From Unity, 30 January 2010

Editorial

This week Tony Blair will make his long-awaited appearance at the Iraq war inquiry. If any justice was to be done he would be dispatched to the Hague to face a war crimes tribunal, but we know that will not happen.
     Like a certain family here, he professes his Christian faith vigorously but does not let it get in the way of financial enrichment. You do not have to be as poor as a church mouse to be a good human being, but to coin vast amounts of money as he has done must lead some people to question what being a Christian really means.
     Recent reports suggest that Blair has made more than £10 million since leaving office from deals that include books, advisory roles, and event appearances. The publishers Random House had no problem in offering Blair £4.6 million, in advance, to secure his memoirs.
     In November 2007 he joined the Washington Speakers’ Bureau and it is claimed that in his first year on the circuit he earned more than £5.6 million. In January 2008 he joined the American investment bank J. P. Morgan as a part-time adviser, which could bring him in between half a million and £2½ million a year. In the same month he was appointed a climate change adviser with Zürich Financial Services, being paid another half a million.
     This man certainly has some talents. In March he announced that he would teach on faith and globalisation at Yale University. Faith in what is not explained. For fifty hours’ work it is reported that his foundation will receive $1.1 million.
     His latest post is as a paid speaker for Landsdowne Partners, a London hedge fund that is managed by someone who gave £260,000 to the Tories—not that that would worry Tony. Apparently this outfit made an estimated £100 million from the demise of the Northern Rock Bank, which then had to be bailed out by the taxpayer.
     However, there is a good side to Tony, as he is also the UN envoy to the Middle East, a job that his spokesperson said was unpaid and kept him away from his £4 million London home for most of his time—between one week and ten days a month.
     Spare a thought, though. For if all this moneymaking ended he would have to live on the paltry annual pension of £63,000.

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