quote:

---

Humphrey, the cat who shared 10 Downing Street with two British prime ministers but was evicted by current resident Tony Blair, has died. He was aged about 18.

Blair's office said late Sunday that Humphrey died last week at the home of a civil servant who had adopted him. The black-white stray wandered into Downing Street in 1989 when it was occupied by then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and was named in honour of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Machiavellian civil servant in the sitcom Yes, Minister.

He remained under Thatcher's successor, John Major, but moved shortly after Blair took office in 1997, prompting a Conservative legislator to ask in the House of Commons for assurances he was still alive.

Blair's wife Cherie denied reports her dislike of cats was responsible for Humphrey's eviction. Officials said Humphrey was suffering from a kidney complaint and needed a quieter home in the suburbs.

In his heyday, Humphrey appeared regularly in the media, and once narrowly avoiding being squashed under the wheels of former U.S. president Bill Clinton's bullet proof Cadillac.

---

[ 20 March 2006: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

Michelle, I was trying to ironize my reactions a bit there. Of course I don't think that about everyone who doesn't keep cats. I don't like Cherie, though, and I was partly making fun of our tendency to grasp at any straw when we already don't like someone.

[ 20 March 2006: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]

quote:

---

Reports say Cherie thought cats were "unsanitary". Unsanitary indeed - they spend most of their time washing themselves, when they aren't sleeping or seeking food!

---

Yes, both creatures in that photo look most pained.

quote:

---

Originally posted by lagatta:
brebis, I'm surprised you haven't encountered "Moggy" before as there are so many animal-loving British writers.

---

[ 20 March 2006: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hephaestion:
You still have snow there, BB? How could you possibly still have snow?! WE certainly don't here!

*running and ducking*

---

Please tell me you did NOT just say that.
Edmonton got 25cm of snow on Saturday, I'm not taking anything to do with snow in much of a light manner.

quote:

---

What is this fixation with despising the wives of elected officials anyway? It happened to Hillary Clinton, it's happening to Ms. Blair. Who the hell cares?

---

quote:

---

Speaking of political cats who is that colony of feral cats that live on Parliament Hill doing?

---

quote:

---

The Humphrey dossier, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, is - at an inch and a half - impressively thick. This is hardly surprising given that his career in public service was more interesting than that of most cabinet ministers in recent decades.

Humphrey arrived in the Cabinet Office in October 1989 as a one-year-old stray. He followed a long-line of distinguished government mousers dating from the reign of Henry VIII.

In March 1992 a detailed memo was prepared on Humphrey by the accommodation officer at 70 Whitehall. "He tends to eat little and often - no doubt because he knows he can always get food whenever he wants."

Humphrey cost the taxpayer £100 a year and was rather more effective than a professional pest controller, who charged the Cabinet £4,000 a year and, according to the files, never caught a mouse.

"He is a workaholic who spends nearly all his time at the office, has no criminal record, does not socialise a great deal or go to many parties and has not been involved in any sex or drugs scandals that we know of," said the memo. In November 1993, Cabinet Office staff were told Humphrey was suffering from a minor kidney disorder.

"As well as being treated by a vet he has been placed on a controlled diet and is not to eat anything other than the prescribed food," it noted, in a memorandum for circulation in "70 Whitehall only".

"Staff are therefore asked that, for his own good, he is not fed any treats or titbits."

Then he was accused, in The Daily Telegraph's Peterborough column, of murdering a nest of baby robins.

The files show how the full might of the Whitehall machine was wheeled out to protect his reputation. "This was a libellous allegation and was completely unfounded. This was at a time when Humphrey, a gentle-natured cat, had been ill with kidney trouble and sleeping for most of the day. He could not have caught anything even if it had been roast duck with orange sauce, presented on a plate."

The Illustrated London News requested an interview but was told: "Unfortunately as Humphrey is a civil servant he is bound by civil service rules and cannot talk to the press about his position."

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by arborman:
What is this fixation with despising the wives of elected officials anyway? It happened to Hillary Clinton, it's happening to Ms. Blair. Who the hell cares? There is more than enough about their spouses (the ones who were elected, and have/had real power) that we don't need to pick on their families. I've never seen it happen to a husband of an elected leader (though to be fair there haven't been many female presidents or PMs)

Though I do find the Laurabot to be a bit creepy, if only in her apparent inability to do anything other than 'smile and look supportive'.

---

I guess you missed the evil - as in utterly evil - advertisement that Cherie and Laura did for their husbands, pretending that the U.S. and UK elites went into Afghanistan for the sole purpose of liberating all those women in burkas ... You missed that charming performance, did you, arborman?

And you believe, do you, that George and Laura and Tony and Cherie had spent their lives previously worried about the freedom of the women of Afghanistan? Do you?

quote:

---

Originally posted by skdadl:

I guess you missed the evil - as in utterly evil - advertisement that Cherie and Laura did for their husbands, pretending that the U.S. and UK elites went into Afghanistan for the sole purpose of liberating all those women in burkas ... You missed that charming performance, did you, arborman?

Cherie Blair, like her husband, had much more opportunity than most to become an intelligent human being. She failed. She did worse than fail. She propagandized on behalf of murder.

---

Easy there, skdadl - I'm not saying that Ms. Blair and Ms. Bush are angels. I seriously doubt that any of them give a damn about the status of women in Afghanistan.

My point is that there is a tendency to pull in the wives (but not the husbands) of elected officials when focusing our hostilities. No, they aren't perfect, and yes, they set themselves up for it as campaign props, but I prefer to focus on the real bastards - the ones who make the decisions.

quote:

---

And you believe, do you, that George and Laura and Tony and Cherie had spent their lives previously worried about the freedom of the women of Afghanistan? Do you?

---