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…
M-ASRI’s back up. Dalaman-Ibiza (where Sawiris’ yacht ‘Yalla’ is currently anchored): short stop, and now heading 289 at 40,000 ft.
For the record.
Down @ Birmingham, 0940 UTC
M<ore than likely Nassef Sawiris dropping in to inspect his new investment -Aston Villa.
Correct: confirmed. Then on to Zurich, Dalaman, some Greek islands and home to Cairo. Sawiris Air (either aircraft) is not currently conveying Tony.
The tragedy for Tony Blair is that he has such difficulty getting his superficiality and self-obsession recognised. However, CNBC is happy to help, today.
https://www.nbcumv.com/news/cnbc-exclusive-cnbc-media-alert-former-british-prime-minister-tony-blair-speaks-cnbc%E2%80%99s-wilfred?division=1&network=33135&show=151340
Topics: Everything. On which he is a famous authority.
Should stave off the need for a dog, a blanket and a collecting cup for a day or two, anyway.
In what appears to be CNBC’s London studio, the Grand Gesticulator explains everything and – no doubt after last week’s meeting with Juncker’s gofer, Timmermans – outlines
histhe EU’s Brexit strategy. Which is to stall the process and hope it goes away. Who knew?https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/25/jean-claude-juncke-will-have-full-backing-of-eu-on-trade-tony-blair.html
In other news, Nassef Sawiris indeed met Aston Villa yesterday. Fills our heart with pride to see our assets flogged off to an American-Egyptian consortium. But we digress. Tony may yet have time before his annual hols to take a spin round Africa, and we will as usual keep you up to date if we can.
Another lie…
Remember when Tony Blair announced that he would be shutting down his commercial operations and opening the (wholly philanthropic) Tony Blair Institute?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/20/tony-blair-to-close-commercial-enterprises-to-focus-on-charity-work
NOT TRUE. He’s closed down the unsuccessful securities-to-god-knows-what financial side; the Firerush Ventures half of the former Tony Blair Associates (a trading name only). But he hasn’t shut down the Windrush Ventures income-and-expenditure-opaque donations arm.
We speculated at the time that one reason for his planned abandonment of the two ingenious accountants’ delights FRV and WRV might have been the closing of a loophole which allowed an LLP to be the general partner of an LP, facilitating an escape from corporation tax – as described by Richard Murphy of taxresearch .org. uk .
Supporting this theory – Tthe Windrush group continues to trade, apparently as before. Blair has dropped Windrush Ventures Ltd and Windrush Ventures No.2 LLP.
But WRV no.1 Ltd, No.3 LP, two BDBCo’s, 819 and 822, and Bircham Nominees – the cutout – are still interlinked leaving Windrush Ventures No.3 LP without a useful general partner. And, conveniently enough, Companies House does not report the identity of the partners.
We have a dirty mind. The Tony Blair Institute Ltd, trading as the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, aka the TBIfTB, would, we think, be a useful partner for WRV no.3 LP. It’s a ‘company limited by guarantee’; a structure designed for not-for-profit operations. It can employ, it can pay expenses, but it cannot pay its directors. It would appear that, like an LLP, it is not liable for corporation tax. And its Person with Significant Control is Tony.
So Windrush Ventures trades on, now financially coupled, we speculate, with the TBIfTB. The not-for-profit front buys expensive and unspecified services, exactly as before, from the opaque merry-go round that is New Windrush. And cash trickles inconspicuously out of the system to…?
Congratulations, Bircham Dyson Bell. Nice one.
Incidentally, we have seen no change whatever in the pattern of Tony’s activities since the restructuring. That too would seem to be a fabrication.
TY. In mitigation, I plead complexity of subject matter!
Tony has dropped off the radar, as he sometimes does. No recent instructions have been issued to the peasants regarding wot we’ve gotta do about Brexit, or even homilies on the utter inability of someone who (like Tony) has met Hamas functionaries in the past and is thus (unlike Tony) second only to Julius Streicher in the historical record of infamy. Not a dicky bird. Though one of his stooges has been discussing with Vince Cable the possibility of merging New Labour’s rump with the Libdems to create an even more awful handmaiden for globalism than either individual party. Should negotiations succeed, perhaps we will see the champagne socialist at last acknowledge his complete irrelevance to the working class, by leaving Labour and modestly assuming the role of all-seeing elder statesman in the new conglomeration of c***s.
No, Tony is almost certainly on holiday, and equally certainly under a security blanket. We looked at the disposition of the Sawiris fleet, and found no clues. The blingboat ‘Crazy Me’ is anchored at Porto Cervo in the N. of Sardinia, its chase boat – the mini-blingboat ‘Crazy Too’ – is between Antibes and Cannes, while ‘Yalla’ is parked off Schoinousa, a small island south of Naxos. Recent flights suggest that the Sawirises have distributed themselves between these vessels.If we had to select the ideal location for a yachtborne freebie, the last of these would be perfect. Otherwise, we remain interested in Tony’s regular haunt, Lipari, where charter blingboats are currently in evidence. Paparazzi, please copy.
The TBIfTB needs another embedded suit in the Rwandan
dictatorshipgovernment:http://www.byose.rw/2018/08/13/strategic-advisor-to-rdbs-capacity-development-employment-unit-tony-blair-institute-for-global-change-close-september-022018/
Reading between the lines and lines of corporate bollocks in the job description, it would seem that Rwanda is suffering from a skills shortage (given that its talent base outside Kigali is almost exclusively in subsistence agriculture, not surprising) and notionally relevant activity in this field consisting of generating paperwork or its digital equivalent, and akin to herding cats in circles, is amenable to massive funding. Some of which may possibly spent on the ill-defined objective, or possibly not.
But we wonder. Isn’t there a country closer to home which is suffering from a skills shortage, and one which no less an authority than the Great Armwaver attempted to cure by freeing up mass immigration? We are astonished that the global resources of the TBIfTB have not already been deployed to, er, Provide strategic support to Mrs. May to integrate key elements of … action plans for Energy, Agro-processing, Transport & Logistics, and potentially Manufacturing (etc. – BZ), in an annual National Employment Program Joint Performance Contract (NEP JPC) (or UK equivalent with impressive name) and to ensure that the implementation of the action plans proceeds as expected with positive results for skills and employment development…
On second thoughts, not surprising. The UK is notably deficient in strategic minerals, and its labour rates are not yet down to those of rural Rwandans, while its mobile network, though sadly deficient, is hardly a pristine field for exploitation by investors. And it’s far, far cheaper to import the skills you need than train them…or so Tony once believed.
In other news, we have just found an intriguing connection between Cherie Blair and a firm which even Mossack Fonseca (RIP), of Panama Papers fame, declined to keep on its books, despite its ties to some very well-known African names. Which may have a bearing on Cherie’s surreal appointment to the board of Nigeria’s Dangote Cement, earlier this year.
Spot the connection:
https://allafrica.com/stories/201808010112.html
Spot another connection:
http://omniastrategy.com/advise-panel/
In fact, we’d been remiss. We hadn’t picked up on who was advising Cherie Booth, as she prefers to be styled when on Omnia business – looks as if the Hindujahs are still in favour* at Blair Towers…flashback here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1133839.stm
*or owed favours by…
DIARY:
Cherie Blair will be joining a dully-glittering host of wimminz and others at Cliveden for its Literary Festival on the 29th September, at 17:00-18:00, as a panellist chewing over
Monetising Hubby’s Job: selling influence for pleasure and profitWalking the Tightrope: the dreams and perils of female powerSarah Vine (Wife of Gove) will be joining in. Can’t wait.
DIARY:
Tony will be in Detroit on the 28 October 4:30 PM – 8:00 PM , talking and gesticulating to raise funds at the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Annual Dinner, (for an Orthodox day school of that name), where a Deloitte managing partner, perhaps an alumnus, is to be honoured as well. At Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center.
Mazel tov, Tony! And don’t lick your fingers while eating!
Interestingly, although intensely proud of its Torah education and ethical standards, the school’s 501C3 nonprofit, the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Foundation, hasn’t submitted its Forms 990 to the IRS for three years, and has lost its exempt status:
https://www.guidestar.org/profile/38-3354846
A Form 990 is a three-yearly requirement to provide the organisation’s returns. These are made publicly available, as an additional condition of exemption.
We hope it will be able to afford Tony’s fee.
DIARY:
https://skwawkbox.org/2018/08/04/centrist-mps-bizarre-fundraising-evening-with-blair-fuels-new-party-speculation/
Somewhere in Sedgefield, Oct 12th. Organiser: Blairite MP Phil Wilson. Funds raised to go into a trust fund set up by Wilson, inter alia though possibly as a priority, to oppose Brexit. Names of those wishing to attend must be supplied. Cavity search at the door not inconceivable.
The vote to Leave in Sedgefield was 59.4%, and Wilson, its MP, voted Remain. Representative democracy my arse.
DIARY:
https://bizsummit.att.com/speakers/
AT&T Business Summit, Gaylord Texan Resort
Sept 25-28 | Dallas, TX
We have as yet no idea what tune Tony will be waving his hands to, but imagine he will be saying little in any way critical of technological oligopoly.
We were of course delighted to see that Tony, as evidenced in a mass mailing to every local paper in the country, “leads” tributes to the late Kofi Annan, and that the TBIfTB’s choice of strapline was faithfully reproduced by all. However, Radio 4 News chose to invite Gordon Brown to comment on the departed, which is an encouraging sign that griefjacking doesn’t always work. Tony claims that Annan was a “good friend” and we could scarce forbear to shed a tear, imagining the reconciliation scene which must have occurred some time after Annan’s very definite opposition to Blair’s invasion of Iraq. (And see under ‘Panama Papers’, ‘Dangote Cement’ and ‘Saraki’ for indications that Tony, Cheri and Kofi’s tearaway son may also be good friends.)
We don’t know where Tony’s doing his leading right now. Not one pap has snapped his moobs dominating a scene of sun, sand and someone rich, which has been the previous form for August. Interviews have been absent from the media, and he hasn’t even been sighted at a yeshiva school lately – though there was a lovely plug for the company which Euan fronts in the JC last week: https://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/features/a-level-students-apprenticeships-or-university-a-level-results-1.468350 .
Perhaps he’s on a yacht. Perhaps he’s at El Gouna, courtesy of Mr. Sawiris. Perhaps he’s simply ascended into heaven, having redeemed the human race with his leadership. If so, God’s revealing nothing. We hope we do not have to “lead” tributes to him in that event.
Further evidence that nothing has changed since the rebranding, and that Tony, despite his now wholly non-charitable status, is still looking for philanthropic donors to support his extremely political objectives:
https://www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs/tony-blair-institute-for-global-change/prospect-research-and-strategy-officer/589420
Required:
Ideally a minimum of three to five years’ experience in prospect research and prospect management.
Experience of fundraising and prospect data systems strongly preferred.
Expertise in prospect research, proactive prospecting methodologies, and deep understanding of capacity/affinity indicators.
Knowledge of the donor landscape, particularly for one or more of these donor groups: foundations, corporate, government donors such as USAID and research funders. Understanding of the research role in shaping donor engagement strategies would be highly valued.
Experience and deep understanding of the key data sources for donor information.
For ‘prospect’ read ‘mark’. Note the interest in obtaining academic research grants, and USAID funding. And that ‘key data sources’ looks pretty damn sinister. Give me all your money or I’ll release some data?
In passing, we see that the current management ballsword, at the IfTB as across the corporate universe, is ‘pipeline’ which has replaced ‘pillar’. Or perhaps has been cut into convenient lengths and stood on end. If Tony isn’t eventually convicted for anything else, it must be for crimes against the English language.
DIARY:
Reviving his interest in green stuff, dormant since 2011 and the quiet erasure of his Climate Change Initiative, Tony will be posturing in Kigali in September:
http://ktpress.rw/2018/08/al-gore-annan-and-five-heads-of-state-for-agrf-kigali/
Sadly, Kofi Annan will not attend as advertised due to his being dead. And there is some confusion as to who will be there: after a list of attendees including Buffet, Gore and Dangote:
…However, sources reaching KT Press say that Howard Buffet, Al Gore, Aliko Dangote and Bill Gates will not attend the forum.
Never mind. Tony will be there, with his vast fund of agricultural knowledge, to help his very good friend Paul Kagame tout for money. Which is what it’s all about.
It will as usual be interesting to see whose aircraft will be bearing the great man to Africa, and who else he meets there. He seems to be hiring suits for embedding in Ethiopia at the moment.
It will be recalled that Tony has consistently maintained that removing the cruel and bloody tyrant Saddam was worth any number of other peoples’ lives, and any expense. He did the right thing, as guided by God.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/08/19/iraq-chilling-accounts-torture-deaths
Didn’t he?
A new field of interest, sparked by Cherie’s appointment to the board of Dangote Cement, stretches, wide and verdant, before us:
Speaking of his relationship with Tony Blair, former British prime minister, Dangote says Blair only makes three calls per day. But he has to battle with scores, and tonnes of emails.
http://dailyguideafrica.com/i-need-a-wife-aliko-dangote-reveals/
Also:
STILL OUT TO BUY ARSENAL
Dangote is not a man known to give up on his dreams, and his dreams about Arsenal Football Club will not be different, he reveals.
“I love Arsenal and I will definitely go for it,” he told FT, adding that the club should be worth about $2bn.
Looks like, with Naguib Sawiris’ investment in Villa, football’s coming home. To South Pavilion.
Tony and Dangote at Davos this year, in French. Notable for the flaneur’s invincible English accent, and a hoarseness that suggests that he’s already been doing a good deal of flanneling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9SfQ4zIOh4
Missed:
Tony’s July meeting at Imperial with Lord (Ara) Darzi, who was presenting his review of NHS healthcare, setting out the reforms (in Darzi’s opinion) required to make the NHS functional in future. Tony was permitted to wave his arms at this one, and also inspect a VR headset – he’s probably used to a virtual view of everything by now). Despite Darzi having been ennobled under Brown, Tony was able to agree in the most general terms with Darzi that yes, reforms are needed – though not that his own support for PFI contractors might be worth a critical look.
Presenting the key findings, Lord Darzi, Director of the Institute of Global* Health Innovation at Imperial, told policymakers, academics and NHS staff of the need to change the mindset around the NHS “from one of a sickness service to a health and wellbeing service”.
The clear, though unstated. trend of the event appeared to be in the direction of further private involvement.
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/187036/former-pm-supports-lord-darzi-report/
Coincidentally, Darzi’s register of interests includes several private healthcare consultancies and a couple of pharma companies (scroll down)
https://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-interests/register-of-lords-interests/lords-interests-amendments/?letter=D
* ™ – if it says global, Tony’s in there hugging.
Despite Blair’s assurance in 2016 that he was winding up his Albanian operation (qv, passim), someone called Tony Blair is still apparently very close to Edi Rama’s operation:
http://shqiptarja.com/lajm/qeveria-mbyll-pushimet-rama-analize-me-ministrat-ne-llogara-e-asiston-kompania-e-tony-blair?r=kh11
Google Translate gives us:
Vlora – The government ends the vacation and returns to work to start the second term of the second term. Prime Minister Rama called ministers and their cabinets to an informal preparatory meeting this Friday in the city of Vlora. The two-day meeting will conclude the analytical work launched on July 25 with Tony Blair.
TV report is learned that the former British prime minister’s company is helping the Albanian government close the balance sheet of this ruling political year that was closed, as well as determine the targets for the second 300 days. ( Esiona Konomi 22 Gusht, 09:29 )
Accountancy was never Tony’s USP, so we assume some colloquialism is involved, and that Rama is preparing to be re-elected next May, and needs some image-disinfection, like most of Tony’s clients. A clue as to why Tony and some of his chums remain interested in Albanian cash here:
https://exit.al/en/2017/12/08/why-do-blairs-former-ministers-love-edi-rama-so-much/
We also spotted the Sawiris Gulfstream, M-USIK making a flying visit to Tirana and Beograd on the 16th, departing on the 18th. We have no knowledge of any Sawiris having interests in either area, though admittedly the family’s tentacles are wide-reaching.
And someone closely resembling the Great Gesticulator was seen by Robert Fisk in a Belgrade restaurant on July 5th:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/serbia-belgrade-kosovo-eu-membership-tony-blair-vucic-a8432801.html
The article offers more than a hint of the nature of the snake oil Blair’s peddling in the Balkans.
But it would be so much more helpful if his companion could also be identified…
The photo of Blair in the article is credited to Nilofer Pazira*, the actress who played the heroine in ‘Kandahar’ and who was presumably at the next table. Note to Tone: really shit security, mate. She’s half-Afghan.
*We saw her speaking live once in Edinburgh: very charismatic lady.
For anyone who may be following this saga (stranger things have happened) and wish to bring any part of it to wider attention, I should perhaps say that as far as I am personally concerned, please do, subject only to prior clearance with Craig Murray, whose blog this is, and who isn’t me. The extent of Blair’s global meddling, with the strong presumption of his profiting from the sale of influence within the UK Establishment, gained during his time in office, deserves a wider public. Go for it.
Ba’al
Have you seen this? It is from one of Blair ‘s employees attacking Hizzbulah as a terrorist organisation. Interestingly one of the references in this article relates to a very impartial (not) article by Ron Prossor.
Obviously written to bolster Saudi grip in Lebanon and probably paid for by them.
https://edition-m.cnn.com/2018/08/17/opinions/west-should-ban-hezbollah-opinion-intl/index.html?
Thanks, SA
Blair’s been banging on about anything Iranian-supported for years; in this he is only doing the will of an apartheid state on the Mediterranean, as he has always done. This is fairly routine shock-horror, I think. Xrael is shit scared that Hizb’ullah is gaining regional influence as being one of the parties unequivocally interested in getting rid of IS. And it’s clandestinely building ties with the Gulf states and Saudi in order to have yet another war fought on its behalf, this time with Iran.
What got less publicity for some reason was The Institute for Tony Blair’s report on the enormous volume of trade between the above nation and its Gulf and Saudi neighbours – despite the public posture of the latter:
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/181924-180816-israel-s-exports-to-gulf-states-worth-almost-1-billion-study-suggests
Bit of an own goal, that, letting us know.
M-ASRI flew from Luton to New York on the 25th, and as if by magic we have a sighting of Tony at The Hamptons – an area of Long Island, NY, set aside for the holidays of New York’s obscenely rich. Here he mingled with Mike (Junk Bond) Milken, a prominent supporter of Xrael and all things Xewish, with whom Tony has a longstanding and firm connection (see above, repeatedly), and who appears to have organised this semi-formal networking event.
Another strong supporter of Xrael is Senator Lindsay Graham (R), with whom Tony was reported as discussing foreign policy (Graham’s an interventionist). Could Iran have been mentioned? Surely not!
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-27/milken-mnuchin-in-the-hamptons-with-blankfein-to-fix-the-world
The article is pleasantly sardonic….
Tony earlier in the week gave a long interview to the Argentinian media outlet, Perfil. Perfil is currently not experiencing difficulties, as it is uncritical of the new President, Mauricio Macri; it had problems with the Kirchners. We don’t know when this interview was actually conducted, or where. Here Tony dodges sinuously around the Malvinas/Falklands and Catholicism, and explains as usual how globalisation, technology, education and centrism are thoroughly marvellous, while unions are really y’know, awful. The familiar Blair warning re. Peronism: if you don’t stop it coming back, it will come back. Just like the Left, Hamas, Brexit, and – we await an encyclical on these – wasps.
http://www.perfil.com/noticias/politica/el-peronismo-puede-resurgir-si-no-se-encierra-en-el-pasado.phtml
M-ASRI arrived at Toronto last night (BST).
M-ASRI back in NYNY on the 28th pm. Sometimes you gotta do, yknow, wot Tony does, and speculate…Trudeau was in Quebec on the 28th, so Tony – if present at all – wasn’t meeting him. But with diplomatic problems between Saudi and Canada, several million riyals in his back pocket, and his conviction that he is an ace mediator, Tony has reason to take a rather sudden interest in Canadian affairs. Elsewhere, we learn that Tony bought smoothies for his bodyguard during his Hamptons excursion. How uncharitable it would be to suggest that he might pay their wages as well!
M-ASRI…Apologies: quick stop at NY, then on to Boston. There now.
Update: M-ASRI flew to New York last night and returned almost immediately to Boston, where it is now. Strange gyrations. Blair has not yet been seen or heard from since the Hamptons, but will need to be in Rwanda come the 3rd. September (see above), to further the wonderful work his very good friend Paul Kagame is doing to bankrupt the country…
http://www.veritasinfo.fr/2018/08/rwanda-accumulated-us-1.2-billion-debts-in-june-2017-july-2018.html
Coincidentally, elections for Rwanda’s parliament-surrogate begin on the 2nd. Shouldn’t be too much doubt about the result…
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/28/rwanda-post-election-political-crackdown
While Tony was mingling with the influential on Saturday, Mrs Blair was in Dublin observing the Pope. It is not known whether she obtained a contract from him. Could be an opportunity, Cherie, babes. Loads of child abuse cases requiring litigation, a definite absence of wimminz empowerment, and the Vatican could obviously use some governance advice from the TBIfTB.
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/dublin-crowds-were-respectful-to-pope-but-not-delirious-as-as-they-were-for-79-visit-says-ni-catholic-commentator-1-8615176
Some slight confusion over the date of the AGRF Forum* in Kigali next week: this now appears to be from the 5th to the 8th.
*billed as the continent’s most lucrative agricultural advancement revolution gathering and will take place in Rwanda’s capital Kigali, from September 3-7, 2018. – aha. We understand. Blair is not a headline act according to the site, although the TBIfTB is a ‘partner’, as is UKAid.. Rwanda’s economy is 40% dependent on aid. But we guarantee Kigali will be more than usually lovely following an extra special cleanup by its unpaid citizenry who are made to turn out weekly and pick up cigarette ends and other signs of poverty.
M-ASRI now back in NYC. Think we’ll just hop in our Gulfstream and take a look…and find .intriguing echoes of Blair’s former borrowed glory, G-CEYL, which was imperially black and gold like a John Player Special packet in the good old days before they were dull green with a picture of what they would do to you. M-ASRI is multiculturally black below and white above, and equally distinctive. Is this why Tony befriended Naguib?
While Tony remains off the radar, possibly in New York, we learn that he has now managed to place another suit as “Chief Investment Officer of the Rwandan Development Board”, and our mind boggles at the benefits this will bring to foreign firms looking for a slice of Rwandan agriculture and mining. Foreign firms, that is, with the ear of, or paying Tony – such as Mubadala, the UAE’s investment fund, JP Morgan, or any of the Sawiris family’s multiple interests.
We were also fascinated to learn that the chairman of the RDB is Itzhak Fisher, who as his name suggests, is Xraeli. Indeed, he was formerly treasurer of the Likud party, and was a campaigner for Netanyahu.
http://www.therwandan.com/tony-blair-staffer-appointed-chief-investment-officer-of-rwanda-development-board/
We learn so much in the course of research into the affairs of Blair. Who said hatred was destructive?
DIARY:
On Tuesday (04/09), at the Viminale, Tony will be saying God knows what to Matteo Salvini, Italy’s anti-immigration foreign minister.
https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2018/09/01/news/salvini_incontra_blair_lo_strano_incontro_al_viminale-205398985/
Also on Tuesday Salvini will meet with Tony’s political opposite, Viktor Orban.
https://www.politico.eu/article/vikor-orban-matteo-salvini-italy-hungary-the-master-and-pupil-of-eu-populism/
Given Tony’s support for mass immigration, and stated detestation of populism (unless he himself is exploiting it), should be interesting. We hope it comes to blows.
At last, and no doubt intentionally delayed, news of where the Saviour of the Balkans spent at least part of his August hols: Dubrovnik.
The usual bollocks in response to a completely on-side interviewer (no other kind of interviewer is ever permitted) who managed to breach the media blackout during Tony’s two-week affliction of the area. And one thumping lie:
“This is my first stay in Croatia and I’m completely excited. Why did not I know that Dubrovnik was so wonderful? I’ll definitely be back! Blair tells me.”
Rubbish. He was there in 2016: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatian-coast-magnet-for-global-vip-guests-08-01-2016
and may also have spent some time afloat near Hvar during the same visit.
Note also the elegant sidestepping of the question near the end: does Tony have a view about his employer, Serbia’s Vucic, comparing Croatia’s policy to that of Nazi Germany? Ho, hum. Balkans will be Balkans…
https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/30221-officials-condemn-vucic-s-comparison-between-croatia-and-hitler
Tony Blair is currently not believed to be paid by Croatia.
Also on the interview front, the Argentinian site Perfil continues daily to publish extracts from what must have been a marathon interview with Tony. These appear to be largely supportive of President Macri, but why he should need the support is uncertain. The next elections are over a year ago, and his party did extremely well in the midterms. Perhaps Tony is ‘advising’ Perfil, or perhaps he is maximising his Argentine exposure in the hope that Macri will employ him.
And the Falklands, Tony?
For ‘ago’ above, please read, ‘away’ of course.
Currently unable to add sub-comments to comments.
DIARY UPDATE:
We have now located Tony’s appearance at AGRF 2018 in Kigali: it will be at 1430 on the 7th September, in the Auditorium of the Radisson Blu Kigali’s convention centre. Three TBIfTB suits appear to be present in addition.
We wondered why Blair would want to visit Salvini, but we weren’t thinking hard enough. Blair is an advisor to the consortium building the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, as well as having a recently-renewed interest in Albania’s Edi Rama’s wellbeing: the pipeline has already been steamrollered across Albania. Evidently further discussion is needed with the final recipient of its controversial benefits, Italy. The Guardian outlines what’s going on:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/03/tony-blair-matteo-salvini-trans-adriatic-pipeline-gas.
The Guardian dodges the longstanding concerns of Puglia’s agriculturalists regarding the project, and in highlighting the alternative – dependence on a Russian scheme – fails to mention that a major player in the project is another antidemocratic and repressive autarchy, Azerbaijan. The article wryly notes that ‘tough on populism and the causes of populism’ Tony can at any rate agree with Salvini on what those causes are.