I am so committed to getting my book finished I really don’t have time or energy to blog at the moment, and realise it has been very desultory the last few weeks. I am well and happy, it is just that writing a properly researched history is incredibly intensive. I realise there is much of great interest happening in the world, but I must sometimes cut myself off from it.
This is why I don’t ask for donations for the blog…
The Tony Blair World Government In Waiting needs a Chief Economist. (Note, anyone thinking outside the globalist box need not apply)
http://jobs.economist.com/job/16276/chief-economist-/
Still plugging the discredited Third Way, and an hallucinatory vision involving the pretence of a belief that ‘men reach for concord/With their clenched or grasping fists’* the purpose of the successful applicant will be to implement our focus…on tackling the big challenges which hold such a vision of globalisation back:
We at Ba’al Laboratories have an interest in optics. The technical meaning of ‘focus’ has nothing to do with big challenges, although it might be a useful analogy for concentrating on small and tightly defined areas of these.
The ‘pillar’ (Blairese for corporate subdivision) to which the applicant will be chained purports to be interested in
(1) good governance, as exemplified by that of Romania, say, after the insertion of Blair Inc ™ advisors. And how about Blair-advised Egypt?
(2) opposing extremism (except extreme market forces)
(3) reducing conflict (like the Afghan and Iraq wars, ceaseless advocacy of scaling up the horror in Syria, dogwhistle messages about Iran)
(4) Homogenising Western politics, eg as when the UK gave away £7 Bn in rebates to the EU for no tangible return. Under…?
Notable in the TBI’s current PR is the emphasis on the evils of populism, as opposed to globalism, which is somewhat ironic, since Tony’s first, dramatic, election victory was very much a populist affair. The people were pissed off with the status quo, and said so.
Tony’s the status quo now, the state of the country is far worse, and the people are again pissed off with the status quo.
If as we imagine, Tony spends long hours admiring himself in the mirror, it is the more surprising that he has no self-awareness whatever..
*William Plomer
Mystic Ba’al registers another success. Remember this?
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/02/an-apology/comment-page-38/#comment-665188
The Asshole of Tony Blair, aka Jim Murphy, greases the skids for energy companies and miners, as foreshadowed by the Visit of Tony Blair (and Naguib Sawiris) to Banjul earlier this year.
http://www.voiceofafrica.tv/en/gambia-president-barrow-receives-courtesy-call-from-tony-blair-institute-for-global-change-d2766
Murphy, who has also been spotted in Kenya, is expected to drop in on other locations on Blair’s February itinerary too.
The modus operandi hasn’t changed.
Tony Blair has never been shy of claiming the credit for the Northern Ireland agreement, although the initiative was Major’s, and Blair’s personal involvement was sporadic – Mo Mowlem having been written out of the history books altogether to make room for Tony. But it now seems that Blair was responsible for Paisley’s decision to deal directly with Sinn Fein, rather than through Tony, whose veracity, then as now, was in considerable doubt:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/tony-blair-deceived-sinn-fein-on-irish-language-at-st-andrews-says-exdup-chief-robinson-35872919.html
Bizarrely, the credit is partially deserved. If he hadn’t been such a dangerous liar as to catalyse direct talks between the other parties, agreement might not have been reached.
Sadly, the same approach hasn’t worked in the Middle East. The DUP had moral scruples. Israel doesn’t.
Looks like Blair’s about to ride into battle again. Rebuilding The Centre, between unbridled market forces and, er, unbridled market forces, but delicately stepping away from the convergence of right and left populism which isn’t, oh, it SOOO isn’t,The Centre. He’s hiring a managing editor/PR wonk to hit the spots a good blairing to a roomful of appreciative CEO’s doesn’t reach.
Alastair Campbell doesn’t need the money any more, and Osborne’s otherwise editorially engaged, so we must wait to identify the author of the coming deluge of Third Way porn in the Guardian and on soshul meeja. But the light requirement for a two-page CV plus 300-word statement strongly suggests that the winning candidate is already known to Blair, Inc ™. Probably from the incredibly long list of former Blair advisors now following the global dream, and dollar.
https://www.journalism.co.uk/media-jobs/managing-editor/s75/a706099/
Amazingly, even Tony Himself is giving a fair impression of one who, aware of his toxicity, is staying well away from the Press at the moment. But Mrs. B continues visibly to suck at the teat of (‘global’) human-rights deniers…
https://jagadees.wordpress.com/2017/07/03/how-tony-blairs-wife-earns-1000-an-hour-from-the-kazakh-taxpayer/
Leaving aside the question of Omnia’s expertise in bilateral foreign investment treaties, we observe that the Blairs are never too far away from a lucrative position wrt someone’s natural resources being extracted by someone else’s mining companies.
And everyone likes lithium batteries –
http://www.kazpravda.kz/en/news/economics/nazarbayev-suggested-businessmen-to-invest-in-lithium-mining-in-kazakhstan/
Another possible incentive for Mr Tony to add self-effacement to his method-acting skills might be this, still bubbling under, and not yet quite shut down by his chums:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/05/iraq-war-judge-to-review-tony-blair-prosecution-ban
We wish Gen Abdul-Wahid Shannan ar-Ribat, Michael Mansfield QC and Imran Khan every possible success.
We personally imagine that the outcome of the review will be inconclusive. Aggression may be a crime under international law, but there exists no international body capable of prosecuting it retrospectively. The ICC has only this year claimed jurisdiction over it, and only for instances committed from this year onwards.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/laur-ne-veale/icc-s-new-crime-powerful-states-fear-not
Fear not, truly.
Far better to examine Blair’s income stream, and the extent to which he has compromised the interests of the country whose most privileged and sensitive position he occupied for a decade and shamelessly exploited thereafter, in the pursuit of private wealth and influence. We would recommend a quick look at the Bribery Act:
http://www.transparency.org.uk/our-work/business-integrity/bribery-act/
And maybe a little digging might reveal breaches of the Official Secrets Act too. Blair’s major selling point has been, post – Westminster, his prior access to privileged, confidential, and yes, downright secret information. JP Morgan didn’t hire him for his ability to wear a sharp suit and blether on about governance. They hired him for his knowledge.
Chilcot, asked by the BBC… if he felt Mr Blair had given the fullest version of events to the inquiry, Sir John said:
“I think he gave an – what was – I hesitate to say this, rather, but I think it was, from his perspective and standpoint, emotionally truthful and I think that came out also in his press conference after the launch statement.
“I think he was under – as you said just now – very great emotional pressure during those sessions … He was suffering. He was deeply engaged. Now in that state of mind and mood you fall back on your instinctive skills and reactions, I think.”
Astonishingly tactful of Sir John, and should serve as a test piece for anyone practising their bullshit skills. The question was, “Did he give the fullest version of events?” Not “Did he believe the version he delivered?”.
The mandarin-approved response to this is (1) to tell us how authentic his emotional response was, rather ignoring the distinct overacting Blair, an actor from a family of actors, produced on the occasion: Stock Character #47, Unjustly Accused Hero Hounded By The Public and Not Very Well As A Result. (He recovered miraculously as soon as he left the press conference*)
Then, (2) as everyone is working out what the hell this has to do with the question, the mandarin slips in the ‘instinctive’ kicker. Blair’s instincts are, as is well-documented throughout his career, to evade, obfuscate and conceal his activities.
So that’s a very roundabout “no” to the original question. Which Michael Mansfield should have little trouble clarifying, should Chilcot’s opinion be presented during the current enquiry
*Reminder of the emotional strain Tony was under a month after Chilcot here:
http://www.lasicilia.it/news/gossip/19512/l-ex-premier-britannico-tony-blair-in-vacanza-alle-isole-eolie.html
As The Spokesman For Tony Blair has now weighed in* with the Bullshit of Tony Blair….he BELIEVED, dear Lord…a picture worth any words of ours –
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2017/jul/06/steve-bell-on-tony-blair-and-chilcot-cartoon
*Blair remains far too important to condescend to speak for Himself. A minion is paid to do the frantic self-justification.
We prefer to believe this is genuine:
https://www.ft.com/content/4e83a0aa-621f-11e7-91a7-502f7ee26895?mhq5j=e1
…I love your plans to cut corporation and personal tax and create a more flexible labour market with fewer regulations. I’ve several hedge fund friends who are scoping apartments in Paris and I might even relocate myself (you don’t recognise the ICC, do you?). But remember some of your supporters are less enthusiastic about capitalism, especially the actors.
(Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. We imagine even Sue Grabbitt and Runne will be uninterested in a short extract)
Wondering what had happened to Tony these last few days, we became somewhat concerned for his safety. But we’d forgotten that early July is Tony’s time for catching up with his freebie donors and for exposing his moobs in exotic locations and close proximity to as many international spivs as possible. Mystic Ba’al tracked him down today – well, last week:
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/07/05/edizioni/cuneo/tony-blair-visita-il-castello-di-racconigi-prima-delle-nozze-blindate-QCmISPmdIifJLKU6pv4azM/pagina.html
La Nozze de Carello!…really requires a Mozart to do it justice, perhaps. But this is the sprog of Massimo Carello, who has repeatedly hosted Blair’s hols before. And whose European fervour, as boss of Fiat, goes without saying. As the Independent reminded us in 2006, Dr Carello has expressed forthright views on a number of political issues. In 2002, he was one of seven senior businessman who wrote a public letter warning that Britain faced “slow economic decline” if it did not join the euro.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/a-near-miss-and-an-own-goal-with-friends-like-these-430003.html
EU can tell a man who EUzes/ By the company he chooses…
Elaboration of the foregoing:
The event is described by the Italian press as ‘blindato’, which has nothing to do with blind dates, but means ‘armoured’, and refers to the high level of security surrounding the bash. Which may have accounted for a military aircraft flying random patterns at 3000 feet around the airport in question the day before the wedding. Which in turn may have had something to do with Blair’s justifiable fear of Islamic extremism and/or Old Labour. No pics of the happy couple or the scintillating Sloane guests have surfaced since. Except for Tony, awkwardly posed with the castello’s director, outside. Has Tony been downgraded to ‘help’ status?
We erred. The Mail’s Femail section photoblitzed the extremely expensive event, though without identifying too many of the guests, possibly due to their affiliations to the alternative economy. Don Corleone, eat your heart out. The Mail made no mention whatever of Tony’s attendance. We will spare you the link.
Update, the Mail’s Sebastian Shakespeare today added both Blairs and an entirely unwarranted mention of their love of freebies, to his own account of the wedding. It’s almost as if he’d read An Apology…
We find Tony Blair in Sierra Leone on Sunday –
http://cocorioko.net/obasanja-and-tony-blair-visit-president-ernest-koroma/
This may or may not have something to do with our High Commissioner’s assurances, in the same issue, that things will get even better for SL after Brexit, as we will be even more desperately looking for trade. But a courtesy visit from Blair generally indicates that the Great White Grin is looking for personal rather than national advantage. Hide the silver, Koroma !
Sawiris Air appears to have been otherwise engaged at the time.
Tony’s closeness to Rwanda’s Paul Kagame has been the subject of many of our entries above. And it continues:
https://careers.institute.global/vacancies/26/strategic-advisor-to-the-rwanda-mines-petroleum-and-gas-board-rmb.html
The Tony Blair Institute, never let it be forgotten, is a not-for-profit. He’s employing someone to open the Rwandan door to miners out of the goodness of his own heart? With his own cash?
Kagame is currently in Israel, taking a break from rigging the next elections in his favour.
Yesterday in Lomé…
http://www.republicoftogo.com/Toutes-les-rubriques/Diplomatie/Nouvelle-visite-de-Tony-Blair-a-Lome
And it seems we missed one of His manifestations the last time he was in Africa, too.
Fans of Gnassingbé and lovers of laid-back rock alike will enjoy this, too –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMKl16jRHhU
The job’s been in the Gnassingbé family for 48 years. Faure himself slid into power in 2005. In that election, …Gnassingbé received slightly more than 60% of the votes, according to official results. The RPT refused to allow oversight during the counting of the ballots. The EU and the Carter Center deemed the elections to be fraudulent. Mass protests by the coalition of opposition parties led to the killing of over 1000 citizens by security forces.[10] 40,000 refugees fled to neighboring Benin and Ghana, most of whom have since been repatriated despite concerns.
(Wikipedia: Faure Gnassingbé)
Unless he has developed tender feelings for subsistence agriculture,Tony’s interest in countries attractive to miners continues, then:
http://www.azomining.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=128
The Lyin’ of Africa has just been reported in Nigeria:
http://www.titopeblog.com/2017/07/former-uk-prime-minister-tony-blair.html
for (a) socio-economic meeting with stakeholders.
Chartered Bombardier Global Express (trolley dolly included) from Vistajet: Sawiris is in Monaco today.
We think he has now left, and is heading south again.
Looks like Lagos. Interesting, since acting President Buhari (who has visited Blair in the past) is currently reported to be in London, and in bad health. Vice-Pres Osinbajo has visited him there, apparently to get authorisation for some no doubt contentious governmental changes:
https://www.naij.com/1114697-i-move-prevent-nigerias-break-57-years-gowon.html
Is Tony’s visit coincidental with an upheaval?
Pursuant to the foregoing, it is revealed that warm sentiments were exchanged between the governor of Kaduna, one Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, and The Champion of Transparency…which further suggests that Tony’s looking to be part of the Nigerian power structure again, after Goodluck Jonathan so unkindly refused his offer of armaments, and Buhari declined to commit himself to The Cause. It looks as if this is the ‘stakeholder’ Tony came to see. The extractive indstries are poorly represented in Kaduna Province.
Rufai’s an ally of Olesegun Obasanjo (apologies for earlier misspelling), Buhari’s deputy, who is openly critical of Buhari when he can get away with it. It has previously been suggested that Obasanjo favours helping Rufai into the presidency, should anything unfortunate happen (for instance) to Buhari. Who runs may read Rufai’s Wiki entry, three quarters of which appears to have been written by himself, and the rest added by someone who knows him rather better. Reproduced here as it will undoubtedly vanish. Rufai in italics: other contributor in bold italics…
In January 2016, El-Rufai launched the School Feeding Programme, aimed at providing one free meal per day to 1.5 million pupils in public primary schools within the state.[45] He also abolished the collection of fees and levies in public primary and junior secondary schools in Kaduna, thereby removing a financial burden of N3 billion from the parents. the widespread killing in southern kaduna state which is predominantly christians by Fulani herdsmen has led to a nationwide outrage especially among christian leaders who accuse El rufai and the predominantly muslim north of genocide and sponsoring jihad against christian minorities. the silence and inaction of the federal government which is led by President Muhammadu Buhari, another muslim northerner and staunch ally of El rufai has led to widening the division between christians and muslims in the country. [46]
(Wikipedia: Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, at date/time of this comment.)
Rufai has other attributes in common with the Great Privatiser, as well as embracing neoliberal economics:
http://saharareporters.com/2017/06/20/bazaar-how-el-rufai%E2%80%99s-wife-children-kaduna-state-government-officials-shared-n3billion
Allegedly, of course. And, sorry to say, normal for Nigeria.
As to our report of a flight from Kaduna to Lagos, it is entirely possible that Vistajets prefer their aircraft to be securely stabled at a large international airport rather than out in the potentially Islamist sticks, while Tony accepts Rufai’s bread and salt tonight and will be collected tomorrow. More as it reaches us.
ERRATA.
(1) The VP of Nigeria is Oluyemi Oluleke “Yemi” Osinbajo, not Olesegun Obasanjo, the country’s former president. We were right first time.
(2) It would seem that although Rufai was once Obasanjo’s protege, the relationship has soured somewhat lately. Here, Rufai would seem to be an instinctive Blairite…
http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2017/03/obasanjo-el-rufai-has-penchant-for-lying-disloyalty/
My vivid recollection of him is penchant for lying, for unfair embellishment of stories and his inability to sustain loyalty for long. Two years after I had left office, Osita came to me to confirm how right I was on my assessment and judgement of Nasir (el-Rufai). I knew what I could make him to achieve and he achieved it for my administration and for the country. I believe that he can still be used in public service but under guidance and sufficient oversight, making allowance for the psychology of ‘his petit size and his elephantine brain’. He was described as a malicious liar. He was more than that; he is a pathological purveyor of untruths and half-truths with little or no regard for integrity. In all of this, he unwittingly does more harm than good to himself.
(3) It was Buhari who declined Blair’s offer of arms. Goodluck Jonathan, his predecessor, welcomed two Blair-brokered contracts with JP Morgan without so much as a token competitive bidding process. As we knew, but had forgotten.
Apologies, and we will endeavour to improve our fact-checking.
It is suggested by his opponents that Blair was paid by Rufai for the visit, which is intended to boost the latter’s public credibility in advance of elections in 2019. This (see under Rama, Ponta, Gaddafi etc) would be absolutely credible.
Update: Buhari is still in London, still receiving medical treatment. He has been visited by various dignitaries, with whom he has been photographed, looking like death. Reports dated ~2nd August state that the Archbishop of Canterbury has visited him very recently and even given thanks to God for his miraculous recovery. However, the photo accompanying these reports is invariably one first published in March, and a still from a video at that. In which he looks like someone on chemotherapy, following an abdominal operation, if you ask us.
It’s hard to get anything solid from the extremely imaginative Nigerian media, but there is increasing pressure for Buhari to step down and let someone fitter run Nigeria whether at the 2019 elections, or sooner. Which supports the notion that Tony’s looking for a pliant globalist successor to butter up.
Might have been a refuelling stop at Lagos. Target appears to have taken off again ca 1700 UTC and landed at Luton ~2230. VistaJet, registered 9H-VJM. Very expensive… As suggested before, Tony’s had his ups and downs with Nigeria, and will want to be in with Buhari’s successor. Provincial governors used to be rather beneath his dignity, but this one’s special. No doubt he has the support of the FCO, and indeed anything plugging globalism in Africa…such as Israel.
VERY expensive. $16,000 per hour. But we bet it impresses the natives.
Well, it was a long time coming, but Mr. Tony has, for the first time since the election, emerged from the shadows of the Brexit argument, to assure the BBC at length that the nice chaps in the EU will, y’know, reform themselves and do something about free movement if we’ll only stop this nonsense about getting out. Not a shred of supporting evidence. Not even a name. And this is the man who gave away our rebate in exchange for…fuck all.
I decline even to link to this shite. Google it yourselves.
(Harp arpeggio. Wavy dissolve. Sepia effect…)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/dec/17/eu.world
How Tony got us to pay for cheap farm labouir…
Blair is also reported today as having added his lustre to Ghana’s Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. Date unknown: some reports say ‘the weekend’: presumably that of the 8th/9th, as his (confirmed) magic carpet returned to the UK last Thursday night, and thereafter flew to Orlando, FL via Paris, France.
http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/tony-blair-calls-on-bawumia.html
Bawumia is a considerably more qualified economist – of the Thatcherite monetarist persuasion – than Tony, so perhaps we have it wrong. Perhaps Tony was anxious to be photographed in the company of a superior being. But are any beings superior to Tony? We doubt it. And there are no important elections forthcoming in Ghana for a while, so it seems likely that Bawumi is the chosen agent of globalisation there, and those extractive industries connected to Tony’s connections will also be beneficiaries of the visit.
Returning to Togo – Tony is reportedly to sell his advice on attracting investment* to its hereditary dictator, Faure Gnassingbe – this piece is included for its sinewy and entertaining writing. Google Translate mangles it, so, sorry, you may need to revisit your school French for this one.
https://togotribune.com/news/tony-blair-en-receleur-au-togo/
* We must overlook Firerush Ventures (RIP), Tony’s own finance house, which failed utterly to make him a billionaire, and was quietly scrapped during the homogenisation of Blair Inc. ™ And the old familiar question remains. Is Blair wearing his business hat here, or his charidee one?
The trouble is, if you’re a broadcaster, a repellent interview subject will get just as many viewers as an attractive one, and many, many more than a self-effacing genuine benefactor of mankind. Hence:
https://www.facebook.com/164665060214766/posts/1840409689306953
So pushy cow Sophie (Arabella) Ridge (Tiffin School: St Edmund, Oxford – Eng Lit) will be interviewing pushy media whore Tony Blair (Fettes; St. John’s, Oxford – Jurisprudence) on Sunday. Could be a real culture clash.
Cherie relocates –
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4712322/Tony-Cherie-Blair-buy-38-homes-leaving-office.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
Strangely, the report omits the address. So we found it. And while Oldbury Residential (PSC’s Cherie and Euan) is known to have been resident at One Great Cumberland Place, the mortgages are charges on Harcourt Ventures – whose PSC’s are Tony and Cherie. We wondered if Harcourt Ventures had been named for the Nigerian town, but no. Cherie’s global empire will be centred on 30 Harcourt Street, London, W1H 4HU . She’s had it in her sights for a while.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10680639/charges/-fF7qtRHI4Sg20oGjDVwoiJye0w
We read without astonishment the news that Blair allegedly intervened when Corbyn was threatened with deselection on behalf of his Islington constituents. Reading between the lines of the report it would seem that Hilary Armstrong (then Labour’s Chief Whip, now Baroness), as a winnet on the Blair bottom, would have been happy with the deselection, but Blair, according to her, intervened with the assertion that Labour was a broad church. We have only her word for this, of course, but that’s good enough for the BBC, the Grauniad, the Mirror and the Independent. And was Labour a broad church? Not bloody likely, as Peter Oborne made clear early in its reign:
http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/27th-october-2001/10/hilary-armstrong-is-the-worst-chief-whip-in-memory
Oborne’s commentary still stands as sound analysis.
Armstrong herself had been intentionally marginalised in favour of the spin team, and democratic accountability in favour of presidential government. Corbyn was spared for two reasons:
1. He could deliver the Islington Labour vote
2. Deselecting him would have drawn attention to the rightward shift of the leadership just when stealth was paramount.
3. His opinions didn’t matter to the leadership. He may even have been seen as an asset: the utopian vision of New Labour needed to retain its old scruffy Lefties both to provide contrast and to maintain the complete illusion of…a broad church.
Should Corbyn decline to deselect troublesome Blairites? He should, without regret, drop MP’s who
(1) are in electoral trouble in areas favouring non-centrist and non-market-driven politics
(2) Who fail their constituents
(3) Whose Blairism is less than rabid. He should keep the rabid ones as an example, while briefing against them at every possible opportunity.
Corbyn owes Blair no favours. In scrapping Clause 4, Blair destroyed the fundamental raison-d’etre of Labour. Corbyn was, and Blair was not, loyal to Labour. Only a Tory in drag would have contemplated deselecting him. Blair’s behaviour since Corbyn’s election to the leadership was and remains abominable, and included advocating voting for non-Labour candidates. Armstrong’s intervention may well owe more to her imagination than to fact, and in any case reads as a transparent attempt to detoxify Blair – enthusiastically promoted by the usual suspects. FAIL.
…spared for two reaons…THREE reasons…
Worth a diversion to look at Armstrong’s assault on Paul Marsden:
After a first term loyally supporting the Government, Marsden began to question the Labour Government’s foreign policy following 9/11. On 8 October 2001, he was the first MP in the Commons to publicly call for a vote on any military action in Afghanistan.[11] Marsden took to sitting in Tony Benn’s former Commons seat below the gangway on the second row from the back.[12] Two weeks later, Marsden was instructed to attend a meeting with the Labour Chief Whip, Hilary Armstrong. As Jeremy Paxman wrote, “the Labour MP Paul Marsden took the unprecedented step of recording the dressing-down”,[13] where he said that he had been confronted with accusations that “those aren’t with us are against us,” “war is not a matter of conscience” and “it was people like you who appeased Hitler in 1938”, infuriating Marsden to going public.[14][15]
Tony Benn described in his diary that “The pressure on the anti-war MPs is growing. Apparently Paul Marsden, the Labour MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, had three-quarters-of-an-hour being bullied by the Chief Whip, Hilary Armstrong.”[16] Number 10 were forced to put out a statement that dissenting backbenchers would be allowed to speak out on the war.[17][18] The Guardian in its Leader (*) praised Marsden for having called for a vote on the war and publishing the Chief Whip’s response to it and stated, “On both counts he has done British democracy a service.”[19]
(Wikipedia: Paul Marsden)
Diverting still further, while Corbyn did not actually vote for the Afghanistan deployment, his vote to adjourn was interpreted as support. Marsden voted against. Fuller picture:
Jeremy Corbyn MP, Islington North voted technically to adjourn the House of Commons, however given the context this has been interpreted as support for deploying UK armed forces to Afghanistan.
The majority of MPs voted technically simply to adjourn the House of Commons, however this has been interpreted as support for the then Government’s Coalition Against International Terrorism and support for deploying UK armed forces to Afghanistan[1][2].
All the other MPs tried to prevent those MPs opposed to the deployment of UK armed forces to Afghanistan from recording their votes by refusing to act as tellers during the voting procedure. This meant two of those MPs who were opposed to the deployment had to act as tellers in the No lobby and have their votes counted in the opposite way to the way they wished to vote.
Following the announcement of the result of the division this occurrence was raised, for the record, in a point of order[3]:
On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. For the record may we clarify the fact that all four Tellers in tonight’s vote are opposed to the war and that it was a procedural issue that demarcated them as Tellers?
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2001-11-01&number=48&mpn=Jeremy_Corbyn&mpc=Islington_North&house=commons
*The Grauniad had not yet quite lost its LibDem appeal by then.
Even the Mail today has bought this transparent and highly misleading attempt to rehabilitate Blair. However, ithad the decency to quote Corbyn’s response, which was as follows:
‘What Hilary Armstrong seems to forget is that the selection process is done by party members.
‘Yes, I was challenged once or twice during that period for re-selection as the Labour candidate for Islington North and obviously I was re-selected on all those occasions by the members of the party.
‘There was a trigger ballot. There was a vote. I was re-selected.’
He added: ‘I’ve no idea this conversation actually took place and also I don’t quite see why people should go to the party leader and say we want to influence what’s going on in the constituency.
‘The whole point of democracy is that the people decide.’
IOW, Blair allowed the standard, agreed procedures of the Labour Party to take place, which is exactly what you’d expect from any senior Labour politician, and the main revelation of this story is to expose Armstrong’s incompetence and willingness to subvert those procedures.
As any hack with half a myopic eye for the truth would have spotted instantly.
The ongoing saga of Guo Wengui, aka Miles Kwok, er, goes on…
http://www.caixinglobal.com/2017-07-25/101122045.html
Where mention is made of Blair’s involvement in setting up the lavish financing of Guo’s lifestyle by Abu Dhabi, though perish the thought that this may in any way have been connected with Guo bunging Blair, Inc ™ a wedge. Revisiting that preposterous notion (and see above, passim)-
http://www.smh.com.au/world/tony-blair-linked-to-chinas-most-wanted-maralago-member-guo-wengui-20170525-gwd3rk.html
Our learned friends advise us to pay close attention to the wording:
“Mr Blair’s office told Fairfax Media: “Mr Blair has known Mr Kwok as a friend for 10 years. Mr Kwok has in the past been a donor to Mr Blair’s charitable work.
“He has never had a commercial contract with Mr Kwok nor received fees for such work from him, neither has his company.”
Which we submit, your Honours, in the light of the wide remit of Mr Blair’s charities, and their close association with his companies, subsequently confirmed by the seamless integration of his former charitable endeavours within a single limited company pursuing his personal ends, bears the interpretation “nothing in writing, and nothing on the books. But…”
A little-emphasised feature of the Blair regime:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/tony-blairs-cool-britannia-party-kickstarted-descent-cultural/
Paywall, but the essentials are in the headline:
How Tony Blair’s ‘Cool Britannia’ party kickstarted our descent into cultural vacuousness
This may be the Telegraph’s riposte to Tonibell’s celebration today of the anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexual acts
between consenting males in private: a reform with which he had nothing to do whatever, personally sympathetic as he may have been (allegedly) to its introduction. In Pink News, if you can be bothered.
As we imagined, Tony lives to con another day:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/07/supreme-court-judges-defy-reason-protect-tony-blair/
After Chilcot, he pissed off to Lipari to recuperate from the gruelling ordeal of being criticised a bit. Where will he go to celebrate his absolution by the High Court? A good bet could be Albania. Old chum Edi Rama could use some image enhancement, and in Albania, Blair can do no wrong. He bombed the Serbs. And who might have had, or might be planning, a freebie there, but faithful old attack dog, Alastair Campbell?…
http://top-channel.tv/lajme/artikull.php?id=360662
Or, in plain –
http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog/2017/07/30/if-you-havent-booked-a-holiday-yet-you-should-try-albania-promise/
WE gather Tony’s expertise in getting pipelines built across Albanian farmland is no longer needed, but Tony can advise on any subject if the deal’s right.
The Sawiris megayacht is currently off Mykonos, and air movements indicate that it has been joined by some guests. We’re giving it odds of 3/1.
Correction, ‘Yalla’ is still on her way to Mykonos, and currently buggering about near Adamantas. Fishing, perhaps. Odds unchanged.
Now moored alongside the ginpalace ‘Crazy Me’ belonging to tax-dodging* global marketeer Rattan Chadha, and 37-m charter ginpalace ‘Daloli’ (which is possibly moving out), in Mykonos harbour.
*See Panama Papers. The loss is the Dutch government’s, not ours.
Keeping a lazy eye on the Old Port on Mykonos, where the gin palaces of Sawiris and Rattan Chadha have been alongside for some days, their latest companion is Tacunuyaso MS, a gigantic lump of floating bling apparently owned by Lightstone, a British Virgin Islands-registered property investment outfit, prop. David Lichtenstein, a NY-born expropriator.
While we are discussing the very close and completely unpublicised association between Blair Inc ™ and influential Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, it is perhaps worth noting in passing that Sawiris is one of the loudest global-corporatist Arabs in the demonisation of Qatar:
https://twitter.com/NaguibSawiris?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
As can be discovered even from the English tweets. God knows what’s being said in the Arabic ones.
Purely by coincidence, here’s Tony last week buttering up the Saudis (who have nothing whatever to do with jihadi terrorism, obvs) by telling them what bad bastards the Muslim Brotherhood – previously democratically elected in Egypt and subsequently overthrown in a coup strongly supported by Sawiris – are. Tony has or recently had an advisory contract with the current regime, and as the previous link makes clear, is as swivel-eyed about the MB as Sawiris:
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1136551/world
Arab News is generally agreed to reflect the monarchy’s views.
Much as we deplore celebrity culture, it is true that our subject considers himself to be a celebrity, and we must gratefully accept any scraps falling from the table of the Daily Mail’s feast of negligible people doing very little for incredible amounts of cash, and their agents.
While attempting to predict the Blair 2017 holiday plans, we found this, from 2013:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2402354/Peace-envoy-Tony-Blair-yacht-Mediterranean-West-debates-air-strikes-Syria.html
and more particularly this:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/26/article-0-1B74802A000005DC-228_634x440.jpg
in the context of Blair’s hopping between rich peoples’ gin palaces that year. The gent in the white shirt on his left isn’t his taxpayer-funded security detail. It’s Naguib Sawiris, or his body double. Here he is again, in Saint Tropez for sure –
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/27/article-2403499-1B748026000005DC-655_312x524.jpg
Tony was a little easier to find then, and perhaps less aware that rather a lot of people would like to kill him. No, not us. We want him in, say, HMP Durham, from which the cathedral clock chiming the quarters is clearly audible by the prisoners to remind them how terribly slowly time can pass when you are not on a yacht in the Mediterranean. But we digress. At Saint Tropez, according to the Mail, Tony also visited the ginpalace Crazy Me, which was newly-commissioned, and whose owner was then unknown, but (see slightly earlier comment) is Dutch-Indian billionaire Rattan Chadha.
As Chadha’s Crazy Me and Sawiris’ ginpalace Yalla are still moored alongside each other* in Mykonos’ Old Port (access limited, mainly to the privileged and ferries) we are decreasing the odds on Tony’s being in or moving to the vicinity shortly to 2/1.
*And a Turkish charter gulet, Green Duck
While Telegraph hack Con Coughlin…
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Con_Coughlin
…assures the readers of Abu Dhabi expat asylum ‘The National’ (circulation 60,000) that politicians such as Tony should not be held legally accountable for their actions…
https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/it-s-time-to-stop-hounding-tony-blair-through-the-uk-courts-it-is-time-to-move-on-from-the-2003-invasion-of-iraq-1.616665
…we bear in mind that Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, employed Tony to chat up the heads of government of likely investment targets, and probably still does, while ‘The National’ is curiously devoid of criticism of the UAE.
And we present with pride the opinions of the people who fought Tony’s wars for him in the belief that they were serving their Queen and country. Erroneously, as they later discovered. They’ve put some thought into imaginative epitaphs for Mr. Blair, when he leaves us, and for his wife too.
https://www.arrse.co.uk/community/threads/the-tony-blair-epitaph-thread-with-thanks-to-eodmatt.266115/
We particularly admired the suggested grave plot complete with headstone and instruction for remembrance:
https://www.arrse.co.uk/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fc8.alamy.com%2Fcomp%2FCP3DFY%2Fa-sand-pit-style-dog-toilet-in-holland-park-london-uk-CP3DFY.jpg&hash=1438d32dafb8183b0081359162cfc148
Mr Tony is in the Med today, anyway. Although he seems to be deferring his annual vacation at the expense of the great and the frankly disgusting. A visit to the EU-turncoat Joseph Muscat in Malta, reinforcing the Great Globalist’s endorsement of him prior to his re-election as PM. Malta holds the presidency of the EU currently, btw.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2017-08-05/local-news/Former-Prime-Minister-Tony-Blair-in-Malta-on-private-visit-will-meet-with-Maltese-Prime-Minister-6736177431
Illustrating the natural affinity of Tony and Joseph:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/09/malta-joseph-muscat-panama-papers-corruption-claims
The Mail gets it:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4769808/Tanned-Tony-Europhile-pals.html
10/10. Actual research results in analysis of Muscat’s EU-affiliation, and we trust Tony’s contacts with Renzi-ites in Umbria and on Lipari will figure shortly.
The Mail gets some more. Further digging reveals Muscat’s close compatibility with Blair (and Aliyev).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4783626/Tony-Blair-s-Brexit-bashing-friend-joint-links.html
The Mail buys the idea that Muscat is a pretty dodgy sorta guy, and concludes:
An important propaganda tool during (Muscat’s election in June -BZ) was a video endorsement (noted at the time by BZ) in which a well-known international ‘statesman’ addressed voters over an uplifting soundtrack of violin music, declaring, ‘I’ve known Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for some considerable time’ and describing him as ‘a great example of what a progressive politician can do in power for the people’.
The name of that ‘statesman’? Tony Blair.
We’re not paying out on Tony@Mykonos, just yet. A week is a long time in a Blair holiday, and his ceaseless dissatisfaction with where he is just now will probably take him to some other plutocrat’s gaff shortly. But for now he appears to be in Umbria:
http://www.ansa.it/umbria/notizie/2017/08/05/vacanza-in-umbria-per-tony-blair_521e9643-6c3b-4368-b8a8-07860b9b1725.html
Blair and his family spent a few days in one of the Russian publisher and magnate Evgeny Lebedev’s structures, which has some properties between Town of Castello, Umbertide and Perugia.
A photo of the former premier and the Umbrian president was published by the latter on his Facebook profile. Marini did not want to talk about the meeting lasting about two hours. At the heart of the friendly conversation there would still be several topics, including the migrant question and the PD* of Matteo Renzi. Blair would, among other things, reveal that he was in Perugia and Lake Trasimeno with his family before he was elected. [TY, Google Translate]
*Too right. Some very familiar politics here:
On 10 March, Michele Emiliano presented his electoral programme with the slogans “We are Party” (Noi siamo partito) and “Italy is our Party” (L’Italia è il nostro partito). He described his candidacy as a revolution, and stated that he wanted a party closer to the people, especially the poorest, accusing Renzi of drastically changing the PD and of abandoning people on low incomes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(Italy)_leadership_election,_2017
Note also that Tony is or has been Lebedev’s guest – Massimo Carello must be devastated not to have been chosen this time (see last year). Need we remind you that Evgeny Lebedev owns the UK Standard, whose editor is Remoaner-in-chief Gideon “George” Osborne? We thought not. Tony hasn’t given up yet…
No emails were injured in the above post. We were failing to be funny. The first sentence should read “We’re not paying out on Tony being on Mykonos, just yet.”
Q1. How many obvious security types can you see here?
https://www.tvm.com.mt/mt/wp-content/uploads/sites/1/2017/08/Blair_Valletta.jpg
Q2. For how many of them is the UK taxpayer stumping up?
Deception has always been Tony’s forte, so we must apply some scepticism to any report of his whereabouts, and bylines have a way of being out of date. The latest locator, closely following a convincing account of His Presence in Umbria, with a pic, transports him back to Lipari. Most papers simply c&p the press release, but this one doesn’t, and adds a picture which looks recent enough:
http://www.giornaledilipari.it/tony-blair-in-vacanza-a-lipari/
Did Carello send the boys over to the mainland in order to grab Tony, in a fit of pique? Or is this simply a silly-season rehash of last year’s visit, when Tony also partook of the charms of Acquacalda, and Sorgi’s gin palace? We don’t know, but await another revolting shot of Blair’s moobs, from which the passage of a year will be deducible. Mail Online please copy
Holy f***. This is turning into something of an epic. A report of not only His Globalness (and Her Globosity) on Lipari, but also of Togo’s Faure Gnassingbe’s arrival there. See also:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/02/an-apology/comment-page-40/#comment-691307
for Tony’s recent interest in Togo.
Lipari – The Mayor is (hosting) the summit between mayor Marco Giorgianni, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair … and the president of Togo Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé (who) landed on the island and is a guest at Hotel “Mea”.
There is a great deal of confidence in the meeting. There were no invitations. It is only known that Blair now manages a consultancy activity and has established different foundations in his name, including the “Tony Blair Faith Foundation”, while Togo’s president has been involved in the management of his family’s business affairs in the past…
Ultimately, what has been discussed: business in sight? Tourist Settlements in the Itinerary?*
New rumors: President Togo has long wanted to meet Blair**. The former premier said he was going to Lipari and he replied: I’m reaching you. Ultimately it would have been a rather improvised international summit, to which Mayor Giorgianni has “lent” the institutional seat.
(According to) the Mayor Giorgianni – “we only received the invitation to host the meeting room in the meeting room as Mr Blair was in Lipari and had expressed this request.”
Some details of Tony’s itinerary follow:
Lipari – … He had already landed in 2014, then last summer and now he has returned. At Lipari he came to the helicopter of “Air Panarea” by Lorenzo Vielmo at 12 o’clock and immediately wanted to take a bath at sea. It was welcomed by the Tuscan industrialist Massimo Carello and his wife Sara, who have a villa in Acquacalda, near the white pumice mountain, where he will be guest for a few days. With Blair there is the wife Cherie. He was taken from a car with two bodyguards*** on board and was accompanied to the Pignataro marina. In the floating dock to wait for him there was the friend journalist Marcello Sorgi, with consorts and children, and with their yacht****,…
Sorgi is, if we haven’t mentioned it before, a senior staffer on La Stampa and effectively Renzi’s man in the ongoing battle for the soul of the DP, which is a very Blairite/Corbynite affair.
*None of the above. Mineral extraction contracts and the embedding of Blair’s merry men in the government to ensure compliance with JP Morgan.
** Nonsense. Gnassingbe and Blair have met in Lome twice this year already.
*** Ours.
**** Whose current position we are having trouble finding. Turn your AIS on, please.
Link, sorry –
http://www.notiziarioeolie.it/video/10522-esclusivo-le-notizie-del-nostro-giornale-online-fanno-il-giro-d-italia-lipari-l-ex-premier-inglese-tony-blair-e-tornato-per-il-terzo-anno-il-video-con-il-saluto.html
It is suggested that Gnassingbe’s governance is not of the best, or likely to improve with presence of globalist stooges at the centre of his government. His desire for a photo-op with Tone (why else the elaborate meeting in a public place? Why not a quiet chat in the Hotel Mea?) strongly suggests that he is now damaged goods. Especially since the rioting in Kara…
https://togotribune.com/news/togo-faure-gnassingbe-et-sa-gouvernance-de-distribution-dargent-vole-au-contribuable-togolais-au-coeur-des-bagarres-a-kara/
Gnassingbe’s visit to Tony (we assume that was the sole purpose of his visit) on Lipari was reported on the 7th, indicating that it probably took place on the 6th. According to togoweb.net, his next destination was Israel, yesterday:
http://togoweb.net/sommet-afrique-israel-faure-gnassingbe-attendu-israel-lundi/
although the Israeli media so far have nothing on this specifically. However, a narrative is emerging:
http://hamodia.com/2017/08/06/netanyahu-press-ahead-togo-summit-despite-opposition/
“Of course, I will speak with the Togolese President about ways to deepen and expand Israel’s presence in Africa,” he said, referring to the slated arrival of President Faure Gnassingbé in Israel on Monday.
In which The Great Mediator continues to promote Israeli interests while at the same time accepting the dictator dollar and the UK’s protection?
On Sicily, the plush Verdura Resort is currently hosting this year’s Google Camp. Described by those possibly in the know as ‘Davos By The Sea’, this is where a closely-guarded herd of slebs mingles for three days with luminaries of the digital racket such as Brin and Gates.
In addition to feasting and merrymaking, meaningful discussions of what we mustn’t call the New World Order are part of the agenda. Our own ‘Prince’ Henry was there yesterday, and the Palace isn’t commenting on why. It’s within spitting distance of Lipari. Is it even conceivable that passionate rearranger of reality, Tony Blair, will not favour it with his oft-repeated words of advice for mankind? We think not, but would welcome a confirmatory selfie, or a copy of the very secret guest list, from any participant.