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news
Alastair Campbell and one of the stolen bikes.jpgAlastair Campbell's bikes are stolen
Alastair Campbell, the former Labour party spin doctor, has had two high-end bikes stolen from a shed outside his home in north west London.
It’s an experience that is sadly all too common in Britain and, as we reported last week, a survey published as part of a Home Office initiative has claimed that more than two in three bicycles stolen in this country are taken from in or around the cyclist’s home.
Campbell’s machines were both branded Triandrun, one in blue bearing his name and the other, in black, bearing the name of his son, Rory.
Campbell is a keen cyclist and runner who has completed a variety of events including triathlons, often to raise money for the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research Fund, a charity of which he the fundraising chairman.
Curiously, in tweeting about the theft, Campbell uses some distinctly Cameronian language, announcing a “Big Society appeal” for information that might lead to the recovery of his bikes before inviting the “thieving scumbags” to simply return the machines to his shed. Good luck with that.
He further tweets to the thieves directly, informing them that the bikes are “both worth well into four figures, but both have unique identifying features. Blue one was custom made.”
Well, it’s always helpful to provide a bit of provenance, some background information and a ball park valuation when items are changing hands.
Campbell also posts a tweet that is somehow unlikely to endear him the very people who may be able to help recover the items. He says: “Hoping all the security stuff on the house from when the police thought I was important still working.”
If you have any information as to the whereabouts of the machines, the police station at Kentish Town is handling the investigation and can be contacted on 0300 123 1212.
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18 comments
I would comment on this but I am a little worried that as well as my phone being tapped my e-mails are being monitored.
Regardless of job he is another cyclist who has suffered a loss so he does have my sympathy.
BUT: that picture looks suspiciously like Parliament Hill with St Michaels Church Highgate behind, if so that is a no cycling path. Throw the book at him someone (preferably a heavy one).
@bikeandy61, I think wishing a break-in on anyone is a bit low. It's not as if he singlehandedly brought the country to its knees - he wasn't even a banker!
Though I agree that he can surely afford to replace them from the money the series of apparently drearily tedious books he's publishing will more than cover the replacement cost. Rumour is he had an advance of £1 million. He won't have to save up for a while to replace them, like I'd have to.
I've also used both my bikes on charity rides. Perhaps I should write a book...
Nope, but he is definitely something that rhymes with that!
After last Thursday's Question Time I think that George Galloway is number one suspect
Don't like the guy but getting a bike stolen is a major pain in the butt - and as for two...
Stolen from his shed. There's a pattern here. I'm very worried.... because I live in a shed. In London. What if I get stolen let alone my bikes? How will I do my charity rides then? What if my gf claims me on the house insurance and gets a better model as a replacement?
Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.....
*trots off to buy a few second hand IED's and a machete*
I was prepared to scoff, but he sounds like a real cyclist. His favourite ride is Mont Ventoux, and he does have proper cycling shoes.
Quoting from that article...
So these bikes were custom-sized to Mr. Campbell's unique physiognomy? In that case, whoever has stolen them is going to be hard pushed to sell them, if the theory that the nature of a man's soul influences his physical makeup has any validity. As the great Hunter S. Thompson said of Richard Nixon, he "was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning." Those bikes are probably balanced to compensate for a strong rightward lean from the rider, such that if any normal person were to ride them they would end up going round and round in circles.
See, it is possible to scoff...
...and no, the fact that he has raised a few quid for charity does not mean he can never be ridiculed for his all the harm he has done. When he says smug, gitish things like...
...it makes me wish he never gets his bikes back, given that he, and his ilk, are major impediments to the rest of us getting any fulfillment.
I'm wondering about his appeal to "the Big Society" to help him get his bikes back could be tongue in cheek but then isn't everything political… so maybe he doesn't actually want to get the bikes back cos that would prove that the Big Society actually works… or maybe I've watched too many episodes of The Thick of It
Either way, take Mr_Andrew's point and hope he gets his bikes back
I wonder what sort of high-end RPM this SPIN doctor can output.
.......
Having your bike nicked is awful. Are we really going to start judging the crime based how much we love or hate the victim? As much of a tosser as he is, it shouldn't really come into play.
Nothing to stop him raising money, in many other ways, for charity, running/walking, golf, balloon trips powered by his hot air? If he couldn't get himself any number of bikes with a phone call to carry on his charity work then he really isn't all that he thinks he is.
How many other bikes were stolen on the same day, from people who could not afford to lose them and weren't reported.
I stick by my OP - not one once of sympathy for the "osser.
It looks like they came and nicked his cycling shoes before they came back for the bikes !
Yes, it's truly great news that the bikes he uses to raise money for the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research Fund have been stolen. Well done, and let's all pray that you don't require that brilliant charity's assistance any time soon, because we wouldn't want to revel in another's misfortune, would we.
Oh, lighten up ffs. You'd think he'd held the torch for them while they picked the lock.
Self-righteousness must be the only expanding part of the British economy these days (see Davina McCall story recently).
A COTHO has been screwed by other COTHOs. And unlike the rest of us he'll have another one in a week.
the influence he had on the government he could have done more good there than riding a bicycle and telling everyone about it
less invading iraq and afghanistan and a few more bob towards the NHS would have been admirable...
One of the few good news bike theft stories going! I suppose one shouldn't revel in another's misfortune but I just can't help it. A man who has helped to bring misery to a lot of people in this country, no sympathy here.
The sad thing is that like when Caudwell (a local highly regarded billionaire) had his Madonne stollen a few years back, Trek very graciously gave him another one.
Much will always have more.