Alastair at the Inquiry, again

So once again Alastair Campbell has been in front of an inquiry into the Iraq War. And surprise, surprise, there were no surprises. No clangers were dropped, no faux pas made. And of course none could really have been expected. But that did not stop today's media feeding frenzy. There was a veritable scrum of photographers waiting for him when he arrived to give evidence, News 24 and Sky broadcast the lengthy session live, we will have Andrew Gilligan and all manner of talking heads commenting on his performance on every news programme, paper and website for the next 24 hours and don't even get me started on the write-throughs. Alastair is one of those people that no matter how much journalists criticise, they can't get enough of him. Back in the days when he was the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (1997-2001), his twice-daily briefings to the Lobby (Westminster-based political correspondents) were something to behold. They would sit there desperate to get his attention, hanging on every word like love-struck teenagers. Of course they would claim afterwards that they had "grilled him" during the briefings, but take it from one who was there, there was an awful lot of simpering in the mix. And it got worse when, after the 2001 election, he became the No 10 Director of Communications and Strategy and stopped giving briefings. The response of the hacks was almost comical - they became rejected love-sick teenagers, furious at being spurned, this time desperate to get revenge. Seems like old times.