A British mockumentary that takes satirical measure of the “special relationship” between the U.S. and Great Britain uncovers something culturally more striking than the movie itself: The Brits are still stuck on L’Affaire Lap Dog.
By that I mean Prime Minister Tony Blair’s lockstep support of George W. Bush before and throughout the war in Iraq.
To Blair’s detractors, the PM was a yippy little Pekingese in Uncle Sam’s stars-and-stripy lap. “Lap dog” became his permanent moniker — and the operating metaphor for the U.K.’s deferential status as a world power.
“In the Loop,” created by the team that gave British viewers the award-winning BBC comedy series "Alan Partridge" and "The Thick of It," presents a farcical scenario in which one British official’s chance remark that war is “unforeseeable” all but causes a military escalation.