Page 69 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

ten

TH E football-watching public probably saw me as an obsessive who seldom looked beyond
Manchester United for entertainment. But as the demands of the job intensified, I found refuge in
numerous interests and hobbies that kept my mind stretched, my book shelves packed and my cellar
stocked with good wines.
Apart from my love of horse racing, this other life stayed hidden from view. It was the world I

returned to when the day had run its course at Carrington, our training ground, or when the match had
been played, commented upon and filed away. Over the final ten years or so, I eased myself into a
range of other interests that helped me manage United more effectively. I worked just as hard but used
the muscles of the mind in a more varied way. Home was a base for all my fascinations, from
biographies of the dictators to documents on the John F. Kennedy assassination and files on my wine
collection.

My political convictions have remained largely unchanged from my time as a shop steward in the
shipyards of Govan. People’s opinions change over time with success and wealth, but in my youth I
acquired not so much a range of ideological views as a way of seeing life; a set of values.
I’ve never been active in the sense of becoming a Labour Party animal who attended every dinner
and popped up in every election campaign. But I always supported local Labour MPs. Cathy would
say that the minute you extend yourself into politics, they will want you every time. An expectation
will develop that you’re always ready and willing to give your time. Being a believer in the Labour

Party and socialist principles is one thing, but becoming an active member was another. I just didn’t
have the time as Man United manager to accommodate those demands. I would put my cross on the
ballot paper and support them in a visual way. You wouldn’t see me sitting beside David Cameron,
would you? You would see me alongside a Labour MP. That would be my impact.
I’ve always been on the left of the party, which explains my high opinion of Gordon Brown’s work.
John Smith’s, too. The late John Smith would have been a fine Labour prime minister. I felt sorry for

Neil Kinnock: a good guy with bad luck. I would have loved to see him in Downing Street. He had
that fiery nature. I was closer to Brown in principle but accept that Blair’s more populist way was the
route to get elected. He was correct in his positioning. Plus, he had charisma to go with it and was
popular for a long time until the invasion of Iraq undermined the public’s view of him.
My friendship with Alastair Campbell developed through that great man, veteran Scottish football
reporter and confidant of several Labour prime ministers, Jim Rodger. He called and asked me to do
a piece with Alastair, who was with the Mirror at the time. Alastair and I got on well and he would

send me wee letters and so on. He was a good networker. Then he became Tony’s press secretary and
we became good friends through his role in the Labour Party. I had dinner with Alastair, Tony and
Cherie in the Midland Hotel in Manchester the week before the 1997 election. I told Tony, ‘If you can