Alastair Campbell - The Irish Diaries: Alastair Campbell (1994–2003)

[] John Smith, Labour Leader 199294. His sudden death in May 1994 led to the battle between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for leadership of the Labour Party.

[] This was in essence a rerun of the argument after the 1959 defeat, when Hugh Gaitskell proposed amending Clause 4 of the partys 1918 constitution in a vain bid at modernization. The clause, close enough to Labours heart and history to be reprinted on membership cards, proclaimed the aim of Common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange. Wholesale nationalization, in other words. Gaitskell lost out because questioning Clause 4 was, in the words of one Labour historian, like trying to persuade Christian fundamentalists that they need not believe in God. Gaitskells attempt at modernization not only failed, but deepened the divisions in the party that by the 1983 election debacle had become a chasm. Effectively Labour had become two parties, one of the centre left, the other hard left. To Blair such a high-risk, resonant symbol was the example he needed. Clause 4 had to go to show a new Labour Party was being forged and it meant business.

[] AC made Caplin sign a confidentiality agreement after topless pictures of her appeared in the press.

[] The IRA Canary Wharf bomb killed two and marked the end of the IRA ceasefire of over seventeen months. The Taoiseach, John Bruton, announced the following day that the Irish government would as a result cease formal contact with Sinn Fin.

[] The bomb being carried by IRA member Edward OBrien prematurely exploded in a bus on which he was travelling in the vicinity of Aldwych, London. He was killed and several other passengers were injured.

[] The elections were designed to select which parties would be eligible for the all-party negotiations on June 10, 1996. The Forum delegates would also be chosen. 110 delegates would make up the Forum. The SDLP and Sinn Fin were critical of the planning proposals.

[] An IRA bomb had devastated the shopping centre of Manchester, injuring 200 people. The bomb was estimated to have contained one-and-a-half tonnes of home-made explosives. In response to the Manchester bomb the UFF announced that it was putting its members on alert.

[] Although an Anglican, Blair often took Communion at a Catholic church in Islington. Cherie Blair was Catholic. Hume later conceded that it was permissible for him to attend a Catholic church while on holiday in Tuscany.

[] All-party talks began in Stormont chaired by former US Senator George Mitchell. John Major and John Bruton announced at a joint press conference their support for Senator Mitchell as chair of the Forum. As they had broken the ceasefire, Sinn Fin were excluded from the talks.

[] Before the Dawn: An Autobiography.

[] Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fin, and Martin McGuinness, vice president, went to Westminster to press their case for office facilities within the House of Commons. The two abstentionist SF Members of Parliament were denied access to the House when they refused to take their seats, which would have involved taking an oath of allegiance to the Queen.

[] Jones, a former Arkansas civil servant, filed a sexual harassment case against Clinton in 1994.

[] The IRA admitted responsibility for the killings. The RUC officers were the first to be killed by the IRA since the ending of its ceasefire on 9 February 1996.

[] Downing Street home of the prime ministers secretarial staff.

[] General John de Chastelain. Canadian former soldier and diplomat, head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning in Northern Ireland. Born a British subject and, like Blair, educated at Fettes College, a private boarding school in Edinburgh.

[] The troubled annual parade by Orangemen from Drumcree Parish Church, Portadown (County Armagh) through the Catholic Garvaghy Road area. The parade was a key event in the Protestant marching season, marking the victory of William of Orange over the Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne, culminating on July 12 each year. In 1998 the Northern Ireland Parades Commission banned the Drumcree march because of the Protestant/Catholic clashes. In following years the march was prevented from using Garvaghy Road as a route.

[] White had confessed to the 1973 murders of Catholic councillor Paddy Wilson and his friend, Irene Andrews, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1978. Released in 1992, he joined the Ulster Defence Association. Following an internal feud, he was expelled from the UDA in 2002.

[] David Shayler, a former MI5 officer, whose revelations to the Mail on Sunday led to the government seeking an injunction to prevent publication.

[] The Mitchell principles called upon all partners to affirm total and absolute commitment to the peaceful resolution of political issues, total disarmament of paramilitary organizations, opposition to force that would influence negotiations and effective steps to prevent punishment killings and beatings.

[] There was agreement over procedures for the conduct of the negotiations. It had taken sixteen months to achieve. This was the first time in seventy years that Unionist parties had sat around a table with Republicans and agreed to discuss substantive issues, a blanket term for decommissioning.

[] TB was proffered a rubber glove filled with blood to shake, to indicate that he had blood on his hands in talking to Sinn Fin.

[] Billy Wright, the imprisoned commander of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, had been killed by three nationalist prisoners, Christopher McWilliams, John Glennon and John Kennaway, members of the Irish National Liberation Army. The three issued a statement: Billy Wright was executed for one reason and one reason only, and that was for directing and waging his campaign of terror against the nationalist people from his prison cell.

[] Far East Prisoners of War and former civilian internees objected to the planned visit to London by Emperor Akihito, son of Hirohito, and demanded an apology for their treatment during World War Two.

[] Benedict Hughes (55), a Catholic civilian, was shot dead by the Ulster Freedom Fighters ( UFF ) in Utility Street, south Belfast. Hughes was shot as he left work in Sandy Row, a Protestant part of Belfast.

[] White House intern who had an affair with Clinton.

[] Kenneth Starr, American lawyer and former judge, appointed as Independent Counsel in 1994. His investigations led to the impeachment of President Clinton.

[] The multi-party talks switched venue from Stormont in Belfast to Lancaster House in London in an attempt to inject impetus to the search for a political settlement. However, following the revelation that the Ulster Freedom Fighters ( UFF ), a pseudonym used by the Ulster Defence Association ( UDA ), had been involved in the killing of (at least) three Catholics in the recent weeks there were calls for the expulsion of the Ulster Democratic Party ( UDP ), which was politically associated with the UDA / UFF . The British and Irish governments, at the insistence of some of the other parties, took the final decision to expel the UDP . By this time the UDP had already absented themselves from the talks venue. [ CAIN ]

[] The peace talks would focus on three strands: Strand 1 related to exclusively Northern Ireland matters; Strand 2 to relations between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (North/South); and Strand 3 to relations between Ireland and the UK (East/West).

[] Policy debates of policy thinkers known as policy wonks, hence wonkathon.

[] In the BBC documentary, Clares New World, Short accused an unnamed colleague of maliciously and untruthfully leaking details of a Cabinet discussion in which she allegedly likened Ulster Unionists to the Ku Klux Klan.

[] The CIRA (Continuity Irish Republican Army) exploded a 500-pound car bomb outside the RUC station in Moira, County Down. Eleven people, mostly RUC officers, suffered minor injuries. Extensive damage was done to premises in the village centre.