Tony Baldry MP has set libel lawyers Olswang on British bloggers who have had the temerity to refer to this extremely interesting article from Sahara Reporters
Olswang state that Baldry has been hired as a QC to defend the truly horrible James Ibori on charges of money laundering. Ibori was Governor of Delta State in Nigeria, scene of appalling environmental devastation, dreadful human rights abuse, and massive corruption from the oil industry. Ibori chose to launder millions of pounds of his looted wealth through London. The Nigerian government refused to extradite him to the UK, but family and associates of his in London face money laundering charges.
There are two important points here. Olswang state that Baldry was not acting as an MP, but as a QC. That would certainly be true if he were on his hind legs arguing to a jury in court (though why any jury might be swayed by Baldry is beyond me).
But to write to a Minister saying that as a matter of policy, it is not in the public interest to prosecute corrupt foreign officials who launder their money through London, particularly Mr Ibori, is quite a different thing. How can the roles of MP and QC be separated in such policy lobbying of a Minister on behalf of a paying client – and remember Mr Ibori was in a position to pay extremely well?
The separation of Baldry’s MP and QC hats in carrying out this special pleading to Ministers is a vulgar fiction. Not to mention the moral vacuity of the argument: “We can’t turn up our noses at money looted from the African people, old boy. Think of the effect on the City.”
This case raises, yet again, serious questions about the compatibility of MPs highly paid outside interests with what is supposed to be their main job, as impartial legislators on behalf of the British people.
Which leads me to my second point. Did Baldry or his companies have any connection with James Ibori before he was hired as his QC? The Sahara Reporters article lists extensive business interests of Baldry in West Africa, including in oil and gas.
The Nigerian Liberty Forum knows that Mr Baldry, who was the Chairman of the House of Commons International Development Select Committee from January 2001 to May 2005, has extensive interests in the extractive industries of several emerging economies especially in West Africa. For example, he is the Chairman of Westminster Oil Limited (a British Virgin Islands registered company involved in the development of oil licences and exploration) and the Deputy Chairman of Woburn Energy plc (a UK AIM listed company specialising in oil exploration and recovery). He is also a director of West African Investments Ltd (a company that invests in “infrastructure and natural resource projects in Sierra Leone and elsewhere in West Africa”) and a shareholder in Target Resources plc (a company involved in gold and diamond mining in Sierra Leone). Mr Baldry is also the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of Curve Capital Ventures Ltd (“a sector neutral investment company that predominantly invests in India; China and Africa and advises companies on strategic growth and global expansion”).
I know of Westminster Oil Ltd, who are particularly dodgy. More revelations will follow.
UPDATE
I have got hold of a copy of Olswang’s threatening letter, amusingly headed “Not for publication”.
Welcome to your next governing party.
It’s not too late to stop it, but it requires people to hitch their wagon to whatever decent candidate they can find, get onto the doorsteps and work, come the election.
I caught Alastair Campbell on Newsnight yesterday (I know this sounds like a tropical disease). And guess what he was saying? That, right now, people are pining for the days of real politicians, like Michael Foot, and Shirley Williams; politicians who really care; politicians who are ‘big characters’; politicians who are real and not ‘put in boxes’ as Blair had been (by Campbell, he admitted). Extraordinary.
Interesting to set this beside the recent brouhaha at Nicola Sturgeon’s intervention on behalf of a constituent facing charges of benefit fraud. I wonder if the Glasgow Herald, doughty guardian of public morals, will print nine consecutive front page stories on this affair. Perhaps unwise to hold one’s breath?
I see from Baldry’s Wikipedia entry that he is “one of a small number of Conservative MPs to vote against the Iraq war”.
?
I found this which is an interesting commentary.
http://elendureports.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1020&Itemid=1
“it is not in the public interest to prosecute corrupt foreign officials”
Looks like Gordon Brown has pledged to change the law system:
Writing for the Daily Telegraph, Gordon Brown says he will set out proposals to put the CPS in sole charge of judging the merits of any case brought under international law.
Labour MPs have been told the changes will be set out to the Justice Select Committee today and the government will legislate after consultation.
Senior Israeli officials had spearheaded the protests, expressing disappointment that Britain allowed private individuals to use its courts to allege war crimes and other human rights violations.
Mrs Livni, who is currently leader of the opposition, was forced to cancel a trip earlier this year after discovering a pro-Palestinian group had secured an arrest warrant for alleged crimes committed during last year’s military operation in Gaza.
I sincerely hope this ‘blasphemy’ of our Justice system causes a public outcry.
I am writing to Gordon withdrawing my recent tentative support for him.
The more I see of politicians, the less sense their behaviour makes. Have the power structures simply grown too big, the pressure upon individuals become too great? Humans have evolved to assess characters and reputations and interact in groups of a few hundred people, not tens of thousands or more. Maybe humans simply can’t make sense in such large structures. Mass media communication compounds this problem. How can any of us hope to assess a prospective representative from their public media profile?
might be worth raising with the parliamentary ombudsman:
http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/
Or Sir Christopher Kelly, the commissioner for standards in public life:
http://www.public-standards.gov.uk/
Although I did report that John Major used his insider connections to buy the public sector company Quintiq from the MoD, when he was on the board of the Carlyle Group, with James Baker and the elder Bush, at a knock-down price and then float later at 400% profit. Its one of the many ‘private equity’ scams detailed in Robert Peston’s book ‘Who Runs Britain’. But Kelly didn’t do anything about it.
http://www.quintiq.com/industries/defense-logistics.aspx
Baldry believes that Sharon was a peacemaker. But looking at Baldry’s self-satisfied ugly tory face I think that must have been a typo for pigs-mucka. As Strategist points out, what a choice! Genuine, born-again, Zio-succubi neo-colonials rooting for diamonds in Africa, or spineless, lying Zio-condoms made from pigs’ offal like Jack Straw who dedicate their lives to perverting the course of justice.
Craig, apologies for my earlier off the cuff post, which was simply a knee jerk against the name of Tony Baldry. I have now looked at the original Sahara Reporters piece and the Olswang solicitors letter.
Thanks for standing up to be counted on this one. I hadn’t realised that it was Richard Wilson’s blog “Don’t Get Fooled Again” that had been threatened in this way.
I note that WordPress have duly taken the offending post down http://richardwilsonauthor.wordpress.com/ (Good site by the way, everyone!)
Have any other bloggers been threatened too?
Are the blogosphere’s techies doing what they need to do to safeguard the ongoing viewability on the net of the original Sahara post or the Olswang letter?
I hope so – but nothing on Tim Ireland’s Bloggerheads about this, which I would usually expect to be the case.
Meanwhile: (1) are posts on your site now safe from being taken down by your web host?
(2) Do you think this might be the time when you break your duck of actually being sued rather than just being threatened?
The original blog is cached by Google. Search for “What the voters of Banbury need to know about Tony Baldry”
Click on cached
Simple google:
“In April 2005, Tony Baldry MP, the Conservative member for Banbury, Oxfordshire was reported as exploiting his position to further his business interest in a series of letters sent on House of Commons notepaper to the Vice-President of Sierra Leone discussing the privatisation of the country’s failed national airline. Companies House records showed that Baldry owned 439,000 shares in Angel Gate, although he made no mention of this in any of the letters. The firm paid him £30,000 in the previous year as its chairman. As chairman of the Commons international development committee, Baldry was responsible for scrutinising the millions in government aid spent in countries such as Sierra Leone.
Mr Baldry gave a “heartfelt and unconditional apology” even though the same Tony Baldry MP, was told to apologise to MPs after recommending that Sarosh Zaiwalla, a lawyer who had lent him £5,000 should be awarded a CBE in March 2000.”
And then, Zaiwalla turns up as Ibori’s solicitor:
“On 28 September 2009, he registered the following interest in the MPs’ Register of Interests: “Received fee of £22,012.57 from Zaiwalla & Co. (Solicitors to James Ibori), for advising clients. Time worked: 16 hours.”
http://nigeriawhatisnew.blogspot.com/2010/01/uk-parliament-sleaze-nigerian-politics.html
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmstnprv/421/421.pdf
etc etc
NB: the ‘heartfelt and unconditional apology’ actually largely concerned a company called Milestone, not Angel Gate Aviation:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4703565.stm
Craig, sorry for hasty post: better google, with links:
“Tony Baldry MP, was told to apologise to MPs after recommending that Sarosh Zaiwalla, a lawyer who had lent him £5,000 should be awarded a CBE in March 2000.”
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/686906.stm
22nd March 2000
He still receives money from Zaiwalla’s solicitors:
2. Remunerated employment, office, profession etc
Practising barrister, arbitrator and mediator.
Received fee of £705 for legal advice to private individual (Direct Access). (Registered 14 January 2010)
Zaiwalla & Co., solicitors. Address: Sarosh Zaiwalla Esq., Zaiwalla & Co., 46-47 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1JE.
Received fee of £22,012.57 for advising clients. Hours: 16 hrs. (Registered 28 September 2009)
Received fee of £10,000 for advising clients. Hours: 8 hrs. (Registered 11 November 2009)
Received fee of £5000 for advising clients. Hours: 5 hrs. (Registered 15 December 2009)
Source: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/tony_baldry/banbury
No one is denying that Zaiwallah has acted for Ibori:
“The House of Commons register of members’ interests, shows Mr Baldry records was paid more than £37,000 for 29 hours work between September and December by Sarosh Zaiwalla, a London-based solicitor who had acted for the Ibori family.”
But it’s important to note:
“However it is not recorded what work this was for. Mr Baldry would not comment whether this was as part of the work which included the Miliband letter.”
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/5007091._I_m_not_corrupt___MP_Tony_Baldry_says/
Doing very nicely thank you.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/tony_baldry/banbury#register
Then click on ‘history’ at the bottom of the page. I use this facility quite often but I have never seen such a long diverse list of interests.
What a greedy trougher.
Why is this man an M.P.? To put a human gloss on his otherwise repulsive greed?
To represent the globe-trotting managers of his constituency that have closed down their factories in the neighbouring constituencies of the West Midlands?
Because the UK needs neo-colonials to collect our share of profit from Africa in the refitting of our fossil fuel heating systems? Because the UK needs M.P.s who can rise above party politics, the role of ‘Her Majesty’s opposition’ and stitch up deals over the heads of democratic government? Please tell me why he is an M.P.?
Maybe he’s an MP because being close to political power increases his value as a director and a consultant…
“One of the most shameful aspects of the Iraq saga, which I am sure the Chilcot inquiry will highlight, is the way in which Lord Goldsmith was effectively bludgeoned into producing advice that satisfied the Prime Minister. Independent legal advisers to the Government should be allowed to be independent. It appears that when Lord Goldsmith put in writing an opinion to Government that was hostile and said that the war was not lawful, he was punished by being excluded from Cabinet meetings until he produced an opinion that satisfied the Prime Minister. Almost the day before British troops were deployed, he said that it was lawful. As Sir Jeremy Greenstock, our permanent representative to the UN at the time, was obliged to say to the Chilcot inquiry, this was not a legitimate war, but it was legal. That is not a distinction that lawyers really understand.”
Tony Baldry – Hansard 15th Feb 2009
A line in the Olswang letter that strikes me between the eyes is this: “It is self evident that where the letter was written in Mr Baldry’s capacity as Barrister, there can be no implication of any improper conduct on [his] part …”
The only thing that is self evident, is that he considers himself above the law. What astonishing arrogance!
It’s disappointing to note that the article seems to have been removed from Richard Wilson’s WordPress blog. Does anybody know where it can still be found?
Thanks Mark. Hypocrisy and cant are his stock in trade in addition to his greed.
Interesting that he voted against the Iraq invasion (it’s wrong to call it a war, though I do too). I wonder what pressure any of the other players in this can exert?
Mr Baldry should read “Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy” (Ken Saro-Wiwa).
Then he should resign as MP.
Does anybody know the registered address of Westminster Oil Limited in BVI?
DID SOMEONE SAY ” CORRUPTION”?
WHAT SAYS YOU ALL….FROM “THE INDEPENDENT”
New blow for Tories as lead slips in marginals
Poll shows crumbling support in target seats as David Cameron is drawn into Ashcroft non-dom row
By Nigel Morris and Michael Savage
Friday, 5 March 2010
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REUTERS
Conservative leader David Cameron and his party must win 117 seats in order to achieve a majority of one
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The Conservative lead is crumbling in the crucial marginal seats that David Cameron is relying on to deliver general election victory for the party, a poll last night disclosed.
The result was a fresh setback for the Tory leader after a torrid day in which he was drawn deeper into the row over the billionaire peer Lord Ashcroft, when it emerged that he had known for less than a month that Lord Ashcroft had maintained his non-dom tax status for 10 years.
The chances of the party drawing a line under the controversy were also wrecked by the announcement that Lord Ashcroft will be summoned to the Commons to explain why he negotiated a secret deal to enter the House of Lords without paying tax in this country on his overseas fortune.
THE QUESTION FROM THE INDEPENDENT:-
Q. “What sort of hold does Lord Ashcroft have on them and the Conservative Party, that they are so weak that they are so incapable of getting to the truth to establish what the facts are, why the British people have been misled for all this time about Lord Ashcroft’s residency in this country and the taxes he has been paying?”
Ruth – a call to Peter Kitson at Woburn Energy, Reading might bear fruit.
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/peterkitson
I’ve been hunting for the text of the ‘offending’ article. Searching for the title, it tops a google search that points to a ‘Page not found’ error on the Don’t-Get-Fooled-Again WordPress site. Someone suggested looking at the google cache–but who would’ve guessed–that has also been disappeared. What led me to a likely surviving copy, was a verbatim search for another of the quotes in the Olswang threatening letter.
It can be found at http://d-notice.blogspot.com/2010/02/d-notice-tony-baldry-mp.html.
Feast your eyes, I suspect it won’t be there for long. It is on a blog site hosted by the good folks at google.
Maybe he voted against the Iraq invasion because he was making money exporting oil to our competitors in Asia while the US was trying to control that flow by invading Iraq.
INTERESTING BLOG POST OF WILL JORDAN:-
” Key point
But the key point to stress here, as I’m sure the Rt. Hon. Mr Baldry and Ms. Proudler would want me to, is that while he is working for you in North Oxfordshire in his capacity as an MP, he is working for Mr. Ibori in his capacity as a barrister.
You see, as an MP you can have a second job. So you can defend someone from Nigeria and you can write to the government. You just have to make sure that you do so in your capacity as an advocate.
The fact that you may well be chums with the Foreign Secretary, the Attorney General, the Home Secretary and lots of other friendly politicians all working for you, the people, in Westminster is by-the-by, because you are doing this in your capacity as a barrister.
You see? I hope so. Because you certainly should. If you do not, and if you detect a conflict of interest, you may well have to have a chat with Geraldine.
The Independent had a chat with Geraldine. Then they said sorry and deleted their article. WordPress had a chat with Geraldine (here), who in turn had a chat with Richard Wilson. He deleted his article.
James Ibori, working for James Ibori in Nigeria
Here’s a little more about James. He is a Nigerian politician. He is a good friend of ailing president Yar’Adua. He was key in helping him rise to power. He funded him. Don’t ask where the money came from. Mr Yar’Adua probably didn’t.
James was governor of the oil-rich Delta State between 1999 and 2007. He got rich, even though his job paid less than $25,000.
He developed a taste, it is said, for fast cars, big houses (in London among other places) and jets with iPod docks.
In 2007 he was arrested in his home country. The case focused on corruption and money laundering and led to 170 separate charges. By the end of 2009, all of the charges were dropped by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
But James must now be worrying that these charges might resurface. That’s because his chum, President Yar’Adua, seems to be pretty ill. He hasn’t been seen in public in Nigeria, since flying back from a 3-month spell in a Saudi hospital.
To make matters worse, James’ foe Goodluck Jonathan has taken the reins of power, maybe temporarily. So the charges might reappear. And another governor, Abdullahi Adamu, has just been charged with corruption. It’s all, no doubt, disconcerting. So James will try to stop it going too far.
But now there are even reports the UK government is thinking about applying for James’ extradition from Nigeria. Blimey.
But if you, like Tony Baldry, want to work with James, why not become pals with him on LinkedIn? He’s apparently interested in business deals.”
To Mary:-
This man is an MP because he is a freemason. The masons run Banbury, and they select the Conservative candidate who best serves their interests. Banbury and Oxfordshire as a whole are strongly Conservative areas and are very unlikely to elect a Labour MP, even in the present climate. Ergo, whoever the masons put up gets the seat.