A whinge from Tony Blair’s former press secretary Alastair Campbell about newspapers.

They hold Labour governments to a “much higher standard” than Tory governments, he complains.

Since Campbell is the man who “sexed up” the “dodgy dossier” which bolstered the case for the war on Iraq, you might think he’s not the best person to talk about media honesty.

He seems not to be embarrassed by his past and doesn’t think he should have to answer questions about it anymore.

Anyway, even if he is mendacious, that doesn’t mean he is always wrong. On this one, he has got a point.

The press mostly skews right. It thinks the Tories being in power is the natural order of things and when Labour occasionally wins it will make the most of any slip-ups.

That’s true of the City too. Bankers let Conservative governments get away with all sorts of financial chicanery that would have them shouting with alarm if Labour did it.

This is unfair but hardly a new development. Another way of looking at Campbell’s complaint is that Labour has to behave better than the Tories.

That’s not a crushingly high standard to reach.

Three months in to what Keir Starmer said would be a “government of service” and a mission of national renewal that would “make you believe again”, what have we got?

A total shambles.

We are run by a bunch of liggers who suddenly look more interested in parties rather than politics.

In-fighting is rife, the PM’s chief of staff has already had to carry some of the can, which fits into the present narrative that this guy is a total disappointment. This is not the fault of the Daily Mail. It’s his fault

The way back from this involves some skilful political PR-ing and Labour MPs managing not to say or do anything stupid for a bit.

One small note of optimism here: our political processes, press and indeed our politicians are nothing like as bad as those in America.

In the US it has become nearly impossible to report what Donald Trump says without revealing that he is plainly mad.

So reporters have to work in what they are calling “sanity washing” or “honesty washing”.

This involves ignoring the real nutty stuff, pretending Trump didn’t actually say those things and focussing on the rest where it is possible to have some sort of reasoned debate.

We’re nothing like as dysfunctional as that here. If Labour stops making it so easy for the press to attack, it will eventually get bored with drumming up stories that don’t really matter.

Campbell would surely be better helping Labour not to screw up so often, rather than complaining about the press coverage when it does.

Simon.english@roxhillmedia.com