The “Yo” Moment II
Boy it seems like everything these days is part of a series.
The Telegraph - Modestly embarrassed
The “Yo, Blair” exchange overheard in St Petersburg revealed a surprising modesty on the part of our Prime Minister.
He rightly recognised that America was best able to restore peace on the Israeli-Lebanese border, whereas all he had to offer was “talk”.
Exactly.
Sadly, this decline has been all too apparent during the latest crisis to rock the region. Tony Blair was to the fore in proposing an international stabilisation force for southern Lebanon, but has since given no indication as to its composition or mandate; a junior Foreign Office minister has merely stated that there will be no British participation. Instead of dispatching the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, to the battleground, the Government has sent Kim Howells, the minister for the Middle East. …
Since the crisis broke, France has had its prime minister and foreign minister in the region, Germany its foreign minister. Britain, once seen as a major player in the Middle East, has been represented by a junior minister who has sown confusion, and even incited ridicule. His trip, and the evacuation, have been sorry evidence of incoherent policy-making and managerial incompetence. To echo Churchill, in the past week Mr Blair has had a lot to be modest about.
Update:
Oh dear.
The Spectator - Liddle Britain: It’s so hot that I’m even cross with the evacuees, by Rod Liddle
Yo — Reader! How are ya doin’? Hot and bothered, I suspect; sticky and irritable. And no less so for having been addressed in such a manner, or for being reminded that this is how the leader of the free world addresses those who do his bidding, the lickspittle minions who bring him gifts of questionable knitwear at world summit meetings.
Apparently if I don’t greet Peter with a:
Hello, Peter, my co-equal and worthy partner, how did your day at your very important and worthy work go today? How may I assist your equal and worthy efforts in our relationship by cooking you a dinner in an equal and worthy way? Here let me take your coat.
I’m telling him that I think he exists only to do my bidding, him a whipped lickspittle minion whose gifts I find unworthy.
And now I shall take up quoting the rest of this article below.
July 25th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Considering their unfamiliarity with the trappings thereof, I’m forced to conclude these people have no friendships.
I liked Tim Blair’s take on this last week,when someone asked, “What are the odds Bush greets his dogs in much the same manner?”
Quoth Blair: “Pretty good, I’d guess, if by ‘much the same manner’ Attwood means ‘affectionately’ and ‘by name’. When did journalists become such a prissy bunch?”
July 25th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
“Affectionately and by name”
I remember that. I loved that. I think I was going to link to that but something got in the way. Vegas, maybe.