Alastair Campbell has rounded on the brilliant satirist Armando Iannucci for accepting an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
‘So @Alannucci OBE joins the Establishment he claims to deride. Malcolm Tucker and I do not approve of honours system,’ he twittered.
Tucker (pictured) is, of course, Iannucci’s hilarious, foul-mouthed creation from BBC2’s The Thick Of It, quite clearly based on Alastair Campbell.
But is Campbell quite so anti-Establishment and anti-honours as he claims? A trawl through recent published diaries and other documents by himself and others suggests not. Believe it or not, these are all accurate quotations, and not, as you might think, the product either of Iannucci’s imagination, or, indeed, my own:
1 ‘Soames then said he “wanted out”. Asked me to ask Alastair to get Blair to make him ambassador in Paris — “it’s mine by descent . . . etc.”’
Alan Clark diaries, December 8, 1997
2 ‘I ran into Alan Clark, who said Nicholas Soames would give up his seat if we could get him the Paris embassy. Couldn’t tell if he was joking.’
Alastair Campbell diaries, December 8, 1997
3 ‘Gratifyingly, Alastair came on the phone for 35 minutes on Friday night (twice offered me a peerage, incidentally).’
Alan Clark diaries, December 4, 1998
Alastair Campbell was a guest at David Frost's summer party, where he was seen chatting 'conspiratorially' with General Mike Jackson4 ‘I went to David Frost’s annual summer garden party for the first time last night. I’d only got about ten yards inside when I bumped into Alastair chatting conspiratorially to General Mike Jackson.’
Piers Morgan diaries, July 4, 2003
5 David Frost's summer party. Huge mix of big political figures, media, business, lots of the Frost interviewees... Peter M working his way round. Imran Khan and Jemima Goldsmith. Conrad Black. Stewart Steven. Lord Stevens. Andrew Neil. Alan Yentob of course.
Alastair Campbell diaries, July 5, 1995
6 ‘ . . . met Fiona and we went to David Frost’s party at Carlyle Square. There were very few Labour people there, Leo and Margaret Beckett the only obvious ones. Loads of Tories. Cecil (Parkinson) was very nice and full of good advice — don’t totally cut off your enemies and don’t forget your friends.
‘(Norman) Tebbit was full of beans. He said he had been with Austin Mitchell today who said New Labour was autocratic. Tebbit said: “No, it’s aristocratic and the main aristos are TB and AC.” ’
Alastair Campbell diaries, July 2 1996
More... 'Brown is brilliant but bonkers': Campbell's diaries reveal how Blair feared successor was 'hell-bent' on his destruction Campbell in Twitter row with Iannucci OBE as The Thick of It comedy writer attacks his role in the Iraq war Campbell's diaries tell how Bush threatened to 'get rid of' Iain Duncan Smith if he failed to back Blair over Iraq
7 ‘We then left for a meeting with Prince Charles on board Britannia. He strikes me as a fairly decent bloke . . .’
Alastair Campbell diaries, June 30 1997
8 ‘There was a bizarre scene during a break, in the gents. Several leaders, including Clinton, TB, Prodi, Kok and Kohl, were all having a pee in a row of stand-up urinals. Clinton turned around and said: “Isn’t this the greatest picture that was never taken?”’
Alastair Campbell diaries, Nato summit, July 8, 1997, subtitled ‘The world’s greatest power-pee’.
Margaret Beckett - one of the few Labour attendees at David Frost's summer party9 ‘Alan Clark called for advice, with the latest on his sex life having simmered away and now calming down a bit. I got a sneaking feeling though that he was enjoying the attention again, and the notion of himself as a great womaniser forever getting into major scrapes.
‘He said he had hired George Carman (QC, top libel lawyer). I said these people are really just posh Max Cliffords. Brilliant, he said, posh Max Cliffords!
‘I said be careful, because your interest is in getting this thing buried and forgotten. A lawyer might see the benefit of getting the whole thing to court. Good advice, he said, toodle-pip, and off he went.’
Alastair Campbell diaries, June 5, 1994
10 ‘Alastair Campbell is joining the public relations agency Portland...
The former communications director to Tony Blair joins Portland as a strategic consultant and will work alongside its founder and his one-time No 10 deputy, Tim Allan... “I have had plenty of offers since I left Downing Street to join PR consultancies or go in-house. It was not something I ever thought, to be honest, that I would do,” he said.
‘Campbell said he will be involved in advising Portland’s big-name clients, which include Google, Coca-Cola and GlaxoSmithKline.
Strategy: Alastair Campbell has joined political PR company Portland, joining former Downing Street officials‘He now joins former Downing Street officials Martin Sheehan and Mark Flanagan at the London PR agency, as well as the ex-Tory MP Michael Portillo.
‘Campbell added: “I’m not sure when I was in No 10 that I ever thought I would be working alongside Michael Portillo but then I think even Michael will admit he’s changed his outlook more than I have.”
The Guardian, May 23, 2012
