Campbell is outski..

I see that Alistair Campbell, the renowned spin-doctor of Tony Blair, UK Prime-Minister from 1997- 2007 has been expelled from the Labour Party for voting Lib-Dem in the European elections. Even in my most generous moods I don't much care for most current Labour politicians but that's not to say I don't think there have been many good ones in the past, and some decent policies over the years too. This current crew just smack too much of left-wing identity politics, reminiscent of the Soviets to me. They seem to be too keen to silence opposition rather than promote their ideas, and too quick to jump to actions like this. But, they only act quickly when it suits them, when people hold them accountable, like the ongoing (3 year old) antisemitism row, their velocity of action seems to take a nose dive. 

I met Campbell a couple of years ago and found him surprisingly straight-talking and reasonable (for someone in that position) it strikes me that many people have been quick to tar him with one particular brush, i.e. as liar in chief over the Iraq war (dodgy dossier etc.) and therefore refuse to listen to anything he says on any topic. It's understandable, but an error in my view, he holds many reasonable centrist views on many things that this country could do with right now, certainly more palatable than the kipper brigade.