Bushe's poodle... Blair... can someone explain this to me? please?

Answer 1

I think it's an older British political expression revived to apply to the Bush-Blair. I remembered a book about 50 years ago that was titled "Mr. Balfour's Poodle." So I looked up A. J. Balfour in Wikipedia, and found the answer (or at least the antecedent to the answer).

Balfour was a prominent Conservative politician (and a respected philosopher). He was the Prime Minister for a time in the early 1900s but was defeated by the Liberals under Asquith with Lloyd-George as Chancellor of the Exchequer (the British Treasury Secretary). The Asquith government tried to bring in social welfare measures (unemployment insurance, old age pensions, etc., which would be financed by an income tax on wealthier people, particularly the landed aristocracy). The Conservatives did not have enough votes in the House of Commons to defeat these money bills, but they still controlled the House of Lords. The House of Lords used its (non-elected) prerogative to defeat therse programs year after ear. Lloyd George made a speech in the House of Commons accusing the House of Lords of acting "not as the guardian of the constitution, but as Mr. Balfour's poodle" — meaning that they acted as his instrument to do what he couldn't do himself because he didn't have enough votes (i.e., hadn't been sufficiently supported by the voting public). What was very strongly implied was that the Lords did Mr. Balfour's dirty work for him.

The roadblock in politics led to the House of Lords beginning to be controlled in its powers. A Bill was passed cutting down the power of the Lords to stop money bills passed by the Commons. The Lords vetoed this Bill. Before reintroduciing the Bill, Asquith went to King George V and the King agreed to create enough new Lords to override any veto by the existing Conservative majority in the non-elected House. The King was persuaded that his duty was to uphold the tax and spend authority of the elected Commons (he was also wise enough to realize that it was in the interest of the Monarchy to align with the Commons in a constitutional crisis and in so doing established the traditioin of the modern constiutional monarchy that reigns but does not rule). The Bill was reintroduced and the veiled threat of creating new Lords in enough numbers to shift the majority in the House of Lords was enough to secure passage through the upper house).

The Parliament Act of 1911 is seen as one of the major steps in the progress of British democracy and is recognized as the beginning of removal of blockages to the welfare state and to the eventual emergence of Labour as a contender for political power. So enough people know its significance among at least the media and political classes so that periodically things like Lloyd George's "poodle" pjrase are revivied and applied to new situations.

So Blair is attacked as President Bush's poodle because he is seen as aligning himself with Bush's "dirty work" or causing Britain as a power in international relations to so align itslef (I personally disagree with this poiitical label, but that is a different matter — here I'm trying to give the antecedents and meaning of the phrase).

Added:

This evening, I saw an episode of a British police detective series, "Midsomer Murders." The word "poodle" is used in a pejorative sense to refer to somebody who is gossiped about as a younger man who has affairs with older women in order to sponge off of them financially. Another term which seems to mean the same (but might refer simply to a younger man who is courted by an older woman and becomes her lover) is "toy boy", which I have heard used more often in British television shows.

Answer 2

insults come easy
so dog is god spelled back wards
so bush is blairs god or visa versa
but its all just insult
you want to understand language try the language post ,
incase you missed it this is current ,do you know the poodle thing was yesterdays news?

Answer 3

sure!! see... what happens is... when... blair, the poodle, goes to the bushe's house... then thats what it is! lol

Answer 4

They are insulting poodles.

After all, when did dogs kill, maim, ravage and torture?? yup an insult towards dogs