It will be the political publishing sensation of the year. So hopes the author. So pray his publishers, who need to recoup the enormous advance that they have shelled out. In early July, less than a fortnight after Tony Blair finally checks out of Number 10, Alastair Campbell will publish his 'diaries'.There is good cause for people to worry about what this is going to do to their reputations. Someone who should be especially anxious is Tony Blair. He had a conversation with his former press secretary about the contents of the book. 'Do I swear a lot?' asked Blair. Though he keeps his mouth clean in public, the Prime Minister has always been profuse in his use of profanities when safely out of the range of a microphone. In my hearing, Tony Blair has used the Lord's name as a curse as well as plenty of sturdy Anglo-Saxon phrases.
I don't say that as a criticism; I've been known to swear myself and I do a much less stressful job than the Prime Minister; I simply observe that is how he is. Campbell told Blair that, yes, he had recorded his swearing in the diaries. Blair asked: 'Do I use the f-word?' Yes, replied Campbell. Blair: 'Do I use the c-word?' Yes, said Campbell.
Blair was horrified at the thought that the ruder side of his tongue was going to be exposed to the public. Campbell has been prevailed on to tone down the swearing, including the occasion when the Prime Minister used the c-word about a very senior party figure from the Eighties who has been highly critical of New Labour.
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