This entry was posted on
Monday, October 9th, 2006 at
2:52 pm and is filed
under Tony ‘King Blair.

Independent – Campbell unspun: Spin-doctor reveals battle with depression: Alastair Campbell, one of the chief architects of New Labour and Tony Blair’s trusted communications chief, has revealed for the first time the depths of his struggle with depression – and how he suffered bouts throughout his time working at Downing Street.

Y’know… I’d have a lot more sympathy for the guy if he weren’t responsible for repeated use of the off-the-record “he/she is mentally unbalanced” brief against anyone who falls out with Tony Blair. Yet in this further article he actually has the cheek to claim that he’s concerned about ‘the portrayal of mental illness, especially in the media’… there’s a nice reinforcement of his version of history here, too:

Independent – Exclusive: Campbell on the couch: The whole period of the Hutton inquiry and the tragic death of Dr David Kelly put him under intense strain, which he describes as the “worst period”. “I did feel if the inquiry had gone against us that it would have been grim, really bad. Part of me was thinking about that a lot. Again it was one of those episodes where things spiralled out of control. “Let’s be brutally frank: if it had gone against us… it wasn’t just me who was out of a job, it was Tony. It was a phenomenal pressure. The blood they smelled was mine. “I felt completely confident in relation to the facts. But during the whole period it was a nightmare. And also you are thinking, ‘There’s this guy for whom it’s been such a nightmare he’s killed himself’. The day he died was without doubt the worst day. It was about the sadness that someone felt driven to do this.”

Spare me.

Campbell was out to fuck Gilligan and he fucked him. A man died as a result. Perhaps Alastair Campbell’s path to recovery can begin with accepting some small amount of responsibility for that.

After all, Blair let slip last year that the name was deliberately disclosed (more).