Labour Camp: Failure of Style Over Substance Book

From its shocking pink cover to its use of gothic type faces, this book could only have been produced by a designer. Sorry, not just a designer, but the designer Stephen Bayley, whose appointment as Consultant Creative Director of the New Millennium Experience Company Limited went awry with the arrival of Peter Mandelson as Minister in Charge. To say that Bayley and Mandelson did not exactly hit it off is an understatement to beat all understatements. Bayley (ex-Boilerhouse, V&A and The Design Museum) left in a major huff and has spent the interim appearing on hip game/chat shows fulfilling his (apparent) life mission of exposing New Labour as a modern rework of a Nazi-style political party and Professor Mandelstein (as he lovingly refers to him) as the Devil incarnate. Labour Camp is a no-holds-barred account of Bayley's short-lived (six- month) tenure of the hippest design job of the century--plus a whole lot more. Most people subjected to such a public falling-out cleanse themselves with a stinging newspaper article--Bayley has spun his out to a 144-page rant against everything and everyone associated with New Labour. In addition to devoting a chapter each to those he despises most (Lord Irving, Culture Secretary Chris Smith and, obviously, Mandelson), Bayley lets rip on Cool Britannia's favoured cars, restaurants and wallpaper, political style and spin doctoring. There are some real gems within this extended essay on the compelling tackiness of New Britain. They'll make you wince or roar with laughter depending on your persuasion (political and/or sexual). The elite and politically fashionable are fully quoted slagging each other off. There are some "insider' accounts of life chez New Labour no-one else would have dared to reveal. But then Stephen Bayley has nothing to lose--now. --Carey GreenRead More