An amusing piece in the Indie:
Can you really claim to have converted to Islam when you’ve read only the first 60 pages of the Koran? What if you don’t like the ending? That’s the question on the minds of anyone hearing that Tony Blair’s sister-in-law Lauren Booth switched religions six weeks ago (10 pages per week; must be gripping stuff) after visiting a shrine in Iran and experiencing “a shot of spiritual morphine”.
Lauren and her Catholic half-sister Cherie are not on good terms nowadays, while her father, Tony, isn’t even speaking to her. He spoke to me, though – after I’d asked him what he thought of his daughter’s conversion, and after he’d finished laughing.
“My initial reaction was complete and stunned disbelief; my understanding was that she was a committed worshipper of mammon,” Tony told me from his Todmorden home. “My first thought was that the girl hadn’t had a spiritual experience in her life. My second was that her mother, Pamela Cohen, is Jewish, which makes the whole thing even more bizarre. But good luck to her. I suspect she may want to work for a company like al-Jazeera now, and a conversion may make it easier.”
I suspect, strongly, that the “scouse git” is winding his estranged daughter up. Wikipedia – that repository of all truth – claims that her mother was one “Gail Smith” [sic]
But if you fancy playing Jewdar, here’s a lovely pic of Lauren B
She’s about as Jewish as Treslove, in my view.
UPDATE
Perhaps I’m wrong.
This article in the Indie suggests that Gale was Cherie’s mum. It continues:
Lauren Booth is Tony’s sixth daughter, and 14 years younger than Cherie. Her mother, Pamela Smith, is known by her modelling name, Susie Ripley. She never married Booth, although they had two daughters.
Anybody got a pic or more info on Ripley/Smith/Cohen?
