Politics is full of pants

[stevedeshazer]

<snip>

Jack Straw claims that he is not angry with Sir Christopher Meyer for calling him, among other things, "intimidated and tongue-tied" in his memoirs. He is, as he explained on Friday, angry with the former British Ambassador to Washington because he has written about John Major's underpants.

Mr Straw thinks it is "preposterous and demeaning" to discuss a Prime Minister's underwear. I'm not so sure. I think that when Field-Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, the wartime Chief of the Imperial General Staff, revealed in his diaries that Churchill would often have early morning meetings with him while dressing, or nonchalantly performing his ablutions, he was, and knew he was, recording something of historical significance and value.

He also understood that the observations he made about Churchill's underpants - expensive, pink and silk - reflected well on the great man, especially as Churchill went on to explain that the garments in question were "essential to my wellbeing".

I may have missed the particular reference to "John Major's underpants" that Mr Straw mentions, but, as far as I can determine, Sir Christopher doesn't actually refer to them in his book DC Confidential at all, by name anyway. He merely relates how Major, in Churchillian tradition, would hold early morning meetings with Meyer at Downing Street while dressing and "prowling the bedroom in his shirt tails".

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