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194. Is Putin Losing his Grip on Russia?

With war fatigue growing and polls showing increasing dissatisfaction with life in Russia, is Vladimir Putin beginning to lose control? What is really happening inside Russia today? And what is it lik... Continue

Cameron’s judgement an issue; but inquiry will now go deeper than if press had listened to critics before

Just as News International threw Andy Coulson to the wolves in advance of last week's PMQs, so at yesterday's the PM did the same. In truth however, if Mr Cameron's former communications director 'tu... Continue

14 July 2011

My theory on happiness – we can only know if we have found it when we reach the end

With barely a mention of phonehacking (but a nice line on the Mail) here by popular(ish) twitterdemand is the speech on happiness I made at Birmingham University last night. It was the Baggs Memorial... Continue

13 July 2011

The press furore won’t swing an election, but it will change the nature of the debate to Labour’s benefit

Time for the blog to take a little breather from phonehacking, with three little scenes from yesterday which combined to lift my mood from the general media putrescence in which we have been swimming.... Continue

12 July 2011

Time and chance for a new settlement between politics, media and public – we should all seize it

In 2009 I attended the wedding of News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks. The ceremony took place by a lake, at a country estate. I stood next to TV presenter Piers Morgan, while Paul Dacre... Continue

11 July 2011

Sunday papers show Cameron, Yates, Murdoch and Mail still don’t really get it

With my usual thanks to the Labour Party media monitoring department for their excellent summary of the press, a few points before I settle down to a cup of coffee in front of Ed Miliband on Andrew Ma... Continue

10 July 2011

Steve Coogan spot on in asking where Paul Dacre is in all this. But his time is surely coming

I don't know Steve Coogan but I thought he did a very good job on Newsnight last night, in particular in seeking to make sure the focus from the phonehacking scandal is not just restricted to the News... Continue

9 July 2011

The day I tried to talk to David Cameron about doing some of the things he announced today

Apart from his weakness over BSkyB, David Cameron - finally - said and did a lot of the right things in his opening statement at his press conference today. Once the questions got under way, however,... Continue

8 July 2011

Clegg must win the fight for a tough inquiry into press standards

Greetings from Burnley where the rain has just started to fall on the Turf Moor pitch and the first meeting of the advisory board of the new University and College of Football Business is about to beg... Continue

7 July 2011

Alastair Campbell is a writer, communicator and strategist best known for his role as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, press secretary and director of communications and strategy. Still active in politics and campaigns in Britain and overseas, he now splits his time between writing, speaking, broadcasting, charities and consultancy.