There are some heroes in this book. Campbell is entranced by really famous and powerful people. This means that Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both get uncritical and even adulatory treatment. Campbell’s conversations with George W. Bush about their common interests in alcoholism and marathon running (which dominate the account of the meeting at Crawford, Texas in early 2002 where, as we now know, the decision to invade Iraq was effectively agreed) are of keen interest. The Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson enters the scene from time to time, dispensing folksy wisdom. Princess Diana, who fascinated Alastair Campbell, brings out some of his best writing. He notes how at a dinner party with the Princess shortly before the 1997 election, Tony Blair ‘couldn’t work out whether to flirt with her, or treat her like he would a visiting dignitary’.
These diaries need to be treated with caution. It goes without saying that all diarists provide a one-sided and partial account of events. But Campbell, even more than most, cannot be trusted. In the words of the High Court judge Sir Maurice Drake, Campbell is not ‘by any means a wholly satisfactory or convincing witness’. This characteristic — already apparent in 1994, when Sir Maurice made his judgment — has only grown more apparent over time. As press secretary he would regularly deny things that were true, and positively state those that were not. I once asked Campbell whether he was keeping a diary, and I remember him glibly assuring me that he was not doing anything of the sort.
In his entry for 8 June 2003, Campbell records that he did not apologise to intelligence chiefs in the wake of the publication of the dodgy dossier. In fact he did exactly that, as his own evidence to the intelligence and security committee (given a few weeks later) was to make abundantly plain. ‘Alastair Campbell confirmed that,’ as the ISC document sombrely records, ‘he telephoned both the Chief of the SIS and the JIC chairman to apologise.’ Since this diary was at the time being kept as a private record, it is hard to know who Campbell was trying to deceive.
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