Alistair Campbell has started a blog about the (yawn) World Cup. In it, he lambasts women journalists.
Ex-spin doctor Alastair Campbell has launched an attack on female newspaper columnists who write about football.
Mr Campbell has started a World Cup blog, which promises to bring “all the drama and excitement” from Germany.
But he kicks off with an attack on “women newspaper columnists suddenly imagining that the world needs to know their views on Ronaldinho”.
This is a man who was complicit in driving a man to his suicide, so nasty, spiteful attacks on others is to be expected. As I commented when castigating Catherine Bennett for exactly the same behaviour, sexist writing is lazy, ignorant and despicable. Or as one commenter on this man’s blog puts it:
The blog has attracted abuse from some readers, with one man calling it “patronising and insulting”.
Campbell does not reserve his poisonous behaviour entirely for female journalists – oh, no, his lazy, ignorant and despicable diatribe is spread a little further than that:
Andrew Marr was first into print saying how he doesn’t really do the football thing, in which case I wonder if we can’t find another planet for him.
And maybe he could take Nick Robinson and all the other political pontificators and they could all two-way to their hearts’ contents while on Planet Football we get on with the task of watching every single second of live action available to us.
How droll… The man’s a laugh a minute; such a card, such a wit. Well, half of one anyway. This is just the type of playground behaviour I recall from my schooldays, engaged in by those who thought kicking a ball about for ninety minutes was the height of sophisticated entertainment, upon realising that not everyone was bewitched. So, no, I won’t be “going to another planet”. I’ll be doing what I always do; ignore the hyperbole, avoid watching any football and get on with my life.
Then I suppose, I should be asking myself should I, or anyone for that matter, really be taking notice of what the viperous Campbell has to say about twenty-two blokes kicking a ball around – or anything else come to that?
45 minutes anyone?
The thing is,of course, that we all know that really he doesn’t give a stuff about football anyway. It’s all just a laddish front; mere pose and affectation. The fact that it’s a deeply unpleasant pose much of the time is just a bonus. But what can you expect? The man is, when it comes down to it, essentially a professional liar.
He is indeed reminiscent of a schoolyard bully – all verbal aggression and name-calling. I assume his mother never told him, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything.”
Actually, the funniest thing about the blog is the number of “Great blog!” posts. I wonder how much they are getting paid – or are they all just loyal party members? It’s rather like getting your friends to review your book on Amazon, isn’t it. I mean, how can people be ‘enjoying your blog’ when there’s only been one entry? It makes no sense.
I did try and sit down yesterday to watch the World Cup because Australia were playing (my partner’s Australian) and of course the England game the other day but within minutes, I had switched over. I hate football, it’s as simple as that. I can’t even get into the spirit of it. I don’t like the jingoistic aspects of it. I don’t like the mania surrounding what is a team game with a ball. I just don’t get it at all to be perfectly honest. I prefer cash in the Attic and that’s saying something