An except from a new biography of Alistair Campbell, Blair's ex-press secretary.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=531680Campbell revelled in upsetting The Guardian by leaking stories on education and health, subjects The Guardian considered its own preserve, to the Mail. Blair told Dacre: "I agree with so much that you say about Europe", and pronounced it "obscene" that the British people should have to pay 40 per cent tax to the state. Downing Street lavished immense energy cultivating right-wing Mail columnists like Simon Heffer, Paul Johnson and Lynda Lee-Potter, the embodiment of Middle England woman.
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Campbell believed that the best way to get back at The Guardian was by hitting the paper commercially. Returning to London from Blackpool after the Labour Party conference of 1998, Ewen MacAskill, the paper's chief political correspondent, found himself sharing a railway carriage with the Downing Street press secretary, who soon went on the offensive. He listed several recent atrocities carried out by The Guardian and then made an extraordinary threat. "If you carry on in this vein," Campbell calmly told him, "we are going to tell our people not to buy you." Campbell indicated to MacAskill - who sent a memo to his editor about this bizarre conversation - that 10-20,000 readers could be knocked off the circulation of The Guardian if the Prime Minister sent out an edict to Labour Party members to boycott the paper.
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As the two journalists waited to be briefed by Campbell on the outcome of the summit, they were suddenly ordered into the waiting Chinook helicopter to prepare to leave. As the helicopter prepared to take off, Campbell clambered aboard. His voice drowned out by the rotors, he motioned to Smith to pass him a pen and paper and spent the flight jotting down notes. When they landed in nearby Banjaluka, where the Prime Minister's plane was waiting to take them all back to London, Campbell ran off, while the reporters made their way to the plane. They were unable to file copy to London as their mobile phones would not work. The Prime Minister's team has rather more effective communications links. An hour or so later, when the PM's plane took off, Campbell called the two journalists to the front of the plane. "I've had to do something a bit unconventional," he told them. "I have filed copy in your joint names announcing that we have nominated George Robertson to be the new secretary general of Nato."
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Once the nomination was announced by PA and Reuters, both renowned for their authority and, crucially, their independence, it was tantamount to an official announcement that Robertson had got the job. Five days later it was duly confirmed by Nato. Robertson's nomination by Campbell effectively sealed his appointment. For Nato to go back on it would cause a major diplomatic row.
What a lovely guy! Great to know that this was the person Blair relied on more than anyone (apart from maybe Bush).
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