Ata boy !

Don't think some of the other commenters really read what your wrote did they?

JF, Birmingham,

David Aaronovitch asks who exactly was intimidated. Maybe not the tame journalists, but what about poor David Kelly, hounded to his death, and all the other lower level civil servants who were obliged to "sex up" the dodgy dossier against their better instincts?

Nigel MacNicol, Oakham, Rutland,

Alistair Campbells's Diaries join the long list of Books of Revelations that reveal very little, not already in the public domain. A good analogy would be Gypsy Rose Lee who found fame by suggesting that the expectation was far greater that the reality. Like Campbell, she too revealed nothing that the censor would allow, in his case, the Downing St.censor, past and present.
Like-wise, should our interest remain on what was not revealed from the Master of Spin's manual, then we will have to await the uncensored Campbell's Diaries Vol.2. the sales of which,could well be helped by using PeterBrookes brilliant updated version of the book cover, spin even Campbell would applaud.

M.Fishman, Malaga , Spain

Journalism ended when Fleet Street was abolished.

Instead of a strong community that had years of collective experience and could argue, discuss, assess information and find things out for itself, we have individuals isolated in far-flung offices, dependent on press releases and spin.

The irony is that just as Fleet Street was destroyed by modern technology, so the next generation of that technology could have seen it reborn: Fleet Street populated by journalists and journalists alone, meeting, talking, drinking, smoking, arguing, their copy sent electronically, instantaneously to be printed on state-of-the-art printing presses in Wapping or Manchester.

But no-one had the vision or imagination to do it.

Joseph Bruno, London,

I suggest it was, actually, Blair, Campbell and Gould who decided to abandon politics and embrace Brand Management and the press who played up to that, rather than vice versa. Most of the press stories, however tenuous, were based on spin, lies, gossip and unsubstantiated rumours emanating from politicians and their campbelloids. You chaps like this; it's much easier than finding things out, or hanging around the Palace of Westminster; hence the incredible love affair of the press with Tony Blair between 1995 and about 2004, and the much shorter-lived affair with Mr David 'Dave' Cameron.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Campbell was core in the whole corruption of the 'a good day to bury bad news' civil service, surely any reasonably competent scribbler would know that? David Kelly - nothing of sheer reckless thuggery there either by Campbell?
This article illustrates the point it seeks to deny. Who would believe anything that Campbell writes - unless a fellow traveller of the Cool Britannia New Labour brigade?

BigT, Abingdon, UK

" ... I have never been in any doubt that in recent years it has been the politicians who have had desperately to create strategies for dealing with the press, rather than the other way around."

This is not a perception that I share. I sympathise with serious people having to deal with a popular media that is infantile and misdirected - this is a social tragedy. But I don't accept that the manipulation and dressing-up of ALL government information is solely, or even primarily, a reaction to the media's inadequacies. How easy it is to persuade a willing audience, no matter the level of correctness of the desired message. But only while the audience remains willing. The more often a government misinforms, the more often it will be found with its trousers down, the less it will be trusted, and the more difficult it will become to pass decisions where linguistic sleight of hand is actually necessary.

That this is unrecognised is the real criticism of Mr Blair's government.

Simon Stephenson, Windermere, UK

What a refreshing admission! my faith in humanity is moderately restored! you are absolutely right, the press are the cause of most friction in our daily lives as they constantly strive for controversy and scandals that often don't exist... I long for a world in which the press just report what they see and not see what they report !

Leigh, Cardiff,

I would just wish to inform your readers that BT have introduced a new money making device - calles a payment fee.

The way it works is that they bill you for your telephone charges, which they expect you to pay and then they charge you £4.50 to do so.

The implication is that every supplier of goods and services in the uk will introduce such charges, which effectively a back door price increase, for what BT say is the expence of processing customer payments.

Terry Johnson, Tipton, West Midlands, uk

Alistair Campbells's Diaries join the long list of Books of Revelations that reveal very little, not already in the public domain. A good analogy would be Gypsy Rose Lee who found fame by suggesting that the expectation was far greater that the reality. Like Campbell, she too revealed nothing that the censor would allow, in his case, the Downing St.censor, past and present.
Like-wise, should our interest remain on what was not revealed from the Master of Spin's manual, then we will have to await the uncensored Campbell's Diaries Vol.2. the sales of which,could well be helped by using PeterBrookes brilliant updated version of the book cover, spin even Campbell would applaud.

M.Fishman, Malaga , Spain

Rhys probably played rugby. In any event most people with any sense (inc. sense of humour) would dismiss his views 100%.

Michael Gibson(no relation), Wellington, New Zealand

Can people bloody stop mentioning "Cheriegate"! Every new scandal these days is referred to as this-gate or that-gate. Watergate is so named because that was the adress of the party headquaters. Adding "gate" to the end of a word doen't make it sound any less moronic. I mean sure, I get the joke, but it's getting a bit old by now, particularly when it is repeated by everyone else who refers to the incident. I mean, half the people can't remeber to which of Cherie's particular gaffes this epithet reffers to. For that matter how many people can still remember what Watergate itself was all about. This sort of jargon is unhelpful and makes the media seem just as idiotic as the politicians they're "exposing".

Rhys, Aberystwyth,

...and yet, Campbell was Blair''s Goebbels, a virulent, poisonous, bullying propagandist to a brutal, murdering thug responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. Comparison of Blair to Hitler is, perhaps, trite, but it is still very real. They shared a common political creed - big state, nationalist socialism (Cool Brittania being a watered down, media friendly version of the Third Reich, a fond shadow of ancient Empire). It is a political viewpoint that requires unifying themes - in Blair's case, serial wars, a crusading spirit to rectify the world's ills, anything that fosters the national identity. Even an illegal war that costs 100,000+ lives. And Campbell, an obvious psychopath and bizarre fantasist (read his book - the man's a freak), was the propagandist and cheerleader in chief for this madness.

Phil Hampshire, London,

I'm not a fan of Alastair Campbell but provoking a hissy fit from the revolting Peter Mandelson has to be worth a knighthood, surely? The later committed mortgage fraud that would have had the rest of us prosecuted. This should have been enough to disqualify him from office, but he has been rewarded with ever more lucrative jobs despite his subsequent, repeated and proven mendacity. "Debauched" is actually the right word.

al, london,

It is, I am afraid not simply a matter of journalists doing their job, New Labour's political relationships with the BBC and Rupert Murdoch have allowed their spin merchants free rein for the past dozen or so years.

The problem is that the most corrupt and inept government this country has endured since the loss of the American colonies most corrupt relationships are with the two largest and most monopolistic media empires in the country.

Edward Andrew Green, Upminster, England

I never did believe the Campbell myth. The notion that a young man of no particular antecedents could bully the British Press is ludicrous. In any event, the relationship between Downing Street and the Press is symbiotic - they both need each other - and that would curtail any Press officer. I suspect it was the Press who cultivated the myth for reasons that suited their particular purposes at the time, and which went along with the whole cult of New Labour.

Henry Percy, London, UK

I am putting the Campbell Diaries on the NOT TO BUY LIST -ASAP !!!!

Ian Payne, LICHFIELD, STAFFS

Bravo. Excellent article. Puts the press and full media in proper perspective. Anyone in public life -- and I'm not -- of any type, politics, entertainment, sports, whatever, has to protect themselves these days from media frenzy aimed to beiittle at best or destroy at max.

jrfees, London,

Spin works because some Journalists are not professional.They swallow the Press release;don't know their History;and don't bother to research their own facts.Thankfully for democracy experience of politicians soon supplies the essential cynicism

R. James, Clifton,