Alastair Campbell
| Alastair Campbell | |
|---|---|
|
| |
| Name | Alastair John Campbell (born 25 May, 1957) |
| Nicknames | Ali (Tony) |
| Special Advising | |
| Boss | Tony Blair |
| Party | Labour |
| Positions | • Director of Communications and Strategy to the Prime Minister (2000-2003) • Chief Press Secretary to the Prime Minister (1997-2000) • Spokesman to Tony Blair (1994-1997) |
| Likes | Burnley FC, Princess Diana |
| Dislikes | Housework, private education, the BBC, the right-wing media |
| Friends | Tony Blair, Anji Hunter, Alan Clark, Peter Mandelson, Jonathan Powell, Charles Kennedy |
| Enemies | Paul Dacre, Gordon Brown, Charlie Whelan, Peter Mandelson, George Galloway, Clare Short, Adam Boulton, Andrew Gilligan |
| Relationships | |
| Partners | Fiona Millar (198?-present) |
| Children | Rory (1987), Calum (1989), Grace (1993) |
| Personal Attributes | |
| Nationality | English (of entirely Scottish descent) |
| Religion | None (Atheist) |
| Sexuality | Straight |
| Height | 6' 3" |
| Eye Colour | Grey |
| Handedness | Right |
| Accent | Estuary with a bit of Midlands |
| Languages | French, some German |
I hope you redeem yourself with other sins.~ Vladimir Putin to Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair's Director of Communications until his resignation in 2003. He is one of the most controversial figures in modern times, largely due to his influence on the Prime Minister, and his power to issue orders to Civil Servants as an unelected employee of the PM. He is most famous for his liberal use of profanities, his involvement with the presentation of the September Dossier and his take-no-prisoners approach to the media.
Life and Career[edit | edit source]
Childhood[edit | edit source]
Alastair was the son of a vet, and grew up in Yorkshire with his siblings, Donald, Graeme and Elizabeth. He has supported Burnley FC since childhood, and was educated at a grammar school- something he would come to resent in his adulthood.
Early Career in Journalism[edit | edit source]
Alastair studied languages at Cambridge, and as a young man, travelled across the South of France on the back of a motobike with his friend in a kilt, playing the bagpipes outside restaurants and hotels for money, something which got him arrested. It is possible, but unlikely that he worked as a gigolo in France, a claim which arises from a Sun interview in 1980. Whether or not he was paid for his services, he claims to have slept with many, many women while on the continent, and his adventures were documented when he returned to Britain to write pornography for the gentleman's magazine Forum under the pseudonym "Riviera Gigolo".
He left erotic journalism to join the Tavistock Times as a sports correspondent, and then moved to work for the Mirror group, where he met his partner, Fiona Millar. The two began dating with a fortnight of meeting, and it was through Fiona that Alastair met Peter Mandelson and became increasingly politicised.
In the mid-1980s, Alastair joined the pro-Labour Daily Mirror and became a political correspondent for the newspaper. Due to increasing stress of the job, he began drinking himself into a depression, describing himself as consuming alcohol twenty-four hours a day.
Breakdown[edit | edit source]
In 1986, Alastair suffered an alcohol-based breakdown. He collapsed in the lobby of a hotel in Scotland, tearing apart paper and becoming highly aggressive. He was held by the police for his own safety, who contacted his partner, Fiona. He was hurried to a private hospital, where he was given drugs to calm him to a reasonable state, before sending him to see a psychiatrist, where he came to accept that he was suffering from alcoholism. From that moment, he became a teetotaller, and counted the days he spent dry for years afterwards.
He returned to England, still suffering from depression, and was reluctant to see his partner, though he accepted help from Fiona and from Peter, now a firm friend, and was put back on the road to recovery.
Rise to prominence[edit | edit source]
Returning to the Daily Mirror, Alastair swiftly barged his way up the ranks and became political editor, restabilising his career. He then became political editor of Today, a tabloid which he used to support Tony Blair's bid for the leadership. He became a familiar face in the British media, and formed very close links to Tony, who was supportive of Alastair in relation to his alcoholism and breakdown. Alastair was also a close friend of Neil and Glenys Kinnock. In time, Neil came to be disillusioned by the Blairite transformations to the Labour Party.
Working for Tony Blair[edit | edit source]
Alastair became Tony's spokesman in 1994 when he became leader of the Labour Party, and took control over Tony's appearance in the media, managing him effectively in the face of pathetic opposition from the Governing benches which were marred by scandal. He managed the 1997 election campaign alongside Peter, which was won by a landslide, and became Chief Press Secretary to the New Prime Minister. On the morning that Tony arrived in 10 Downing Street, Alastair jumped out of a moving car outside Downing Street to give him his speech, which Tony had left behind, and broke his foot in the process.
He took on the "bad cop" role, while Anji played "good cop". It was said that "'Bollocks' and 'crap' often pepper his conversations with Blair, even when they are not alone and someone from one of the outer circles of power is in the room. Ministers from past governments affect shock at this." Like Gordon, he used physical intimidation as a tool, and was brash to the point of brutality to the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, civil servants and journalists.
He became one of the most powerful men in the country - some would argue that he was as powerful as the Prime Minister, though he has always denied this. He was given the power to issue orders to civil servants along with Jonathan Powell, the unelected Chief of Staff (an American position). As Press Secretary, he oversaw a number of resignations which he tried to run smoothly - those of David Blunkett, Ron Davies and Peter Mandelson. He had poor relations with Clare Short, George Galloway and also Robin Cook, who he considered as pompous and stupid. Relations with Gordon Brown were also strained, and after Peter's second forced resignation, a distrust grew between the two.
The September and Iraq Dossiers[edit | edit source]
Alastair was involved in preparing two infamous dossiers over 2002-3. These documents bluntly argued that there was a strong case for war with Iraq, and contained dubious information about suspected WMDs. The document lacked full and proper citations, and full passages were copied from unreliable websites, complete with typos.
Caught between pressure from Government and what he most likely knew to be true, biological weapons expert David Kelly committed suicide in 2003, throwing up a public outcry. Kelly had been named as the source for damning quotations used by the BBC to discredit Number Ten's claims that Iraq were hiding WMDs. The Hutton Report, which vilified the BBC and cleared the Government is generally considered unreliable. After an open battle with the BBC in which the chairman and director-general were forced to resign, Alastair stood down from his position as Director of Communications.
| Full List of Appointments |
|---|
| • Spokesman to Tony Blair (1994-1997) |
| • Chief Press Secretary to the PM (1997-2000) |
| • Director of Communications and Strategy to the PM (2000-2003) |
Post-Downing Street[edit | edit source]
Alastair pursued a career as a novelist and public speaker, also working for various good causes, in particularly for mental health charities. His novel All in the Mind explores mental illness. He returned to aid the Labour Party in the 2005 general election, to train Gordon Brown for the leaders' debates in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and remained in Downing Street for the five days that followed, and was present when the Labour Government was brought to a close, lending the Prime Minister a tie chosen by his daughter, Grace. He has begun releasing the uncut version of his diaries, which he wrote every day while in Government, and has also appeared before the Iraq Inquiry in 2011.
Personal Life[edit | edit source]
Sexuality/Appearance/Ideology[edit | edit source]
Portrayal[edit | edit source]
In the Media[edit | edit source]
Alastair is generally portrayed by the media as a bullying, aggressive spin doctor, which is likely to be an exaggeration of the truth. He is closely associated with making the case for the Iraq War, and commentary on the Blair years tends to portray him as highly influential.
In Culture[edit | edit source]
He was portrayed by Mark Bazeley in The Queen and The Special Relationship as a swaggering but largely harmless character, and appears in TONY! The Blair Musical as a bullish, superficial Machiavelli. His edited diaries, The Blair Years, were made into a three-part BBC miniseries, which he narrated. He was shown as a psychopath in Bremner, Bird and Fortune, a portrayal which irritated Tony. The character of Malcolm Tucker from The Thick Of It is heavily based on Alastair, a fact that he acknowledges. He was played by Harry Enfield in The Hunt for Tony Blair.
In Fanon[edit | edit source]
Alastair is a relatively popular character, and is generally portrayed as profane and quite aggressive. He varies from being gentle but lazy in some domestic fics to being rude and controlling, and then his vicious characteristics are exaggerated in other fics, ridding him of most humanity.
Meme[edit | edit source]
Shipping[edit | edit source]
He is most commonly paired with Peter Mandelson (Mandelbell). Other popular ships involve him romantically or sexually with Tony Blair (Blairbell), and he is one-quarter of the NuLabOT4. Millarbell, which explores his canonical partnership with Fiona, is also popular. He is sometimes paired with Nick Clegg or George Osborne (Cleggbell and Osbell respectively).
Prominent Portrayals in AUs[edit | edit source]
Alastair posts to the MRz forum as CampbellSoup in Forumverse, leaking the past to the frustration of Hurpdurp. In the heavily developed Girlband!AU, Alison Campbell is a loud band member who keeps a diary and is paired with Pet (Peter) and Finn (Fiona). In Rent, he finds himself trapped in a domestic arrangement with Nick, and they begin a romantic relationship. In the Gorillaz!AU, Alastair takes on the rule of Murdoc, the Satanic bassist of the band, who shares Alastair's bullishness. In the Steampunk!AU, he is a pressman and airship pilot, and is loosely paired with Peter, and in "Integral", he is a psychotic propagandist working for an authoritarian regime. In the NuLab Teen!AU, he is close friends with Tony, and has a rivalry with Gordon's gang.
He is vilified in abuse!verse and plays a large role in strap!verse, though its nature varies depending on the interpretation on the verse.
