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Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former Director of Communications and Strategy, was involved in all the major policy issues and international crises in the first seven years of Blair’s premiership.  He is a major player in our recent history and continues to advise the Prime Minister informally.  In an exclusive article with Aninha Capaldi, Campbell talks about working with the PM, life in the media age and his beloved Burnley FC…

Aninha Capaldi: Is your passionate and undying support for (the great) Burnley FC indicative of your preference to support the under-dog?

Alastair Campbell: Thank you for describing Burnley as great. It has not always been that great following them during the entirety of the 40-plus years I have supported them. However, when I first started supporting Burnley, we were league champions. In my time following them, we went from the very top to the very bottom when we needed to win the last game of the season to stay in the Football League almost 20 years ago now. So I think it shows my loyalty rather than a belief in the under dog.

Aninha Capaldi: America had global sympathy post 9/11 but this has disappeared. What went wrong? What should they do?

Alastair Campbell: I don’t think it has all disappeared.  But the pace of the world is now such that even momentous and horrendous events can fade from memories more quickly than used to be the case. I think the whole world is struggling to come to terms with the fact that there is now only one superpower. In the days of the Cold War, despite the fact that world politics was to some extent founded on the sense that two great powers could destroy the planet, it gave people some kind of political compass and some political certainties. Now there is greater political flux. I don’t think countries are adapting to that easily. And sometimes you sense Americans are finding it hard to adapt too. I think they could show more understanding of the greater need for international co-operation and understanding that their sole superpower status gives them. The additional power gives them additional responsibilities with regard to how that power is used.

Aninha Capaldi: Both Bush and Blair emphasised their Christian faith. Was this right? Should politicians keep their faith a private matter?

Alastair Campbell: It is entirely a matter for them. I don’t accept the premise of the question in that I do not believe the Prime Minister emphasises his faith. I know how important it is to him, but it is not something he feels comfortable talking about in public. On the one occasion when he wrote about it at length, our opponents deliberately misrepresented what he was saying. As an atheist, I always enjoyed talking to him about his religious beliefs and his views on the subject, but I never once felt he thought less of me because I did not share his beliefs and views. I think Americans are much more comfortable with the idea of politicians talking about God.

Aninha Capaldi: Iraq has been described as a ‘media war’ - with horrifying images from Abu Ghraib jail. Media images determine how we perceive Bush/Blair and could determine their future.  What are the implications of this?

Alastair Campbell: It was not the images that were bad – it was the reality of what they showed, which was unforgivable. People will make their judgement on Tony Blair and what we did in relation to Iraq on the basis of many things, not just one set of pictures. Equally, people’s judgement of the Bush-Blair relationship will be founded on much more than image, or how they look together or relate to each other when filmed together. I think the debate on Iraq has been so intense that by and large most people already have a settled view.  But I hope people can at least respect the fact that the Prime Minister was acting in what he felt to be the national interest and the interests of the world as it goes through a very troubled period, and in which the threat of rogue states and international terrorism is real. Clearly he has paid a political price for his closeness to President Bush, but that is because he is prepared to do the difficult things as well as the easy, provided he believes they are the right things to do. Iraq is a difficult, divisive issue and he knows it has lost him some friends and support. But I like and admire the fact that he [Tony Blair] is prepared to risk popularity in pursuit of what he thinks is right.

Aninha Capaldi: A newspaper editor has to choose between a Big Brother, dd list celebrity story or the suffering of the Karen in Burma – which will make the front page? Why? 

Alastair Campbell: That is a deep question, which goes to the heart of what the media culture in this country has become, and the kind of things the public appear to be interested in. Much of our media is utter bilge, and I think it has helped create an absurd set of priorities. Clive James used to present a funny programme taking the mickey out of things that were on Japanese and other foreign TV. Now we have far worse on our own TV and not only are we not deriding it, but it is providing the staple diet for much press coverage too. Things that really matter are not covered and don’t get huge coverage. I worry about what message we are sending to children; that being a contestant in a crap reality TV show can guarantee a fame of sorts, and yet the message is pumped out the whole time that politics doesn’t really matter, or is in fact just an extension of the same culture. TV has in some ways made the world smaller, yet in many ways I feel we have become more insular, less interested as a nation in really important struggles and issues overseas.

Aninha Capaldi: Can we elect a prime minister without PR and media hype? Is this trend to blame for the breakdown in trust between the people and politicians?

Alastair Campbell: Politicians in a democracy have to be elected, and people will make judgements on many aspects of the politician they are being asked to elect as Prime Minister or President. It would be a foolish politician who did not think about how he or she was thought of by the public, and who did not take account of political realities. Equally, people have always hoped to see charisma and leadership qualities in their top politicians, and perhaps that need has been accentuated in the media age. But a politician who is not so skilled in communications can still make an impact provided he or she has a real agenda and a determination to be heard. Tony Blair is a skilled communicator but that is only part of what he is. He will be judged not by his communications skills but by the real change he and the Government have made to the country. As to my own role, it was exaggerated by a media that often wanted to portray the Prime Minister as someone else’s creation, rather than his own man. I was proud to play the role I did in helping him modernise the Party, run a disciplined and focused campaign, and then establish Labour as a credible party of Government again. And I made some change in the field of political and strategic communications. But its significance is far less than the big policy decisions that have led to real change for the better in the country. I think the question of trust is complex. There are three parts to the equation – politicians, media and public. All three have responsibilities in the restoration of trust in politics.

Aninha Capaldi: What advice can you give us as a small organisation trying to make our voice heard in our media driven society?

Alastair Campbell: Have a very simple message, and be creative in how you communicate it.  Know what you stand for, and know where to go to get a fair hearing.

Aninha Capaldi: Do you ever do God?

Alastair Campbell: I don’t. Your question refers to something I said to an American journalist who was chatting to the Prime Minister on a plane and, I felt, rather outstaying his welcome because we had a lot of work to do. He had covered everything under the sun and when he started on religion, I said "We don’t do God." This took on a life of its own once he wrote his piece. Though it is true, as I said earlier, that the Prime Minister is not keen on talking about his faith to the press, my comment was actually a polite way of telling him the interview was over.

Aninha Capaldi: You have shown a commitment to the battle against Leukaemia. Have you got any personal ideas about how we can make a positive difference in today’s world?

Alastair Campbell: The most important thing is to WANT to make a difference, and to understand that sometimes that can bed one in small ways as well as large. I got a huge sense of personal achievement from running the London Marathon, and also in raising well over 300,000 pounds in the process in memory of my best friend John Merritt and his daughter Ellie, who both died from leukaemia. Will that money make a difference for the better? Who knows? But it might. Now I am in training for a Triathlon and trying to raise the profile of the Leukaemia Research Fund again. Something else that both Fiona and I do since leaving Downing Street is read with children who are behind with their reading in our daughter’s school. Again, maybe it makes a difference, maybe it doesn’t. But on the days when I realise that the little Congolese boy who I read with is improving his reading, I get a real buzz out of that. I’m also involved in a campaign to raise money for Burnley FC, as we have had a lot of money problems and have been close to administration. All very different things, all requiring different responses. But the one thing that unites them is a desire to make a difference in areas that matter to me. I think the voluntary sector is a fantastic thing in the UK. One of the most offensive terms commonly used in our Daily Mail type media is "do gooder." People who want to do good should be supported not derided by a media culture that simultaneously creates and condemns some of the bad things about our society.

Aninha Capaldi: In this issue we take action on sweatshops and exploitation. In your opinion what can be done for politicians to free themselves from the power of multi-nationals? The fact that political parties are funded by big corporations makes it easier for them to influence decisions and policies that benefit them. Is it right that the rich and powerful have the last word and is the freedom and honesty of the press compromised because it is owned by the same corporations?

Alastair Campbell: You have to strike a balance. I don’t buy into the notion that all multi-nationals are terrible. We live in a globalised market economy and a lot of our prosperity flows from that. Child labour is wrong. Exploitation is wrong. On the domestic front, I think the Government has done some good things to deal with workplace abuse, not least a national minimum wage. And the commitment to a fairer deal for the poorest in the world has been strong. On the funding of parties, in a democracy, parties need money to do their work and in part because of the negative messages constantly pumped out against politics by the media, I’m not sure the public will support greater State funding. Also, apathy and cynicism and the pressures on people’s time and money means we have failed in efforts to create truly mass membership parties. So they have to raise money from business and unions and other organisations. The parties of Government have to be careful not to let that influence policy and I believe we have one of the cleanest political systems in the world. As for the press, I think Britain’s debate would certainly benefit from greater diversity of ownership, but that is not something that is easily willed into being. In the end, newspapers are businesses.