Latest Alastair Campbell Quotes from Interviews

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• I feel like thanking Paul Dacre every time, because the reason they ask me is because they think I've come through the other end with a pretty good reputation. Loads of people get a bad press but have a good reputation. [David] Beckham - think what he went through. [Bill] Clinton, likewise. You just have to be true to yourself.

  Alastair Campbell

  Thinking, People, Bills

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• I do think it's strange that I get associated with Iraq more than the people who were Foreign Secretary or Defence Secretary. It's because of my closeness to Tony [Blair], which I don't regret at all. I think that was a privilege.

  Alastair Campbell

  Regret, Thinking, Iraq

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• I have a nightmare about Tony [Blair] and Gordon [Brown] killing each other. Not every month, but now and then. I also have a recurring dream about losing.

  Alastair Campbell

  Dream, Months, Killing Each Other

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• Tony's [Blair] convinced I'm going to find God. I do have spiritual moments, but I don't think it's God.

  Alastair Campbell

  Spiritual, Thinking, Moments

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• All of this is happening because there has still been no reckoning post the financial crisis. So governments have fallen, one bloke has been to prison, the banks have gone pretty well back to status quo, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. And it's fuelling anger. And somehow [Donald] Trump, who represents the worst aspects of capitalism, has persuaded people he can deal with that.

  Alastair Campbell

  Government, People, Gone

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• Sometimes Jonathan [Powell] and myself would go to Tony [Blair] and ask him if he was absolutely sure about this or that. That was our job. But ultimately it was his decision.

  Alastair Campbell

  Jobs, Decision, Sometimes

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• I never met David Kelly, but I knew from what he told other people that this was not his view. The BBC were saying that Tony Blair was making up lies so that he could send young men and women to war, maybe to die. I think that if the BBC had done their jobs professionally, they'd have realised that you couldn't justify what they said. And nothing has emerged since to justify that report.

  Alastair Campbell

  Jobs, Lying, War

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• Greg Dyke is on record as saying that once the BBC was attacked, it was their job to defend themselves. But that is not their job.

  Alastair Campbell

  Jobs, Dykes, Records

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• Paul Keating told us before we were elected that you can do deals with [Rupert] Murdoch without saying you were doing a deal. Did we do that kind of thing? Maybe. But from around about the turn of the century, I felt strongly that we had to do something about media ownership and self-regulation. Tony [Blair] disagreed.

  Alastair Campbell

  Self, Media, Regulation

  Source: www.independent.co.uk

• For all that the papers would say I was a liar, I took the words I was saying at briefings as seriously as Tony Blair took what he would say at the Despatch Box. I find it very difficult not to tell the truth. I felt I was accountable for what I said.

  Alastair Campbell

  Liars, Paper, Telling The Truth

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• He [Tony Blair] was always ambivalent about the [Rupert] Murdoch papers. But he gave other papers the chance to believe it was just about 'The Independent.' And that was wrong.

  Alastair Campbell

  Believe, Independent, Paper

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• As Tony [Blair] said in his book, Gordon [Brown] was brilliant and impossible. If he'd just been one of those things, the options are obvious.

  Alastair Campbell

  Book, Impossible, Brilliant

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• If you look at the other people around at the time - Charles Clarke, Alistair Darling, Jack Straw - they've all gone. And they're not old. What's happened is that someone who is quite old - Jeremy Corbyn - is now leader. We have to take some responsibility for that.

  Alastair Campbell

  Responsibility, People, Leader

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• Tony [Blair] slowly sucked me back in for the 2005 campaign, and from six months out, I was basically working full time trying to keep the Tony[Blair] - Gordon[Brown] thing together for the campaign. It was awful.

  Alastair Campbell

  Trying, Together, Six

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• I remember talking to Alex Ferguson about Tony [Blair] and Gordon [Brown], and he said: "Why doesn't Tony just get rid of him?" But if you sack someone in football, they can't turn up to training the next day. In politics they're still on the pitch. Gordon would still have been a big player.

  Alastair Campbell

  Football, Player, Next Day

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• This may sound arrogant, but I believe that if we'd done teamship better, we'd still be there. Where we fell down was the inability to hold together. We should have learnt from the great football teams. The players may not like each other. They have egos, they have their own ambitions, they have different personalities, but they are still bloody good teams.

  Alastair Campbell

  Football, Team, Believe

  "NewsPeople Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.

• What concerns me is that the Independent is going, and there are job cuts at the Guardian, but the wretched Daily Mail is still rampant, making lots of money by millions of people clicking on pictures of cellulited women. I think that's sad.

  Alastair Campbell

  Jobs, Independent, Cutting

  "Alastair Campbell on spin, Iraq and a recurring nightmare about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown". Interview with Simon Kelner, www.independent.co.uk. March 25, 2016.