MetaFilter posts tagged with tonyblair

Private and Confidential

Artw — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:56:56 -0800

Bush and Blairline-dancing, The Queen on the loo, Marilyn wanking (nsfw). The phototgraphy of Alison Jackson blends the real and the irreal.

The Smiler

Artw — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:43:52 -0800

Tony Blair wants to be president ...of Europe.

Preliminary sketches of Tony Blair invariably had the PM knocking off the head of a robot.

infinitewindow — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:22:49 -0800

When the House of Commons required a portrait of outgoing PM Tony Blair, to whom did they turn? Phil Hale. Philip Oliver Hale got his start very young indeed, co-founding with Rick Berry the Newbury Studio in 1980 at age 16. He took over the paintbrush from Michael Whelan for Volume II of Stephen King's fantasy saga The Dark Tower in 1 9 8 7. (He later revisited The Drawing of the Three with new illustrations for the second edition in 1998.) The twenty-first century has seen Hale's standing improve among critics. In 2001, he published GOAD (sadly now out of print). In 2003, he finished a portrait of composer Thomas Adès for the National Portrait Gallery. He had a 2005 show in London's Jerwood Space, and 2007 brought him the a commission for new covers for Penguin Classics UK's line of Joseph Conrad collections. He is represented by Allen Spiegel Fine Arts in the US.

Today's Adventures of Spinspin: Alistair Campbell's media whirlwind

nthdegx — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:24:12 -0800

Tony Blair's ex-Master of Spin and closest adviser is on a media whirlwind promoting his diary. Campbell's apparently straight talking nature gives the prospects of some tantalizing insight into the inner workings of number 10 for the majority of Blair's premiership. He's not getting it all his own way, though. BBC Radio 4's John Humphrey's on the Today Programme (Real audio) (MP3) was more interested in the failings of a government and political movement for which he was an architect and key player, and particularly Campbell's legacy of elevating the role of spin in British politics, even in the inner working of government, allegedly sexing up an intelligence dossier in order to make a more compelling case for war in Iraq (See 10 ways to sex up a dossier). The Guardian, in an article titled Did he mean me?, invited some of those named in his diaries to give feedback, or should that be biteback?

Unpopular premier slams popular press

Artw — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:19:40 -0800

The UK media is like a "Feral Beast", and is undermining Britain, says Tony Blair. Simon Kelner, editor of The Independent, responds. Some reasons why Blair might not be too keen on the press.

"Number one, Mr. Speaker"

TimeTravelSpeed — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:48:32 -0800

Prime Minister's Questions is a weekly televised convention in the UK started in the 1950s during which Members of Parliament get a chance to hold their leader accountable for his or her actions. Sick of boring political meetings? "PMQ" is fast-paced, hip, heated, eloquent, insulting, and sometimes hilarious. In fact, the inherant humor of it is has been well explored.

But brits aren't the only ones; "Question Time", as it's called generically, has been adapted in other countries as well. Yet the show often shocks Americans since the concept of weekly unscripted access to leaders without giving days of question prep-time seems like a fantasy. Of course, maybe the alternative (0:41) is much worse.

Good Bye Tony

three blind mice — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 07:06:12 -0800

Tony Blair announces that he will resign as UK Prime Minister. Just broadcast on BBC. Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, is expected to be nominated by Labour party as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Blair hasn't set a date for departure.

Spectre: Families of bereaved British servicemen to stand against pro-war politicians

nthdegx — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 06:38:25 -0800

"Families of soldiers killed in Iraq launch party to challenge ministers". Reg Keys, father of a British serviceman killed in the Iraq War, stood directly against Tony Blair in his Sedgefield constituency as an independent candidate (see Wikipedia for a brief summary of independent movements in the UK, USA and Canada) in the 2005 UK election, taking 10% of the vote. A founder member of Military Families Against The War, he is also at the centre of a new political movement, Spectre, that aim to stand up to 70 members of bereaved families directly against pro-war government and cabinet members in the 2009 election, and each by-election before then. See also the Guardian's Guide to anti-war websites.

The Porter-Blair debate.

Neiltupper — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:08:06 -0800

Henry Porter is the British Editor of Vanity Fair. In the current issue he attacks what he describes as "[Tony] Blair's campaign against rights contained in the Rule of Law". The article follows a series of columns for The Observer and an extraordinary exchange of email between the two men, and has resonance in probably all countries in the Western world.

Bush and Blair slated by Pinter

Postroad — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 10:40:11 -0800

Bush and Blair slated by Pinter George W Bush and Tony Blair must be held to account for feeding the public "a vast tapestry of lies" about the Iraq war, writer Harold Pinter said. [Postroad: but then, what do artists know about politics?]

If only all Politicians were this honest!

metaxa — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 15:37:43 -0800

Finally, The Bush vs. Blair debate that we've all waited to see. Silly Friday-Flash. [Warning, contains profanity]

w00t

Pretty_Generic — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 09:19:49 -0800

Blair loses in the Commons for the first time since his election in 1997. MPs refused to pass laws allowing terrorist suspects to be jailed without trial for 90 days, and Blair's parliamentary majority of 66 turned into a minority of 31. The government has been holding back on the vote for months in an attempt to persuade their party to back the Prime Minister - they failed.

"Values don't change, but times do"

nthdegx — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 10:26:50 -0800

Tony's Blair's keynote speech to the Labour Party conference today [wmv]. Text summary from Channel 4 news.

There be a way out of this yet!

UseyurBrain — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 16:26:15 -0800

The 'Captain' and his buddies have been stuck with the 'Downing Street Memos' that have to be dealt with on the merits of what they say because no one has questioned their validity. Not anymore. What do you do when you need a miracle? Go back to what has worked in the past and scrutinize the paper and typeface .

BBC Question Time

Pretty_Generic — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 18:39:01 -0800

BBC - Question Time Leaders Special [Windows Media or RealMedia]
- Panorama: Iraq, Tony and the truth [transcript]

Mmm, church and state, mmmmmmm.

Pretty_Generic — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 13:27:13 -0800

Uhoh. Tony Blair's new Education Secretary Ruth Kelly is almost certainly a member of masochistic Catholic cult Opus Dei, as featured in The Da Vinci Code.

Impeach Blair

Cancergiggles — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 01:08:51 -0800

Teflon Tony Blair is a class act as a survivor but could he seriously face impeachment proceedings from These guys? So far its only the loons and the wannabees but how long before the case is taken up by The Prince of Darkness? It looks bad because his Pants are on Fire.

Sleeping with the president is not a good idea.

fleener — Sun, 19 Sep 2004 07:18:29 -0800

Sleeping with the president is not a good idea. Bush had no answers to big questions, such as 'what happens on the morning after.' The Daily Telegraph reports that documents show Prime Minister Tony Blair signed up to the U.S. policy of regime change in March 2002, a year before the conflict started... after he was warned that postwar stability would be difficult and the U.S. had few answers. Oh, no problem. This week, Bush said he is 'pleased with the progress' in Iraq.'

Impeach Tony Blair

iffley — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 11:15:40 -0800

Impeach Tony Blair. Backed by a large dossier, supported by a handful (so far) of UK members of parliament. Summarised by The Spectator.

More Whitewash, Jeeves?

Blue Stone — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 01:57:00 -0800

As the verdict of Butler Report into the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq, draws near in Britain, a senior intelligence source reveals that MI6 took the "rare step" of withdrawing the intelligence assessment that underpinned the claim that Saddam had continued to produce WMD (an admission that such information was fundamentally unreliable), however Blair did not tell the public "that the evidence of WMD was crumbling beneath him". [Watch the Panorama programme in question here for 7 days from 11-7-2004] The Dossier that Lord Hutton declared was not sexed-up (leading to senior BBC resignations), Dr Brian Jones (former head of the nuclear, chemical and biological branch of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Intelligence Staff) says was sexed-up, and details exactly how.

Blair in Trouble...

wibbler — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 05:22:17 -0800

The UK local elections have taken place, and for the first time ever forced the ruling Labour government into third position, with their worst showing in history. Is this just a mid-term blip, or the culmination of the huge Iraq backlash that will topple the government? With Bush in trouble too, will any of the warring leaders be left come November? And can the Big Intervention website topple Blair himself?

Terry vs. Tony

homunculus — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 11:57:29 -0800

Tony Blair: Why we must never abandon this historic struggle in Iraq. Terry Jones: Tony really must try harder.

PAIR UP FOR PEACE PRIZE

Postroad — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:33:18 -0800

PAIR UP FOR PEACE PRIZE It is possible to see the war against Iraq as a good thing,finally, but this Orwellian War is Peace seems a bit strange: :Tony Blair and George Bush have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for waging war on Saddam Hussein. They have been put forward by a Norwegian politician who said ousting the dictator had reduced the threat of a war with weapons of mass destruction."

Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn an nwyl i mi, John

nthdegx — Fri, 05 Dec 2003 07:18:15 -0800

The BBC is asking visitors of its news site to vote from a shortlist of the ten most embarrassing political moments. Visitors can watch a short film [real media] which shows all ten nominated moments (forgive the home-video moments style background muzak). There's some variety here: Tony Blair and Neil Kinnock in moments exhibiting a baffling degree of misguidedness, George W Bush and Kenneth Clarke in tight spots (figuratively and literally), while Charles Kennedy and John Prescott probably coming out of their situations looking better than they did beforehand. For me the most cringe-inducing clip is that of John Redwood, the then newly appointed Secretary of State for Wales, attempting to mime the Welsh national anthem. Genuinely difficult to watch.

mirror across the ocean

JohnR — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 14:38:45 -0800

“We fear the government using the current climate of fear and uncertainty about the future as a means to allow itself sweeping powers without an appropriate consideration of proportionality" ......no-go zones ........ power to ban peaceful protest ...... destroy private property without compensation ........prepare for the introduction of compulsory identity cards .... The climate seems to be changing.