This year’s Inverness Chamber of Commerce Highland Business Dinner (17 May 2024) event proved to be one of the hottest tickets in the Highland business calendar after the pioneering political strategist and podcaster, Alastair Campbell, was announced as the keynote speaker.
Before the event, and before the snap general election was called, Inverness Chamber CEO, Colin Marr, had the opportunity to sit down with the author, campaigner, and former Prime Minister spokesperson.
In our ‘In Conversation with Alastair Campbell’ interview we hear his thoughts on a range of topics including the state of political discourse, Scottish devolution, Westminster’s views of the Highlands, what has impacted healthy political debate and what proactive steps business leaders can do to support their employee’s mental health.
“This very candid and personable interview gives us lots to consider both personally and professionally,” says Colin Marr.
“From what Alastair’s advice would be to young people starting out in their careers, through to his views on our attitudes towards mental health versus service I hope everyone will be able to take something away from this conversation.
“I was particularly taken with his thoughts on Westminster’s current perceptions of the Highlands and whether Alastair felt the UK Government fully understood the scale of developments and investment taking place in the Highlands in the renewable energy sector.”
“As a keen listener of ‘The Rest is Politics’ podcast, I was also interested to ask where the concept of ‘Disagree Agreeably’ came from. We talked about why he thinks we need to change our view towards British politics and the politicians that serve our constituencies, what’s causing the debate to be trivialized, and how our private and public sector can learn from this to work towards the common good of all our communities.”
Watch the full interview here….