4:09PM BST 31 Jul 2012 Tony Blair helped with London's winning Tuesday July 24,2012 A GARGANTUAN effort was made seven years ago to secure the Olympic bid for London, and as the capital gears up for the opening ceremony, Tony Blair recalls how his own contribution to win us the Games got him into a rather uncomfortable situation in a Singapore toilet. 1:36PM BST 22 Jul 2012 9:38PM BST 23 Jul 2012 7:53PM BST 23 Jul 2012 8:00AM BST 15 Jul 2012 7:28AM BST 21 Jul 2012 7:00AM BST 12 Jul 2012 8:17PM BST 13 Jul 2012 7:30AM BST 10 Jul 2012 10:20PM BST 24 Jul 2012 6:39PM BST 25 Jul 2012 8:00AM BST 16 Jun 2012
Euan 'wants to stand as an MP'
* Mum Cherie 'likes the idea of Kennedy-style dynasty'
* Euan wants to work in public sector post to build his Labour credentials
By Phil Vinter
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Phil+Vinter>
*PUBLISHED:* 11:36, 22 July 2012 | *UPDATED:* 08:39, 23 July 2012
His father's turbulent time as Prime Minister doesn't appear to have
discouraged Euan Blair from seeking a career in politics.
According to The People Tony Blair's 28-year-old eldest child is keen to
follow in his father's famous footsteps by standing as a Labour MP.
A family friend said: 'Euan has been thinking about a career in politics
for some time. Cherie is particularly pleased. She likes the idea of a
Kennedy-style Blair dynasty.'
Euan Blair
Cherie Blair
Dynasty: A family friend has said Cherie Blair likes the idea of her
eldest son Euan, left, taking up a career in politics
Friends have said Euan is eager to improve his Labour credibility by
taking up a public sector post and he is believed to have left his job
with investment bank Morgan Stanley.
According to Labour MP Tom Watson the young Blair has shown commitment
to the cause by knocking on doors in previous by-elections and is a
'genuine Labour activist'.
A spokesman for Tony Blair's office said: 'The Blairs will support their
children in whatever they decide to do, but the idea that either of them
is interested in a dynasty is pure invention.'
Earlier this month Euan had to walk past anti-war campaigners as he
joined his father at a Labour Party fund-raiser with Ed Miliband.
The rally at The Emirates Stadium in London marked Tony Blair's return
to mainstream politics.
Making moves: Euan Blair was with his his father and mother as well as
Ed Miliband and his wife Justine at a fundraiser in the Emirates Stadium
in London
Making moves: Euan Blair was with his his father and mother as well as
Ed Miliband and his wife Justine at a fundraiser in the Emirates Stadium
in London
Mr Blair wants to get back into the profession after picking up
£20million last year through public speaking and advising banks and
foreign governments.
It is not the first time Euan has hit the headlines, 12 years ago he was
arrested by police when he was found vomiting on the pavement in London
as he celebrated his GCSE results.
The news broke just days after Tony Blair had announced that he wanted
to introduce spot fines for anti-social behaviour.
After completing his degree in ancient history at Bristol University
Euan worked as an intern in the U.S. for Democrat and also Republican
politicians.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2177191/Euan-Blair-Tony-Blairs-son-gets-backing-Cherie-stand-MP.html#ixzz21Rqp3MqZTony Blair seeks major fund-raiser to pull in donations from wealthy Americans as he seeks to raise profile
Tony Blair is seeking to boost the scale of his charity work by advertising for a ‘Major Gift Fundraiser’ to solicit six-figure sums from wealthy Americans.
There is a long standing story on the web which claims Blair was arrested for soliciting in 1983 and tried and convicted at Bow Street magistrates court under the name Charles Lynton, Blairs two middle names. RH
TONY BLAIR GETS MISTY-EYED OVER HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE OLYMPICS
Olympic bidBy Lizzie Catt, Lisa Higgins and Jack Teague
Telegraph
Tony Blair: Labour government was partly responsible for financial crisis
Tony Blair has admitted his government was partly responsible for Britain's economic strife because it failed to grasp the threat posed by a deeply integrated global economy.
Note: Seeing Master Blair and his fellow war criminals doing the Tyburn Jig would lift most people's spirits immensely. RH
Telegraph
Tony Blair: hanging bankers won't help
Public anger over the financial crisis is wrong and must not lead Britain to “hang bankers at the end of the street,” Tony Blair says today.
Telegraph
Tony Blair: 'The West is asleep on the issue of Islamist extremism'
The former Labour prime minister talks about religion and politics, lessons from the financial crisis and the future of the euro
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/no-comeback-tony-promises-party-faithful-7976095.html
No comeback, Tony promises party faithful
Tony Blair has expanded his African empire, becoming adviser to the oil-rich state of South Sudan.
Telegraph
Tony Blair: 'Charity? No, it’s for me’
Jimmy Thomas, the casino owner, says he fell out with Tony Blair after discovering that he was a 'money-grabbing young man'.
Telegraph
The UFO Files: Tony Blair briefed on alien defence policy
Tony Blair was so concerned about the disclosure of classified information on extra-terrestrials when he was Prime Minister he received a full briefing about UFOs from the Ministry of Defence, it has emerged.
Telegraph
Tony Blair's back - and he's dangerous for the Tories and Labour
The former prime minister’s rapprochement with Ed Miliband is a coup, but his business interests may come back to haunt the Labour Party
Blair's "interesting choice" on the euro
Monday 25 June 2012
It is very easy to be dismissive of Blair, popping up as he did on the Andrew Marr Show, telling us that the UK will face an "interesting choice" over whether to join the euro if the currency's current crisis is resolved.
That, of course, is a huge "if", but the man is right in one sense. When the "colleagues" go for a new treaty and we are faced with a two-speed "Europe" that puts non eurozone members on the outside, there will be those who argue that we should take the leap and join the euro.
Blair thus believes the UK should still be keeping open the option of joining it. Looking at the "broad sweep of history" in the long term, he says, "the European integration project" is going to go ahead, "like it or not". The UK, as a "small island nation", had to be part of it to have influence.
That is the classic europhile meme … poor tiny little Britain cannot manage on her own, so we must cast our lot with "Mother Europe".
Despite this, Blair seems to be more up to speed than some commentators, arguing that the only thing that would save the single currency was to have a "grand plan" where Germany was ready to commit its economy fully - "treating the debts of one as the debts of all".
This would be difficult for Germany, he says, and would have to be in return for other countries having "precise, deliverable" programmes of change and reform that could restore European competitiveness.
As well as economic changes, political change was also inevitable with Europe needing reform of labour markets, pensions, welfare, public services the role of the state.
Some of these changes we are to see shortly, but there is much more yet to emerge as the treaty proposals are tabled. How long then our options will stay open is anyone's guess, but it would be nice to be able to see Blair proved wrong about the longevity of the integration project.
COMMENT THREAD
Richard North 25/06/2012Telegraph
Give Tony Blair an Olympic role, says Labour
Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, Tony Blair’s former director of strategic communications, claims the former prime minister deserves a more substantial position at the Olympic Games than attending as a guest.
Telegraph
Tony Blair says Christians should "speak up and speak out"
Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister, says it is important the views of Christians are heard and speaks openly about his belief in “salvation through Jesus Christ”.
Telegraph
Cherie Blair denies she snubbed the Queen
Cherie Blair has denied that she snubbed the Queen when she failed to attend a Diamond Jubilee lunch at 10 Downing Street this week.
Telegraph
Cherie and Euan Blair under investigation for breaching planning rules at Euan's £1.3m bachelor pad
Cherie Blair and her eldest son, Euan, are under investigation by their local council over claims they ignored planning rules by sub-letting the basement of Euan's £1.3 million home.
Thursday, 2 August 2012
Note: this site http://www.arrestblair.org/ is run by George Mombiot. Useful for posting comments about Master Blair. RH
Are the Blairs about to become a political dynasty? Former PM's son
Telegraph
The former prime minister launched his search for a prospective employee – who is required to have a history of landing million-plus dollar donations – as he seeks to raise his wider profile, amid reports that he is eager to return to front line politics.
Last month, he accepted a position as an adviser to the Labour Party on how Britain can build on the Olympic legacy.
And earlier this month he confirmed that he would not “rule out” a second political career, telling CNN that he had wanted the leadership of the European Commission and would consider it if offered again.
Now Mr Blair has advertised in international newspapers for a Major Gift Fundraiser to work for his two charities – the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative.
The job will be based in the United States, and among the requirements for candidates are eight or more years’ experience of fund-raising, including a record of securing six and seven figure donations.
Setting out the role, the advert says: “On leaving office in 2007, Tony Blair set up two global charities, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative.
“Both speak directly to his passionate belief that in order to realize [sic] the benefits of a more open, globalized [sic] society we must address the root causes of conflict and inequality.
“Over the last four years, both charities have developed a strong track record of impact. We are expanding our operations to meet the growing demand for our work, and increasingly looking to influence wider thinking on faith and governance.
“To meet these ambitions for growth, we need to expand our network of supporters in the US.
“Between the two charities, we are looking to find a Major Gift fund-raiser who can broker new Major Donor and family Foundation relationships in the US and develop regional networks to grow our long term revenue.
“You will have a track record of achieving large gifts of $1m+ and have a reputation for personally cultivating strong relationships with high net worth individuals, foundations and ideally global corporations." Applicants are invited to send their CV to the foundation by August 23.
A spokesman for Mr Blair said: "The charities have grown considerably over the last few years and this is all about expanding them further."
Mr Blair’s former political fund-raisers are unlikely to apply for the post.
Lord Levy, who raised millions for the Labour Party during the former prime minister’s time in office, was arrested in 2006 on suspicion of offering peerages in return for secret loans, in what became known as the cash for honours scandal.
Mr Blair was questioned by the police during the inquiry along with a number of his aides, all of whom were cleared of criminal wrongdoing the following year. The charges against Lord Levy were also dropped.
Note: “And I suddenly realised that he thought I was trying to pick him up.”
The former PM was in Asia championing the British cause with the Olympic committee.
“I was standing in the gents and this guy – a blond-haired bloke – was standing next to me so I struck up a conversation because I simply assumed that he would be British and would want to talk to me about the bid,” Blair, 59, tells the Radio Times.
“He actually turned to me and asked, in a tone of voice that plainly meant that he hadn’t the faintest idea who I was, ‘Why are you asking me all of these questions?’
“And I suddenly realised that he thought I was trying to pick him up.”
Tony Blair has admitted his government was partly responsible for Britain's economic strife.
Labour failed to grasp the threat posed by a deeply integrated global economy, the party's former leader said.
However, Mr Blair, who left office in 2007, warned that a "vibrant" financial sector was essential for the future economic health of the UK.
The remark was being seen as a coded criticism of Ed Miliband, the current Labour leader, who has called for the big high street banks to be broken up and tougher regulation of finacial services.
Speaking on the Murnaghan programme, on Sky News, Mr Blair also claimed his wife Cherie played a key role in London's winning bid for the Olympics.
"On the other hand... this global financial crisis was the product of a whole new way that the financial and banking sector has been working in this past 20 or 30 years.
"You have got this deep integration of the global economy and you have a lot of financial instruments that were created whose impact people didn't properly understand."
Asked if that meant Labour did not fully understand it while he was in power, he replied: "No, we didn't."
Mr Blair underlined his view that a "thriving and healthy banking sector" was vital to the future of the modern British economy.
Mr Blair said he still believed he had a contribution to make to domestic politics, and suggested that Labour could win the 2015 election.
"I have got things to say and if people want to listen, that's great, and if they don't, fine."
Mr Blair said when Labour lost power, it traditionally lost power for a long time. "I think it is possible in these circumstances to re-write that traditional script," he added.
"I know those people who are leading the Labour Party at the moment are desperate to do their best for the country."
Mr Blair also suggested his wife Cherie had played "a very big part" in helping to secure the Olympics for the UK by winning support from less famous members of the International "People tended to make a big fuss of all the big names," he said.
"My wife was very, very good at going to different countries and seeing people before the Games who we're the less significant, if you like, people. "By the time we got to Singapore we knew those people, I then met them and was talking to them, all of these things helped, I think."
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the former prime minister launches a defence of the free market and liberal economic rules established by the Thatcher government.
The approach promoted by Baroness Thatcher’s government is not to blame for the recent financial and economic crisis, Mr Blair says, warning against taking vengeance on bankers and increasing State intervention in the private sector.
We must not start thinking that society will be better off “if we hang 20 bankers at the end of the street”, Mr Blair says.
Big international banks are still the focus of public and political attacks for what critics say was their role in causing the financial crisis.
Mr Blair cautions against letting that anger lead to regulations that could reverse Lady Thatcher’s work to reduce government involvement in free markets.
Senior figures from the main parties have suggested that the crisis and alleged wrongdoing of banks such as Barclays should lead to tougher controls on banks.
Mr Blair challenges those calls, and says: “We mustn’t go back to the State running everything.”
That remark may be seen as a warning to Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, to avoid advocating Left-wing interventionist policies.
Instead of seeking to change laws and regulations, Mr Blair says that politicians must examine cultural norms. “We must regain the basic values of what society is about,” he says. “We’re not against wealth, but we are in favour of social responsibility.”
Mr Blair’s intervention is likely to prove controversial because of his commercial interests since leaving Downing Street five years ago. He is an adviser to JP Morgan, a US investment bank; Zurich, a Swiss financial firm; and has clients, including several governments, which are said to deliver an annual income of about £20 million.
In the interview, Mr Blair indicates that he is looking for a way to re-enter British public life and discusses his ambitions for taking an international political job.
“I’d like to find a form of intervening in debates,” Mr Blair says, adding that his experiences since quitting as prime minister have given him valuable insights.
Mr Blair will speak in a debate about the role of religion today.
Tony Blair is vigorous proof of life after political death. He is back in London, looking well, smartly dressed in the combination of blue suit and brown shoes that, traditionally, is the mark of being not quite a gentleman. “I’ve put my tie on for The Daily Telegraph,” he says. He will be at the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday.
But today , he has a different purpose. The Westminster Faith Debates, chaired by his former home secretary Charles Clarke, will close with a conversation tonight between Mr Blair, the Archbishop of Canterbury and me. The subject is religion and society.
The nation’s most famous Catholic convert set up his Faith Foundation to tackle such questions. He speaks of the future. The “fundamentalist doctrines of politics”, such as fascism and communism, he says, went out with the 20th century. In the 21st, when globalisation has pushed people ever closer together, the disputed territory and, he warns, the “dominant security threat”, relate to religion and culture. He wants to provide the “platform” where people of different faiths can together find out what unites them.
Tony Blair has written ''I’ve always been more interested in religion than politics’’, a striking thought for a prime minister, so I ask him why. Religion, he says, engages with ''the fundamental truths about life’’. He feels he is now ''deeply familiar with the rules of politics’’; in religion, ''there is so much that is still unexplored’’.
Yes, but many would say that who are not themselves religious. He is. Why? He is interestingly discreet. He does not want to talk about God, or about the Church (if you look up ''Church’’ in the index of his autobiography, it says only ''Church, Charlotte p.333’’). He speaks of Jesus as a man who was ''prepared to challenge conventional wisdom when he thought it was wrong’’. More spiritual thoughts he keeps to himself. What interests him is that, as ''a person of faith’’, he has ''a connection with people of faith’’. He sees himself as their interpreter.
He can’t answer his own question fully, he admits. As a Catholic convert, he ''accepts the doctrine of the Catholic Church’’, but ''I’m not a doctrinal ideologue’’. He feels ''no great revulsion, quite the opposite’’ for the Church of England, which he left. He became a Catholic because of his Catholic wife, Cherie, and their family: ''I didn’t really analyse a great deal. I just felt more at home there.’’
His approach to religion relates to social change. ''When I was growing up in the North of England, there was really only one faith,’’ he says. His best friend at Durham Choristers School was, in fact, Jewish, but ''I literally never even thought of that’’. The mono-culture was Christian. Recently, his son Leo celebrated his 12th birthday ''and the children round the table had three or four different faiths’’.
Under the benign influence at Oxford of the Anglican priest Peter Thompson, young Tony came to believe that faith and reason could be reconciled. From this he concluded that different faiths, especially the ''Abrahamic’’ religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, could build on what they have in common. Now he reads the scriptures of other faiths, and finds his own enriched. In particular, he reads the Koran.
''I see the Koran very much as an outsider. It stands in the great prophetic tradition of trying to return people to the basic principles of spirituality. Taken for its time, it was an extraordinarily progressive declaration of principle. It is also extraordinary for a Christian to read: for example, there are more references to Mary than in the Gospels. The tragedy is that it has been so warped and misapplied.’’
And here, Tony Blair has grown sterner. After September 11, 2001, he now thinks, he underestimated the power of the bad ''narrative’’ of Islamist extremists. That narrative – that ''The West oppresses Islam” – ''is still there. If anything, it has grown.’’ It seeks ''supremacy not coexistence’’. He fears that ''The West is asleep on this issue’’, and yet it is the biggest challenge. In Africa, all the good things he sees through his Africa Governance Initiative face ''this threat above all others’’. In ''Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, outbursts in Tanzania and Kenya’’, sectarian Islamist extremism is the great and growing problem. By implication, Mr Blair seems to doubt President Obama’s outreach to Islam, because it tends to deal with the wrong people. Since Obama’s Cairo speech in 2009, ''the whole context has changed’’. The Muslim Brotherhood is taking over large parts of the Arab world, and ''the people without the loudest voices are desperate for our leadership’’.
''We must engage, but also challenge,’’ he warns. The Middle East ''won’t achieve democracy unless it understands that democracy is a way of thinking as well as voting. The key question is how the majority treats the minority.’’ The West, he says, has been too slow to help the people of Iran: ''It is a great civilisation. The people would undoubtedly boot their government out at the ballot box if they could. It is important they know we are prepared to help them. A Persian spring would be very welcome.’’
But have you considered, I ask, that you might be wrong about Islam? What if it is not, at root, a religion of peace? He has thought about this but doesn’t accept it. He makes a comparison with Christianity. ''At Mass, at the end of the Bible readings, we say 'This is the word of the Lord’. We now take it as the spirit of Biblical teaching. We don’t take every element of it as literal. That process took us a long time.’’ Islam is wrestling with the same process today.
Let’s bring the subject home: how does this apply to Muslims here? Mr Blair regrets that the ''Prevent’’ strategy which he devised became unfashionable. ''We mustn’t accept radicalism by accepting its narrative and disputing only its [violent] methods.’’
But he also believes that the anti-religion, Richard Dawkins crowd make everything worse. The extreme atheists ''require religious fundamentalists’’ to make their argument for them, so ''We must push back against aggressive secularism’’.
Very well, then, I say, look at gay marriage, a proposal that troubles many adherents of all the main religions. No comfort for the faithful here: Mr Blair is out of line with his adopted Church. ''I understand why people take a different view,’’ he says, but he is in favour of gay marriage. Indeed, it is not really possible to find a public policy issue where he takes a specifically religious view against the prevailing secularism. It is, rather, a broader point: he thinks religion is a benign force in a modern liberal order, not a hostile one.
I change the subject. Since Tony Blair left office, the whole of the Western world that he wishes to defend has been engulfed in a financial crisis wholly of its own making. As a good Catholic, he is bound to examine his conscience and make his confession. Does he feel at all responsible? He deflects the personal aspect of the question and sticks to the general.
''We must regain the basic values of what society is about,’’ he says. ''We’re not against wealth, but we are in favour of social responsibility.’’ We must not start thinking that society will be better off ''if we hang 20 bankers at the end of the street’’. He approaches it from the other way: ''Don’t take 30 years of liberalisation, beginning under Mrs Thatcher, and say this is what caused the financial crisis... Wrong!’’
The lesson is that, in a globally interdependent economy, ''We didn’t understand properly the true implications of the financial instruments involved, and so we didn’t supervise and regulate them properly. But we mustn’t go back to the state running everything.’’
By now, people are fussing round Mr Blair about his next meeting, just as they did when he was prime minister. It has been a lively conversation, but I detect in him something like Britain’s famous problem of having lost an empire, but not yet found a role.
At 59, he’s still young for a man in his position. He has been out of the game for five years, and now, you can see, he wants to get back in. ''Since I left office, I have learnt a huge amount, especially about what is happening in Europe and the world. Sometimes it’s quite shocking to me: how useful would this knowledge have been!’’
He thinks, I suspect, that he’d be a better prime minister now than he was before. ''I’d like to find a form of intervening in debates.’’ How? By getting elected again? ''I don’t think that’s possible.’’ A peerage? A wonderful look of amused contempt suffuses his tanned face. Something in Europe, perhaps? ''I would have taken the job [the presidency of the European Council] if they had offered it to me, but they didn’t.’’
Europe, he says, is ''opening up’’. I thought it was closing down, I say. Tony Blair grins. ''Well, what is happening now is not sustainable.” There are ''big, big questions here, involving the political reconstruction of Europe. The single currency will break up unless we stop it.’’ And on that exciting note, the man who would like the job is gone.
His charity, the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), now has offices in presidential departments across five African countries. His reach in Africa stretches into Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Liberia, Guinea and now the world’s newest country.
The deal between AGI and South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir was put formally in place last month. It followed a four-day visit to the country at the end of May by David Miliband.
Mr Miliband, who was asked to go by Mr Blair, attended a seminar with South Sudan’s vice-president and ministers in the finance and oil and mining ministries on May 30 in the capital Juba, at which Chinese involvement in the country was discussed.
Mr Miliband was accompanied by David Brown, who worked for five years in the prime minister’s strategy unit under Mr Blair, and now heads up AGI’s South Sudan operation.
In a briefing document, Mr Miliband was listed as a participant representing the Tony Blair Initiative for Africa.
The disclosure comes as Mr Blair is stepping up his return to British public life. Last week he was appointed Labour’s Olympic legacy adviser and he has made attempts in recent months to re-engage with the British public after five years spent largely outside the UK following his departure from Downing Street.
He is also increasing his involvement in China, where he has made friends with the head of the China Investment Corporation (CIC), a sovereign wealth fund with £265billion to invest.
The addition of South Sudan to Mr Blair’s portfolio gives him influence over the world’s newest nation state, which was officially recognised only 12 months ago following years of civil war in the region.
Almost all South Sudan’s revenue, about 98 per cent, is generated from oil reserves, but current production has been switched off because of an ongoing dispute with its northern neighbour Sudan over the costs of transporting oil in a pipeline out of the country.
Some forecasters suggest that the government in Juba will run out of money by October. The country is also beset by corruption. Mr Kiir has written to 75 officials, accusing them of stealing £2.6billion and asking them to pay it back. According to sources, Mr Blair and Mr Kiir have been in talks for some time about AGI taking up a role in the country. There is no suggestion that Mr Blair profits from his advisory roles in Africa, although he has had access to the private jet used by Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame.
Mr Blair does advise other foreign governments that do make money for another of his consultancies, Tony Blair Associates. TBA has an office in Kazakhstan and another in Kuwait, both oil and gas rich. One report suggests the deal with Kazakhstan is worth as much as £8.5million a year while the Financial Times put Mr Blair’s annual income at about £20million.
His numerous roles — he is a paid consultant to the US investment bank JP Morgan and an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, and a Middle East peace envoy — have opened up the former prime minister to accusations of conflicts of interest.
He denies all such claims and insists his business and charitable interests — he also runs a global faith foundation — are kept separate.
Never the less, an analysis by The Sunday Telegraph shows that his interest in foreign travel remains as keen as ever. In the past two years, he has made at least 118 trips abroad. There may be many more that have not been reported.
One of his favoured destinations is China, which he visited at least 11 times in that period. It may be no coincidence that China has a long-standing interest in investment in Africa, where it has secured big construction and mining contracts and bought up large parcels of land.
On six occasions, Mr Blair has met representatives of CIC, usually its chairman and chief executive Lou Jiwei. According to Chinese reports, Mr Blair was asked to become a senior adviser to the Excellence Club, an elite group of business and political leaders based in Beijing, and given “an adviser’s cerificate made from crystal”.
Mr Blair denies receiving any money from CIC as well as reports suggesting that he was an official adviser to the company, or any connection to the Excellence Club.
At the seminar held in Juba and attended by Mr Miliband, discussions took place over the role of Chinese firms and the Beijing government in aiding South Sudan’s economic development.
The seminar discussed the merits of a “large deal” with China over the building of roads, an electricity grid and hydropower.
A spokesman for Mr Blair said: “Tony Blair does not advise South Sudan government on China investment...AGI does great work in Africa and is just starting in South Sudan.”
Mr Blair was unable to visit South Sudan at the time of the seminar due to other engagements. On May 25, he was in Astana in Kazakhstan delivering a lecture at the Nazarbayev University, named after the country’s autocratic ruler, and then on May 29 he appeared in Grand Rapids, Michigan, giving a speech to the annual economics club dinner. Mr Blair receives as much as £200,000 for each speaking engagement.
Twelve days later, after a holiday in the Maldives and a brief stop in Jerusalem, Mr Blair appeared on stage with Mr Lou at a conference hosted by JP Morgan in Beijing.
Shortly after Mr Miliband’s visit to South Sudan. AGI began “formally supporting” the government there. On the AGI website, the charity says: “The objective of our work is to strengthen the capacity of the new institutions at the centre of the government so they are better able to lead the country’s development. We hope that our work can help to deliver improvements to the people of South Sudan.”
A spokesman for Mr Miliband said: “AGI was already engaged in work in South Sudan before David Miliband’s visit. Safe travel and accommodation in South Sudan is expensive.”
Jimmy Thomas, the casino owner, likes to cultivate cordial relations with leading politicians, but Tony Blair was an exception to the rule.
“I fell out with him when I found out he was a money-grabbing young man,” Thomas tells Mandrake. “I was at a function with him and people would queue up for photos and he would charge £5.
“I said to him, 'What charity is that for?’. He said, 'Charity? It’s for me.’ And so I was finished with him after that. That was before he was in power, so don’t tell me he changed his spots.”
Blair’s spokesman insists: “Obviously, it was said in jest.”
In 2009, each guest at an event in Canada where the former prime minister gave a speech was asked to stump up £180 for the privilege of having their picture taken with him. Blair is said to have been paid £100,000 to appear for little more than two hours at the Surrey Regional Economic Summit in British Columbia.
The advice was requested by Number 10 in 1998 as the government introduced the Freedom of Information Act, allowing members of the public to seek details about "alien lifeforms".
After receiving a letter from a member of the public referring to a “cover-up” and urging him to consider making “all of the many and varied UFO reports and associated data” available, Mr Blair asked the Ministry of Defence for their policy.
In a lengthy reply, staff told him the ministry “has only a limited interest in UFO matters” but that they “remain open minded” about the existence of “extraterrestrial lifeforms”.
They added any release of information would require “substantial resources” they would be “reluctant to sanction”.
Mr Blair eventually wrote back to his correspondent, author and "UFO expert" Nicholas Redfern, telling him information could be requested under the Freedom of Information Act, but was subject to clauses including personal privacy and confidentiality.
The information has now finally been disclosed after Britain’s “UFO files” were released today by the National Archives.
More than 6,700 pages of classified correspondence can be read by members of the public for the first time, including government briefings, letters from “UFOlogists” and details of numerous “alien sightings”.
They include an advertisement for the “strangest job in Whitehall”; the role of a “UFO desk officer” entrusted with investigations, handling FOI requests and preparing briefings.
A position, described as a “relatively junior role”, was outlined by an outgoing officer who wrote a summary of “daily mechanics” for his successor.
Many of the investigations involved “searching the internet”, he admitted.
Also included in the files is a 1995 briefing by a "UFO intelligence officer" who states a potential alien visit might be for “military reconnaissance”, “scientific” reasons or for “tourism”.
A 1979 briefing prepared before a House of Lords debate into UFOs also wondered why aliens would want to visit “an insignificant planet (the Earth) of an uninteresting star (the sun)”.
Dr David Clarke, who lobbied the Ministry of Defence with a succession of FOI requests in order to get the information released, said: “It was Tony Blair’s government which brought in FOI requests and it opened a floodgate for people to ask about UFO files.
“At that point in 1998, they were probably being inundated with requests. The Ministry of Defence realised it was something that wasn’t going to go away and gave him a briefing.
“Now, we now have a fascinating insight into some of the extraordinary reports and briefings which passed over the UFO Desk on a daily basis and how its officers used logic and science in their attempts to explain ‘the unexplained’.
“What it actually tells us is that far from running around the country doing investigations, they didn’t really have any special equipment or knowledge, or the resources to pursue it.”
Among the other politicians mentioned in the files are John Major, who answered a Parliamentary question about setting up an official inquiry into UFO sightings in 1996 by saying they had “no plans”.
In 1996, Michael Redmond MP wrote to Michael Heseltine, then Defence Minister, asking why the RAF had failed to launch aircraft to intercept a UFO spotted in Lincolnshire.
In his memoirs, Tony Blair described the Freedom of Information Act as one of his greatest mistakes while in office, calling it “utterly undermining of sensible government".
Former prime minister Tony Blair was returning home in more senses than one when he and wife Cherie appeared at Arsenal’s Emirates football stadium in north London as star guests of the Labour Party’s sports dinner – tickets £500 – on Tuesday night, taking their time to pose for pictures with Ed Miliband, and his wife, Justine.
The Blairs spent what were probably the happiest years of their married life in this part of London. They lived almost in the shadow of Arsenal’s old Highbury stadium and their children went to school nearby. Many of their old friends still live there.
More importantly, though, last week’s event marked the moment Tony Blair came home to Labour. Ever since his eviction as prime minister in a coup engineered by supporters of Gordon Brown five years ago, Mr Blair’s relations with his party have been distant. It is no secret that he wanted David Miliband to win the leadership contest that followed the 2010 election defeat, nor that he had grave doubts about his successor.
It is less well known that Mr Blair has also enjoyed a very warm private relationship with David Cameron – giving rise to Tory hopes that the Blairite wing of Labour might undermine Ed Miliband in the way that supporters of Margaret Thatcher destroyed John Major. Last week’s reconciliation, however, seems to have killed that prospect dead. The increasingly astute Ed Miliband has secured an important strategic advantage by taking on the former prime minister as a consultant to ascertain how Britain (and Labour) can build on the Olympic legacy.
Crucially, there is talk that Mr Blair’s Olympic role might be the first of several. Some see Mr Blair adding his experience to shadow cabinet discussion ahead of the election. Even if that prospect seems far-fetched, he now looks set to play a major role as a Labour cheerleader come the next general election, one which Mr Miliband is now favourite to win.
This is dangerous. Over recent months Mr Cameron has faced charges of hypocrisy as the activities of some of his big business supporters (such as former Tory ex-treasurer Peter Cruddas) have been exposed as unethical. So far Mr Miliband has been free of embarrassment. But no longer – this week’s rapprochement means he can now be held answerable for Mr Blair’s business activities.
Here is one minor example. For the past five years Mr Blair has been earning a reported £2 million a year as a part-time adviser to JP Morgan. Meanwhile, Ed Miliband has been waging war on overpaid bankers and financiers. His newest advisor could well be considered a member of that despised class.
More troubling by far is Mr Blair’s profitable string of consultancies with oil-rich autocrats and dictators, of whom the latest is Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev – a nasty piece of work. Political activists are routinely tortured in Kazakhstan, while security forces recently slaughtered 14 striking oil workers.
When Nazarbayev hired Mr Blair on some $13 million a year, one of his officials told The Daily Telegraph that the former prime minister’s ''advice is priceless’’, adding that ''Kazakhstan will get the best advice possible from him on issues connected with policy and the economy’’.
In return, Mr Blair has praised Nazarbayev’s ''combination of the toughness necessary to take the decisions to put the country on the right path,’’ as well as ''a certain degree of subtlety and ingenuity necessary that allowed him to manoeuvre in a region which is fraught with difficulties’’.
Mr Blair’s official position is that his company, Tony Blair Associates, will help Kazakhstan towards greater respect for human rights and building a judiciary.
Maybe so – though why Mr Blair should be needed to perform this perhaps impossible task when so many experienced organisations are already available to the region remains mysterious. In January, as Mike Harris of Index on Censorship disclosed in The Daily Telegraph, some 52 Kazakh activists urged our former prime minister to retreat from the country’s affairs amid fears that he is lending respectability to an illegitimate regime.
Almost as troubling are Mr Blair’s business practices, which break accepted ethical guidelines. His international empire is extremely complex. As Mr Blair confesses, a fortune is spent on expensive accountancy advice, which in turn seems to have made his financial structures opaque. Yet all this opacity cannot hide the fact that his public role as representative for the Middle Eastern Quartet – a group formed of the United Nations, US, EU and Russia, set up to mediate peace between Israel and the Palestinians – has become disastrously mixed up with private money-making.
In early 2009 Mr Blair paid a visit to the fabulously wealthy Emir of Kuwait with his business partner and former Downing Street aide Jonathan Powell. Mr Blair was introduced as representative for the Quartet – and soon afterwards Tony Blair Associates (of which Mr Powell is a strategic adviser) was awarded a contract worth millions of pounds.
This conduct would not be tolerated in Britain, because it flagrantly breaches the Nolan Principles of Public Life, which demand a rigorous distinction between public duty and private gain. Indeed, Nicholas Allen, senior lecturer in politics at Royal Holloway University, told me Mr Blair was in breach of six of the seven principles, when I interviewed him for Channel 4’s Dispatches last year.
Earlier this month, in an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Blair claimed that this programme was a ''total invention’’. I have to inform the former prime minister that every word of the programme was rigorously checked for accuracy by first-class lawyers and researchers. The Blair camp were unable to challenge a word of it.
Some might argue that these Nolan principles of ''selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership’’ do not matter for Mr Blair, who is now a private citizen whose interests mainly lie overseas. Others might find it distressing that a former prime minister is so ready to ignore standards that are publicly supported inside Downing Street.
Either way, it is intolerable that Mr Blair should sanction such a conflict now that he is gradually returning as a mainstream player in public life. To his credit, he has been disarmingly candid about his intentions. Mr Blair seems to have become tired of his “portfolio” existence and is perhaps aware that, if Mitt Romney is victorious in the US election, his role (already decidedly shaky) as the Quartet’s special envoy could be rapidly brought to a close.
So he wants something big, such as the presidency of the European Union or the World Bank. Mr Blair even recently entertained speculation that he might return as prime minister. It is possible to envisage circumstances where, in an era not famed for its political giants, Mr Blair could return to No 10.
Even those of us who have been severe critics of his premiership should not sneer. In recent decades presidents and prime ministers have tended to be elected in their forties and then decanted into the job market five or 10 years later. We have yet to work out how to handle youthful, energetic elder statesmen. We treat Bill Clinton or Mr Blair (and in due course, doubtless, Mr Cameron) as interesting, but useless ornaments. So Mr Blair’s wish to return to public life is not merely understandable, it is admirable, selfless and honourable.
But, importantly, the British system continues to cherish integrity and high standards. Both have been missing as the former prime minister has made a fortune on the world stage over the past five years.
Mr Blair is trying to have it both ways. He is enjoying the high life as a free-wheeling international consultant, while engineering a return to public life. Perhaps the old maestro feels he can get away with this curious double identity. Mr Miliband would be very unwise to let him do so. The Labour leader must order his predecessor to clean up his act. Today the Emirates rapprochement may look like an act of strategic genius. If Mr Miliband is not careful, he may come to regret clasping Mr Blair to his bosom.
It was under Tony Blair’s Labour government that Britain won the right to stage the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Singapore seven years ago, and now members of the party are campaigning for the former prime minister to have a prominent role when they begin this month.
Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, Mr Blair’s former director of strategic communications, claims the former prime minister deserves a more substantial position at the Olympic Games than attending as a guest. “One unanswered question is what role T Blair plays at Olympics,” the Labour cheerleader says. “It should be a huge one given way he walloped [France’s Jacques] Chirac in Singapore,” the managing partner of Lord Mandelson’s company Global Counsel adds.
Mr Blair played a leading role in securing the Olympics by flying to Singapore on the eve of the 2012 bid decision to help persuade International Olympic Committee members to vote for London. The 59 year-old recently spoke of the trials he faced while campaigning in Singapore.
“I went to the men’s room for a pee and was standing next to a bloke I assumed was British,“ Mr Blair recalls. “I started chatting to him and he said in a strong Nordic accent, 'Why are you asking me these questions?’ He had no idea who I was and thought I was trying to pick him up.”
A spokesman for Mr Blair said: “He’s happy with his role, doesn’t want to change it and just wants everyone to have a wonderful time.”
Tony Blair has insisted that Christians should not be afraid to speak in public about faith - even though he was once instructed not to “do God”.
The former Prime Minister laughed off the way in which his former press secretary Alastair Campbell advised him to avoid discussing religion when he was in power as he made his most explicit public profession of faith.
Speaking at a debate in London with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, Mr Blair spoke openly about his belief in “salvation through Jesus Christ” and even attempted to explain the resurrection.
He disclosed for the first time how he even once ordered his aides to kneel down and pray at a meeting with members of the Salvation Army.
And he dismissed claims that he prayed with George Bush - but insisted that it would “not have been wrong” to do so.
He told how while in power he often disagreed with Christian groups, including on issues such as introducing supercasinos, but insisted that it was important that their views were heard.
He said that there was “something basic and fundamental” about the contribution the Church had made in Britain adding: “It is very important that that voice is heard.
Using the word “we” when referring to Christians, he added: “It is important that we are prepared to speak up and speak out from the position of faith and say we are not afraid to say this is what we believe and why we believe it.”
Laughing about Mr Campbell’s “famous instruction” to steer clear of religion, he told how while he was leader of the opposition to members of the Salvation Army had come to see him.
“At the meeting one said ‘right we are all going to kneel in prayer’," said Mr Blair.
“There were two people in my office, who shall remain nameless, who looked absolutely aghast but I said ‘you are going to have to get on your knees’.
“They said ‘for God’s sake’ and I said ‘exactly’.”
He added that it had been refreshing to meet people who were “not ashamed” of their faith.
Asked by whether the same had applied in relation to Mr Bush he suggested he would have prayed with the former US president had he been asked to.
“It would not have been wrong – it’s just that it didn’t happen,” he said.
There was applause for De Williams when, in answer to a question from the floor, he told had voted in the Lords against Mr Blair’s plans to liberalise gambling laws.
“I did think the idea that you could regenerate an impoverished area of Manchester by importing a supercasino seemed to me utterly, utterly bizarre.”
Dr Williams also addressed the series of controversies about Christianity in public – such as the wearing of crosses – adding: “I’m just a little wary about jumping too quickly in to the victim posture.”
She also rebutted claims by Alastair Campbell, Downing Street’s former director of communications, that she did not get on with Her Majesty.
The Queen attended a lunch at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday with four of the Prime Ministers who have served her to mark her 60 years on the throne.
David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Sir John Major all attended with their wives, but Tony Blair was at the lunch without his wife Cherie.
The news prompted renewed speculation about the relationship between the Queen and Mrs Blair. However Mrs Blair strongly denied this.
In a letter to the Evening Standard newspaper, Mrs Blair said: “I very much wanted to be there. But unfortunately I am currently engaged in a legal case abroad which had been in my diary for some months when the invitation came for the lunch, and it simply wasn’t possible for me to change the date.”
The pair were said not to get on during the Blair’s decade long time in Downing Street.
Mr Campbell wrote in his diaries that the Queen’s chilliness towards Mrs Blair dated from her first Balmoral visit.
Mr Campbell wrote: “Cherie said she had asked the Queen if the John Brown story of Queen Victoria having an affair with her ghillie was true. She said it got a bit frosty after that.”
A similar dinner for her surviving Prime Ministers was held during the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002. It was attended by Mr Blair, Mr Major, Lady Thatcher, Lord Callaghan (1976-79) and Sir Edward Heath (1970-74).
The lunch was a scaled down affair from the 2002 dinner to mark the Golden Jubilee, when close family of deceased Prime Ministers who served the Queen were invited.
Harold Wilson’s widow, Lady Wilson, and her son Professor Robin Wilson were there along with Harold Macmillan’s grandson, the Earl of Stockton.
Sir Alec Douglas-Home’s son and daughter-in-law, the Earl and Countess of Home, Sir Anthony Eden's widow, the Countess of Avon, and Winston Churchill's daughter, Lady Soames also attended.
Mr Cameron is the 12th prime minister during the Queen’s long reign which began in 1952 when Sir Winston Churchill was Prime Minister.
They failed to obtain planning consent to divide the Grade II listed Georgian house into two separate dwellings when the 28-year-old and his mother bought it two years ago.
But in February, a neighbour complained to the council that the basement of the bachelor pad was being used as a self-contained flat.
The door to the basement had been given its own letterbox and its own separate number, and appeared to have a tenant.
One neighbour said: “Someone was living there, who we assumed to be a tenant.
“After the council were told, the new number came off straight away. But then, I saw someone else coming out of the basement door. We thought it had been kyboshed, but it looked as though it was still being sub-let.”
Westminster Council confirmed that it had begun an investigation “following a complaint of unauthorised change of use at this property”.
Under planning laws, legally separating an existing single dwelling into two requires gaining prior consent from the council for “change of use”. If the council finds that the basement is being used as a separate flat, which could command rental income of £1,500 per month, Euan Blair may be required to submit a retrospective planning application.
Euan, who works for the investment bank Morgan Stanley, could then be ordered to restore his home to a single dwelling, and he and his mother would face prosecution if they refused.
Land Registry documents show that Mr Blair and his mother paid £1.29m for the property with the help of a mortgage from Lloyds TSB in May 2010.
On the same day the sale went through, Westminster Council received a planning application from the Blairs’ architect, Simon Templeton, to build steps down to the basement from the street and remove the internal stairway - turning the basement into a separate flat.
Following objections by neighbours, the application was amended to remove the plan to create two dwellings.
The council’s planning report stated: “The application originally included the use of the basement part of the building as a separate flat…this element of the scheme has now been withdrawn and the applicants intend to reinstate the original stair between the basement and ground floor which would result in the single family dwelling being retained.”
The revised plans showed a “guest room” and “guest WC” in the basement, along with a kitchen.
The plan was duly approved, with a council officer noting: “You are advised this permission does not authorise the use of the basement as a separate self-contained flat.”
In May last year, the council received a complaint about “internal works at basement level”. Following an intervention by the council, a section of basement wall was removed and a door was reinstated.
It is the latest instalment in a string of controversies surrounding the Blair family’s ever-increasing property portfolio, now worth more than £15 million.
Euan Blair’s accommodation previously landed his parents in trouble in 2002 while he was at Bristol University, when it emerged that Mrs Blair had bought two flats at a discount with the help of the convicted Australian fraudster Peter Foster.
And in 2009 Mrs Blair was under investigation by planning officers after complaints she was running an office from a residential property in a street behind the family’s £3.65 home in Connaught Square, just a few streets away from Euan Blair’s current home.
A spokesman for the Blairs said: "The Blairs are happy for the Council to check, they're confident that everything will be in order."
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