How Would Alastair Campbell Redesign the Political System? | With Beth Rigby (Part 4)

The Rest is Politics star and political strategist joins us to confront policies that serve the interests of a privileged few, and answer the question so many of us want answered: ‘But what can I do?’
Our politics is a mess. We have leaders who can’t or shouldn’t be allowed to lead. We endure governments that lie and seek to undermine our democratic values. It’s no surprise that so many of us feel frustrated. But what can we, as individuals, actually do about it?
It’s a question regularly posed to Alastair Campbell, not least in reaction to The Rest is Politics, the chart-topping podcast he presents with former Tory Cabinet minister Rory Stewart. His answer, typically, is forthright and impassioned. We cannot afford to stand on the sidelines. If we think things need to change, then we need to change them, and that means getting involved.
Live on stage in London, he will teach us how we can develop our skills of advocacy and persuasion. Drawing on his long experience, he will offer practical tips for developing confidence, coping with setbacks, and leading a team: in short, a masterclass in becoming a political player. It’s an unmissable event for anyone who wants to make a difference.
Alastair Campbell was official spokesman and director of communications and strategy in Tony Blair’s government from 1994 to 2003. He continued to act as an advisor to the Labour Party during subsequent election campaigns. A consultant writer, strategist and broadcaster, he is still engaged in politics in Britain and overseas. He is also a leading advocate in the field of mental health, and co-presenter of the UK’s most popular podcast of 2022, The Rest Is Politics. Campbell’s first book, The Blair Years, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. He has since published eight volumes of diaries, a book on the Northern Ireland peace process, four novels, two memoirs on living with depression, including the bestseller Living Better, and Winners, which also went straight to Number One in the Sunday Times charts.
Beth Rigby has worked as a political journalist for over a decade, covering four general elections, the Scottish independence and EU referendums, all the twists and turns of Brexit, the Covid pandemic and the recent run of Conservative prime ministers. Beth also hosts a flagship interview show for Sky News, interviewing big names from all walks of life, from leading politicians such as Hillary Clinton, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to prominent figures in our national life from actor Emma Thompson to Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson. She also hosts a weekly podcast, Beth Rigby Interviews. Before joining Sky, Beth worked as a newspaper journalist for nearly two decades at The Times and Financial Times, where she held a variety of positions including media editor, deputy political editor and consumer industries editor.

[@bipolarminddroppings]

The class Alastair is talking about is called Civics. The study of government, governance, society and citizenship. And it should be mandatory in a democracy.

[@himoffthequakeroatbox4320]

inb4 _yeBbuTnoBut it'S nOt uSefOoW fOr jOb's iNNit._

[@davidcarr2216]

Absolutely right about the confidence boost from private education, it's the No 1 thing they do. Great series of interviews with AC, Beth.

[@stephenholmes1036]

Put Campbell in front of an audience of ex service personnel, railway workers, teachers , blue collar workers. Lets see if he'd be so dismissive of them ! Oh sorry he doesnt speak to us

[@ianbanks3016]

He makes the case that Johnson should be ashamed to show his face in public and he couldn't possibly do it. Granted, Johnson was a liar and an awful PM and I'm glad to see him gone, but let's not forget Campbell's role in lying the country into a war that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, yet he seems pretty ok showing his face in public. Pot, Kettle, and Black spring to mind.

[@TheGatesOfFire]

It's easy to be a workaholic when your work doesn't involve any physical work. It's great wanting other people to not work any less, just in case you might have to do some of that hard work in their place. Go join the tories already.

[@glenstevenson9274]

Something got to change. We can't go on like this

[@conah9440]

I'll watch this with little hope of getting an answer to the question that attracted me to watch. MSM have been baiting peoples interest with this question forever... drum roll please! Edit! 1. MP's elected "differently" 2. Public education 3. Half elected 2nd chamber. I'm inspired.

[@hyksos74]

2. Political education

[@camillacahill2250]

The prawn cocktail comment. Was that a Roy Kean comment regarding Boxes at socker matches?

[@snakesandpsychology]

If anyone's interested, I daresy Beth's lipstick is one of Lisa Eldridge's velvet collection.

[@Frederik_uk]

I invented a word not too dissimilar not long before this. "Permasilience" was more about being unwaveringly resilient. Perseviliance seems like what I was aiming for.. funny that.

[@JelMain]

Beth's very distinctive voice got her blacklisted in my personal hate crimes book over the Sabisky departure. It wasn't so much the mob behaviour as the actual hatred of geeks like me.

[@doomjuan4892]

And how many people tuned in to this video Alistair? 2.4k .

[@lucasdolding6924]

It was just uploaded you cretin, it's more than doubled since you commented. The first part of this series has 40k views.

[@lobintool]

Alastair Campbell eh? The man who's only legacy will be to go down history as the person who sold us "The Dodgy Dossier"! Yet another politician who has "failed upwards"....now has the audacity to preach about morals and ethics! Do me a favour!

[@himoffthequakeroatbox4320]

@@abitmorerational _Sir_ Jimmy Savile, if you don't mind. You should know, it was your team that knighted him.

[@himoffthequakeroatbox4320]

* who's -> whose

[@lobintool]

Well . done you pointed out a mistake in my spelling, good for you! Can we get get back to what is really going on?

[@JupiterThunder]

He has the deaths of 1 million Iraqis on his conscience, or should have, he criticises Johnson for lying, but his dossier was the biggest lie of all

[@hughcaskey9542]

Campbell couldn’t redesign a roll of toilet paper

[@rezakarampour6286]

' Alan Sabrosky : Israel Writing US Law . '

[@michaels8638]

the problem with politics today is everyone wants their own view with very little room to compromise, partly because the depth of reform needed is so deep. The far left are so far away from liberalism that it will be hard to get acceptance from the current Labour leadership. We have all seen the same depth of disagreement within the conservatives fractures and their unwillingness to compromise, which has doomed them to possibly the 3rd party in politics, after the election. So if Labour leadership cannot find a way to move a bit further to the left or change the system with some radical reform then the same problems may do to the Labour Party that we’ve seen in the conservatives. For me we need to see something radically different to re-engage the country’s belief in a failing democracy.

[@himoffthequakeroatbox4320]

tl;dr Labour should do something crazy to make middle England shit themselves so the Toerags win again.

[@hanric2000]

He seems such a chauvinist, where does she buy her lipstick, it isn’t funny at all.

[@jasonkingshott2971]

Blair's Liar-in-Chief.

[@derekmalaney6945]

This is gross

[@glenstevenson9274]

Tony Blair reduced civil liberties . We're do people get this from .I'd say this lot worse

[@luecool7048]

Really???

[@rhydyard]

Answer? Very very badly!!?😱

[@luecool7048]

Lol

[@ogribiker8535]

So your opinion is fact now ?

[@user-ye8fu1pc2y]

Ugh, he's just such an awful man. I don't know why people consume his books and podcasts.

[@jackthemac132]

he's very intelligent

[@ogribiker8535]

Because it's one of the best non adversary political podcasts out there.

[@bipolarminddroppings]

What is so awful about him? What did he say in this particular video that you think is awful? I am willing to bet you didn't even watch it, and if you did, you didn't actually listen to what he said, you just heard what you wanted to hear. Grow the fuck up. People you disagree with arent bad people. In fact, you are the bad person in this situation.

[@audreymcgready4329]

Because everyone is entitled to their own opinion. That's why.

[@PFB-yo6wi]

@@abitmorerational How so? He was not an MP. He had no voting powers. Blair did that................