Wednesday, October 02, 2013

The original swivel-eyed loon

Amazing how people see what they want to see. Last night I watched Alastair Campbell perform in his usual, obnoxious, rude, aggressive and vile way on Newsnight.
He had a go at the deputy editor of the Daily Mail, Jon Steafel, in the row over whether Ed Miliband’s Communist father “hated” Britain and damned editor Paul Dacre.
Steafel was calmness itself. Polite, tolerant, intelligent, measured. Campbell – with no sense of irony – accused the paper of “bullying”.
Yet this spat is now being reported as “Alastair Campbell Demolishes Daily Mail's Jon Steafel” (Huffington Post).
Isn’t Tony Blair’s former spin doctor now thoroughly discredited? Why is he trotted out by his thoroughly intimidated victims in the BBC at every opportunity? How can anyone see his abominable rant as anything other than the splenetic late splutterings of an extinct volcano?
If anyone is not sure which side to choose in the war of Ed’s dad then Campbell’s ravings are enough to drive most of us into the arms of the newspaper.