Sunday, March 16, 2003

Tony Blair, George Bush and the Prime Ministers of Spain and Portugal meet in the Azores, before the start of war in Iraq: TB travelled with Bush in the presidential limo and the ludicrously large motorcade. We sat around a fairly small square table. The mood shifted regularly from serious, e.g. going through texts, running over difficult arguments, to light-hearted. Bush at one point just looked over at me and said: “You’re just like a faucet. Can’t stop leaking.” I said that we called it tap.

Barroso [Prime Minister of Portugal] did a long opening and said we had to make the last effort for peace. Everyone kept going on about it being “the last effort for a political solution”. But there was more than a slight feeling of going through motions. The meeting itself was in an odd room, way too big for the numbers, with a kind of weird grey crazy paving-type set-up on the walls, thick white tablecloths. Bush talked about it being a last effort. He said it was important the world saw we were making every effort to enforce 1441 [the UN resolution that offered Iraq an opportunity to disarm]. He said everyone had to be able to say we did everything we could to avoid war. But this was the final moment, the moment of truth, which was the line most of the media ran with. He was emphasising he would really move on MEPP [Middle East Peace Process]. Aznar [Prime Minister of Spain] was really pushing the importance of the transatlantic alliance, but he was in even more political hot water on this than we were.

I introduced Bush to Godric [Smith, Tony Blair’s spokesman], said he was our Ari Fleischer [White House spokesman]. “You gotta be bald or something to do these spokesman jobs? Or is it the job makes you bald?”

He asked about the vote, said he was confident we would win. I said Robin C[ook] might shift a few. As we left I said to Bush, if I do a sub4 hour marathon will you sponsor me? He said “If you win the vote in Parliament, I’ll kiss your ass.” I said I’d prefer the sponsorship.

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