• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

If You Have High Blood Pressure and a Dodgy Ticker, Steer Clear of Alastair Campbell’s Twitter Account

by Dr David McGrogan
12 March 2023 6:00 PM

Amid all the brouhaha concerning what a former Tottenham Hotspur striker had to say about Government policy, it is an interesting exercise to scan through Alastair Campbell’s Twitter account to see what he thinks of it all. It makes instructive reading. Apparently, this is all the fault of Boris Johnson’s “corruption of the apparatus of state” (because of, er… *checks notes*… Brexit). It’s also, purportedly, indicative of BBC Chairman Richard Sharp’s “indecency”. What has happened to Nagoya Grampus Eight’s former No 10 is “so wrong”. Campbell feels so strongly about these matters that he even recorded an “emergency podcast” with the crisp salesman last night.

The spectacle of Alastair Campbell opining about the meaning of words like ‘decency’, ‘corruption’ and ‘wrong’ is one which would not seem out of place in a Kurt Vonnegut novel, were the satire not so patently obvious. That he is doing so almost 20 years to the day since the invasion of Iraq was launched is so rich with irony that it barely seems credible. Is he really so lacking in self-awareness?

For younger readers, perhaps this needs spelling out: Britain’s participation in the invasion of Iraq took place largely on the basis of a ‘Dodgy Dossier’ compiled, in part, by Alastair Campbell, then Tony Blair’s Director of Communications and Strategy. The Dossier contained misrepresentations about Saddam Hussein’s purported “weapons of mass destruction” programme, which it turned out did not exist – and he was also involved in producing the so-called ‘September Dossier’ of 2002 to make sure the Government’s assessment of Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” programme aligned with the views of George W. Bush and his administration. To add a further layer of dramatic absurdity, in 2003 he launched his own mini-war against the BBC, having decided (in his own words) to “fuck” Beeb journalist Andrew Gilligan for daring to report the views of Dr. David Kelly, a biological weapons expert who did not think the claim in the ‘Dodgy Dossier’ that Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” were deployable in 45 minutes was credible.

In other words, Campbell may have done more to destroy the British public’s trust in their political leaders than any other figure has in the last 25 years – and who must shoulder some of the responsibility for Britain’s participation in a disastrous war. He also, not incidentally, displayed little regard for the BBC and its values during the many years in which he was in office in his various roles at the heart of government. The fact that he has somehow managed to launder himself in the eyes of the left-liberal Twitterati establishment by hating Brexit and Boris and adopting various Correct Opinions about the issues of the day says more about the ignorance and moral frivolity of those people than pretty much anything else. It is, to coin a phrase, ‘so wrong’.

What is there to be said about a society in which Campbell not only emerged relatively unscathed for his part in leading Britain into a disastrous war, but in which he is able to win praise and adulation from the ‘great and good’ merely for parroting their midwitted views whenever he gets the opportunity? I genuinely have no idea – except that, if our civilisation does indeed go into interminable decline (as seems increasingly likely), future historians will doubtless conclude that we thoroughly deserved it.

Dr. David McGrogan is Associate Professor of Law at Northumbria Law School.

Tags: Alastair CampbellDodgy DossierGary LinekerIraq WarTony Blair

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Why the Lineker Saga Will Accelerate the BBC’s Demise

Next Post

News Round-Up

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour’s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK Trade Deal and Canada’s Ignored Covid Vaccine Injuries

by Richard Eldred
9 May 2025
4

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Hugely Influential Covid Vaccine Study Claiming the Jabs Saved Millions of Lives Torn to Shreds in Medical Journal

10 May 2025
by Dr Raphael Lataster

NHS Nurse “Forced Out for Mocking Trans Flag” to Sue Hospital

10 May 2025
by Will Jones

Major British Chemical Plant Faces Closure as Energy Prices Soar

10 May 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

11 May 2025
by Will Jones

Teenage Girl Banned by the Football Association For Asking Transgender Opponent “Are You a Man?” Wins Appeal With Help of Free Speech Union

10 May 2025
by Toby Young

Hugely Influential Covid Vaccine Study Claiming the Jabs Saved Millions of Lives Torn to Shreds in Medical Journal

27

News Round-Up

23

Major British Chemical Plant Faces Closure as Energy Prices Soar

16

Teenage Girl Banned by the Football Association For Asking Transgender Opponent “Are You a Man?” Wins Appeal With Help of Free Speech Union

22

News Round-Up

55

Declined: Chapter 18: The Unthinkable

11 May 2025
by Molly Kingsley

The Backlash to the War Against Boys

11 May 2025
by Noah Carl

Hugely Influential Covid Vaccine Study Claiming the Jabs Saved Millions of Lives Torn to Shreds in Medical Journal

10 May 2025
by Dr Raphael Lataster

Reflections on Empire, Papacy and States

10 May 2025
by James Alexander

Ed Miliband’s Housing Energy Plan Will Decimate the Rental Market and Send Rents Spiralling

10 May 2025
by Ben Pile

POSTS BY DATE

March 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Feb   Apr »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences