Former US president Bill Clinton and British premier Tony Blair's political friendship was matched by an easy-going personal relationship that helped them through some tough crises. A collection of transcribed phone conversations from 1997 to 2000 just released by Clinton's presidential library reveals them working closely on the problems of the global economy, Northern Ireland's peace process and the war in Kosovo. But it also captures moments of humor. So comfortable were the two leaders in their relationship, their jokes could verge on the risque.
When Blair wondered whether it would be appropriate for him, while waiting for Clinton, to return late to Washington, to sleep in a White House bed once used by Winston Churchill, the president replied: "As long as you don't parade around naked before the bath. You're too young and too trim."
The release of the transcripts triggered a flurry of amusement online, with many on social media wondering about repeated jokes between the men of the subject of bananas and cashmere sweaters from Scotland. Both leaders apparently found the topic of bananas amusing and Clinton especially loved to return to it. In February 1999, when US vice president Al Gore attended a meeting in London with Blair's deputy prime minister John Prescott, he was amused to find the only decoration was a bowl of bananas. "I heard all about it. He was very happy," Clinton told Blair. "My staff won't let me talk to you unless I have a banana at hand. I'm sitting here with a banana."
Blair and Clinton also joked about the president's fondness for wearing Scottish cashmere jumpers when golfing, a passion so strong that it risked offending another Celtic constituency. In a later exchange, after Blair promises to send more cashmere from Scotland, Clinton even jokes about taking British nationality and crossing the Atlantic to indulge his Highland passions. "The daily papers today are filled with China being pissed off and Russia threatening war," he said, complaining of the daily grind of White House life. "What I want is that when I am done here to be made an honorary UK citizen and give me a seat from Scotland next door to a good golf course."
