Alastair's Blog
Response to Stephen Fry suicide interview shows attitudes are slowly changing
Posted on 10 June 2013 | 9:06am
Apparently I have done 19,880 tweets in the few years since I joined the twitter revolution. That seems a lot to me. But I can say without any doubt at all that the one which has had the biggest response, by a long long way, was the one I tweeted on Thursday about Stephen Fry’s [...]
Superb guest blog from a REAL Apprentice
Posted on 7 June 2013 | 3:06pm
I am delighted to post a blog by a young man from Burnley, Matt Seel, who is doing an apprenticeship with the town’s council. He and his fellow apprentices are also taking part in the national competition, the Brathay Apprenticeship Challenge. One of the many elements is to get celebrity endorsement, and to my eternal shame [...]
On Stephen Fry: nobody chooses depression, so let’s not blame for it
Posted on 6 June 2013 | 7:06pm
ITV News asked me to write a blog on depression following Stephen Fry’s latest admission of his latest suicide attempt. Here it is… Stephen Fry hit the nail on the head when he said that people are liable to think ‘why would someone like him be so depressed that he would want to kill himself?’ [...]
Breaking down the taboo surrounding death
Posted on 13 May 2013 | 8:05am
A nice cheery start to the week. Not just any old week, but Dying Matters Awareness Week. Did you not know? It kicks off tonight with the Inaugural Dying Matters Lecture in London, delivered by Professor David Cunningham, and followed by a panel discussion chaired by me, with publisher Gail Rebuck and her daughter Georgia [...]
A New Statesman chat with Alex Ferguson from 2009
Posted on 8 May 2013 | 9:05am
With thanks to those who have posted it on twitter, allowing me to do a quick cut and paste, here is the interview I did with football’s greatest ever manager for The New Statesman a few years back. ‘Alex Ferguson and Alastair Campbell have been friends for many years. One is the greatest manager in [...]
The power of the human spirit in a marathon is greater than a bomb
Posted on 16 April 2013 | 1:04pm
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The Right’s politicisation of Margaret Thatcher’s death, part two
Posted on 11 April 2013 | 1:04pm
As I said yesterday, I spent Monday driving down from Scotland, listening to hour upon hour of coverage about Mrs Thatcher’s death. When the news was announced that David Cameron was cutting short his meetings with European leaders to return to London, I thought ‘why?’ The answer is perhaps becoming clearer. What would he, as [...]
MPs must surely (if respectfully) DEBATE the Thatcher legacy today, not merely pay tribute
Posted on 10 April 2013 | 7:04am
If there is one thing Margaret Thatcher liked it was a good argument; and if there was one place where she felt those arguments should be held, it was in the House of Commons. So whilst it is right and proper that MPs pay genuine respect to her strengths and achievements in Parliament today, and [...]
Time for a rethink on standing at football
Posted on 1 April 2013 | 11:04am
Posting this piece, which was published on The Guardian’s Comment Is Free this morning, as I watch both home and away ends at Stamford Bridge standing, without apparent risk or inconvenience. – To any football fan who fancies an interesting, neutral weekend away, take a look at the Bundesliga fixtures, and take a trip to [...]
Why I chose my ten favourite twitterers
Posted on 21 March 2013 | 9:03am
I was asked by twitter to give them a message for their seventh ‘birthday’ and select my ten favourite twitterers. My message for twitter is ‘I like twitter because it enables people to create their own media landscape. I hope it does not become too commercial.’ And here are my top ten, as just tweeted, [...]

The Burden of Power