Liberal Burblings

Archive for the ‘Tony Blair’ Category

Well I suppose it was inevitable. I am still a little worried that the British taxpayer paid for a visit from Tony Blair to the Pope, just a few days before he left Number Ten. It seems such a blurring on his personal and his professional lives that he should have coughed up for the expense.

Tony Blair is under fire in China for being paid £237,000 for a twenty minute speech which did not impress. It’s reported that the speech offered “nothing new”. It contained pleasantries and clichés without any insight. This comes after Blair was criticised for recycling the same old jokes several times during a trip to North America.

Tony Blair is a new man, now that the cares of office have been lifted from him. A bit of airbrushing also helps.

It is good news that the British government has requested the release of a further five UK residents from Guantanamo Camp. This is a welcome change of direction following the change of Prime Minister.

Guantanamo camp remains one of the most disgusting acts of the US government. Tony Blair should hang his head in shame for supporting Bush in Iraq, following such a shameful abuse of human rights.

Well done to Norman Lamb for eliciting the information that Tony Blair’s guests at Chequers, in his last few months as PM, included:

-Charlotte Church
-Gavin Henson
-Lorraine Kelly
-Richard Madeley
-Chris Evans
-Vernon Kaye

It speaks volumes about this government’s lack of commitment to freedom of information that it took months of effort to extract this information, as Norman comments:

For reasons that defy rational explanation the government has been treating the fact that Tony Blair enjoyed drinks with Vernon Kay and Charlotte Church as a state secret.

Could the government’s reluctance to publish this information be motivated by an attempt to avoid this question?:

Why is Charlotte Church being treated to a slap-up meal at Chequers at the taxpayers expense?

What possible advantage to the country can be gained by discourse between a departing Prime Minister, a singer and her Rugby playing partner? Even if such interaction were justified, does it have to be accompanied by luxury treatment at the taxpayers’ expense?

And we hear today that Blair’s farewell tour cost the taxpayer £1.7 million. Surely some of this should billed out to Blair’s future publisher and agent? After all, much of it was an advance publicity tour for Blair’s future lecture tours and publications.