Amis On Blair

June 2, 2007 1:20 AM

Fascinating feature on Blair's farewell tour by Martin Amis. Accompanying video essays. Highlights include a visit to the Green Zone in Baghdad (which "resembles the embassy district of a minor South American capital after a period of immiseration and collapse"), a comparison of Presidential vs. Prime Ministerial motorcades, and a few candid reflections from Blair.
posted by grubby (15 comments total)

memento mori. those video essays rock. thanks for this.
posted by phaedon at 1:36 AM on June 2, 2007

Wow, the videos and the article are great.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 1:51 AM on June 2, 2007

OMG I knew he had bad teeth (well, used to), no idea he was longitudinally challenged, as well.
posted by l'esprit d'escalier at 3:22 AM on June 2, 2007

fascinating, thanks.
posted by brautigan at 5:32 AM on June 2, 2007

This is one of those links that, before even clicking it, you know will lead to The Guardian website.

You know, I think Blair and Amis have a lot in common. If you like, they're both products of the same machine, just like old Etonians are all essentially alike, even if they have completely different views. Blair is as close as we're going to get to a postmodern PM. His premiership was a lot about the machinery of power, as well as the power itself.

The good thing is that his like are becoming out of date and fusty, although I can't help feeling that New Labour still feels, well, new. That's probably because they landed in power just as I hit adulthood.

I was working at St Thomas' hospital in London when they came to power in 1997. I'd graduated the year before. I would eat my lunch on the banks of the Thames, facing the Houses of Parliament. On the day after they won their election victory, I sat eating my sandwich and watched a traffic cone go by, slowly floating down the Thames. I don't know why but that's always seemed very pertinent.
posted by humblepigeon at 6:04 AM on June 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

rats, the vids don't seem to work on Safari or Opera on a mac.
posted by DenOfSizer at 6:27 AM on June 2, 2007

I left Britain for the second time the year before Blair came to power, and have always felt positive about him and New Labour. Mostly I think this is because I lived through what came before (Thatcher and Major) and anything that was not that must be good. I think my absence from the country has also helped - I haven't had to endure the "rictus smile" and his mistake wrt Iraq paled so completely beside the nonsense from the leader of my adopted country, the US. Being absent makes it easier to forgive, you might say, but I haven't found that to be the case since my recent absence from the US...
posted by grubby at 7:21 AM on June 2, 2007

I lived through what came before (Thatcher and Major) and anything that was not that must be good.

Maybe it's nostaliga but, whenever I hear or see Major on TV or radio, I always think that he wasn't so bad. He was just trying to pick up the pieces from Thatcher's reign, and also trying to avoid shrapnel from his own party's implosion.

If he were to run for leadership today, I suspect he'd get quite a bit of support from his party and from the electorate. Especially compared to Cameron. I mean, seriously. Is anybody going to vote for him? And I say that as a middle-aged middle-class floating voter.
posted by humblepigeon at 9:26 AM on June 2, 2007

"What's it like, power? Is it heady?"

What a twit.
posted by william_boot at 9:36 AM on June 2, 2007

From the title I thought Blair's french friends were piling on him for a cuddle puddle.
posted by srboisvert at 11:01 AM on June 2, 2007

Interesting read, thank you.
posted by vito90 at 11:34 AM on June 2, 2007

Yes, the video essays are excellent. I usually don't watch that stuff on the web but these are really worth it.

I think, in the Washington D.C. essay, we see Martin Amis standing in the Oval Office with Blair and Bush. I thought that was peculiar, even a bit surreal. I didn't think real writers would ever have a chance to get near Bush.
posted by jayder at 12:28 PM on June 2, 2007

I like Amis's comment, in the Sedgefield and Downing Street video, something to the effect of, "He's a professional politician who has been in power for ten years. He is like a jukebox, where you punch a number and it moves down to select a disc. And he has many hundreds of discs."
posted by jayder at 12:31 PM on June 2, 2007

Great article, thanks. The note that the PM travels with an entourage of 30 (and 5 bodyguards) while the president travels with anywhere from 800-2400 (and 100 bodyguards) was difficult to believe. Yet so American. The monarchy sucks in many ways, but I do wish had something like that to suck some of the pomp off the executive.

Also, the bit where Blair says he hasn't seen The Queen is cute. Like hell he hasn't.
posted by gsteff at 10:28 PM on June 2, 2007

er, I do wish we had something like that
posted by gsteff at 10:29 PM on June 2, 2007