Journalist quits over Campbell wheeze

The invitation to Alastair Campbell (pictured), Tony Blair's chief spin-doctor, to guest edit the New Statesman last week was intended to bring attention to the always struggling magazine's editorial relaunch. Unless the wheeze turns out to have added a lot of new readers, it appears to have backfired.

Not only did the magazine end up with Campbell's mug plastered across the cover - in the company of his good friend Sir Alex Ferguson, the Man U manager - but many readers and contributors were outraged that a man they hold responsible more than most for getting Britain into the Iraq war with his involvement in the 'dodgy dossier' saga should be lauded by the leading magazine of the Left.

One of those contributors, Suzanne Moore, used her column in the Mail on Sunday yesterday to denounce the magazine's strategy and say she was resigning after 20 years writing for the 'Staggers' as it is popularly known, most recently as a contributing editor.

"The New Statesman fiercely opposed the Iraq War and yet now hands over the reins to someone key in orchestrating that conflict," she said. As to what Campbell commissioned from the editor's chair, she wrote: "Inside, it's as if the past 10 years had never happened. There is no mention of Iraq and Afghanistan, Cameron is useless and everyone will vote for Gordon. Talk about civil liberties is just chattering-class waffle."

Martin Bright, the magazine's recently departed political editor, said:
"Suzanne Moore is a woman of immense principle, who has always expressed herself extremely passionately. I can see why she felt upset."

Typically, Campbell, writing to the Guardian online yesterday, gave as good as he got. "I had no idea she worked for the New Statesman," he wrote. "I don't read the Mail on Sunday. But professing commitment to left-wing values in that right-wing rag lends a somewhat weakened credibility to anything she says."