SOURCE: Pinter, Harold, and Mary Riddell. “Harold Pinter: The Odd Dissenter, a Professional Mr. Angry Who Is More Victor Meldrew Than Vaclav Havel.” New Statesman 128, no. 4461 (8 November 1999): 18-19.

In the following interview, Riddell discusses Pinter's polemical stance on many political issues.

As Harold Pinter wrote recently, in an open letter to the Prime Minister, he was “chuffed to the bollocks” by the advent of the Blair government. This variant of the feel-good factor—first articulated by Lenny in The Homecoming—has long since dissipated. War in Kosovo, sanctions on Iraq and bellicose foreign policy elsewhere have rendered Pinter as dischuffed as it is possible to be.

“I find the whole Blairish idea more and more repugnant every day,” he complains. “New Labour: the term itself is so trashy. Kind of ersatz.” Then there are the substantive charges. “Blair is a war criminal and a murderer. He is living...