Alastair's Blog

It is easy to feel that anything or anyone would do a better job than Silvio Berlusconi, but I can’t help feeling a bit uneasy about the installation of the new ‘technocrat’ government in Italy. No democratic system is perfect, but to see a government of a major ‘democracy’ take shape, without a single elected [...]

If anyone has had enough of my tributes to Philip Gould, I will not be offended if you surf immediately to another website. But I feel I should say something about his funeral yesterday, where a packed All Saints church in London W1 said farewell to one of the key architects of New Labour, and [...]

Another sad death in the political world today, with the news of the passing of the Labour MP for Feltham and Heston, Alan Keen. I first got to know Alan when he and his wife Ann, also an MP, were part of the close circle of friends around Neil and Glenys Kinnock when Neil was [...]

A brief word on the conference on addiction I spoke at in Ireland yesterday, and the visit to Toranfield House, which helps recovering addicts. First though, a tourism plug. County Wicklow has some fabulous scenery, and the autumnal colours were sublime. When I had my recovering from addiction spell many years ago, I could have [...]

I was speaking at a dinner last night to businessmen and women who know a lot more about how the economy works than I do. So I was a bit alarmed to see how many were nodding along when I suggested that what was happening in the eurozone was, frankly, downright scary. Most situations described [...]

With thanks to The Guardian for asking me to pen a tribute to Philip for today’s paper, and thanks also for the headline, below is the piece I wrote. Yesterday was a pretty wretched day for his many friends, but the reactions of so many people to his passing were wonderful, and brought a lot [...]

Even when he entered what he called ‘the death zone’, Philip Gould brought hope and happiness to others – not accidentally, but deliberately, as one of his final, and selfless, acts of strategy. He was constantly asking himself not just how to make things easier for his wife Gail, and their daughters Georgia and Grace, [...]

Fiona and I are on the way to Manchester for a dinner to celebrate Alex Ferguson’s 25th anniversary as Manchester United manager. Partly in response to a few tweets and messages asking why I hadn’t blogged on this milestone, and partly because it will help the journey speed by, I thought I would give you [...]

I suppose our leaders have to do that smiling thing as they arrive at summits (though I can’t think they and we would all be happier if a lot of the ceremonials were scrapped, the trumpeteers confined to barracks, and the leaders just got on with the business of trying to rescue the world economy). [...]

Did the word ‘referendum’ cross anyone’s mind, let alone anyone’s lips, at the eurozone crisis summit last week? It certainly didn’t appear in any of the coverage I read. Could it be, once more, that the desire to get the big picture back in focus – not an ignoble objective – led to eyes being [...]