NuLabour

It is hard to sum up the excrebale former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. Why do peple give him so much money and apparent influence ?

He's taken millions from dictators and cosied up to warlords. As its reported 'Teflon Tony' is plotting an alliance with a super-rich financier, a devastating critique of the... Man who turned amorality into an art form

By Ian Birrell

Ian Birrell @ianbirrell http://www.ianbirrell.com/

PUBLISHED: 00:26, 12 January 2013 | UPDATED: 00:26, 12 January 2013

[...]

It was the sort of event the former Labour leader seems to love: a private jet to take him there, a £3,000-a-night hotel suite, and networking with the super-rich. Yet his sanctimonious speech was little more than hypocritical hogwash coming from a man who, to my mind, has turned amorality into an art form.

For all his honeyed words about serving humanity, this is a man who used his contacts book from Downing Street to launch a lucrative career advising absolute monarchs, wealthy bankers and despots.

[...]

Take the mystery of his fee for that Beijing speech. Sources in China said he was handed about $200,000 (around £125,000) to deliver the lecture on philanthropy.
But when I asked his office if he was paid -- which might seem at odds with the spirit of both the conference and his speech -- they flatly denied it. His spokeswoman gave me an unambiguous, one-word answer: 'No.'

Yet when I queried this, saying that it conflicted with what I had heard from Beijing, her reply changed. He was not personally paid, she said, but a payment went to one of his charities.

[...]

But criticism seems to have no effect on Teflon Tony. Recently he was back in Britain, joking with journalists in Westminster at a Lobby lunch. He sidestepped a question about his earnings while undermining the policies of current Labour leader Ed Miliband, an ally of his detested successor Gordon Brown.

The appearance was a reminder that he still holds ambitions for a leading role on the world stage, perhaps as President of Europe. Unfortunately, it coincided with a key Palestinian official giving a damning verdict on his peacemaking role as 'useless, useless, useless'.

The lunch also came days after another sharp reminder of one of the most sordid episodes in Blair's decade in power -- his disgraceful 'deal in the desert' nine years ago with Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, which brought the despot in from the cold in return for him renouncing his weapons of mass destruction programme.

Less publicised was the apparent agreement for our intelligence services to act as outriders for a regime infamous for its barbarity.
[...]

Blair's failed "Quartet" Middle East Peace Envoy role pays for his office in the Georgian listed builing at 9 Grosvenor Square (in sight of the Canadian and USA Embassies)

Inside the intriguing world of Tony Blair Incorporated

Days after Gaddafi's fall, I stood in the wrecked home of the British high commissioner to Libya and found piles of secret documents revealing the disturbingly close links between Blair and the oil-rich tyrant in Tripoli.

There were obsequious letters from Downing Street to Gaddafi, suggested questions from our security services to put to detained dissidents, and even offers to use British special forces to train the regime's most feared troops.

Little wonder that Saif Gaddafi -- whom Blair infamously helped with his dodgy PhD thesis at the London School of Economics -- called him 'a personal family friend'.

Another friend of the former British PM was ousted Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, who used to lend Blair a luxury villa on the Red Sea for holidays. When the Arab Spring erupted and protesters poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square, Blair hailed his corrupt pal -- who embezzled billions -- as 'a force for good'.

[...]

Or take his dubious activities in central Asia. Three years ago, Blair was thought to have been paid £90,000 by an obscure oligarch to officially open a methanol plant in Baku. 'I've always wanted to visit Azerbaijan,' he gushed.

[...]

Even more disheartening are Blair's dealings in Kazakhstan, where President Nursultan Nazarbayev is reported to have paid an astonishing $13 million to hire him in 2011.

The Kazakh government was delighted by the coup: 'We could not have a better adviser,' said one official. No wonder -- a nasty regime had bought itself a fig-leaf of respectability, albeit for a small fortune.

It seems they did not just get Blair but his acolytes: former spin doctor Alastair Campbell was spotted at the airport in the capital Astana, and Lord Mandelson has reportedly been paid to speak by the state's sovereign wealth fund. Business leaders close to New Labour are also active there.

[...]

One New Labour insider told me that Blair was transfixed by money and power. 'His view of the world is totally realist,' the source said. 'So there is nothing to inhibit him from doing business with some of the world's most awful people.'

[...]

Since then, he has displayed similar courage standing up to the murderous regime of President Paul Kagame. It has clamped down on internal dissent, sent hit squads to kill dissidents overseas and provoked chaos in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, inflaming the world's deadliest conflict since World War II.

Kagame has been helped by huge sums in foreign aid, but in recent months even his biggest backers in Britain and America suspended funding after the United Nations showed that he was fomenting unrest again in the Congo.

Blair, however, still supports this monstrous man through his personal charity, the African Governance Initiative, which is advising governments in five countries in Africa. Indeed, their relationship is so close that Kagame even put a £30 million private jet at his disposal.

[...]

Ed Miliband's speech today, tries to steal previous Tory Prime Minister's sound bites about "One Nation".

http://labourlist.org/2012/10/ed-milibands-conference-speech-the-transcript/

Have you ever seen a more incompetent, hopeless, out of touch, u-turning, pledge-breaking, make it up as you go along, back of the envelope, miserable shower than this Prime Minister and this Government?

-- errr yes Ed, most of us remember the previous arrogant, mendacious, smug, corrupt, manipulative, technologically naive, authoritarian control freakish Labour governments under Blair and Brown, for which you are personally partly to blame !

Even the USA based Huffington Post seems stunned at this "own goal" Tony Blair Returns With Ed Miliband Event, But Not Everyone Is Pleased

Tony Blair made another attempt to re-enter the British political fray this evening when he joined Labour leader Ed Miliband at an event at Arsenal's Emirates stadium in north London, although not everyone was happy to see him.

The Daily Mail: Looks who's come back! Tony Blair's new job for Labour as he shares stage with Ed Miliband

Guests paid £500 to attend the Labour sports dinner, which was hosted by comedians Eddie Izzard and Jo Brand. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, a long-standing Labour supporter, also appeared on stage.

The celebrity-studded event was designed to allow Mr Blair to make his re-entry into British politics, five years after he left Number 10.

The Guardian: Return of the king to heal divisions within the Labour tribe

The evening, which raised a six-figure sum, was convened by Alastair Campbell, who always served Blair as leader of his tribe and never as a courtier motivated by personal ambition

These untrustworthy politicians are guilty of hubris and would be a disaster if they ever got back into power.

NuNuLabour seem to be increasingly like the old NuLabour.

There was much gnashing of teeth and astonishment amongst the Guardianistas and Labour Twits following Thursday's by-election victory of the the notorious demagogue and self -publicist George Galloway in Bradford West - how could "their" supposedly "safe" constituency reject them ?

The collapse of the the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat votes in this inner city constituency is something which all of these parties should be worried about, but they are already spinning it as if Bradford West was somehow a "special case", not applicable elsewhere

Repellent as the eloquent, deceptive and pompous George Galloway (a former Labour MP) is to normal people, but he and his extremist supporters have exploited the justifiable protest vote against both the Conservative / Liberal Democrat Coalition Government and the almost feudal Labour party machines, so historically vulnerable to patronage and corruption, which infect their inner city heartlands.

Galloway will probably be as useless and divisive an MP in Bradford, as he was in East London and Scotland, pretending to himself that he is at the forefront of some kind of political revolution, whilst praising and supporting various dictatorships around the world.

Today's Labour party is an even worse Official Opposition than the Conservatives were when Ed Miliband and his NuLabour cronies and spin doctors were basking under Tony Blair's huge majority in the House of Commons.

What exactly will the ineffective Ed Miliband do to prevent the next Labour held inner city by-election from falling to another extremist party like "Respect" / SWP or the extreme right wing BNP ?

Simply moaning about public sector budget cuts, caused by the mismanagement of the economy by the previous Labour governments, does not convince people that would be any better than the current Coalition government

Labour have not had the political guts to admit that their previous policies were failure.
Neither have they apologised for their "legislative onslaught" of thousands of often badly draughted laws and petty regulations, which have destroyed so many of our freedoms and civil liberties, which the Coalition government appears to be unable or unwilling to repeal immediately.

Is it any wonder that there are millions of disaffected voters who are sick and tired of the current Westminster political elites ?

Will the NuLabour NuLeader Ed Miliband be strong enough to change the creepy authoritarian, jobsworth Labour party for the better ?

On the face of it this seems to be an unlikely prospect, given that he was responsible for drawing up their General Election manifesto and, as a former Cabinet Minister, is jointly and collectively responsible for the previous Labour government's policies.

As Energy Secretary he did nothing to solve the UK's energy crisis and neither did he succeed in begging the Chinese etc. to reduce man made global warming etc.

Will he support the forthcoming repeals of Labour's "Must Be Seen to Be Doing Something" authoritarian legislation ?

If not then he will be no better than the hated Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Will Ed Miliband really be in thrall to the influence of Trades Union leaders, something which NuLabour managed to sideline and ignore ?

Will the Labour party spend months on internal power struggles, rather than on doing their Official Opposition job of scrutinising in detail, the policies and legislation of the current Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition government ?

Their current performance as an Opposition since the General Election in May has been has been abysmal - all they do is moan about public sector budget cuts, whilst pretending that they themselves are not to blame for these.

The Daily Mail reports that a conservative think-tank, the Conservative think-tank the Centre for Social Justice seems to be about to go insane and lose all credibility, by employing the twice disgraced, technologically incompetent former Labour Cabinet Minister David Blunkett, whose scandalous private life interfered with his public one, again and again.

Labour stalwart David Blunkett set to join Coalition war on dole cheats

By Simon Walters
Last updated at 9:17 AM on 15th August 2010

[...]

Although the CSJ is independent, it was set up by Mr Duncan Smith, who now acts as its patron, and its reports have considerable influence in Whitehall.

A CSJ source said: 'The organisation has been having discussions with Mr Blunkett. We believe he is genuinely interested in helping us to find lasting solutions to deep-seated issues concerning employment and welfare. He is a radical free thinker and can combine it with a wealth of practical experience.

'Iain Duncan Smith has considerable respect for his views. We are keen to work with people from every part of the political spectrum to tackle the fundamental problems facing Britain.'

Politicians like Blunkett are one of "the fundamental problems facing Britain."

Mr Blunkett told The Mail on Sunday: 'I have been talking with the Centre for Social Justice.' He declined to give further details.

How much money is he demanding ?

What are they thinking of ? Blunkett is a failed NuLabour politician, who wasted billions of pounds of public money and vastly increased the burden of bureaucratic form filling which public servants have to struggle with, in all the Departments he was inflicted on.

They in turn, with Blunkett's enthusiastic support, then vastly increased the snooping and privacy intrusions on innocent members of the public, in pursuit of these inept policies.

When Blunkett was in charge of the Department for Work and Pensions, he did absolutely nothing effective against " dole cheats", so why should anyone listen to him now ?

Remember that under the Labour government the inequality between rich and poor actually increased, in spite of all their slogans and sound bites.

Whoever funds the "Centre for Social Justice" should veto any association with Blunkett, as it will destroy any credibility they may have.

The Daily Telgraph reported;

Labour overruled civil servants' objections to final spending plans

Civil servants lodged a series of objections to spending plans by ministers, including Lord Mandelson, in the final months of the Labour government, it has been disclosed.

By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor
Published: 10:26PM BST 18 May 2010

Official figures showed that mandarins were objecting to decisions made by ministers at a rate of nearly one a month as Labour headed for defeat in the election.

[...]

Figures disclosed by the Treasury last night showed that ministers overruled civil servants on spending plans on at least four occasions since the start of 2010.

Advice from officials was ignored on a further nine occasions in 2009. This compared with just five occasions in the previous three years. Three quarters of these objections were on the grounds of value for money.

Lord Mandelson's spending decisions were challenged on five occasions in 2009, including a loan to a quango in the West Midlands and £10 million for a sports complex in Leeds.

Other objections over value for money included the £300 million car scrappage scheme and support for dairy farmers.

[...]

This smells of political corruption. Some of the spending may well have been for "political pork barrel" attempts to bribe the lectorate in marginal consituences etc.

However, given what we know of MPs' expenses , cash for questions, loans for peerages, non-domiciled tax staus of political party funders, lucrative company directorships, perks for rich foreign businessmen , the massive financial incompetence regarding large Government contracts, and other such scandals, we strongly suspect that there will have been various levels of personal corruption involved in at least some of these Labour ministerial spending decisions.

We will be watching closely, to see which Labour politicans, policial appartchiks, special advisors, spin doctors and any senior Whitehall civil servants, who magically get recruited by lobby firms or by companies who directly denefited from those hurried and waseful multi-billion pound spending decisions.

If you know of any such instances of unethical or corrupt activities, you should "name and shame" the individuals and companies involved, in the wider public interest or simply just for revenege.

Unril the Conservatives / Liberal Democrat coalition government actually fulfills its vague promise to amend the notorious UK libel laws to protect free speech, then potential "whistleblowers" with proof of such corrupt activities, should read:

Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers etc.
http://ht4w.co.uk

Technical Hints and Tips for protecting the anonymity of sources for Whistleblowers, Investigative Journalists, Campaign Activists and Political Bloggers etc.

Gordon Brown is at Buckingham Palace resigning as Prime Minister - good riddance !

It is unlikely that the the Conservative coalition with the Liberal Democrats will be free from errors and cockups, but they are unlikely to be as Orwellian as the Labour government turned out to be.

This blog will continue to keep a watch on the post-election defeated Labour politicians to see what mischief they get up to, especially since some of them could return to power or influence in the future.

How many former Ministers and Special Advisor apparatchiki will be selling their "contacts" and influence within the Civil Service to commercial lobbyists and foreign governments ?

Why is the Gordon Brown still clinging on to power in Downing Street ?

Remember he has never won an election for this position of power and has no democratic mandate whatsoever.

Will the Liberal Democrats betray the electorate by doing some dodgy political deal Labour ?

When will the next election be ? Within a year ?

Readers of this blog are unlikely to be "floating voters" who have not yet made up their minds which way to vote in today's General Election.

Please vote, tactically if necessary, for any candidate who is likely to unseat a Labour MP or to deny a Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate victory in a marginal constituency.

Most of the decent Labour MPs (such as Andrew MacKinlay, Bob Marshall-Andrews, David Winnick etc. ), who have actually rebelled against their party leaders' authoritarian, pettifogging, nanny / police / surveillance state policies and the incompetent jobsworth bureaucracy ruled by a risk adverse / blame someone else, form filling tickbox culture they have created, are not standing for re-election today.

Hopefully some of the more odious former Labour Ministers such as Ed Balls, or those tainted by expenses scandals like Tony McNulty or Hazel Blears, or those in marginal constituencies like Jackie Smith (who ticks several boxes), will suffer electorally today.

If the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats do gain power tonight, this blog will oppose them also, if they renege on their promises to undo the wretched Labour policies which have eroded our freedoms and liberties and livelihoods.