Alastair Campbell: ‘I don’t regret that Channel 4 Iraq War interview – temper isn’t always a bad thing’

In this extract from his new book, But What Can I Do?, the former spin doctor shares how he deals with his lifelong anxiety but why he doesn’t regret a notorious TV outburst about the Iraq War

‘Nerves can get the better of me’: Alastair Campbell. Photo by David Conachy

Alastair Campbell

It will probably not have escaped your notice that two of the last four UK prime ministers, David Cameron and Boris Johnson, went to the same school, Eton. What you may not know is that Eton has produced three times as many prime ministers as the Labour Party has in its entire 120-year-plus history. Here’s another interesting fact. Five of the six people who put together David Cameron’s 2015 election manifesto — the one promising that referendum that would settle the arguments on Europe ‘once and for all’ — went to Eton (the sixth went to St Paul’s, another private school), as did Jacob Rees-Mogg (of course), Kwasi Kwarteng, Prince William and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

There are all sorts of reasons why people, especially men, from the ‘top’ private schools end up with a disproportionate share of wealth, power and the top jobs.