CHERIE Blair. Laura Bush is quite cute. Nancy Ray Guns. Brrrrrr. Hillary CLiton. Grrr. Michelle Obama… Says Sand Monkey:

I want you to think about this: There is a theory that states that the wife of any successfull political candidate has to be uglier than him or at the very least in the same realm of attractiveness, because if she is prettier than him, then for some reason women won;t vote for him. This is why John McCain will lose, because his wife is too pretty for him (and a heiress, of a beer empire, that motherfucker lucked out), while Obama will win, because he is a good looking dude and Michelle, well, she looks pretty busted. She looks-as one of my friends so eloquently put it- as if her face was hit by a bus. Women who look like that are the reason why we have dentists.

A face bump…

TONY Blair invites you for tea with him and his this Monday August 4th.

Wendi Deng is a friend. She’s married to Rupert Murdoch. Tony’s invitation is on his MySpace page…

OBAMANIA Watch - Anorak’s look at Barack Obama in the news

Barack Obama is in the UK for the final leg of his world your. He’s meeting Tony Blair. Let us pray:

THE SUN: “Barack Obarmy”

HUNDREDS of cops were standing by today to keep crowds at bay as the Barack Obama roadshow hit London.

Obama’s having breakfast with Tony Blair.

(more…)

Share and Enjoy:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

PSSST! Want to know how to save money on your political campaign?

The US Presidential race is an expensive affair: Republican agonist John McCain has total receipts of $100.4 million for the whole campaign, less than half of Barack Obama’s total of $266.6 million since January 2007.

Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign to secure the Democrat Party’s nomination cost $212 million.

Big money.

But it could have been all decided for less, much less. No, not by a game of Russian Roulette, rather by aping the New Labour project.

The Deal, Stephen Frears’ “prequel to The Queen” is having its “world theatrical premiere” at an American Cinematheque screening at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on July 23.

(more…)

MICHAEL White in The Times Literary Supplement: Cherie Blair and the Tony gang

Prescott’s book, the one with the swear words, was ghostwritten by Hunter Davies, who successfully captures the future Deputy Prime Minister’s tone of voice (“oh aye, we were great little boppers”, he says of his dancing teens) which is cheerfully demotic, often chippy. Levy’s Tiggerish account was polished by another journalist, Ned Temko, who parades all his client’s acknowledged faults, his insecurity, pushiness and vanity, yet renders him hard to dislike. Mrs Blair appears to be her own typist. If she were not a successful QC, her breezy style could earn her a decent living as a magazine writer: her text is peppered with phrases such as “dead impressed” and “dignity is not the word”, and such sentiments as “for me flying on Concorde was a dream come true”.

But her book – the most rounded of the three – is warm, often humorous, at times painfully sad. The generous reader learns to forgive her. “I fancied him rotten and still do”, she says of her husband. The Queen was “clearly very fond of Tony too”. None of which has prevented these three post-Blair autobiographies from being savaged, sometimes in the very newspapers which chose sensational extracts for serialization. To denounce the authors for undignified and mercenary backbiting is to ignore the bargain made: not so much cash-for-honours as cash-for-dignity.

Does anyone buy these books?

AMY Winehouse has the “classic sings of TB”.

Who on reading that does not think that Winehouse has taken on the characteristics of Tony Blair?

Of course Tony has never billed himself as TB, for much the same reason that the Beckhams do not have “VD” embroidered into their car headrests.

But the link between Winehouse and Blair is not diminished by reading the Sun’s headline in full: “Coughing up blood, no appetite, weight loss…Amy has the classic sings of TB.”

She’s now in hospital, where she will be for 40 days and 40 nights.

That his name bears the initials of a disease cannot have escaped Tony Blair.

(more…)

FORMER EastEnders’ actor Joe Absolom tells Teltext that he ducked out of giving Tony Blair a piece of his mind.

The actor said  had planned to challenge the former Prime Minister when they appeared together on GMTV. Says he:

 “I planned to say to Tony, ‘Why are we in the war?’ But when I met him in the studio I just said, ‘Wotcha, Tony!’”

It’s the wotcha on terror…

THE Tony Blair Faith Foundation (Why didn’t we think of it first? Oh well…):

On May 30 in New York, Blair, 55, formally unveils The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which, among other things, is dedicated to proving that collaboration among those of different religious faiths can help address some of the world’s most pressing social problems.

It’s an “inter-faith encounter through action”. Really, it is…

HILLARY Clinton might be a woman:

Gloating, unshackled sexism of the ugliest kind has been shamelessly peddled by the US media, which - sooner rather than later, I fear - will have to account for their sins…

More women hating here:

Shaker Pocochina covers at her place the two articles Bill Clinton Has “Never Seen a Candidate Treated So Disrespectfully Just for Running” and Clinton Sheds Pantsuits for Puerto Rico, both of which can be found at ABC News’ Policial Radar, juxtaposed without a trace of irony.

A KNOCK at the Blairs’ door:

Tony and Cherie Blair were threatened with the bailiffs over an unpaid bill at their constituency home, expenses documents released by the Commons show.

The Blairs got a reminder notice from Northumbrian Water in November 2005, addressed to “Mr C L Blair” for £147.

“Your account may be transferred to a debt recovery agency…We appreciate that you may be experiencing some financial difficulties,” it said.

Read all about that and more in Cherie’s next book…

IF Cherie Blair needs to keep her writing hand in she could always design those phone box calling cards.

Says the Mail: “Cherie: ‘I can use contraception AND be a good Catholic girl.’”

If this promise can be accompanied by a shot of Cherie dressed as a nun, dangling a condom from her fingers and affecting a look of wide-eyed innocent curiosity, she may well counter those allegations that’s he has cashed in on her husband’s name and prostituted the position of self-styled First Lady…

TO the offices of Tony Blair,where the paper shredding machcine is in use:

Some of Tony Blair’s expenses claims, which the High Court last week ruled should be disclosed to the public, have been shredded. The documents, itemising Blair’s claims for household expenses during a year of his premiership, were destroyed in the midst of a legal battle over whether they should be published. All MPs’ expenses are funded by taxpayers.

Picture: Beau Bo D’Or Website

It is a criminal offence to destroy documents to prevent their disclosure under freedom of information (FOI) laws, but Westminster officials say they were unaware that the files were the subject of a legal challenge. They insist they were destroyed by mistake.

Very soon, the only record of the Blair years will be found in his colleagues’ and wife’s notes and memoirs. And we will mistake his tenure for a time of binge eating,  unprotected sex , dead children, and greed…

CHERIE Blair has a new book out.

Speaking for Myself, her follow up to Speaking For My Husband, Speaking For Suicide and Bingo! is being read by the columnists.

Those Cherie Blair recommendations in full:

Fergus Shanahan (SUN): “Revenge of the grasping Mrs B”

(Picture: Beau Bo D’Or Website)

Daily Star phone poll: “IS CHERIE A MONEY GRABBING WITCH?”

(more…)

A PICTURE of Cherie Blair and the headline “I came back from Balmoral pregnant”.

And nine moths later baby Leo was born, the child with the wingnut ears, stuttering speech patterns and carefully arranged hair.

We journey back with Cherie, via the Sun, to 1999, and Cherie is packing for a trip to the royal house.

Says she: “This year I had not packed by contraceptive equipment, out of sheer embarrassment.”

Contraceptives are usually afforded the qualifier “device”, and Cherie’s use of “equipment” conjures images of a kit, one that possibly features a picture of Pope John Paul II, a Claire Short ringtone and a full length mirror.

Fast forward now to the eve of Cherie’s 45th birthday and there is one “shadow on my immediate horizon: My period. Where was it?”

Iraq?

(more…)

“BORIS breaks the law,” announces the Mirror on its front page.

Has Boris Johnson, London mayor of mere days been caught out so soon?

Is he drinking a tincture of gin and tonic on the Tube, thus flouting his first initiative?

Nothing of it. Boris was on a bicycle. And the Mirror says that on a trip about the capital he jumped 6 red lights, mounted the pavement and failed to stop at zebra crossing.

This might say more about cyclists, who all behave in such a fashion, more than its reveals about Johnson. Indeed had Johnson been pictured not behaving so his credentials as a bona fide cyclist might have taken a hit from which they would never recover.

But it is all thin edge of the wedge.

(more…)

CHERIE Blair’s autobiography is being serialised in the Sun - “the mum of four finally breaks her silence about life in Downing Street.”

The deafening sound of Cherie’s silence? Finally…

Says Cherie: “Tony used to say in terms of ability that Gordon was way ahead of everyone.

“The irony is, if they’d only worked as closely as originally agreed, Gordon’s chance would have come sooner.”

(more…)

Share and Enjoy:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

TONY and Cherie Blair have purchased the former home of the late actor Sir John Gielgud.

The South Pavilion in Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, is the Blairs’ sixth residence.

A Mr Mark Rimell, a director of country house sales for Strutt and Parker, which marketed the property after Sir John’s death there in May 2000, tells the Mail on Sunday:

“When I first viewed the property, Sir John Gielgud’s Oscar was still sitting on the windowsill in the bathroom.

“The house even had its own stage, but overall it was looking somewhat tired.”

It’s a fitting sixth home for the Blairs, especially since Mr Rimmell says the home suffers from a lack of privacy: “You can be standing in one of the public rooms of Wotton House and get a clear view of the whole garden and some of the interior of South Pavilion.”

What good a pile if the plebs can’t see the common man of the people standing in it? It’s what socialism is all about.

But what will the Blairs do with the house when they’re not in residence? Will it pay for itself?

The smart money is on Blair Towers, the New Labour theme park with:

John Prescott Croquet Lawn

John Prescott Merry Go Round - drive a peddle-powered jag around a desk and see if you can catch woman dressed as a leather KitKat

Cherie Blair Supermarket Sweep & Grabber

Jo Moore’s Burial Mound - a roller-coaster ride shaped like the Twin Towers…

* Gain free entry into the Blair holiday village by being Cliff Richard.

And many more…

Picture: Beau Bo D’Or Website

MORE McCartney news in the Sun as the paper hears it emerge that “deluded Heather Mills lied that Tony Blair had offered her a peerage”.

No small shock to read that at the apogee of Cool Britannia, Tony Blair didn’t offer Lady Mills a knighthood, a job as Minister For All The Disabilities or the chance to use her spare leg as celebrity Black Rod as the state opening of Parliament.

Anorak cannot recall any offer being made, having spent the duration of Tony’s Cool Period with its hand over it eyes, fingers in ears singing the first verse to Cliff Richard’s seminal paean to youth, The Young Ones.

The Sun, though, was listening in wrapt awe, and hears how then plain Heather Mills was, as she claims, offered a “people’s peer” gong.

The claim forms a pivotal moment in ITV’s McCartney vs McCartney: The Ex Files.

On the show, Sunday Times writer Jasper Gerard, to whom she made the claim, says: “I was pretty gobsmacked that somebody who was essentially just a model and a bit of a part-time campaigner best known for being Paul McCartney’s girlfriend should be offered a peerage.”

The Sun says it’s all a lie.

But we can only say by way of defence that Tony was young and meant everything he said at the time…

THE Croydonian looks at how Jack Straw is ridding the Ministry of Justice of “meaningless” Blair legislation:

The Ministry of Justice (excuse the hollow laugh) is rather pleased with itself, judging from this press release referring to “A major clean-up of meaningless and defunct laws from the statute book is due to be launched in the House of Lords today. All or part of 328 Acts of Parliament masquerading as live laws are to be removed under the Statute Law (Repeals) Bill“.

The emphasis in the release is on East India Company issues, turnpikes and the like, so yes, a cute diary-type story, and duly picked up by the BBC, complete with a visual plug for ‘Black Adder’.

And here is the act itself, listing repeals, in part and in whole, and Blair legislation impacted includes:

• Crime and Disorder Act 1998
• Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
• Licensing Act 2003

Time offers perspective…

Source