But What Can I Do?: Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It

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I ask Campbell whether he agrees with his erstwhile Clinton-era counterpart and political strategist, James Carville, that campaigning is a sacred mix of labour and love.

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People, he suggests, are always coming up to him, either to blame him for New Labour’s failings, or else to ask what “we” can do to improve things. Later in 2003, commenting on WMDs in Iraq, Campbell said, "Come on, you don't seriously think we won't find anything? For all his vociferous partisanship, which remains undimmed by the years, he insists that the country cannot be turned around with an election win by itself. He announced this after the polls had closed in interviews on TV and radio covering the results as they came in. At the opening of the edition, presenter David Dimbleby said that the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition would not allow a frontbench member of the government to appear on the show unless Campbell was dropped.Subsequent press coverage of the book's release included coverage of what Campbell had chosen to leave out, particularly in respect of the relationship between Blair and his chancellor and successor Gordon Brown. He has published six volumes of diaries, including the number one Sunday Times bestseller, The Blair Years, a memoir on depression, The Happy Depressive, and three novels. It is about how vast the gulf feels between the politics we see played out across Parliament and the Westminster media, and the reality of people’s lives.

But What Can I Do? In conversation with Alastair Campbell

I am part of that moving dial, along with two-thirds of affiliated trade unions and a majority of members. The first is an analysis of how we got to this state of affairs, with the global financial crisis a key moment, and the 3Ps of the modern age, populism, polarisation and post-truth politics, exploited by opportunistic politicians around the world to change the nature of political debate in a way that threatens to undermine democracy itself. Campbell later put this down to stress over uncertainty as to whether he and his colleagues would lose their jobs. You can’t help but read it in Alastair’s voice, especially if you have listened to the amazing podcast hosted with Rory Stewart.

Starting with England rugby player Maro Itoje and former athlete turned sports politician Sebastian Coe. His first published work was Inter-City Ditties, his winning entry to a readers' competition in Forum, the journalistic counterpart to Penthouse magazine.

What Can I Do?: Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How But What Can I Do?: Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How

I remember David Blunkett coming for dinner and I overheard a conversation between him and my daughter Grace. Campbell clashed with Adam Boulton on Sky News about the result of the 2010 general election, with the latter being reduced to shouting over both Campbell and the show's presenter. Too few young people in elected positions; too many places where majorities are so large for one party or another as to be undentable; and policy skewed towards older people because politicians know they are more likely to vote. Campbell seems to be writing this from somewhere close to the end of his tether, furious that the current Government has tainted politics so thoroughly that voters might feel it best to disengage entirely, for ever.I had for more than a decade operated under a level of pressure that, my GP once told me, most people would not tolerate for a day or a week, let alone a year or a decade. He then moved to the post of Prime Minister's Director of Communications, which gave him a strategic role in overseeing government communications. Yet whenever I look at my inbox or visit a school or college, or chat to fellow passengers on a train or plane, I also sense so much energy, so much commitment, so much passion for better causes and ideas. To find out more about Policy Lab and get the latest news events, sign up for their newsletter here. The book that has had the biggest impact on me recently is The Revenge of Power, by the former Venezuelan minister Moisés Naím.