LIVING in the public eye means always being asked to say you’re sorry. At least that seemed to be the subtext of last Saturday’s Meeting Myself Coming Back (Radio 4), in which John Wilson questioned former New Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell.
You might think Campbell has a lot to say sorry for, of course. But it soon became clear he was not much one for regret and remorse. Were you guilty of bullying behaviour, Wilson asked him at one point?
“I sometimes lose my rag, yeah,” Campbell replied. “Did I occasionally go over the top with individuals? Maybe.”
Wilson pointed out that he had once punched the political journalist Michael White. “Oh, that was years ago,” Campbell protested. “That was when I was a journalist. He was getting on my nerves … But that is, may I say, taking something right out of context.”
The series uses archive clips to give guests the opportunity to reflect on their past. Campbell spent most of the hour playing a straight bat to Wilson’s questions, though he is still clearly angry about the claims by the BBC’s Andrew Gilligan that he “sexed up” the Iraq report about weapons of mass destruction.
Campbell listed the achievements of the Blair government, most notably the Good Friday Agreement. But as Wilson pointed out, Iraq is what it will be judged on.
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As ever, Campbell was most interesting when he was most open and least combative, which came when he talked about his mental health. At 28 he suffered a breakdown while following the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock in Scotland. He was drinking too much at the time, he admits. He ended up hearing voices and driving endlessly around a roundabout.
“I just decided to be very open about what happened. And I’ve never regretted that.”
That’s something he should be commended for, at least.
Listen Out For: Book of the Week, Radio 4, 9.45am, Monday to Friday. Jackie Kay (fresh from her appearance in these pages last weekend) reads from her book about blues singer Bessie Smith.
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