His sins make McBride look saintly. So why is Alastair Campbell now treated with such reverence? By Stephen Glover Reading Damian McBride's revelations of his skulduggery over the past few days has been a depressing experience. As Gordon Brown's spin doctor, he operated in the sewer. Destroying the careers of at least two Labour Cabinet ministers, and briefing mercilessly against others, McBride rivals those ruthless petty villains in Shakespeare who will stop at nothing while serving their masters" interests. The only ray of hope in this bleak tale is that McBride is now his own harshest critic. Of course, it could be a ruse, and he may be as malign as ever he was. But the suggestion that he has seen the light makes him seem, if hardly attractive, at least less unpleasant. Some people may conclude that what Damian McBride did puts him in a category of his own as New Labour's nastiest spin doctor. But actually it is not so Some people may conclude that what he did puts him in a category of his own as New Labour's nastiest spin doctor. But actually it is not so. McBride is like a small-time rogue in comparison with the mastermind of falsehood and obfuscation, Alastair Campbell. And yet this same Alastair Campbell - who unlike McBride remains wholly unrepentant - has thought fit to denigrate his pale imitation over the past few days, calling him "odious." He has also maintained that while he was Tony Blair's spin doctor he never briefed against ministers. On BBC1"s The Sunday Politics, where he was given a soft ride by the normally robust Andrew Neil, Campbell had the effrontery to talk about "all the lies" McBride had told when he was serving Gordon Brown. What incredible cheek! Given what Campbell has done, it is a wonder that he has the gall to appear in public at all - and a greater wonder still that he should be regularly given a platform by an indulgent BBC, an organisation he once tried to destroy. Let's start with his assertion that he never briefed against ministers. He was adept at undermining ministers, the most famous example being his suggestion to a friendly journalist that Gordon Brown was "psychologically flawed." That slur never went away. When he didn't like a minister he was capable of destabilising him or her. There is evidence that, early in the Blair era, Downing Street smeared the Cabinet minister David Clark, whose enthusiasm for a Freedom of Information Bill was not shared by Campbell or the sinuous Peter Mandelson, aka the Prince of Darkness. It is a wonder that Alastair Campbell has the gall to appear in public at all - and a greater wonder still that he should be regularly given a platform by an indulgent BBC, an organisation he once tried to destroy Campbell often had no need to undermine ministers because they were so frightened of him and his media machine that they did what they were told. He had politicised and dominated the old departmental information service. Ministers were sent daily briefings as to what they should, and should not, say. When the News of the World discovered in 1997 that the then Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, was having an extramarital affair, Campbell was fortuitously available to track him down at Heathrow airport. He told him that he would have to choose between his wife and his mistress. Cook plumped for the mistress. Campbell's unprecedented supremacy as government propagandist was most in evidence in the lead-up to the Iraq War and during its immediate aftermath. It is in this context that his complaint about McBride's lies looks preposterously hypocritical. As the dishonest case for war was being prepared, Campbell prevailed on his friend, the intelligence chief John Scarlett, to strengthen the language of the September 2002 dossier into Saddam Hussein's weapons so that the suggestion that he might be able to deploy missiles within 45 minutes was changed to "are able." Six weeks before the invasion of Iraq, Campbell confected the so-called 'dodgy dossier', which plagiarised excerpts from a 12-year-old thesis by an Iraqi dissident without attribution Worse still, in February 2003, six weeks before the invasion of Iraq, Campbell confected the so-called "dodgy dossier," which plagiarised excerpts from a 12-year-old thesis by an Iraqi dissident without attribution. This document, which was essentially one long lie spatchcocked together by Campbell and his team, was represented by Tony Blair in the Commons as fresh work produced by the intelligence services. It was also approvingly cited by the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in a key presentation to the United Nations. There is surely no comparison between the lies of Damian McBride, which may have led to the resignation of a couple of Cabinet ministers, and the "dodgy dossier," which was intended to deceive an entire nation and make a case for war based on bogus information. Needless to say, Campbell has never apologised for this abomination, and he represents the "dodgy dossier" as a matter of the most utmost insignificance. For this act alone he should have been instantly dismissed from public office and shunned by all decent people for evermore. But the story does not end there. Weeks after the end of the Iraq War, the BBC's Andrew Gilligan alleged that the Blair Government had "sexed up" the September 2002 dossier in making its case for war. Mr Gilligan's source was Dr David Kelly, a weapons expert working for the Ministry of Defence. Some weeks passed following Mr Gilligan's broadcast before Campbell launched a manic assault on the BBC. He was also anxious to "out" Dr Kelly once it became clear that the weapons expert was the source, and so the Downing Street media machine led journalists towards identifying him. Days later Dr Kelly was found dead, apparently by his own hand. Alastair Campbell has never admitted any responsibility for the process that resulted in him taking his own life. Again, I submit that Damian McBride's behaviour, while obviously indefensible, is of a different order. In those weeks in the summer of 2003, Campbell lost control of whatever good sense he had in his jihad against the BBC and his conduct towards Dr Kelly. Some say that McBride, who does not know Campbell at all, learnt his dark arts from his example. Not really. It is true that Campbell had established a precedent that a New Labour spin doctor could bully and twist, as well as knife his master's adversaries. McBride was a two-bit shyster cudgelling his victims in the shadows. But Campbell was more powerful than almost any Cabinet minister, a man who involved himself in matters of war, and the destiny of the nation But the two men operated on different scales. Campbell was more powerful than almost any Cabinet minister, a man supremely confident of his own abilities who involved himself in matters of war, and the destiny of the nation. The astonishment for me is that such a man, who did bad things and made so many enemies, should be treated by most of the media as a respectable figure. In particular, the BBC, which he tried to crush in a mood of unbalanced fury, cossets and indulges him. This might almost be understandable if he had ever expressed one word of contrition. But his diaries, unlike McBride's exercise in self-flagellation, are self-justifying and self-righteous. If there was ever a man who does not know himself, it is Alastair Campbell. Perhaps, though, the British people are less forgiving than our amnesiac media and political classes. They won't so easily forget that this destructive man did as much as anyone except Tony Blair to finagle us into an unnecessary and illegal war. And maybe, just maybe, Campbell will be held to account by the Chilcot Inquiry, whose protracted deliberations, partly frustrated by Whitehall mandarins defending Mr Blair's interests, are expected finally to bear fruit next year. I am certain that Alastair Campbell will never apologise for what he has done, but I haven't given up hope that one day, before he meets his Maker, he will be forced to confront the magnitude of his sins.