Who wants to be a Tony Blair?

Remember Tony Blair? Whatever happened to him?

Well, it seems he turned his back on politics and, in 2 short years, became a multi-millionaire.

His income since handing over the levers of power is estimated to be well north of 10 million quid. Nice.

The Guardian thinks it's all a bit fishy, and are trying to 'crowd-source' more information on his oddly-gotten gains. They call his financial affairs 'Byzantine' and 'Opaque'


Hmmm, there's a certain irony when a newspaper that used numerous loopholes to avoid paying tax on 300 million profit calls someone elses affairs dodgy, eh?

But lets just putthat to one side, shall we?

Let's look at the boy Blair. How did he make those millions? Unlike the Guardian, CF thinks its pretty fucking clear.

He spent his time as Prime Minister schmoozing, snake-oiling, lying and misleading. He then makes millions for writing a fucking book describing how he did it. There's a few bob for Tony's pockets.

He did whatever Dubya Bush told him to, at a time when Bush, even though he didn't know where the Middle East was, was pretty sure he wanted to bomb large parts of it.

By joining in enthusiastically with the bombing and the shooting, Blair somehow became a self-professed expert on the Middle East. Which led to all sort of exciting and lucrative jetting to Kuwait and the UAE. There's a heap of fucking money.

Because of Blair's unceasing worship at the temple of George W., many Americans just lurve Tone, and hang on his every syllable. So much so that Washington Speakers Bureau snapped him up as a star speaker with a £600,000 'signing-on' fee. And that's before he even opens his mouth. Every time he deigns to speak to starry eyed yankees, tens of thousands more cascade into this coffers. There's some more income.

He - or rather his missus - got some dodgy Australian conman to help them start on the property investment ladder. In spite of the outcry when this was discovered, the Blairs kept the properties.
Which were then rose massively in price owing to the gigantic housing bubble Blair and Brown were busily inflating. There's a load more wealth.

And in another massive irony, and another massive cash-grab, tax experts point out to the Guardian that:

"..Blair could use these unusual arrangements at some point in the future to seek to transfer millions tax-free to his four children. .. Family limited partnerships" were being publicized to lawyers and accountants in November 2007 at the time Blair's lawyers started to set up his structures.

"Known in the trade as "Flips", family limited partnerships are a way of getting round stricter inheritance tax rules in the 2006 budget, imposed by Gordon Brown while Blair was still prime minister."

So he'll be able to pass all of this on to his kiddies without bothering the taxman, and without helping to repay a penny of the billions he and his cronies have cost us.

And people say Bankers are overpaid?

For fuck's sake.
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