Michael Howard and Alastair Campbell

Michael Howard, on Thursday's Newsnight, commented that Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's first and most significant spin doctor, bears much of the responsibility for the dirtying of the Blair years, especially in terms of what is often seen as its ambiguous communications policy. Here is the relevant extract, with Paxman at the end coming in to try and defend Campbell. Campbell, by the way, looked coldly furious throughout the exchange, and continued to snipe about it for the rest of the discussion. Bill Jones has a useful piece incorporating this exchange on his blog here.