as you mentioned alastair campbell, i think this might be a good moment to bring in a clip from alastairl because that question i posed at the top, how much influence does the british press have in this? tony blair's former spin doctor was speaking on the bbc question time recently and he took exception to a fellow analyst telegraph columnist tim stanley, let's have a listen. it's all a joke to these guys. 0h, here we go. things are to get better. here we go. they are part of the problem, the british media a part of the problem. they delivered him, they sucked up to him, johnson has described the telegraph as his real boss and they are part of the problem. and the next thing that should happen, our political culture at our media culture have to change, otherwise it will happen again. applause fraser, is he looking at you there? you edit a magazine that's at the centre of conservative political life. there's 200,000 voters here. it feels about hundred thousand. there's only 200,000 people voting, i wonder how many of them are spectator readers? that's the funny thing, when it comes to bor

so i think alastair campbell can't quite blame the press for the result of a general election.it comes to tories... generally speaking i think the process got far less influence then politicians think we do. readers can agree with you or they can disagree with you. if you're lucky as a journalist you might say something that they find interesting or informative. but you don't really change peoples minds. a lot of people think otherwise and that's whyjournalists always get approached during election times, people want fair coverage, of course they do. it's not as if the press sits there and controls the opinions of everybody that picks us up. unless they find us so uninteresting they stop buying us. and the tory mps have got far more things going on, mainly thejob promises, etc, all the horse trading done during these times. i think, if somebody�*s campaign bombs that will be visible in the press but by and large i'm not quite sure how influential we all are. we might be slightly influential when it comes to tory party members. i imagine the spectator has got a reasonable penetr

so i think alastair campbell can't quite blame the press for the result of a general election. to tories... generally speaking, i think the press has got far less influence then politicians think we do. readers can agree with you or they can disagree with you. if you're lucky as a journalist you might say something well, the accusation that alastair campbell makes there is a fair one in the sense that even when he was a journalist, i remember visiting boris johnson at the offices of the spectator in downing street to interview him. at the interview he said to me, "paul, you don't by any chance got a 2—page article you'd like to put in our magazine? because i'm short two pages. "i mean, he was always a rule breaker. and i think the press indulged him. what we are looking at people who are new. mordaunt is a junior minister, suella braverman will make it through, i doubt it. but we are looking at people who can plausibly say they've seen outside of high politics. there is a merit in re—setting the rules, i would like to see all of us in the interests, in the national interest, in

let's talk to tony blair's former head of communications, alastair campbell, now a political commentatorple who are egging a song to get rid of our leaders are people like alistair campbell. i rid of our leaders are people like alistair campbell.— rid of our leaders are people like alistair campbell. i thought it was one of the most _ alistair campbell. i thought it was one of the most bizarre _ alistair campbell. i thought it was one of the most bizarre topline i one of the most bizarre topline messages from a ministerial interview ever. the new chancellor of the exchequer, a cost of living crisis, a global economy that is spluttering, a political party and a leader in crisis and your big thing is to go on and say that a guy who worked in downing street 19 years ago as a cause of all their problems. it was pathetic and it shows me that he is not up to the job and i should warn him, is financial business interests are going to come very closely under scrutiny very quickly assuming boris johnson survives much longer. he doesn't deserve to survive another minute, he is the worst prime mini