Whatever you may think of IDS and William Hague, they never embarassed the party with their hairdressing bills. Today's news that Cherie Blair billed Labour £7,700 for managing her hair during last year's General Election won't endear Britain's self-styled first lady to an already suspicious general public.
Mrs Blair is not, of course, the first political haircut to have provoked media attention. Andrew Pierce, in The Times, lists four others:
- "Bill Clinton got a haircut while Air Force One was parked at Los Angeles Airport in 1993, blocking three runways and delaying flights for two hours
- In 2002 Gerhard Schröder won a court injunction to stop news reports about his hair
- John Prescott used his official car to travel 250m to the Labour conference in 1999 saying “my wife does not like to have her hair blown about”
- Silvio Berlusconi had a hair transplant before the Italian election"
Blair, Clinton, Schroder, Prescott & Berlusconi - all people who have won elections.
IDS & Hague glorious failures. DC spend some money on your next haircut. You can always use the cut hair as loft insulation !
Posted by: Will | April 21, 2006 at 01:58
How churlish can Labour Party activists get ? Cherie Blair is the essential emblem of New Labour and the restrained use of hair-stylists means she skimps on £275/day which is moderate when one considers her vital role as Blair's consort.
It is outrageous that she and her husband do not get to bill the Labour Party for their clothes and dazzle the world with the best a Chinese sweat-shop can produce for a British design-house.........
The Labour Party is truly fortunate to have Cherie Blair - an asset to the Labour Party and deserving of much more than a pathetic £275/day for a hairstylist - when her husband is bringing millions into the Labour Party with his Public-Private Partnership on recruiting Legislators for the Upper Chamber and providing outdoor-relief to advertising professionals across London - £7700 is barely the price of a good bottle of wine among Labour fundraisers !
Posted by: Rick | April 21, 2006 at 06:36
What is it about political elites, that they come to regard everything as their right.
Cherie Booth is a very highly paid lawyer, who could have afforded such extravagances from he not insubstantial salary. Claiming for it shows a greedy money grabbing attitude.
Posted by: Serf | April 21, 2006 at 07:41
I was told that when the Blairs were here in Dorset last year, a friend of mine (hairdresser) was asked, perhaps summoned would be a better description, to go and do her hair. When he went to present the bill he was told that Cherie didn't pay for her hairdos.
Posted by: Margaret | April 21, 2006 at 08:38
Mortgages, mortgages, mortgages (the new Blair mantra)
How can a, not as well paid as she was, mother manage to look good when the building society askes for a wedge every month? People are asking questions of her husbands expense claims, that nice Mr B isn't around for a free foreign holiday, PC Plod might be visting soon....
Posted by: Ted | April 21, 2006 at 08:41
The perfect symbol of 'fin de siecle' decadence surrounding the Blairs.
On the mortgage issue, and with support for Bush and the Iraq war plummeting in the US, you have to wonder how big the market there is going to be in a year or so for expensive dinners with him.
Still, that will be small fry compared with what he will be paid by a grateful investment bank or private equity firm...
Posted by: Chris | April 21, 2006 at 09:15
This is typical of Labour spending sprees - it's not linked to results. For £7,700 we could have expected her to look better.
Posted by: Mark Fulford | April 21, 2006 at 09:41
Hair today, gone tomorrow?
Posted by: Simon C | April 21, 2006 at 09:47
Has anyone seen the Labour spokeswomans response to this news, "So what? Mrs Blair worked fantastically hard during the election and visited more than 50 constituencies during the campaign.
"She is enormously popular with the party and, don't forget, we won the election."
Posted by: James Maskell | April 21, 2006 at 09:53
At least the taxpayer's didn't pay for this one (via state funding of political parties), lets hope it stays that way.
Posted by: Sam Coates | April 21, 2006 at 10:10
How much environmental damage did her hairstyle cause? Im sure she used a lot of hairspray...
Posted by: James Maskell | April 21, 2006 at 10:13
Gordon will need to think of what his policy ob this should be:
1 Competitive tender - surely the reputation of a hairdresser is enhanced by his creation of the winning spouse's hairdo so cost could be driven down by competition.
2 State training and employment of a Hairdresser to number 10 (could do Gordon & John as well). Could form basis of a state corps of hairdressers for all Whitehall and Departments of State and perhaps the general populace. Obviously this would be cheaper than option 1 as costs could be managed and duplication of effort reduced, you would however have to see a Hair Practioner first to decide on need for hair cut/ hairdo, and be booked in with Hair Consultant (within specified time) before being referred to the Hair Operations Centre for the actual "Cut".
The costs would be centrally controlled but pensioners and people on benefit would get Hairdo Credits so as to ensure that there was a fair distribution of reasonable hairdos.
Posted by: Ted | April 21, 2006 at 10:24
£7,700 for a haircut? But they hardly took anything off! For that amount of money, she should have been scalped, or bald at the very least!
Posted by: Daniel Vince-Archer | April 21, 2006 at 10:28
Im guessing for pensioners and those on benefits it would have to be means tested...
Posted by: James Maskell | April 21, 2006 at 10:30
Obviously looking forward to Mr Norton's review of "Hair" in a week at the movies.
Posted by: Ted | April 21, 2006 at 10:31
James - of course means tested (can't have rich old folk getting their credits) but we would also need a Hair Regulation Office (OffHair) and a team of Hair Inspectors (including of course Nit Nurses)
Posted by: Ted | April 21, 2006 at 10:34
This is vanity gone mad. How pathetic. It's not as if Labour would have lost had she suffered from scruffy hair.
Posted by: Richard | April 21, 2006 at 11:24
I was hitting the streets with a fantastic Conservative Cllr/MP candidate (in Warrington...) last night, she's selflessly invested so much of her personal time and money into community projects and local party campaigns.
My first thoughts about this Cherie story therefore, were that it revealed a lack of commitment to and idealism about her party.
As Serf pointed out, Cherie has a huge income anyway - bleeding her party dry for the sake of her vanity thoroughly deserved to backfire.
Posted by: Deputy Edito | April 21, 2006 at 11:50
All that money and she still looks like a train wreck. A paper bag would be much more effective.
Sorry for my vain superficialarityness
Posted by: PassingThru | April 21, 2006 at 12:12
I liked Mark Fulford's comment: you really do wonder what Labour got in return for their £7700! My hair is certainly unpromising (and scarce) raw material but I manage to look OK for £12 a time.
Posted by: Michael McGowan | April 21, 2006 at 12:24
At least all that dodgey peerage cash was spent wisely!
.. I bet theres a poor wee (misguided) granny out thare that gave labour £50 last year, and is a bit put out by this headline now. Hopefully their coffers will be even more barren this year as a result of Cheries' extravagance. What a wifie - how does Tony put up with that day in day out?
Posted by: Oberon Houston | April 21, 2006 at 13:36
You get 12 quid a shot...I get a fiver every four months. I look like cousin it at the moment! Next week though, Ill look like the Fonze!
Posted by: James Maskell | April 21, 2006 at 13:39
Here's a link to Cherie & Tony leaving the polling station on election day last year. Was this before or after one of her daily sessions?
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1477710,00.html
Posted by: Simon C | April 21, 2006 at 13:49
Shortly after Blair came to power in 1997 the fragrant Cherie found herself facing similar criticism over the cost of a personal hairdresser who had accompanied her on a visit, with her dear husband, to the US.
William Hague commented at the time that the most he'd ever spent on a haircut was £10 - and £9 of that was a search fee!
Posted by: Richard Weatherill | April 21, 2006 at 13:59
The Blair's have no shame. Great response from Hague. Compare it to Cameron's:
Certainly my own haircutting bills I think probably are a lot less than that.
He doesn't know how much his haircuts cost and only thinks he spends less than £275 a day on hairdressing?
We know Cameron has royal blood, but does he have someone to squeeze the toothpaste onto the brush too?
Posted by: Chad | April 21, 2006 at 14:19
Now if Cherie started wearing a hijab or even a full chadoor this problem about the hairstylist would just go away.
Then again if Tony grew a beard and started wearing a kameez we could all relax knowing he was on his way out
Posted by: Rick | April 21, 2006 at 14:48
Harsh Chad harsh - DC will never compete with Our William in the quips stakes - however, if you're allowed to be satirical about DC I think you should let him be ironic about the venal Ms Booth
The "so what" comment should tell any Labour party member what they need to know about their party's leadership.
I presume that this payment from the Labour party consitutes a gift.
Am I not right in thinking that such a gift would be treated as income and therefore subject to income tax and National Insurance?
Posted by: kingbongo | April 21, 2006 at 16:30
I really can't get too wound up about this - I think it spins itself, to be honest!
Anyway, if that's the best they can do, it can't be bad for us, can it? I'm sure anyone else here who's ever run a campaign can think of many better ways to spend £7,700 (I'm trying to do it without drooling, I promise - and NO, it's not due to that picture!)
Posted by: Richard Carey | April 21, 2006 at 23:14
I see that 94% on AOL said she should repay her hair bill.
Posted by: Margaret | April 22, 2006 at 08:32
Indeed Richard, it was twice the cost of Peter Kilfoyle's (Lab MP, Liverpool) entire campaign.
Posted by: Deputy Editor | April 22, 2006 at 09:37
Why doesn't Cherie Booth wear a jilbab like that poor girl she represented from Luton ?
Posted by: Rick | April 23, 2006 at 13:36
Cherie wins best hair of the year award and is presented with a big bunch of flowers, the Cruella de vil look is SO in fashion, and it suits her personality too.
Posted by: kris | April 24, 2006 at 16:59
In the Times:
Michael Howard’s make-up during the election by Carolyne Martini cost £3,638.35
Alastair Campbell billed Labour for £47,000 for four months’ work
Charles Kennedy charged £4,800 for six bespoke suits and £355 for six shirts
Producing 5,000 hand flags for the Tories cost the party £1,715.50
Tony Blair billed the Labour Party £53.46 for his car to take him to Buckingham Palace to call the election. The bill included two hours’ waiting time
The last one really amuses me - des the outgoing pm really claim expenses for a visit to Buck House!
Posted by: Ted | April 24, 2006 at 23:32
Quite what does Cherie do for the country? Absolutly nothing. At least the queen has a point
Posted by: David Banks | April 25, 2006 at 12:45