The end of a period
Vicki Woods on Cherie Blair's memoirs
Her last act was the walk-off, last June, where she chose to wreck her husband’s plan to exit with grace and dignity by shouting, ‘Bye! I won’t miss you!’ at the press pack. When she got into the Jag for their final ride, Tony was furious.
‘You can’t resist it, can you?’, Tony said through clenched teeth as the door closed behind me. ‘For God’s sake, you’re supposed to be dignified, you’re supposed to be gracious.’
This anecdote is annoying for two reasons. The first is that public chippiness from wives of famous men is always unlovely. The second is that she didn’t say: ‘I won’t miss you’ but ‘We won’t miss you’, meaning we, Team Blair, Cherie and Tony. I’ve checked it on the BBC video. Did she deliberately change it? Or did she misremember? It’s only on page 2 of 422 pages, so I’d really like to know.
More articles from: Vicki Woods | this section
Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
Advertisement
Highs and lows on the laughometer
Bevis HillierJust What I Always Wanted: Unwrapping the World’s Most Curious Presents, by Robin Laurance
Murdoch’s big secret is that he doesn’t have one
Michael WolffMichael Wolff reveals how he secured Rupert Murdoch’s co-operation for his biography and discovered that this media titan has no interest in posterity. He is, at heart, a city editor
I will always defend a big spender like J.M. Keynes
Nancy Dell’OlioNancy Dell’Olio makes an impassioned case for Keynesian economics as the necessary remedy for the global crisis. It is to the Cambridge economist that we should turn once more
How I became Bulgaria’s etiquette guru
Dylan JonesDylan Jones is astonished to find in Sofia that the former communist country has embraced his guide to the mores of modern life — and that not everybody looks like Borat
Rudd has lurched from indecision to phoney war
Matthew CastrayMatthew Castray looks back on the Australian Prime Minister’s first year in office and audits an administration which has reviewed much and done very little
Shared Opinion
Hugo RifkindIt didn’t occur to Cameron that White Van Man might be trying to pat him on the back
The Pope was wrong
Andrew RobertsAndrew Roberts on two new books on Pius XII
It’s so unfair
James DelingpoleMargaret Thatcher - the Long Walk to Finchley (BBC4)
Even middle-class children are suffering from neglect
Rachel JohnsonRachel Johnson says that working mothers, divorce, Polish nannies and an obsession with extra-curricular activities mean that our children are seeingless of their parents than at any time in the last 100 years
Umbrian idyll
TakiTaki lives the High Life
Latest blog posts
sponsored links
Free Sky Digital Offer - Order Now
Subscribe to Sky from £16 a month. Get free equipment and free broadband - Join Now. Sky HD - be amongst the first to have it - order now.
Free Sky Digital Offer - Order Now
Subscribe to Sky from £16 a month. Get free equipment and free broadband - Join Now. Sky HD - be...
ROME CENTRE
PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique
City Breaks. ROME and PARIS
ROME and PARIS: over 350 holiday rentals apartments listed: visit www.romanreference.com and www.parisreference.com or call +39 0648 903612.
Jewellery. RUFFS (Estd. 1904).
Goldsmiths by Design Welcome to Ruffs! You have found a company of Goldsmiths that specialises in the manufacture, amongst other
Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine
Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms
Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP
All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved
Chris
May 23rd, 2008 12:24amNot that it will make the slightest difference to say so, but 'lumpen' is the German for 'lower' or 'bottom'. (As in lumpfisch and lumpenproletariat.) It does not mean 'lumpy,' as Ms Woods seems to think.