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Australia must ‘re-win the argument for democratic politics’ in wake of Haines incident, Alastair Campbell says 28 October 2026 at 09:24

Australia must ‘re-win the argument for democratic politics’ in wake of Haines incident, Alastair Campbell says

28 October 2026 at 09:24

Tony Blair’s former spokesperson says attacks on UK MPs did not bring about lasting cultural change and overheated rhetoric quickly returned to politics

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Tony Blair’s former communications guru, Alastair Campbell, says the UK political system was too quick to revert to overheated rhetoric and polarisation after attacks on MPs, urging politicians to “re-win the argument for democratic politics”.

More than a week after independent MP Helen Haines was allegedly targeted in an attack outside her electorate office in northern Victoria, causing her to lose both legs, Campbell said the tenor of political debate in Australia should better reflect Haines’ own approach.

NYT > Top Stories
How Silicon Valley Stole the Future 26 October 2026 at 12:02

How Silicon Valley Stole the Future

NYT > Top Stories

By: Linda Kinstler

26 October 2026 at 12:02

A.I. will reshape our world. But does that mean the people who make the technology get to control our imagination, too?

The Guardian
‘I don’t give a damn what people think any more!’ Jimmy Webb on his wild days – and writing hits for Dolly, Glen and Frank 26 October 2026 at 11:00

‘I don’t give a damn what people think any more!’ Jimmy Webb on his wild days – and writing hits for Dolly, Glen and Frank

The Guardian

By: Dave Simpson

26 October 2026 at 11:00

From Wichita Lineman to MacArthur Park, he penned masterpieces. As the great hit-maker resurrects his lost songs, he recalls writing for giants – and the night Richard Harris stripped off and disappeared

‘Flat for 50 miles,” recalls Jimmy Webb, remembering the desolate stretch of Oklahoma that inspired his classic song, Wichita Lineman. “Nothing out there except endless railroad tracks and telephone poles. Then suddenly there’s a guy at the top of one of the poles. He’s got his phone, he’s talking to somebody and then … whoosh! He goes by. I never saw him again, but I never forgot him.”

Webb immortalised the unknown telephone worker’s solitude (and imagined conversation with a distant lover) with a 1968 smash hit for Glen Campbell. “But you wouldn’t believe what some people thought it was about,” chuckles the songwriter, now a chatty, self-effacing 80-year-old, video-calling from his kitchen in Long Island. “One guy who wrote to me thought it was about a football lineman, and a woman thought the young man in the song gets electrocuted because ‘the Wichita lineman is still on the line’.”

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