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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.

[...]

The anonymous media briefings and spin (e.g. in The Times) have started up again, that somehow, after the Irish referendum vote on the Lisbon Treaty, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, is somehow set to be appointed as the unelected President of the European Council when the Treaty is ratified.

How likely that Tony Blair will give up his lucrative money making speaking tours and his supposedly high profile international diplomatic role as a Middle East peace envoy ? He benefits financially and prestige wise, with his Office of Tony Blair in the 18th Century John Adams house, number 9 Grosvenor Square, London

This is paid for , to the tune of more than half a million pounds a year for the office rent alone, by the Quartet on the MIddle East i.e. the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the United Nations and the European Union, for some vague, unattainable Peace Envoy role in the Middle East. It is also a prestigious office, near the US Embassy etc. useful for his lucrative speaking tours, investment bank directorships and for his Sports Foundation and Faith Foundation.

None of these activities are compatible with a "President of Europe" role - but desperate, grasping politicians may choose to overlook this.

The European Union faces many big problems in the future, but Tony Blair is part of those problems, not an answer to them.

What can you do to Stop Tony Blair ?

1) Lobby your elected politicians

Write to your Members of Parliament and Members of the European Parliament, via the
http://www.writetothem.com/, expressing your opposition to the idea of a political comeback for Tony Blair as the unelected President of the European Council.

2) Display some web buttons on your blog etc..

Feel free to use these smaller logos on your own blog pages etc.

250 x 85

150 x 51

100 x 34

3) Stop Blair petition

We are not alone in opposing the very idea of Tony Blair being inflicted on UK and European citizens, in a position of power and influence, again, without any democratic mandate whatsoever.

There is a European Union wide petition website, currently with over 34,000 signatures, opposed to such an insulting nomination

Stop Blair! - http://www.stopblair.eu/

which links to the online petition at

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stopblair/sign.html

Why is the UK political blogosphere not falling over themselves to solicit copies and to publish the leaked Number 10 Downing Street "loans for honours" scandal email, which is apparently the cause of the Injunction served on the BBC by the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith ?

Surely the issues about "public interest" and the difficulties about authentication of any such alleged document, the chances of predjudicing any criminal court case, and the risks that publishing a tracebale version online to the whsitleblower confidential sources within Government, the Labour party, the Police or the Judicial system are exactly the same as in the Bush/ Blair "bombing Al-Jazeera" memo ?

We will not be publishing any such alleged copy, if we are lucky or unlucky enough to get hold of a copy.

The chances of us or any other bloggers getting hold of such an email before the mainstream media seems to be very remote, but the ethical issues remain the same.

See We will NOT be publishing the "Bush / Blair / Al Jazeera memo"

See also Spy Blog's technical hints and tips for whistleblowers, journalists and bloggers

John Prescott seems to have survived as Deputy Prime Minister but losing the massive Department which he presided over so incompetently.

Margaret Beckett appears to be the "World" Foreign Secretary.

The Times reports the arrest of the former City Academies advisor Des Smith:

The Times
April 14, 2006

Tycoons face police on cash for honours
By Andrew Pierce, Rajeev Syal and Rosemary Bennett

Head teacher arrested over city academies

12 millionaires face questions

MILLIONAIRE businessmen who secretly lent money to the Labour Party have been warned that they will be questioned by Scotland Yard in the criminal investigation into allegations of peerages for sale.

The Times has learnt that 12 businessmen, including four whose peerage nominations were blocked by the House of Lords Appointment Commission, have been told by Labour to expect the police to approach them after Easter.

The revelation comes after detectives yesterday arrested Des Smith, 60, a head teacher and former adviser to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT), which recruits sponsors for the city academies, specialist schools partly funded by the private sector.

Mr Smith resigned after being taped by an undercover reporter apparently promising potential donors OBEs, knighthoods or peerages in return for funding an academy.

[...]

Thw original Sunday Times story of 15th January 2006 "Revealed: cash for honours scandal" which led to Des Smith's resignation from the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust

Other bloggers such as Guido Fawkes have made the obvious link with Lord Levy, the NuLabour fundraiser, who was the chairman of this Trust..

However, we seem to remember that the Downing Street Special Advisor who was the architect of the City Academies scheme was Andrew Adonis.

Asttonishingly, immediately after the May 2005 General Election he was enobled by Tony Blair and made Lord Adonis into the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools: whose Ministerial duties include "Delivery of the Academies programme".

Surely Lord Adonis must have been involved in this City Academies funding and honours / peerages scandal ?

Will the police also be interviewing Lord Adonis ?

ITV reports

Blunkett to publish memoirs
10.46AM, Mon Apr 3 2006

Former Cabinet minister David Blunkett is to publish his memoirs in October.

[...]

Bloomsbury Publishing promised The Blunkett Tapes will be a "rigorously honest self-portrait as well as an astonishingly cogent and intimate insight into New Labour's years in power, the personalities, the triumphs and the debates".

The memoirs were originally recorded on to tape as "journals" by Mr Blunkett but have now been transcribed and will also be published in Braille.

Mr Blunkett said: "I have chosen to work with Bloomsbury because they understood the nature of the book I wanted to write and will harness all their publishing expertise to the project."

Presumably the inevitable leaks from this book will be used to manipulate the Gordon Brown / Tony Blair power struggle before and during the Labour Party Conference in the Autumn.

Why are former Cabinet Ministers allowed to reveal confidential discussions from whilst they were in office, but nobody else is ?

Journalist David Ostler has posted a chapter of his 2002 book "Labour Party Plc: New Labour as a Party of Business" with some interesting details of how the NuLabour fundraiser Michael Levy operated, the dubious blind trusts etc. which led to the current legislation on Party Political Donations. Rremember the previous Labour donor funding scandal involving tobacco sponsorship and Formula 1 racing supremo Bernie Ecclestone's £1 million donation which had to be refunded ?

These blind trusts apparently funded Tony Blair's private office, including spin doctor Alistair Campbell and Jonathan Powell, the chief of staff., whilsy Labour was in opposition.

Given how long Lord Levy has been raising funds for the Labour party. it doe seem strange that Jack Dromey the official Labour party Treasurer and husband of Cabinet Minister in charge of Constitutional Affairs Harriet Harman kept in the dark about the £ 14 million of "loans". Especially since Harriet Harman's portfolio of responsiblities included Electoral Law and reforms, including those dealing with political party funding.

As he says, David Ostler hardly got any media attention when his book came out in September 2002, but on the basis of this chapter entitlef "Taking it on trust", it looks to be required background reading for people who are interested in the current "loans" scandal.:

The chapter is split into part one, and, apparently due to a post length limition in Blogger, also a part two which contains references to sources.

The BBC reports that the Labour party has finally named the list of the people who were tapped for "loans" rather than declarable donations to the tune of nearly £14.

Unveiled - Labour names lenders

Labour has published details of the almost £14m in secret loans from wealthy businessmen. The list was unveiled after it emerged that some of the lenders were later recommended for peerages.

Rod Aldridge - £1m
Richard Caring - £2m
Gordon Crawford - £500,000
Professor Sir Christopher Evans - £1m
Sir David Garrard - £2.3m
Nigel Morris - £1m
Sir Gulan Noon - £250,000
Dr Chai Patel - £1.5m
Andrew Rosenfeld - £1m
Lord David Sainsbury - £2m
Barry Townsley - £1m
Derek Tullett - £400,000

Total £13,950,000

Lord David Sainsbury (£2 million) - what on earth is a Government Minister (for Science) doing donating or lending lots of money to the Government party ?

Would this supermarket businessman, have kept his ministerial job, or even have been appointed to it in the first place, had he not been a financial backer of the Labour Party ?

Rod Aldridge (£1 million), is the chairman of Capita Group plc, who have been given Government contracts for repressive NuLabour mass surveillance and database projects such as the Criminal Records Bureau, the London Congestion Charge, both of which which have gone over budget at the taxpayers expense, but shich Capita had the taxpayer over a barrel, and could not be kicked off the projects. They also collect the controversial BBC TV Licence fee.

With so much of his personal fortune and that of his company dependent on fat Governemnt IT contracts, perhaps it was a "forced" loan ?

It must really hearten traditonal working class Labour voters to see that their party is funded by the likes of Richard Caring (£2 million) who owns, amongst other things, The Ivy and Le Caprice, some of the most expensive and snobbish restaurants in London, which, of course, have been "reviewed" by Ken Livingstone.

Another round of NuLabour sleaze stories in the Sunday newspapers:

• Loans rather than donations to evade the Election Commission disclosure rules on political party funding.

• Would Cherie Blair really be able to command such a large fee if it were not for her No. 10 Downing Street connection ?

• More details of other mortgage application forms which Tessa Jowell signed.

• No Sunday would be complete without the notorious David Blunkett yapping away for media attention.

According to Guido Fawkes, the notorious ex Cabinet Minister David Blunket may actually now have moved out of the "Disgrace and Favour" Government owned £3 million (?) house in South Eaton Place in Belgravia , London.

This is only a mere 5 months after his latest Ministerial resignation, in an area of London where similar houses are rented out for at least £2,000 a week i.e. at least £32,000 worth of free accomodation since early November 2005..