The Queen pressurised Tony Blair over fox hunting during a weekend at Balmoral, according to a new book. The monarch, who reportedly claimed that Blair “was in the wrong party”, lobbied the then prime minister some years before The biography of Elizabeth II by Sally Beddell Smith claims: “she patiently explained to him over dinner that [...]
With 52 shopping days until Christmas, Amazon may well have stumbled onto this year’s seasonal craze: a lifesized cardboard cut out of Gordon Brown. While John Prescott now finds his bestselling biography on sale for £1 in Poundland, a virtual Gordon for the politico in your life comes in at £30.99. To preserve the delicate balance [...]
Is there no end to Maurice Glasman’s repetoire of achievements? Often spotted smoking a roll-up on the terrace at Westminster, the academic, community organiser and life peer is seemingly a musician too. Discovered during the research effort for a new book on Glasman’s “Blue Labour” movement, a YouTube video features the single Justify It by The Ashtrays, a [...]
This week has seen a surprising revival of ’80s and ’90s rapper MC Hammer – of a political nature. On Monday, Scrapbook reported that students at London’s University of the Arts had parodied Hammer’s 1990 hit single U Can’t Touch This to attack government plans to cut university funding. Then last night the man himself [...]
As suggested in an interview with Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakly on Daybreak today, Tony Blair has now cancelled his book signing at Waterstone’s Piccadilly this week. Chiles: With the book signings, they’re getting more and more lively judging by what we saw in Dublin. I don’t get why you’re doing them. The point of [...]
“Writing my memoir, A Journey, has been a fascinating and enjoyable experience”, says Tony Blair. Judging from his lukewarm delivery one would hope more it was more “fascinating and enjoyable” than recording this promo: Much has been written on the publishing battle between Blair and his former consigliere Peter Mandelson, who beat him to publication with [...]
Tony Blair has met nine children named after him during a visit to Kosovo. Still no scrapyard in Pristina yet though.
