. It was the Leave campaign, he argues, that fundamentally changed the way politics operated, openly encouraging MPs to become wilfully duplicitous, “to seek to divide, create chaos, dominate the airwaves with insults”.

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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. Most importantly in the second part of ‘ But What Can I Do?’, Campbell lays out a roadmap of what people – young people in particular – can do to get involved. He also dedicates several chapters to the skills required to be an effective changemaker and offers a hopeful outlook that these skills can be developed to ensure that anyone with a passion for making change can have an impact. According to Campbell the most important skill for dealing with the day-to-day brutal combat of modern politics, is a word that he is determined to get into the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘persevilience’.

Private education took a bashing but what about private health care?? Pretty sure AC didn't see his shrink for a decade on the NHS? I don't expect him to have done but I do expect him to have been transparent about it. 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.” 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. We don't need to fund the NHS to the point where people can see a psychiatrist twice a week when they are struggling. I am not anti psychiatry (disclaimer I am a clinical psychologist and have worked with amazing psychiatrists) but imho the answer is collaborative team work with a range of professionals/therapists/community/self help groups (and I know Alistair will hate to hear this but activities like yoga too). It would have been nice if as a strategist he could have seen this but it appears his own singular focus on winning and finding THE answer means he really struggles with the fact that for a large part of it we don't know yet. Thus the way forward is for us to start with the psychological knowledge base accumulated so far, a humble acceptance of what we don't know and to compassionately collaborate on the way forwards by listening to people with lived experience. meh. vb peaks andma kolm tärni, sest oli täiesti loetav raamat ja midagi polnud valesti jne, aga ma ootasin midagi muud ja/või midagi enamat.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 The book’s premise is rooted in the belief that Brexiteers failed to grasp the complexities of European politics and economics, leading to what Campbell characterizes as a monumental decision based on ignorance. Through a combination of biting satire, political analysis, and personal anecdotes, Campbell endeavors to make Brexiteers confront what he sees as their intellectual shortcomings. Our politics is a mess. We have leaders who can't or shouldn't be allowed to lead. We endure governments that lie, and seek to undermine our democratic values. And we are confronted with policies that serve the interests of the privileged few. It's no surprise that so many of us feel frustrated, let down and drawn to ask, 'But what can I do?' But no, they weren’t friends. The podcast is made by Goalhanger, a company co-founded by the ex-footballer and Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker. “I knew Tony [Pastor, also co-founder of Goalhanger, and the executive producer of TRIP] because he, like me, is a Burnley fan. I’ve known him for years. Anyway, they started this podcast, The Rest Is History [with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook]. Big triumph. Tony came to see me in the Westminster Pret. He said: ‘This podcast thing is huge. It’s just two guys talking, but it is huge. So we should do one called The Rest Is Politics – you and a Tory.’ Their idea [for the Tory] was Dominic Cummings [Boris Johnson’s controversial former chief adviser]. Disaster. Not going to happen. So I went on social media and asked people: if I did a podcast with a Tory, who should it be? A good quarter said Rory. Other nominees were Ken Clarke, William Hague, Anna Soubry and Dominic Grieve, but he was way ahead.” Fiona only having a chapter / found it difficult to relate to her. What did she think and feel when AC hit himself in the face? Or when he told her he was having suicidal feelings. What do you say to someone when they say that? We need more transparency around how to deal with this conversation. Because if we are going to talk more about mental health, then we need to know how to respond.

I admire Campbell and the whole New Labour project, so I am obviously biased. But I must also say I am genuinely jealous of the generation of people that were able to work with Alastair Campbell and his operation - it was quite fascinating to read that unlike in the Dominic Cumming era, none of Campbell’s former staffers ever left and them publicly briefed against him. Similarly, to read about his loyalty towards and cooperation with Tony Blair is just fascinating and again, working in teams like this must be just incredible. I have worked in politics and media all my adult life. I have never been more in despair about both.‘ 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. Fiona Millar leaves Downing Street with her partner Alastair Campbell after his resignation from Tony Blair’s government, August, 2003. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

pärast seda, kui meile tehakse veel kord puust ja punasest selgeks, kui pekkis kõik on, tuleb raamatu teine pool, kus lubatakse seletada, mida me siis teha saame. kahjuks selleni ka ei jõuta veel tükk aega, sest enne miskipärast on see osa, et kuidas. minu vanuses olen ma kõiki neid nõuandeid juba kuulnud. eesmärgid ja strateegia ja taktika, enesekindlus ja juhioskused ja meeskonnatöö ja kuni selleni välja, et päriselt ka soovitatakse rohkem vett juua ja šokolaadi asemel puuvilju süüa ja trennitegemist mitte unustada. 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.

Onstage at the Royal Hall, Harrogate, Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart view a clip from Newsnight when Campbell lost his temper with Alex Phillips, the former Brexit party MEP. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer Last Christmas I almost killed myself. Almost. I've had a lot of almosts. Never gone from almost to deed. Don't think I ever will. But it was a bad almost.Alastair Campbell was born in Keighley, Yorkshire in 1957, the son of a vet. Having graduated from Cambridge University in modern languages, he went into journalism, principally with the Mirror Group. When Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party, Campbell worked for him first as press secretary, then as official spokesman and director of communications and strategy from 1994 to 2003. He continued to act as an advisor to Mr Blair and the Labour Party, including during subsequent election campaigns. He now splits his time between writing, speaking, politics in Britain and overseas, consultancy and charity, as chairman of fundraising for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, and a leading ambassador for the mental health campaign Time to Change. When I started writing it, Boris Johnson was in Downing Street. Two prime ministers later, the mess the country is in is greater than ever. But though the UK is the country I know best, I try to range far and wide in showing how the trends doing such damage to politics here are having a similar corrosive effect elsewhere. And while I do not hide my distaste for the Tories, I genuinely hope to offer ideas and insights that help people of all political persuasions and none, including those who are unsure what they believe in as yet. I hope, too, that current politicians read the book, and reflect that they, and the way they do politics, are a big part of the problem. They need to change, or be changed.