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"It happened in Tunisia - it could have happened anywhere" - Alastair Campbell talks ISIS, politics and more

Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair's spokesman and strategist. He is now an author and consultant a...
Newstalk
Newstalk

11.21 28 Jun 2015


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"It happened in Tunisi...

"It happened in Tunisia - it could have happened anywhere" - Alastair Campbell talks ISIS, politics and more

Newstalk
Newstalk

11.21 28 Jun 2015


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Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair's spokesman and strategist. He is now an author and consultant and an Ambassador for the Time to Change mental health campaign. 

Alastair sat down with Shane Coleman for an interview on this week's Sunday Show to talk about ISIS, British and Irish politics, his latest book Winners: And How They Succeed, and more.

On the subject of the attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France this week, Alastair told Shane, "we're living in times when we have to get used to this sort of thing.

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"It's very hard to know what you're up against. You're not talking about an army in the conventional sense... It's very tough for governments at the moment. People want to be feel safe, but equally they know you can't live in a world where you're protected the whole time from these sort of threats."

"It happened in Tunisia. The way these people operate it could have happened anywhere," he added.

Asked by Shane whether it's too simplistic to tie everything back to the Iraq War, Alastair said while he believes it is simplistic "the honest answer is nobody can no absolutely for sure... I'm glad you say with the benefit of hindsight, because a lot of people don't operate in that way."

The discussion moved on to Labour losing the election in the recent British general election to the Tories. "We won three general elections in a row," he explained. "It wasn't complicated. We had a good leader. We had a good strategy. We understood most people live their lives at or close to the centre ground - and you vacate that at your peril."

On Irish politics, he said "your politics is much more rooted in these deep historical narratives, and that's part of the Irish character I think. It's not a bad thing... [but] elections have always got to be about painting a vision of the future."

You can listen back to the full interview via the podcast below:


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