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…
Whatever next? He’s an expert on global virtual currency now…
http://bravenewcoin.com/news/cisco-leadership-council-2015-to-discuss-bitcoin-with-special-guest-tony-blair/
All part of the trajectory which ends with Tony as Pope, I suppose.
Murdoch’s merry men have found a rich lode:
TONY BLAIR proposed a £30m contract to advise the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while working as the Middle East peace envoy, according to a confidential document on the deal obtained by The Sunday Times.
The 25-page document provides an insight into how his contacts and charitable activities are used for commercial gain.
It states: “There is virtually nowhere in the world right now where we could not work or provide the necessary contacts either politically or commercially, should we want to.”
It adds: “We have teams of people on the ground working with governments, in 10 African countries and 10 outside Africa. We have offers to work in around 10 more. If we add in the Faith Foundation work, it would be over 50.”
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/National/article1528595.ece
(paywall, unfortunately)
I guess we knew he was a whore already, but it’s good to see a snapshot of him soliciting on the street corner.
They may not be too hot on HSBC at the Telegraph, but they’re mustard when it comes to the Fear (sic) Leader…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/11457100/Tony-Blair-gave-PR-advice-to-African-president-after-death-of-protesters.html
Particularly relevant, if you consider Tony Blair’s central role in collapsing successive peace talks on Palestine-
The document seen by The Telegraph offers a guide to Mr Conde on how to improve his government’s image following mass civil unrest in February and March 2013. Nine protesters died and hundreds were injured in clashes with government forces who were accused of quelling public unrest by firing on demonstrators with live ammunition.
In a document that might be seen as cynical and more probably replicates public relations techniques used in Downing Street than in West Africa, the strategy includes a timetable for talks with the opposition which Mr Blair and his team know are doomed to fail.
[cm-org.uk – stuck in spam filter until 17:57]
Pro Bono Blair (continued from 14th Feb, 4.55 pm): the Kenya contract-
http://diasporamessenger.com/tony-blair-to-oversee-jubilee-administrations-flagship-projects/
Both the African Governance Initiative and Mr Kenyatta’s office remained tight-lipped on the cost of the contract. A spokesperson of Mr Blair’s firm maintained the deal would not cost the government any money.
“AGI is pleased to be working with the Government of Kenya. We are a registered charity that does not make a profit. There is no cost for our work,” said the spokesperson identified as Jonathan Tanner.
For his part, President Kenyatta’s spokesperson Manoah Esipisu refused to comment, saying he would give a response on the matter “at an appropriate time”.
But highly placed sources in the Kenyatta administration disclosed the government would pay Mr Blair a one-off amount for the contract said to run into hundreds of millions of shillings.
It will also foot the allowances, accommodation and travel costs of the team and that of technocrats.
“The government will pay Mr Blair a lump sum amount, I do not have exact figures, but it is as big as the budget of one of the major parastatals.
Note 1. AGI isn’t getting paid. It, or Blair wearing his AGI hat, just sets up the deal.
Note 2. Blair, or some component of the wholly opaque Windrush group, is getting paid.
Note 3. The Kenyan taxpayer may not be footing the bill. Most likely, the cash will be diverted from ‘aid’ donated from abroad. On past form, the UAE, the EU or China.
[cm-org.uk – stuck in spam filter until 17:57]
Last post hit the buffers. Link:
http://diasporamessenger.com/tony-blair-to-oversee-jubilee-administrations-flagship-projects/
Kenya. What he was doing in February (above) AGI is not being paid (AGI). Blair is being paid (Kenya gov’t source). There is in fact no contradiction here.
Testing…couple of post failures earlier.
Better…
See Feb 14th above for Blair’s visit to Kenya. See this for what was being set up:
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Blair-lands-deal-for-key-Jubilee-projects/-/1064/2646572/-/wo2ynt/-/index.html
“AGI is pleased to be working with the Government of Kenya. We are a registered charity that does not make a profit. There is no cost for our work,” said the spokesperson identified as Jonathan Tanner.
Correct. These deals are set up under the umbrella of AGI by Mr Blair wearing his AGI hat. Payments are made to Windrush, not AGI. And there certainly are payments:
But highly placed sources in the Kenyatta administration disclosed the government would pay Mr Blair a one-off amount for the contract said to run into hundreds of millions of shillings.
It will also foot the allowances, accommodation and travel costs of the team and that of technocrats.
“The government will pay Mr Blair a lump sum amount, I do not have exact figures, but it is as big as the budget of one of the major parastatals.
“It takes care of the salaries and allowances of the advisors, as well as their accommodation and travel,” said one of the sources.
No reason to doubt it. And-
“Mr Blair is not advising the government. It is a partnership between the Africa Governance Initiative and the Presidential Delivery Unit. We are not paying anything. Instead we are getting more in return,” said Mr Esipisu.
“The initiative has helped quite a lot of African governments. Certainly, it is not a peasant organisation. It is well- funded and they are partnering with the delivery unity at no cost to the Kenyan taxpayer,” he was quoted as saying.
At first sight there’s a contradiction here. At second sight, there isn’t. Of course the Kenyan government isn’t forking out from its own pocket. This is set up as an aid or assistance project* qualifying for foreign funding. See also Serbia. And the UAE, of course.
Just remember, Blair is a legal weasel, and so is his more ialented wife. The carefully worded small print makes direct (actionable) lies unnecessary.
* As in, “Y’know, guys, if we could set aside some cash for Abysmastan, I’d be just the guy you need to sell them some governance bollocks”
Absolutely damning piece from the Mail today. Deeply researched, some stuff even I didn’t know!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2985566/Will-Tony-Cherie-divorced-lead-separate-lives-amid-claims-resents-treatment-No10-closeness-Murdoch-s-ex-wife-friends-asking-explosive-question.html
Extracted from Blair Inc: The Man Behind The Mask by Francis Beckett, David Hencke and Nick Kochan, published by John Blake Publishing on March 19 at £20.
They’ve been featuring material from this for a few days. I’ll be queuing for it on the 19th.
[cm-org.uk – Ba’al two earlier comments have now been retrieved from the spam filter. Moderation notes have been added to them]
Dirty work at the crossroads:
http://www.imemc.org/article/70846
In a statement released by the Likud Party, Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly said Tel Aviv would never withdraw from any of part of the occupied territories…
(today)… the speech, made by Netanyahu in Bar Ilan in 2009 calling for a Palestinian state next to Israel, “is not relevant anymore.”
Netanyahu’s aide during the time of the speech Ron Dermer said the Prime Minister vowed commitment to the two-state solution, establishing a Palestinian State along the 1967 borders through peace talks.
Dermer, currently Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, allegedly informed Quartet Committee head Tony Blair “Israel does not only want to grant the Palestinians a state, but also one along the 1967 border.”…during Netanyahu’s previous term, when the document was being addressed, Dermer told Blair that the Prime Minister promised in writing Tel Aviv “would cede territory, identical to all areas Israel captured in 1967, allowing the Palestinians to establish a state.”
Will the Quartet Representative for God Knows What confirm or deny this? Place bets now. And see 8th Mar 4.01 pm, above.
http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/news/entry/response-to-article-in-the-sunday-telegraph-8-march-2015/
Only a cynic would suggest that if there were a little – no – a lot more transparency about AGI’s relationship with the Dear Leader’s earning capacity, no-one need make any mistakes at all.
But the Telegraph was careful not to accuse AGI. AGI isn’t offering PR to Conde, wasn’t, and would be in breach of its charitable status if it did. AGI is a bunch of plausible suits managing aid and development funding, ‘offering support’, ‘facilitating’, and advising on ‘delivery’. Although I very much doubt if many of its staff have actually donned protective clothing and buried infected corpses. Eleven years ago its head PR honcho, Jonathan Tanner, was a parliamentary researcher for Sharon Hodgson MP (Lab), a newly-elected backbencher. He then became head PR for the the Overseas Development INstitute, a thinktank specialising in management waffle. He will be responsible for the above outburst.
What he Telegraph actually said was:
Tony Blair advised an African president on how to win over public support in the aftermath of clashes in which opposition protesters were shot dead by security forces.
Mr Blair’s guidance is contained in a four-page communications strategy document drawn up for Alpha Conde, the president of Guinea.
The document seen by The Telegraph offers a guide to Mr Conde on how to improve his government’s image following mass civil unrest in February and March 2013. Nine protesters died and hundreds were injured in clashes with government forces who were accused of quelling public unrest by firing on demonstrators with live ammunition.
Tony Blair. Not AGI. The article then goes on to associate Blair with AGI, an association of which there is no doubt whatever, and the real nature of which is hidden from mortal eyes. Intentionally.
Weasel.
Tony’s in eclipse, but Cherie is the gift that goes on
givingtaking. From a lucrative deal in Albania on the back of a Tony deal in Albania, to an apparently independent deal in Montenegro. Tomorrow:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/09/adriatic-coast-oil-gas-exploration-opposition-cherie-blair-summit
Booth’s role is coming under scrutiny. In a statement issued to the Guardian on Friday, CASA said it could not “comment on what relevance the former prime minister’s wife role as an advocate and lobbyist might mean to the Adriatic”.
But it added: “We suspect, based upon her previous actions, it won’t be in the common interest of the population, the natural heritage, fisheries or tourism industries.”
Sound deduction, Sir.
By an eerie coincidence, Cherie moves on to Albania today:
http://www.gazetatema.net/web/2015/03/10/cherie-blair-vjen-neser-ne-tirane/
(Google Translate works fine for this)
In addition to furthering the Albanian government’s legal dispute with US co. Rapiskan, apparently for terminating Rapiskan’s contract, she will be doing a gig on globalising wimmin.
More coincidence still here –
http://www.neurope.eu/article/tony-and-cherie-blair-business-albania-and-kazakhstan
Julia Yun Hulme, Omnia’s managing director, refused to say what the latest legal contract was worth to the company, reports The Telegraph. She also declined to say if Omnia had won contracts in any other countries advised by Mr Blair.*
Hulme said in a statement: “Omnia Strategy LLP is a law firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Mr Blair is not involved with Omnia Strategy LLP.**”
*Good question. Romania and Nigeria can be added to the list, anyway.
** He’s only the husband of the founder, chairman and owner of Omnia. And both their head offices are in the same building. Pure coincidence.
Eerie silence from Toxic Tony; he hasn’t done a press release or been seen in daylight since visiting Vietnam. This may have something to do with the imminent publication of Blair Inc: The Man Behind the Mask. 19th March, all good bookstores. And:
http://www.amazon.com/Blair-Inc-The-Behind-Mask/dp/1784183709
Meanwhile, Blair’s protege, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan is humbly offering himself to a grateful nation for what in a democracy would be a sixth successive term. Nazarbayev hopes to integrate his country fully into the new world order and demonstrate that blood-spattered dictators can do this much more effectively than supporters of freedom and justice; this worthy endeavour justifies paying Blair the usual millions for his helpful advice on strangling civil liberties in the name of the free market. It is not known whether Nazarbayev, the Clinton Foundation, the UAE or indeed the British taxpayer is funding this exercise. Suffice it to say that Kazakhstan is expected to unanimously vote for Nazarbayev, as it usually does, or else.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/kazakhstans-president-nursultan-nazarbayev-says-he-will-stand-for-reelection-in-poll-that-is-almost-certain-to-extend-his-26-years-in-power-10101700.html
Meanwhile in Burma, last visited by Toxic Tony on the 7th, pro-democracy demonstrations continue to be gently dispersed by men with big sticks, some uniformed, and hence EU-trained, others not.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2015/0310/In-Myanmar-batons-fly-as-student-protesters-meet-harsh-response-video
http://asiancorrespondent.com/91064/tony-blair-adds-burma-to-se-asia-good-governance-tour/
(2012)
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/People/article1238372.ece
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2301755/Blair-heads-gold-rush-Burma-Former-Prime-Minister-opens-new-personal-empire-junta-relaxes-grip.html
(2013)
http://burmacampaign.org.uk/tony-blairs-secret-involvement-with-burmas-government/
(2014)
And even the sacred oracle of the high priest of guff acknowledges that all is not of the hunkydoriest in Myanmar…
http://tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/religion-geopolitics/commentaries/opinion/caution-replaces-optimism-myanmar
Aaah, but look at the labour costs! Look at the resources! Look at the sense of urgency a despot gives his nation!
Globalisation, globalisation, globalisation.
Ba’al, FYI, things seem more civilised on the front thread these days. OTOH, it’s good that all your Blair investigations remain concentrated as they do here…
Maybe an occasional repost on the front thread with a link to your main body of work here.
Thanks, Clark. I guess anyone interested will have noticed this by now, and the uninterested don’t want to know. A few links out might be an idea, as this is becoming a handy reference for where Toxic Tony’s been lately, and why. Be good to know if it’s getting any clicks.
Thanks, Mods. The truth will always out…:-)
Blair talks to Miliband shock horror –
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2990844/SEBASTIAN-SHAKESPEARE-Toxic-Tony-Blair-holds-secret-talks-Red-Ed.html
Looks like Blair Inc’s advising Ed on governance….that’ll cost you, Ed.
It must have been a good offer from Mrs BLiar to take Julia Yun Hulme away from all of this to Omnia.
http://omniastrategy.com/15-2/
I think she might just be able to afford it, Mary.
1. Omnia is an LLP (limited liability partnership) with Booth/Blair, Hulme and a Roxana Pierce* as partners. This means (thank you Wiki)
…a UK LLP is similar to a partnership, namely, it is tax-transparent, that is to say it pays no UK corporation tax or capital gains tax. Instead, LLP income and/or gains are distributed gross to partners as self-employed persons, rather than as PAYE employees. Partners receiving income and/or gains from an LLP are liable for their own taxation.
It just happens that Cherie, at variance with her vaguely socialist ‘principles’, has set up a private healthcare company, Mee Healthcare. This is registered in Delaware (the US version of an onshore tax haven) and the Cayman Islands. So anything Cherie wishes to invest or lend this entity from her income from Omnia, simply vanishes as far as the UK tax system is concerned. But possibly not as far as the Cayman Islands Allele Fund – a private equity company set up ostensibly to fund Mee.
However, Mee, which operates in Sainsbury stores in competition with regular opticians and dentists, doesn’t seem to be a dynamic, fast-growing entrepreneurial success. And maybe it isn’t intended to do any more than break even and absorb – and release – money from other sources. Who knows?
*Legal heavyweight – see http://www.rgrdlaw.com/attorneys-Roxana-Pierce.html
The Kenya Daily Nation has printed this retraction, replacing the original article:
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Blair-lands-deal-for-key-Jubilee-projects/-/1064/2646572/-/wo2ynt/-/index.html
CORRECTION: Tony Blair not paid for AGI services….It has since been pointed out to us that this information is incorrect and that Mr Blair is actually not paid for advisory services done by AGI. This error is regretted.
Quite right. The usual procedure appears to be to pay TBA/Windrush Ventures Ltd for Mr. Blair’s advisory services, completely separately from AGI’s activities, which are otherwise funded, of course.
No errors of this sort could possibly arise if Mr Blair’s elaborate financial arrangements were as transparent as might, in another universe, be expected for an organisation whose charitable and business arrangements were so inextricably entangled.
The opacity of Blair’s Windrush structures is increased by the fact that they have also been used to handle some charitable donations for projects in Africa.
A Sainsbury family charity, the Gatsby foundation, declares it has paid a total of £992,000 to the Windrush limited partnership. This was for charitable projects in Rwanda, in the two financial years to April 2009.
The Gates foundation, funded by the founder of Microsoft, declares it paid $2.46m (£1.49m) to the Windrush LP in June 2008, for similar capacity-building projects in Sierra Leone.
Blair this year applied to set up a charity, the Tony Blair Africa Governance initiative, in February 2009, according to the Charity Commission.
But its application was not accepted until this month, partly because of its novelty and partly through concerns as to whether it was sufficiently separated from Blair’s personal office arrangements.
The link with Blair and his office was “one of the issues we considered … when looking at public benefit and the independence of the charity,” the Commission said.
(2009)
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/dec/01/mystery-tony-blair-finances
Note also that the Tony Blair Governance Initiative (also trading as AGI) is a charitable limited-by-guarantee company. That means, unlike commercial companies, it
can’t distribute its surpluses to its members or shareholders – a charitable company is usually limited by guarantee, not shares
can only apply its assets to carry out its charitable purposes
must operate in a way which is in the best interests of the charity.
Its accounts are required to be available to the Charity Commission and Companies House.
This implies that in 2009, Blair, belatedly made aware of some confusion between his charitable and business finances, separated the two. TBGI Ltd lives rather modestly, compared with even Toxic Tony’s PR’s minimised account of his personal wealth, with under £3M ‘in the bank’. It does, however, have a share value.
But anything paid to Windrush, by contrast, is still free to disappear. Blair’s negotiations on behalf of dictators are rewarded through this route.
For instance:
http://www.balkaneu.com/tony-blair-creates-expert-teams-serbian-government/
Tony Blair Associates is paid through Windrush Ventures No.3 LP. It then swirls round the rest of the Windrush network, via loans, payments from one to the next for managerial services (the companies have no physical existence or function outside the group – they’re accountants’ artefacts), and can come to rest in Windrush Ventures Ltd.
This excellent, but frustratingly and inevitably incomplete old Telegraph piece hints at what happens next:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/8999847/Blair-Inc-How-Tony-Blair-makes-his-fortune.html
The tax bill on a large income is drastically and simply minimised by invoking ‘expenses’.
Yet all the ‘expensive’ work has been done elsewhere in the chain – where the cash is simply turnover, and not assigned as profit. Or so it would seem.
There remains the question of the Gibraltar-registered Windrush Ltd and Firerush Ltd. Which have still not been noticed by any mainstream enquiry into Blair’s corporate cash cow. These are brass-plate companies. Are they his offshore portals?
Here we are again!
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/former-british-prime-minister-tony-blair-arrives-ahead-of-a-news-photo/466064932
*puts on pensive, serious face, asks us to remember the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for his political career*
I can think of no adequate terms of abuse.
http://www.masress.com/en/video/3008467
Arabic programme: Masress impartially collates news from a variety of Egyptian sources. Blair is platitudinising in English, however, and can be heard at intervals supporting al-Sisi. Perhaps originally from an Egyptian government outlet Arabists please enlighten me!
This is what Toxic’s defending:
http://www.masress.com/en/dailynews/234481
No doubt he’ll be at the memorial service for Sisi’s victims?
Really, really frightening pic:
http://www.civitas.al/al/vendi/cherie-blair-vjen-sot-ne-tirane-me-ftese-te-ministrit-veliaj
Hmm. Her mouth look furious, but her eyes look pleading, almost tragic. Cognitive dissonance? I wonder what she was saying right then…
You are seeing her lips forming the words ‘Wendi Deng’, I think. Anyway, she’s a lot happier today, remembering the dead….
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/cherie-blair-slated-renaults-board-seat-104642791–finance.html#7bsdQL3
Yup, Renault. Patriotic to the last, those Blairs.
*sigh*
And here we are again, again…
Egyptian Economic Development Conference, Day 2, today:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/125179/Business/Economy/Live-updates-Egypts-unveils–economic-vision-at-Sh.aspx
13:10 Former British prime minister Tony Blair has been speaking in the main room at the conference. He praised a number of recent decisions taken by the Egyptian government saying they have had a positive short term impact. He cited the new investment law, reforms on fuel subsidies, and the promotion of the private sector as examples of positive reforms.
But Egypt must also establish an open-minded and tolerant education system and empower women in the workforce, argues Blair.
Like he did with Iraq, suggests Ba’al. Incidentally, since the words ’empower women’ accompany his meek and self-effacing wife wherever she sells her QC status, it’s possible Toxic has spoken with her between offending his victims’ families in the Abbey yesterday and hopping on the plane for Cairo today.