Pat Rabbitte on the outsiders
It is invaluable for ministers to have external advisers with whom to kick around ideas. The trick is making sure these supposedly ‘uninterested parties’ do not secretly have skin in the game
Alastair Campbell has a lot to answer for. And I am not referring to the invasion of Iraq, where the king of government advisers did little to prevent his boss playing Sancho Panza to George Bush’s Don Quixote in that monstrous folly.
Rather, a mythology has grown up around Campbell on which all modern government advisers are believed to model themselves. He is reputed to be the inspiration for the Malcolm Tucker character ...
