W The blog is part 'I told you so' and part Oscar-style 'thank you' speech. He thanks Labour's media monitoring department for passing on the support he was receiving on "normally hostile websites", the Cabinet Office for helping him prepare for yesterday's performance, his former Number Ten assistant Mark Bennett for compiling "that big blue folder you may have seen" and - I kid you not - his son Rory "who made sure I didn't leave it anywhere and kept me amused and calm during the breaks". And before anyone can say "Pass the sickbag, Alice", he'd also like to mention the "private messages" he received before the hearing from former Iraqi exiles, some of whom are now back in Iraq and say that, "despite all the problems, their country without Saddam is a better place and one where democracy is beginning ..." But let's get to the Bible bit. Big Al was surprised how many people sent him biblical passages even though "they know I don't do God". As he walked through the media gauntlet to reach his seat before the Chilcot panel, and "listened to some of the overblown and agenda driven commentary", he proclaimed himself glad to have read that morning Psalm 56, which had arrived by email from one of his countless supporters... 'What can mortal man do to me?' it asked 'All day long they twist my words, they are always plotting to harm me. They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, eager to take my life...' "I never detected a death plot among the British media," writes Campbell, "but the rest of it sums up the Westminster lobby to a tee." Final note: does the Oscar speech section suggest Campbell is dreaming of a future in Hollywood? The Mole only asks because, in the final paragraphs of his long blog, he says he and his family went to see Keira Knightley in The Misanthrope last night. Get ready for this: "I could not help thinking," he writes, "that she [Knightley] would be good as Maya, the heroine of my novel out in a few weeks. A couple of film-makers have already expressed an interest and I would ask them to note this match made in heaven." The Mole is the pseudonym for a London-based political consultant who writes for The First Post.
The Gospel according to Saint Alastair Campbell
The Mole: And lo, he walked among the disbelievers and was comforted. ‘What can mortal man do to me?’
ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
LAST UPDATED 10:03 AM, JANUARY 13, 2010
ell here's a first - Alastair Campbell quoting the Bible. The moment occurs in an extraordinary blog he's posted today following his one-man show at the Chilcot Inquiry yesterday where he stood by "every single word" in the not-at-all-dodgy dossier and praised his old boss Tony Blair for "his deep conviction and integrity" as he made the difficult decision to follow George Bush to war.
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