The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
THE ALASTAIR CAMPBELL DIARIES THE ALASTAIR CAMPBELL DIARIES
Saturday 20 November 2010
On the train up to Edinburgh, for another [Lennoxlove] book festival, working on future speeches … Dinner downstairs with some of the other authors – Jim Naughtie [broadcaster and Simon Hoggart [Guardian] th ones I recognised – but as arranged met up with Iain Gray [Labour leader i Scotland] and his wife Gill to chat abou the Labour campaign in Scotland. H felt fairly confident. Salmond was not a popular as before and there was feeling – as I had said in the piece I di for tomorrow’s Scotland on Sunday that they had ducked genuine decision that had to be taken when John Swinne [SNP finance secretary] did the Budge last week. Iain said he and Salmon really didn’t get on. Salmond found i impossible to look him in the eye. H was not a man who reached out to othe people. Iain was not exactly charismati but he had a nice manner and he woul be quite a tough campaigner I think. H was very keen for me to go up and se the MSPS and also get involved in th campaign. He was not exactly OTT re the quality of his MSPS. When suggested some of the tasks they neede to be set he smiled and shook his head I thought the thing he said abou Salmond not being able to look him i the eye was quite interesting. He shoul build on that, re. him not being straight with the Scottish people.
Saturday 23 April 2011
Ed M called in the evening. He ha done the media whack, calling for a independent media review. He wa worried about Scotland and wanted me to talk to Iain Gray. The problem was we had neutralised each other on policy so it became about personality and Salmond was the bigger character. Ed sounding a bit more confident. He was keen to make it more about the economy and the idea that if Salmond got another mandate he would think he could go for independence.
Wednesday 27 April 2011
Cameron has said “Calm down, dear” to Angela Eagle [shadow chief secretary to the Treasury] in the Commons which was going big, alongside poor economic figures. Ed M was on again, asking me to help Iain Gray in Scotland. Iain was bright and nice but couldn’t punch through the screen in the way Salmond could.
Wednesday 4 May 2011
The buzz from Scotland was really not good. AV was a clear No as well. The only silver lining for us in that was that the pressures on the coalition would grow.
Friday 6 May 2011
Up at six, off to the airport, reading the media brief on elections. OK in England, good in Wales, dire in Scotland and AV
N o ow urn t. At tw c , I did a blog effectively praising Salmond as having won because he was the only one with a clear strategy. It was all about leadership and direction and he had both. Jack Mcconnell [former Labour first minister of Scotland] was the first person I bumped into at the airport. “What the f***!” we both mouthed. As the results came through it was clear we were talking about an earthquake. The Nats were heading for a majority… The event itself went really well. Nice crowd. Got an interesting briefing on the University of the Highlands and Islands and their use of teleconferencing. Did a speech setting Salmond against my 10 points for leadership and scored him well.
Saturday 7 May 2011
Out for a run, breakfast, then a blog on conventional wisdoms, and suggesting the latest one – that SNP win did not mean support for independence – might be wrong too. One commenter said I should go for MSP seat. Train down through amazing scenery to Edinburgh then Newcastle.
End of December to 6 January 2012
Charles Kennedy came over for one night … Totally down on the coalition.
He was going to be a carve-up with Danny Alexander and they would move heaven and earth to keep DA in a winnable seat [following boundary changes that might pitch them against one another]. He felt the Libs would get routed but felt we were not yet making an impression. As for Scotland, Salmond was running away with it.
YES WAS AHEAD, SO MELTDOWN TIME UP THERE
Tuesday 10 January 2012
Blogged on the overdone Ed negativity which was dominating a lot of the media. John Humphrys apparently asked him if he was worried that ugly politicians didn’t make it. Ed’s speech wasn’t too bad but the media had just decided on a narrative that said he was failing and losing. Meeting with Tom Albanese. We agreed a number of plans for the future. He basically wanted me to work more on his speeches.
Salmond took the government by surprise by announcing autumn 2014 as the date for a [Scottish independence] referendum. Cameron had upped the ante and this was his response. Highwire game was beginning. HS2 rail link to get the go-ahead. Good.
Wednesday 11 January 2012
Watched PMQS. Ed OK. Salmond really driving the agenda at the moment.
Sunday 22 April 2012
Alistair D [Alistair Darling] was on good form, said the party was in a total mess and I needed to give them a bit of confidence and belief. He said he was looking forward to the referendum and he believed it could be won. Salmond was not good on the detail, not good with women, and not good at dealing with criticism. He said he had not spoken to GB [Gordon Brown] since the election. He felt that Gordon had to make some kind of honest assessment of his own leadership, but that he was not yet ready for it and probably never would be because he believed his own denials and sense of victimhood. What he had found really hard was the open lying that he did.
Tuesday 26 November 2013
Watched Salmond launch his independence white paper. He did OK but too many of the big questions went unanswered and so the length of the document rather played against him.
Friday 14 March 2014
Off to Aberdeen. Melissa [daughter] called Fiona to say Tony Benn had died. Got to Aberdeen and met up with Alex Salmond at the Marcliffe. Both getting bids for Benn tributes so we did those in between an interview lasting several hours. More impressed than I wanted to be. He was very friendly and warm and also less sneery and narky than usual. He was interesting for the book as well on winning and how he had changed his mindset from one of opposition to one of government. He had read my blogs, knew about my family, talked up my being Scottish, asked me to stay for a long lunch and then most surprisingly of all asked me to be part of the negotiating team with the rest of the UK, Europe etc, if he won. He seemed quite serious too. He said if they got independence he would want to reach out to people like me, and use the skills I had in government, and also nation-branding. He clearly didn’t rate Cameron. Loathed Osborne. Not impressed by Ed. My sense was he really thought he could win. Good strong
, . he meant to be so warm re. Putin, which would be a story, and he was loose with his words on Scotland’s reputation on booze.
Saturday 26 April 2014
Breakfast with Helen Liddell and Margaret Curran. Helen said even her kids were voting Yes. Margaret was asking for advice about how to get herself more active. It all lacked coordination and drive. They both said it would be great if I could go up there full-time. I really didn’t want them to lose but I knew if I went I would become too much the focus of it all and I just was not up for taking on the responsibility others should have shouldered long ago. Helen nice as ever, and Margaret seemed great, but they were all, from Ed down, seeming to lack basic campaign skills.
Monday 5 May 2014
My Salmond interview had gone massive. I felt a bit bad because it was actually a really good interview, rich and with some engaging insights from him, but the furore over his sort of praise for Putin was pretty intense. Also his line about Scotland not being able to promote whisky properly “from a nation of drunks” ran big too, once the Putin remarks calmed down a bit. Someone
note saying the first FMQS after the interview appeared took up 23 out of 30 minutes with stuff directly from the interview.
He was clearly worried, because his office had called me, when GQ put out some quotes, to say the Putin words were not quite accurate and it risked being a problem. It is true that there was a bit of an inaccuracy in transcription when we had been speaking at the same time, but it didn’t change the sense and if anything the full tape made it worse not better for him. Once the row had been going for a few days – Cameron did it at PMQS, Hague had a go in the Commons too, then some American Congressmen got involved, and Ukrainians were piling in up north. Meanwhile Labour and the Better Together people were loving it because it had him on the back foot for the first time in ages. He had asked me to be part of his negotiation team if he won, and one of his people told me that was a serious proposition, and the furore did not change that. “If anything it makes him keener, because it shows you can still get a message up, even at his expense.”
Tuesday 20 May 2014
Douglas [Alexander] called me the day after the locals … The party was functioning OK, but the Tories had
money and drive, and we didn’t. Meanwhile similar story in Scotland, where there were too many egos and too many divisions and it wasn’t working out as it should. He sounded pretty down. I said I didn’t see how we could win when so many of our own people were behaving like we had already lost.
Sunday 7 September 2014
The polls narrowed right down in Scotland and in one which broke late today, Yes was ahead, so meltdown time up there. Finally though it meant there was some proper galvanising of the politicians and businesses, and a steady drumbeat about real risk began.
Wednesday 10 September 2014
Meetings all day then off with Grace on the sleeper north. First Douglas came round though – he was on the same train – and we chatted about Scotland and what if anything I could do. At least GB was now motoring, Cameron had agreed there should be new powers etc, so we were going to end up with the devo max [full fiscal autonomy] position Salmond had asked for in the first place. They had really not put together a proper campaign. It sounded fairly chaotic.