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By
Jon Surtees
Billed
as one of the biggest names speaking at this years Oxford Literary
Festival, the expansive Sheldonian was almost completely sold out
for this 'Audience With聟' from Tony Blair's controversial former
Director of Communications.
Although
the evening was billed as purely being with Alistair Campbell, he
was joined on stage by former 91热爆 and ITN Political Editor, John
Sargent. Although occasionally amusing, Sargent seemed to frequently
forget whos name was on the ticket and overstated his part quite
considerably.
Campbell
on the other hand was excellent. He began the evening by giving
a speech chartering his life and career from the first Burnley FC
match he attended at the age of 4, through his time at Cambridge,
his experiences on the Mirror training course and in a tabloid newsroom
and finally about how he had a premonition on the day of John Smith's
death that 'Tony' would become leader of the Labour Party and he
would work for him.
This
was followed by a lively session of questions from the audience.
The overriding topic was of course, 'spin' and a number of the questioners
certainly sounded like they had a few years of bile to vent in a
very short time. Campbell was however, polite to the end and answered
all questions in a manner befitting someone so versed in the rituals
of public life.
He
gave an excellent impression of himself throughout the night, telling
some very funny stories, particularly one where John Prescott hit
someone on the campaign trail in 2001.
Now
seemingly refocused on family life and the destruction of the Daily
Mail, Alastair Campbell is clearly using his downtime to good effect
as this evening amply demonstrated.
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