Alastair Campbell's memoirs - the unexpurgated version

[threaded]

The parties already know for most areas who will be the winner, these are the 'safe seats', so they put their chosen person in these positions, and the other parties generally field an also ran.

In general terms the man at the top of the party gets the safest seat, and then on down the ranks.

So the small group who are potentially going to form the next government are already self selected before you vote.

The vote then only determines which of the two groups gets into power.

And that group is determined in the swing seats, which are staffed with the less able ranks from the parties.

[Doggy Styles]

You say that like you get a choice.

It is the illusion of freewill that those in charge impart that you're struggling to come to terms with.

Once you understand that it all becomes quite clear.

I don't really understand what you are getting at.

You either have people who lead or you have total anarchy.

If you have people who lead, they must be selected somehow. Either the strongest select themselves, or some other method is used.

Regularly electing a leader produces a result that is more acceptable to the led that any other method.

I have free will to vote in an election. I voted to get rid of Gordon Brown and his colleagues, and now they are gone.

Some always have conspiracy theories, that it doesn't matter who is elected - some shadowy group runs everything and nothing changes. But I look at our changing economic fortunes under different goverments, and the chaos that has always been around the world, and I think no, if that is by intelligent design my arse is a fire engine.

[threaded]

I've often wondered why we let politicians run the world. The mere fact that they crave power is sufficient reason to deny it to them.

You say that like you get a choice.

It is the illusion of freewill that those in charge impart that you're struggling to come to terms with.

Once you understand that it all becomes quite clear.

[NickFitz]

I've often wondered why we let politicians run the world. The mere fact that they crave power is sufficient reason to deny it to them.

[Doggy Styles]

Alistair Campbell - Turd Polisher

[Green Mango]

The Telegraph

A taster:

What nice people they all sound.

Now Alastair there's a nice bully in the typical Labour mould.

[Sysman]

The Telegraph

A taster:

The result was a simmering resentment that exploded into foul-mouthed shouting matches which left both men with “purple faces”, says Mr Campbell. He portrays Mr Brown as a brooding presence who would go “absolutely berserk” if he did not get what he wanted and told colleagues that Mr Blair “could not be trusted at all”.

Meanwhile Ed Balls, the current Labour leadership candidate, is described as an “irritating and rude” man who “drivelled on endlessly” and was not regarded as a “grown-up” by Mr Blair.

Lord Mandelson is said to have had such a “venomous” relationship with Mr Brown that Mr Blair feared the two men were “trying to destroy each other”.