China copies of Alastair Campbell; Bertie’s blunder again; a miner miracle

The inscrutable Alastair Campbell

Alastair Campbell China plated

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL was a star turn in a Q&A at the Ilkley Literary Festival in Yorkshire on Saturday.

He reported that the best audience question was how he felt about China’s Communist Party basing its communications strategy on New Labour’s model.

Tony Blair’s fearsome spinmeister says he assumed it was a joke. He was assured that it’s true. I don’t believe it. Alastair Campbell was far more ruthlessly effective that the Communist Party Politburo could ever hope to be.

That Bertie Ahern ad - again

SENAN MOLONY'S Political Animal column in Saturday's Irish Daily Mail noted that a video spoof of that cringe-worthy Bertie Ahern ad for the News of the World has been forced off of YouTube by NotW lawyers citing copyright.

But, Senan hinted in a stage-like aside, the offending video parody could be found on the satirical website www.theemergency.ie.

In fact, it was still on YouTube on Monday. The one the Man from the Daily Mail saw the banning notice for was An Phoblacht's light-hearted reworking of the original. Rupert Murdoch and Paul Williams were obviously more upset by An Phoblacht's take-off than The Emergency's. Shame because ours was funnier.

Underground press

I DIDN’T SEE the Daily Express's coverage of the Chilean miners’ 69-day ordeal buried underground (too busy watching CNN's wall-to-wall coverage) but I can guess how they covered it:

Workshy foreigners crammed 33 to a room now want paying for living on premises!