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The end of a period

Vicki Woods

Wednesday, 21st May 2008

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.

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Chris

May 23rd, 2008 12:24am

Not 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.

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