Tony Blair, A Friend In Need....

[jomifl]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/11052965/Tony-Blair-gives-Kazakhstans-autocratic-president-tips-on-how-to-defend-a-massacre.html
Don't you just love this guy (TB) he has set a new standard for personal morality...and making money.

[grumpy01]

Thought he had enough to do as the Middle East peace envoy but obviously not.

[jourdain2]

As he's a Middle-East peace envoy, why isn't he out there standing in front of the IS forces and reasoning with them?

[youngmafbog]

Blair should be in jail for what he did.

[agchristie]

Let's have a reality check here. Tony Blair gives advice on how to improve a President's image who won the last election in 2011 with 96% of the vote?

What is that all about?

Blair must spread himself more thinly than Flora light. He has more fingers than pies....

[atalanta]

Blair just doesn't get it, does he ?

[Gromit]

In the scheme of things, Kazakhstan's human records isn't too bad.

Certainly not on the same scale as General Pinochet's Chile, who enjoyed enormous support from a previous ex-Prime Minister.

[boxtops]

If I were in need, I don't think I'd want his grinning face standing beside me :-(

[DTCwordfan]

A Chilean dictator who helped us in the defence of the Falklands, gromit - let's not forget that. And for those who do not know, British planes who could not get back to their ships were permitted to land and refuel in Chile, and probably re-arm.

[agchristie]

Can someone write to me, in no more than 500 words, why the President must be gripped by paranoia?

Note - I can't afford to pay you 7m.

[Boru62]

From war criminal, to adviser to a despot, isn't such a long journey I suppose.

[ichkeria]

I have always defended Blair in the face of some of the wilder accusations against him, but taking on the role of Nazarbayev's image consultant is pretty poor - especially for the alleged fee. Blair did always strike me as starstruck by powerful people regardless of anything else.

[jomifl]

I guess TB has adopted the lawyerly practice of defending a known criminal for money, it is after all what he was trained for though perhaps not on this scale.

[Obiter]

What I find interesting is how attitudes change. 17 years ago Blair was widely hailed as the new Messiah, sent from heaven to deliver us from the clutches of the Great Satan (Tory party).

[jomifl]

Not by me Obiter.. The first time I saw him on tv I thought he was an odious creep and about a trustworthy as Fagin. The shifty eyes gave him away, as well as the slightly incredulous look on his face when he realised that people actually believed him.

[Khandro]

"The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes."
Tony Blair

And you know what, it just gets easier and easier.

[Quizmonster]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Margaret_Thatcher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AMargaret_Thatcher/Archive_10

On leaving office, Thatcher took several millions of dollars and gifts to act as a spokesperson for Philip Morris, the tobacco giant. Part of her remit was to try to ensure that anti-smoking propaganda in Europe did not have too much of an impact on their sales.
As regards Tony Blair, people and organisations who pay him for his advice or to hear him give speeches to their organisations do so totally of their own free choice, knowing precisely what it is going to cost them.
What's the problem? Isn't that what virtually everyone does in an effort to earn...sell their services for the maximum the market offers?

[agchristie]

I wonder if those folk parting with their cash would have expected change after using his services.

We don't seem to see any change either from his role in the Middle East...

[Quizmonster]

I presume, Ag, that you are aware that the phrase 'Middle East' in Blair's title is a misnomer. His role is concerned solely with the Palestine/Israel conflict. Many seem to imagine that he should be flitting from Syria to Iraq to Egypt, to Sudan, to Yemen to wherever in that region trouble flares up. He should not.
Given that the Palestine/Israel conflict dates, in effect, back to biblical times and that absolutely no one has managed to solve it in thousands of years, one shouldn't be too surprised that he hasn't either!

[lindapalmara]

Has anyone seen him try? He's been conspicuous by his absence during this last awful conflict. Too busy wining and dining and keeping his head down over the Iraq conflict. Even he must admit his and Bushes part in this..........or maybe not!!!