Alastair Campbell’s Wild Celtic Rangers Plot Resurfaces at Glasgow Show

The audience at Glasgow’s The Rest is Politics live podcast on Saturday night was entertained by former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell as he revealed one of his more bizarre ideas from his time in Downing Street.

The Press Gazette reported that the podcast garnered 21.6 million views in the election campaign period between 22 May and 5 July, making it the most popular political podcast out there.
They chose to advise the Labour government on one of Campbell’s major initiatives because they were in Glasgow.

Campbell has suggested relocating the Celtic-Rangers rivalry from Glasgow to Belfast in an effort to promote the Good Friday Agreement. To make the proposal even more contentious, the two teams would exchange uniforms during the match!

The proposal was sent to Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar, Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, and then-Prime Minister Tony Blair in an April 1998 letter.

Although Campbell thought that holding the derby in Northern Ireland may represent harmony and peace, the idea was soon rejected as being excessively radical.
Campbell declared that he will approach Sir Alex Ferguson to try to convince Rangers to join him, claiming to have a “direct in” with Celtic. Not surprisingly, the plan never came to pass.

Those in attendance at the event on Saturday evening had a good laugh at Alistair explaining the idea, which he accepts was misguided.