The only incontrovertible achievement - which nobody can plausibly deny - of Tony Blair's decade in office is that he himself has ended up as a very rich man. It was very different under old Labour. 

Indeed the gap between very rich and very poor on Mr Blair's watch infamously increased: hardly a justification for an outgoing Labour PM to boast about ending his premiership among the ranks of the super-rich. True, there have been rich Tory ex-PMs. But in the case of Macmillan and Home, their money was inherited - not made as a result of high office. 

Politics and avarice, in a nation, will always be a warning sign of decay and decline; when venality is added to that malodorous mix, as it is today, the end is nigh.

Shame on you, Mr Blair, people may envy your millions, but they'll never love you, as they did and still do Attlee. 

Kind of Blue: Shame on you, Mr Blair

In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, experts warned Tony Blair that occupying the country and trying to impose a western-style democracy was doomed to failure. He dismissed their objections, convinced that victory was a formality. In the first of three extracts from his new book, Jonathan Steele looks at how Britain went to war unbriefed, unprepared and with no idea of the fallout that would ensue...

from the Guardian 

Tony and Cherie Blair have bought the former home of the late actor Sir John Gielgud. The Mail on Sunday claims the Blairs paid £4m for South Pavilion, in Wotton, Buckinghamshire, where the thespian lived happily with his long-time companion Martin Hensler.  

The elegant property - ­ the actor called it his own 'Brideshead' - has beautiful gardens and statuary and, in Sir John's day, peacocks strode the grounds. 

The acquisition of the South Pavilion brings the number of homes the Blairs now own to six: they already have two in London, a pair of flats in Bristol and Blair's former constituency home in Durham. 

Blairs Aim To Live In Theatrical Style

Blair's role in F1 tobacco ban revealed

Sunday, 12 October 2008

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Independent.co.uk Web

Fresh details about the Ecclestone Affair - New Labour's first sleaze scandal - have been revealed in Whitehall documents.

Previously secret papers showed that Tony Blair personally intervened to secure Formula One's exemption from a tobacco advertising ban just hours after meeting the sport's boss, Bernie Ecclestone.

The Government has always maintained that the meeting did not influence the final decision over the exemption - even though Mr Ecclestone was a major party donor at the time.

The Prime Minister appeared on the BBC's On The Record programme to insist that he was a "pretty straight kind of guy" in a bid to draw a line under the controversy.

Claims that Mr Blair had "railroaded" the move past ministers were also strongly denied.

However, the briefing notes prepared by officials - and obtained by the Sunday Telegraph under freedom of information laws - raise questions about Mr Blair's account.

They reportedly show that Mr Blair instructed his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, to signal his support for a derogation just hours after meeting Mr Ecclestone on October 16, 1997.

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See toon at top...and see also truth in cartooning: The brilliant play/project mentioned about half way through, Ngapartji Ngapartji won a Deadly Award  ... May Tony Blair one day awake from the fog of war, religion and smoking sponsorships...    

Tony Blair has urged Barack Obama to take the initiative on issues from climate change to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a way to heal the divisions between America and Europe.

In an interview with the Guardian during a visit to Rwanda, the former prime minister said Obama's election as US president opened up "an era of real possibility".

"I think he can say to Europe, look I'm going to champion a global deal on climate change, I'm going to take the Middle East peace process seriously, I'm going to make sure that poverty in Africa is right at the top of the agenda, I'm going to listen to your concerns and get a shared agenda with you."

But while Blair, who now serves as Middle East special envoy of the Quartet of the US, EU, Russia and the United Nations, welcomed Obama's election, he also warned that the new president would make demands on Europe and defend US interests.

"I'm not going to get into comparing presidents, because I think that would be, er, not very fruitful. But there's a tremendous possibility for Obama to reach out and create a unifying agenda," Blair said.

read more at the Guardian

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Gus: it's getting tedious to have to point out that "Aussie" Tony was one of the culprits who damaged the world, by aligning himself with G W Bush, unconditionally.

The three bandits, Howard, Blair and Bush, have led the world into this gigantic mess. Ongoing festering wars, financial crisis, lack of trust in leadership because of massive lies and fudges, lack of focus on climate change policies as fiddled by Bush to basically do nothing, helping the middle-east fester some more by supporting Israel aggression against anything that moves around it, while feebly complain about Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands, etc etc.

Is there any moral fiber in the man, to shut up!? Does he have to give his six-pence of advice at any wind change? Can't he go away and enjoy his wealth without having to blurt anything about the obvious? Tony, you've done your dash, just go as far as possible... And stop taking credit should things go one way or the other...

Retire gracefully and quietly... please. See toon at top and all other "Aussie tonys"

John Rentoul: Religion has its uses – like jumping the queue

Friday, 6 February 2009

There is an afterlife: religion does have its uses after all. After you have left office, it gets you to the front of the line of foreigners queuing up to be the first to meet the new President of the United States. The glee in Blair Central can only be imagined when Tony Blair was invited to open the National Prayer Breakfast. The invitation worked for Barack Obama, because it softens the blow of choosing between Gordon, Angela and Nicolas as the first head of an EU government to shake the presidential hand. We can be sure that Gordon doesn't see it that way, but because it's faith-based, no one can criticise. Everyone knows that Blair is devout, and we all have to pretend that there's no politics in church.

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Don't worry Mr Rentoul, here on this honorable site, we don't pretend about the politics in church, whichever belief it is... Criticise we do, especially the hypocritical. But above all, faith-based activities do not make them specially right. To the contrary, many faith-based activities are lining the walls and the boardwalks of hell (if you believe in hell, that is). Faith-based activities are destroying the planet, because people promoting these activities encourage us to consider the planet as a second fiddle to an illusionary heaven, while some peddlers of such ideas (aka Aussie Tony) live like Croesus...

Long live relativism, evolution and atheism in the protection of what we have and what we are. See toon at top...

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is joining US venture capital firm Khosla Ventures as an adviser.

The business, started in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, a co-founder of technology giant Sun Microsystems, specialises in environmentally-friendly technologies.

These include solar, wind and nuclear energy projects.

Khosla also backs start-ups in sectors such as mobile phones and the internet. It has not been disclosed how much Mr Blair will be paid.

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Argh, Mr Blair... Some much to do, so little time... and so much money to rake... See toon at top...

So that’s where Tony Blair's famous 'journey' was heading. Days after he announced that he was donating the proceeds of his autobiography to charity, the Sunday Times has learned that Tony Blair has set up his own "finance boutique" for the super-rich.

The Mayfair-based company, called Firerush Ventures No 3, has been authorised by the Financial Services Authority and has hired several senior financiers. The Sunday Times claims it will "effectively be a fledgling investment bank".

The company was originally one of a number of firms that the former Prime Minister set up to oversee the finances of his consultancy firm, Tony Blair Associates, but can now broker deals for other clients.

Blair's reputation for crony-ism is enhanced by a look at the names of those working for Firerush. They include his former aide Jo Gibbins and Catherine Rimmer, who worked in the research unit at Downing Street during his tenure. Jonathan Powell, Blair's former chief of staff, is also registered at the FSA for Firerush.

Varun Chandra, who was a senior figure at Lehmann Brothers, the US bank that collapsed in 2008, has been recruited.

Blair's move into high finance should be a lucrative one and, according to the cynics, goes some way to explaining why he was able to donate the £4m - £5m he was set to make from his memoir, A Journey, to the Royal British Legion.

As Sophie Elmhirst blogs for the New Statesman: "There's that sense - just as there was when he was in office - of a gulf between the external presentation and the inner reality. He gives a highly publicised donation, and on the quiet, registers an investment vehicle in Mayfair."