Yo, Blair - "Pedigree Chum"

"Pedigree Chum"

Some commentators detected in the "Yo Blair" encounter an air of condescension on Bush's part. For example, former British Foreign Secretary and NATO Secretary-General Lord Carrington reflected that "Iraq, and more recently Lebanon, have totally sidelined us. We have far less influence than we had. That 'Yo, Blair' exchange ... was so humiliating". Towards the end of 2006 an analyst at the US State Department, Kendall Myers (who has since been charged with spying for Cuba), was widely quoted as claiming that, despite British efforts, "we typically ignore them - it's a sad business".

Following a meeting in Washington between Bush and Blair on 28 July to discuss the situation in Lebanon, cartoonist for The Times Neil Bennett, depicted, above the caption, "Gifts were exchanged before the Washington summit", a Burberry bag (an allusion to "Yo Blair") being swapped for a tin of dog food marked "Pedigree Chum". This was a reference to the charge of some that Blair had been acting as America's "poodle" (a metaphor which, though widely used towards the end of July 2006, had been used in British politics since at least 1907 (when David Lloyd George referred to the British House of Lords as "Mr Balfour's Poodle").

In May 2007 Bush denied that Blair was his "poodle", but remarked on his "dogged" style of leadership, while Anthony Seldon, who did an unauthorised biography of Blair, took the view that the episode at St Petersburg did not justify the conclusion that Blair was Bush's "poodle", nor that "subservience" should be "read into the initial salutation". Seldon noted that, when greeting Blair at the White House, he would typically welcome him with arms outstretched, yelling "Hey. Blair. How y'doing'?"