Alastair Campbell

I'm soon to post a piece on CiF about 'New' Labour's relationship with the Murdoch tabloids. In the course of it I'll be quite nice about Alastair Campbell and therefore will declare a family connection. It isn't much of one, but if I don't mention it someone else will. The difficult way to describe it is that my missus's sister's bloke's sister is Alastair's partner. The easier way is that our children have cousins in common. This has meant that over the twelve-or-so years since I first made his acquaintance Alastair and I have attended the same social functions on average probably less than twice a year. Mostly, these gatherings have been dominated by jelly and ice cream. Should anyone imagine they have resulted in my obtaining intimate insights into the workings of the Blair regime then, sadly, I must disappoint them. On the extremely rare occasions when we've discussed politics, Alastair has never dropped his guard. I once asked him which was the PM's favourite Spice Girl. He declined to reveal this vital information: should it get out, he explained, national disunity might ensue.