Tony Blair’s One Man Band Takes On Cameron’s Ensemble
TONY Blair’s gesture politics is all over the papers.
Here’s Tony wearing a straw boater atop his fluffy hair. He is surround by a group of the kind of men whose names and faces you forget, the kind of men who need a club and a prop to given them an identity. If this picture came with a soundtrack it would be trad jazz, that theme tune of lost causes.
This is a shot of the St John’s College Archery Club. The independent bills the group as a “frivolous drinking fraternity rather than a competitive sporting venture”.
And: “The Archery Club was a self-conscious, not to say self-parodying, piece of upper-class silliness. It was an all-male club, with women allowed only as guests on ‘Ladies’ Days’.”
And there is Tony in the summer of 1975, dressed in his boater, blue blazer, brogues and white trousers. And there’s his hand making a gesture near his groin. The Guardian notes Tony’s student guitar playing and offers: “Perhaps his thumb and forefinger are arched to hold an imaginary plectrum.”
In itself, this is no big deal. Many is the sporting club photo given added pep by an exposed member.
And it could have been worse for Tony. A Peregrine Sharrock narrates a scene from Tony’s past life in the Mail: “He’d just had lunch and he and his tennis partner popped into my room for a coffee before going off to play tennis.
“He pulled down his shorts and appeared to show off his private parts to women in the office over the road. It was a solicitor’s office which was only about 35 feet away, and was mainly full of secretaries working on old-fashioned typewriters.
“He said something like, ‘Here you go, girls’ and dropped them for about ten seconds. I don’t know if anybody saw him but we never got a complaint.
“I was quite surprised. It was quite out of character for him. I have no idea why he did it. He wasn’t drunk. I think he was just being silly.
Not that the hand has been always there. As the Mail tells us, Blair’s hand gesture was digitally removed from the photo by the press agency which supplied it, “out of respect for the Prime Minister”.
But now it is back for all to see. So much for respect. So much for the Prime Minister.
The picture can now be compared to that shot of Tory leader David Cameron in full toff regalia. Tony is up against that picture of David Cameron wowing Oxford in a £1,000 white tie and tails dining jacket. Cameron is posing with members of the Bullingdon Club, a group the Times labels “notorious”.
The Times tells us: “The photo is thought to have done him more political damage than reports about teenage pot-smoking.”
But, as the Guardian notes, this photo has now been withdrawn by Oxford photographers Gillman and Soame for “commercial reasons”.
So we have a reappearing Tony and a disappearing Cameron. All we needs now is shot of LibDem leader Menzies Campbell to complete our political leaders’ triptych.
One of him pretending to masturbate into a tuxedo should do it…
Posted: 3rd, March 2007 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
