The Burden of Power: Countdown to Iraq - The Alastair Campbell Diaries Read Online Free

Most of the memoirs, biographies and autobiographies of our time in government have been written with the benefit of hindsight, and some of them to suit a single view or perspective. I hope that one of the advantages of a diary from the centre, in terms of its potential contribution to historical debate and analysis, is the lack of such hindsight.
    This volume brings to an end the detailed daily account of my time working for TB, in opposition and in government. I have kept a diary ever since, continue to do so and one day may publish my post-Number 10 diaries, where from a slightly different perspective I took part in and recorded two more election campaigns, between them the transition from one PM to another, and many of the ups and downs along the way, as I sought to build a different sort of life, but found myself drawn back in again and again. Re-reading this volume now, and gathering the impressions of those who have read it during the editorial process, I do understand why some people ask the question: ‘Why on earth did you go back to help GB?’ I understand too why they point to some passages and say it was obvious he was not temperamentally suited to the job of prime minister, or to leading Labour through a general election campaign. But look elsewhere, and it is not quite so evident. He had huge residual strengths and a political appeal which made him hard to resist when, despite all the differences between the Blair and Brown teams, as Prime Minister he was asking me, Peter Mandelson and Philip Gould to return to the fold to help him out in the run-up to the last election. Peter Mandelson returned full time, and full on, back in the Cabinet. Partly because of my views on the Lords, and partly because I didn’t want to go back full time to the front line, I turned down the offer of a peerage and ministerial post but did go back to help plan the election campaign, and support GB during it. And despite being ill for much of the time, Philip made his usual big contribution on polling and strategy. As Philip wrote in his revised
Unfinished Revolution
, published shortly before his death last November, I had predicted a hung Parliament from some way out. For much of the campaign, however, I had felt the Tories were on their way towards securing a majority, and I think we surprised ourselves in preventing them from getting one. But when, after several days of post-election wrangling, the time finally came for Gordon to leave Downing Street for Buckingham Palace to offer his resignation to the Queen, I did get the very strong feeling that, politically, we had for the time being run our course. Shortly before, he spoke on the telephone to TB, from the desk in the corner of his office. It was my old office, which he had taken over when he turned 12 Downing Street into what he believed was a more modern set-up for a PM. As he and Tony chatted, Peter Mandelson and I sat and listened. All of the relationships had been tested at times, but there remained a togetherness of sorts, and certainly the sense of a remarkable shared journey that changed Britain, and British politics, for good and, in my view, for the better.
    That moment also reminded me of another insight that has deepened with time and experience: that politics, at its best, is a team game. TB once said we were at our best when we were at our boldest. In what was widely seen as a dig at New Labour, by way of response GB said we were at our best when we were Labour. I felt we were always at our best when we were together, united, pulling in the same direction. When it happened, it felt like we were unstoppable. But it didn’t happen all of the time; far from it.
    Whenever I was under the cosh, my mother-in-law was fond of reminding me of the old Harry Truman quote, ‘If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.’ But friendship in politics is possible, and can be real. Teamship is vital. It is because Philip Gould was both a great friend and a great team player