An Apology 2256

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I am so committed to getting my book finished I really don’t have time or energy to blog at the moment, and realise it has been very desultory the last few weeks. I am well and happy, it is just that writing a properly researched history is incredibly intensive. I realise there is much of great interest happening in the world, but I must sometimes cut myself off from it.

This is why I don’t ask for donations for the blog…

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2,256 thoughts on “An Apology”

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  • Ba'al Zevul

    With the reported ending of Blair’s Albanian project, Albania remains in the dark as to what he was actually doing there:

    https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=sq&u=http://www.m.lapsi.al/lajme/2016/09/23/tony-blair-mbyll-marr%25C3%25ABveshjen-me-ram%25C3%25ABn-birn-puna-e-tij-mbeti-mister&prev=search

    (From its own website, BIRN Albania is a media non-governmental organization based in Tirana, which specializes in investigative reporting, publishing and media monitoring..)

  • Ba'al Zevul

    All media today: Blair objecting to enquiry into alleged abuses by troops during Iraq and Afghanistan. Blatant grandstanding from the man who sent them there, and there were no objections from Blair when Brown set up the Iraq Historic Allegations Team which is conducting the Iraq investigations. And Blair’s contention that the enquiry will damage the army might be set alongside the damage to the reputation of the army if the allegations are not thoroughly investigated – whether they are spurious, as some almost certainly are – or genuine…these would be expected in any conflict, but are no less culpable for that. The MOD’s take on the matter seems entirely sensible:

    An MoD spokesman said: “We’ve seen our legal system abused to falsely impugn our Armed Forces and we are putting an end to that.” He said it was right to investigate “credible claims of criminal behaviour” adding: “Stamping out the many spurious claims will mean Ihat is better able to focus on the few credible ones.”

    The real issues are the length of time it has taken to conclude the enquiries, and the poor support offered to the soldiers involved. It was, but is not now, within Blair’s power to mitigate these.

    Might the real reason for Blair’s sudden aversion to further investigation of the Iraq war be that he might be found personally culpable as the instigator of the affair? Or is this simply yet another attempt to polish the turd that is his reputation?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Biter bit:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3807028/SEBASTIAN-SHAKESPEARE-Conmen-steal-Euan-Blair-s-ID-Ex-PM-s-son-victim-complex-fraud-involving-private-jets-jewellery.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns

    Passing lightly over the poetic justice of this, we note that the Mail also reports the disgust of some servicemen at Tony’s comments on the IHAT enquiry – as they point out, it was Blair who hung the forces out to dry in the first place – and features a pic, apparently current, of the All-Compassionate One in Los Angeles. We have no idea what he was doing there, but the name Milken comes to mind.

    Meanwhile, in Romania:

    https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ro&u=http://www.evz.ro/fratele-lui-john-podesta-seful-campaniei-lui-hillary-clinton-urmatoarea-tinta-a-dna-dupa-tony-blair-un-alt-lider-politic-mondial-este-amenintat-cu-dezvaluiri-legate-de-victor-ponta.html&prev=search

    The report assumes that Podesta’s questionably-funded work for Ponta was separate from Blair’s. However, given Blair’s recent outing at the Podesta – run Council on Foreign Relations (above, faithfully), there might be room for doubt as to that.

    And, back in the Mail again, Tom Bower, Blair’s (unsympathetic) biographer, is reported as suggesting, that former clients of TBA, both for fear of being tainted by his reputation, and because he didn’t deliver on his undertakings, have begun to cut and run. ‘Deliverology’ didn’t, IOW.

    We will see Blair foraging in a skip yet, we hope.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Here’s Tony in Las Vegas, holding one end of Kate Hudson as two of the Cirque du Soleil cast and Sly Stallone take the weight….first pic at the moment. This appears to be current. No doubt a statement on Corbyn’s unsuitability/ Brexit/ good governance/terrorism/education will be forthcoming as a result. But we doubt if the pic will feature on the Faith Foundation website.

    https://www.instagram.com/katehudson/

  • Ba'al Zevul

    As self-publicists worldwide grieve conspicuously for the late Shimon Peres, Tony Blair is at the head of the queue to express his desolation.

    ‘A political giant’ and ‘someone’ Blair ‘loved deeply’, emotes Tone’s press release. However, history may be in danger of being rewritten here. ‘Peacemaker of war criminal?’ asks al-Jazeera (of Peres…), while pointing out some more common ground between Blair and Peres in passing:

    Even on Israel’s left, said Roni Ben Efrat, an Israeli political analyst and editor of the website Challenge, he was viewed as an opportunist.
    “His real obsession was with his own celebrity and prestige,” she said. “What he lacked was political principle. There was an air about him of plotting behind everyone’s backs. He was certainly no Nelson Mandela.”
    Rabin, who tussled regularly with Peres for leadership of the Labour party, called him an “inveterate schemer”.
    With Rabin’s victory in 1992, Peres was appointed number two and returned to what he did best: backroom deals, in this case a peace track in Norway that led to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
    When Rabin was assassinated two years later, it was assumed that Peres would romp home in the general election a short time later, riding a wave of sympathy over Rabin’s death.
    Instead he lost to Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who profited from the right’s campaign to discredit the peace process and its architects as “Oslo criminals”.
    Peres would see out much of his remaining time in frontline politics providing a veneer of international respectability to right-wing Sharon governments through the second Intifada as they crushed the Palestinian leadership and built a steel and concrete barrier through the West Bank.

    And the famous Oslo Accords ?

    Following the 1967 war, he championed the cause of the settlers, and used his role as defence minister in the 1970s to establish the first settlements in the northern West Bank. His slogan was “Settlements everywhere”.
    With the Oslo process, Peres helped engineer Israel’s recognition of Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation as the representative of the Palestinian people.
    But in every other way, said Ghanem, the accords soon proved disastrous for the Palestinians, helping the settlements expand as the newly created Palestinian Authority looked on, confined to small enclaves of the occupied territories.

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/israel-elder-statesman-shimon-peres-dead-93-160128070510467.html

  • Ba'al Zevul

    It’s just possible this might be worth a read:

    http://www.thebookseller.com/news/william-heinemann-publish-iraq-envoy-jeremy-greenstocks-blocked-memoirs-399796

    How much has been retained of his original intention remains to be seen, and in 2003 Greenstock looked less like a whistleblower and more like His Master’s Voice at the UN – though it’s conceivable his subsequent role based in Baghdad provoked a rethink. It may be interesting to see his account of his meeting on the 23rd January with Lord Goldsmith, causing Goldsmith to begin changing his mind about the legality of an invasion.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    As the international sleb list for the funeral tomorrow of devious but dead fox Shimon Peres is published, two names are absent from the media reports.

    Hillary will be remaining in the US to boost her declining poll ratings. And ex-Quartet representative Tony Blair either isn’t going or doesn’t wish it to be known he’s going. He missed the funeral of Blairism in Liverpool, too. We feel the latter is more likely, though, as his sorrow was too great for words to express, as he said. It’s hardly likely that he’s joined the BDS movement, and Tony’s never been one not to let the media link him with movers and shakers, whatever else he fails to tell them. Maybe Cameron, who is going, will weep for both of them, though.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    And where is the fragrant Cherie these days? Probably not in the Maldives…

    https://focusmaldives.com/news/whistleblower-gasims-sentencing-postponed-amid-transparency-maldives-call-for-his-acquittal/

    Remembering:

    An amount of £210,000 was transferred from MMPRC’s (Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation-BZ) funds to HSBC account in London, apparently belonging to Omnia.
    The amount was half of the total amount charged by Omnia strategy for providing six months consultancy service -in a yearlong contract- to the government on “democratic consolidation”.

    And was democracy consolidated? Er, no.

    http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/download/1475060463CHRI-response-to-CMAG%20statement.pdf

    While her fellow lawyers managed to suppress any possible action against Cherie or Omnia in respect of money-laundering…ignorance can be an excuse if you’re well-connected…it looks to us as if Omnia could still be hit with obtaining money under false pretences, should any future democratic Maldivian government feel like launching proceedings. (The pig for Malé is now boarding at Gate 5.)

  • Ba'al Zevul

    [Mods: Spam filter collateral damage]

    Madame is in Kosovo. Veseli pledged eternal friendship and stroked her hand. Veseli’s strong facial resemblance to a younger Tony may not be irrelevant.

    http://republika24.info/veseli-miqesia-me-familjen-blair-e-vlefshme-per-kosoven/

    http://ekonomia-ks.com/?page=1,14,392596##

    And, surreptitiously, in Albania, with Tony, whose business activities there have of course ceased*. Just fun, then.

    https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.co.uk&sl=sq&u=http://newsbomb.al/politike/item/54648-cherie-blair-ne-shqiperi-i-shpeton-vemendjes-se-te-gjitheve-foto-e-saj-ne-tirane-me-ish-ministrin&usg=ALkJrhisFqlholJBCQXJWT5b–BLx-x5WQ

    *Cherie’s haven’t.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Mods – thanks for recovering it!

      Doh! That isn’t Veseli, as a quick look at pictures of him confirms. It may be Tony who is (as in the second link) reverting to a more demotic scruffy look or even his Ugly Rumours phase. Does the Strat go on tour with him these days?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Hints of the “faith” and “education” undercurrent to Blair’s interest in Kosovo (and very likely Albania, under the rejigged Blair Inc operation). There is considerable disquiet in Kosovo concerning the treatment by the State of its Muslims, and some tension between traditional observant Muslims and modernisers seems to be building. This surfaced a couple of days ago during a conference on “Islam among Albanians Education: Challenges and prospects” in Bar, Montenegro (where Cherie also has interests, incidentally).

    From this article, it looks as if Tony (a Catholic, lest we are in any danger of forgetting) is heavily involved in the introduction of Third Way Islam ™ to Catholic-dominated Kosovo:

    (During) the conference, various imams were talking about the issue of trust and non-teaching its introduction in schools, I mentioned the fact that religious education will be introduced one day, but not by clerics but by Catholic Tony Blair. Kosovo’s government has signed a deal with Islamophobic Tony Blair in 2012 [2] according to which the biggest arabvrasësi [Arab-killer – BZ] (of) the XXI century, will teach Islam to Kosovars. When I asked my friends if they were in Kosovo aware of this fact, they said yes, but no one had seen the texts that Tony Blair is preparing (for) Kosovo Muslims….

    …My qualification as to Tony Blair angered Catholic Jabir Hamiti who participated in this conference, and began to attack me personally. I said – I know that you are one (with the) State Department and Tony Blair in Kosovo, but must keep the debate within the scientific and not personal attacks. Frustrated by the response my Jabir left the table and walked out. Ideas Jabir Hamiti in support of the plan of Tony Blair and Western governments to establish a new Islam in Kosovo unfolded best presentation he gave on the second day of the conference titled: “Religious education in Kosovo needs curriculum and new pedagogical tools”. In this presentation Jabir narrated how at a conference he attended in Germany, the participants had agreed to reform Islamic thought. Modern Islam that European regions… want to implement in Europe, as the German government is doing here, is a liberal Islam which is anything but Islam is not. Islam, for German Merkel, France’s Sarkozy; Albanian Islam for Edi Rama, and for Kosovar Jabir Hamiti is an Islam that will accept gender equality, lgbt-ism, forgetfulness (of) sharia and more or less the return of Islam (as) a global religion of personal superstitions.

    [Google Translate, slightly tidied by us for clarity. Original here http://www.gazetaimpakt.com/lajm/13605/konferenca-e-tivarit-dhe-islami-i-tony-blair-it-ne-kosove/ ]

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Footnote: Pearson Education is advised on education by Sir Michael Barber, who founded Blair’s (failed, but much-hyped) Bypass Democracy and Generate Tickboxes Delivery Unit. Also associated with McKinsey, founded the US Education Delivery Unit, whatever that is. Retains connection with Blair. Pearson VUE, which offers electronic testing for qualifications, has a definite presence in Albania:

      http://www.pearsonvue.com/Dispatcher?wsid=1475571411178&HasXSes=Y&wscid=485356253
      and even Montenegro:
      http://www.pearsonvue.com/Dispatcher?wsid=1475571411178&HasXSes=Y&wscid=485356253

      …though not overtly in Kosovo. However, it works closely with RIT – the “American University in Kosovo”, and doubtless taps the stream of US funding which that organisation enjoys due to its committment to “playing an active role in the ongoing reconstruction and transformation of Kosovo, by helping to advance Kosovo society into a competitive society; through professional development trainings (sic)”. But probably not for free. Familiar territory.

      http://auk.org/tdi/pearson-vue-2/

      Education, privatisation, globalisation

  • Ba'al Zevul

    DIARY

    20-21 October, school library of the Illustrious Lawyer’s College of Madrid: topic, “21st century: society finally equal?”, answer, you must be fucking joking. Another thinkfest designed to increase lawyers’ wages, and it is not inconceivable that Cherie will be handed a peseta or two for her inspirational thoughts on how everyone is going to spend their time on private jets, with their bodyguards funded by the taxpayer…although we do note that the entrance fee will be donated to people who are probably unlikely to qualify for that.

    https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=es&u=http://web.icam.es/actualidad/noticia/3103/A_menos_de_un_mes_para_la_IV_Cumbre_de_Mujeres_Juristas_&usg=ALkJrhj29lzMbHJkDnSmFNnVB2I3dQkCPw

  • Ba'al Zevul

    DIARY:

    Buy-to-let landlord Cherie Blair (numerous properties in Salford and Manchester) will be arguing against the buy-to-let tax designed to remove tax breaks from landlords tomorrow:

    https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/10/key-legal-verdict-on-buy-to-let-tax-change-to-be-delivered-this-week

    Of course she is. And she will be arguing that the effect of the tax will be to increase rental prices to maintain landlords’ often exorbitant profits on the process of getting your tenants to pay your mortgage. Of course it will. OTOH, rents seem to rise much faster than tenants’ wages whatever you do anyway, so WTF is going on here? Maybe something for a human rights lawyer to look at, but she’s stopped doing that.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Someone thinks the ICC might work, despite all the lawyerly negativity we’ve heard:

    http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/courts/dubai-lawyer-to-sue-blair-over-war-crimes-in-iraq-1.1907463

    A Dubai-based lawyer has started legal action against former British prime minister Tony Blair, seeking his prosecution for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

    Advocate Nasser Hashem and his partners in London will register the criminal case against Blair this month at the International Criminal Court and British courts for breaching human rights and committing war crimes that killed thousands of Iraqis. …Speaking to Gulf News, advocate Hashem said: “Since the results of the inquiry were announced earlier this summer, my partners [in Cairo, Dubai and London] and I have decided to take Blair to court for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were committed in Iraq. We are taking this legal procedure against Blair since he took the decision [in his capacity as the British prime minister then] to participate with the United States in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 without the permission of the UK’s House of Commons. He produced unreasonable, bogus and wrong information to the House of Commons, according to Chilcot report, and based on that information, the UK participated in that war.”

    Hashem said Blair falsely and unfoundedly told the House of Commons that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and biological weapons before the war was launched against Iraq.

    And the very best of luck to him.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    This one’s been subterranean for a week or two, but has now emerged, blinking, into the welcome glare of publicity:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/06/tony-blair-hints-at-return-to-politics-over-fears-britain-is-bec/

    Looks like the international advisory credibility was slipping so far that he required a top-up, and needs to be PM again. Pass the popcorn. This could be highly entertaining. The plot goes something like this:
    1. Tony supplies the progressive leadership (determined face) his demoralised and pathetic supporters need and

    2. Attracts funding from precisely the same financiers currently supporting the Tories, with the same strings attached His PR machine, fuelled with money, demonises and expels anything looking remotely like a socialist and he promotes a bunch of bankers and PR men to dominant positions in New Global Transformative Change Entrepreneurially-Charged Labour. (socially aware but financially responsible face) He then

    3. Leads the resurgent Third Wayfarers into battle (Churchill face) with the single-party state he has promised to abolish, viz. the SNP, UKIP, the Tories and, if any are left, the Liberals, but will make suitably bunny-friendly noises in order to circumvent and subvert the Greens. We all know he’s taking the piss. Dear Tony. Emerges victorious from the conflict; victory parade down Whitehall, cheering plebians, flypast, open-necked shirt and biggest bling crucifix etc. (smiley face) Institutes multiparty democracy by

    4. Gerrymandering political boundaries, schmoozing City, removing financial controls on banks. The money rolls in, hardworkingfamilies all buy yachts, or at least could if they worked a bit harder, eh? Populace demands end to elections, as it cannot think of anything better for them than Tony, for ever, a few clinically insane, and safely ignorable, Tory members of the new Democratic Peoples Advisory Council to the Great Helmsman are retained in order to look like this isn’t a one party state in case anyone remembers why he came back (elder statesman face, worst wrinkles Pshopped out)

    5. Dies, still ruling with wise, compassionate, firm hand, at age 105, beloved by grateful citizens of Peoples’ Democratic Borderless Global Bri’ain plc, and accorded most elaborate state funeral in history, black horses, the works. (someone else’s face – that skull is GROSS)

    6. Euan elected Queen by public acclamation. Charlie (or Wills) buggers off somewhere. Bri’ain greatest nation on earth. Hail to the Dear Late Leader. And JP Morgan, of course. (Face)

    • Ba'al Zevul

      PS, if you’re intending to spend 80% of your time on pro bono projects, you will be a completely useless MP, whatever seat you manage to get parachuted into . So just fuck off, Tony.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Cherie Booth/Blair QC appeared in the High Court today, on behalf of her clients, some rental property landlords. She was seeking a judicial review of proposed government tax changes, which mean that let properties registered in the names of individuals no longer qualify for business tax relief on the mortgage interest payments made by the landlord. Booth/Blair argued that this would be unfair, as companies, cash investors and seside lets would not be subject to the changes. Presumably the other side observed that no individual buying a property with a mortgage for their own use would expect to write the interest off against tax, so why should someone buying one in order to generate an assured income?

    No doubt to the chagrin of buy-to-let probable mortgageer Cherie (10 houses, 27 flats) the review was not granted. Mr. Justice Dingemans, presiding, dismissed the application thus: “It would be a miserable spectacle to watch a case that is bound to fail.”

    Still, we have no doubt Madame was well-paid for the miserable failure.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    We predicted this:

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1939183/cherie-blair-boots-tenant-out-to-hike-up-rent/

    However, it should be noted that letting agents as a whole are increasingly behaving as if they were the owners of the properties they suck a fat percentage from, and Blair may perhaps not have been aware of this lot’s policy, being far too busy chasing an unsound case for judicial review of the closure of a property-owners’ tax loophole through the courts. Or she may. Her intention, in buying a portfolio of nondescript Manchester residential properties, was rather unlikely to have been to supply the social housing market.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    A waypoint: The Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s 2015 winnings – at least the acknowledged ones:

    http://heatst.com/world/tony-blairs-charity-spends-half-its-4m-income-on-staff-and-offices/

    The staff focussed on four main areas of charitable activity during 2015:

    “Supporting leaders”;
    For instance, Paul Kagame, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Benjamin Netanyahu…
    “Education”;
    In conjunction with private educational conglomerates such as Laureate Universities (which pay Tony to blair at their establishments)…
    “Research”;
    …into tappable sources of money, and…
    “Advocacy.
    Or “lobbying”.

    The TBFF is not expected to be closing down shortly, as its work is charitable.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Digging a little deeper into Blair’s frequent claims that the cash he makes goes to charity, an idea of which charity (other than TBFF and AGI – the Sports Foundation doesn’t seem to be in the same astronomical league) might hope for Tony’s bounty appears here:

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-public-speaking-racket-tony-blair-and-the-silver-tongue/5452996

    Referring to the Swedish ‘Eat Food’ forum’s declining to pay Blair £330,000 for a talk last year – the price he asked was too high even for what looks like a forum where failed figures go to preach, a communion of disaster in session and subsidised sermonising.

    the article continues –

    When in need of a good cause, charity will step in to provide the suitable alibi for greed. Not that the choice of where Blair’s planned fee was destined to go non-partisan. (Blair’s) agency had requested that Eat pay the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women his fee.

    We marvel at the integrity of the man in declining to accept a fraction less than what he was worth, even though he would not personally have benefited, and ensuring that the CBFW’s valuable work in encouraging productive women to become middle management got sod-all rather than a reduced fee.

    Crazy world.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative has a branch in Addis Ababa…opened this year after a long courtship by Tony,despite Ethiopia’s horrible human rights record. (The same Global Express safari also wafted him to Kagame’s Rwanda, and Kenyatta’s Kenya, in search of business opportunities – see above) Ethiopia is now enjoying a state of emergency. Blair country.

    http://www.ena.gov.et/en/index.php/politics/item/1199-africa-governance-initiative-to-open-regional-office-in-ethiopia

    Today we learn –

    Tony Blair has been urged to use his close ties to the Ethiopian government to secure the release of a British father languishing on the African country’s death row.

    The family of Andargachew Tsege has written to the former Prime Minister asking him to help save the father of three, who was sentenced to death in absentia for being part of the political opposition, then kidnapped and illegally rendered to Ethiopia two years ago.

    Fears for Mr Tsege’s fate have been heightened by the Ethiopian government’s declaration of a state of emergency, and rights groups say more than 500 political protesters have been killed in clashes with police since unrest flared up in November last year.

    While British officials have privately expressed concern at Mr Tsege’s “completely unacceptable” treatment at the hands of the Ethiopian government, the UK refuses to call for his release in public. The Foreign Office did claim to have secured Mr Tsege access to a lawyer, but the Ethiopian authorities are yet to fulfil that promise.

    Sounds like a job for Supertone! Oh, wait a minute. We don’t do democracy, do we?

    Ms. Hailemariam, Mr. Tsege’s partner, writes from London:

    ….I recall the close links that you forged with Ethiopia’s government during your premiership, and I believe that your voice is taken extremely seriously by the Ethiopian government. You therefore have an opportunity to help to end this nightmare for our family, and bring Andy home to us in London. You are also uniquely placed to send a strong message to Ethiopia that democracy and human rights are the cornerstone of strong government.

    I would like to ask you, therefore, to inform Ethiopia’s leaders that AGI will no longer advise the government unless they release Andy and the many other activists, journalists and protestors held illegally in Ethiopia, and commit to political freedoms in the country.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/andargachew-andy-tsege-tony-blair-ethiopia-death-row-british-father-a7356241.html

    Remember –“Intervention is bloody, standing aside is worse” (Tony Blair: The Office of Tony Blair website, 2013)
    And he’ll have so much more time to give to his good governance racket soon…..no more business….

    Place bets now.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    We pick up the spoor of our quarry, meandering across the sandy wastes of Bahrain towards a nice glass of something kosher halal in the airconditioned splendour of – what? The intercontinental Regency Hotel, perhaps?

    http://www.arabherald.com/index.php/sid/248489221

    Manama, Oct. 12 (BNA): The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, met today Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, who is on a visit to Bahrain.
    Shaikh Khalid praised Mr Blair’s efforts to bolster peace in the Middle East, wishing him further success. Blair praised the role of Bahrain in achieving security and stability in the region, wishing the Kingdom further progress and prosperity.
    They exchanged views on issues in the region and means to boost regional and international efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution, resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative, to ensure a new phase of stability, development and prosperity in the Middle East.

    Wow. That two-state solution’s been a nice little earner, even though, or possibly because, the prospects of its implementation are exactly those of an ice cube in the adjacent desert at midday.

    Can’t be business*. Must be charity. Hey, guys, it’s nice to talk philanthropy with someone with a deep appreciation of freedomndemocracy, you know?

    https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/bahrain

    https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/bahrain/report-bahrain/

    http://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/09/bahrain-nabeel-rajab/498857/

    …etc…

    * Or more that 20% business, anyway.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Mystic Ba’al’s spirit guide (who has sometimes been wrong, it must be said) suggests that it will not be long before The Orifice of Tony Blair issues some tearful guff to mark the death of Thailand’s King Bhumibol (today). The king, although stricken with multiple organ failure and at best semi-conscious for some time, has nevertheless been able to sign decrees and orders with the vigour of someone completely healthy. Step backward, modestly, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha, who is eagerly anticipating the accession of Bhumibol’s heir-apparent, Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, who is locally regarded as a shit. The prince’s pet poodle, Foo Foo holds the rank of Air Chief Marshal, for instance.

    Fortunately, Blair established cordial relations with Prayuth a couple of years ago.

    http://thainews.prd.go.th/website_en/news/news_detail/WNPOL5711040010001
    https://thaipoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/buying-blair/

    That’s this Prayuth, whose constitution was put to a referendum and overwhelmingly approved by Thais, in the absence of any effective opposition. The extent of press freedom available to Thais is illustrated here:

    http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/thai-military-court-accepts-case-against-facebook-eight-1449141

    Blair country.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Blair’s unwavering support for genocidal president-for-ever Paul Kagame:

    https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/8396

    Well, it’s what he was paid to do. Exactly as he was for Nazarbayev. No doubt Blair or Clinton had a had in further validating the oily dictator by pushing for the HFC conference yesterday to be held in Kigale – though Blair has shown zero interest in the environment since 2011.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Obituary on Blair’s expensive efforts on behalf of Nursultan Nazarbayev – if indeed he’s stopped, and the trumpeted move to pro-bono work by our self-sacrificing philanthropist isn’t just a camouflage paint job, with the proceeds rerouted via different fronts and cutouts.

    http://kazworld.info/?p=57506#

    No stain will leave a greater blot on Blair’s legacy than the Iraq War, but his time serving at the behest of the Kazakhstani government should not be forgotten. Not only did Blair do more than any other Westerner to defend Astana’s legacy of repression over the past few years, but he helped spear and lend credence to a pattern of former Western officials selling their reputations to the highest bidder, despotism be damned.

    Blair never elucidated a clear defense of his record with Astana, leaving The New York Review of Books’ Geoffrey Wheatcroft to recently offer a bit of tautological psychoanalysis: To Blair, “whatever he does must be virtuous because he does it.” Blair may have had some form of virtuousness in mind when he latched onto Astana. But five years on, whatever high hopes he may have had were replaced by craven spin, clear obfuscation, and a regime that is that much closer to the dictatorial model Blair once went to war to stop and which, in Kazakhstan, he helped entrench that much further.

    Just so.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    ….AGI is serving as project manager for the Development Bank of Nigeria, and was responsible for coordinating all the activities required for the successful launch of the bank earlier this year.

    (Africa Governance Initiative website, 2015)

    Nigeria plans to launch a development bank by January to support smaller-scale businesses, the finance minister said on Monday, as the country seeks a way out of its worst economic crisis in decades.

    The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has secured commitment from the World Bank for $1.3 billion in seed money, Kemi Adeosun said in a statement.

    The African Development Bank’s president said last month it was investing $500 million in the DBN, and that it could be in place by November.

    “It is going to provide money for (small and medium-sized enterprises) and for Nigeria that is really important because 50 percent of our GDP is made up of small companies,” Adeosun said in a statement.

    Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, has slid into recession for the first time in 25 years as low oil prices have slashed government revenues and weakened the naira currency.

    (Reuters, yesterday)

    What Nigeria really needs is more debt. And governance, of course…

    https://www.today.ng/opinion/199169/failure-governance

    Another side of the failure of governance is mass unemployment. We are not aware of any new jobs Buhari has created since coming into office 17 months ago. There are no new companies or state corporations established by government. What we know is that banks, media houses and companies are retrenching. Manufacturing companies are folding up and relocating to neighbouring countries such as Ghana. Worse still, local and state governments can neither pay staff salaries nor pensions.

    The people are starving because importation of rice has been banned. Essential commodities are scarce, diesel now sells N200 per litre; petrol N145 per litre while kerosene is out of reach at N210 per litre. Consequently, inflation is rocketing at 18 per cent. This failure to deliver on promises is a failure of governance. At the closing ceremony of the 2016 Nigerian Economic Summit, the minister of planning disclosed that the policy framework upon which plans to operate will be released by the end of this year. This is objectionable because it means this country is being operated without plans for the past 17 months.

    We hear Tony is about to restructure, and possibly merge, AGI and the Faith Foundation. Maybe prayer is the answer for Africa’s governance, at that.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    CURSE OF BLAIR (cont’d)

    Blair’s old Romanian chum Victor Ponta slides inexorably into la merde:

    http://www.evz.ro/ponta-sechestru-dna-avere-tony-blair-1.html

    Ponta has now had 200,000 eurosworth of property seized by prosecutors charging him with using his influence to obtain money for himself or, in this case, one Anthony Blair. The money, obtained from one Sebastien Ghita, allegedly in exchange for political favours, was allegedly paid to Tony Blair for a (single) speech apparently with the aim of getting Ponta re-elected on the basis of the reflected credibility which Blair sells so successfully. Money laundering has been mentioned, too.

    If the MSM here had chased this up, and they haven’t, they would have been told by the Spokesperson For Tony Blair that Mr Blair had been invited to speak via his normal contacts, was completely unaware of any irregularity, would have done the same for, ohhhh….Nazarbayev, say, and would be making no further comment. But I’ll save the Spokesperson the trouble.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    The Tony Blair‘s Face Faith Foundation today pays tribute to the memory of Sigmund Sternberg, scrap metal millionaire, long term Labour donor and interfaith philanthropist. Knighted in Harold Wilson’s notorious ‘Lavender List’. Sternberg’s ‘interfaith’ work seems to have been targeted at reducing antisemitism, and Reform Judaism was a major cause too. He appears to have been acquainted with Fr Michael Seed, the flamboyant and well-connected priest responsible for shoehorning Blair into the Catholic faith ( if not Christianity).

    Sternberg’s passion for interfaith dialogue, with its implication of lots of agreeable talking to influential people without any openly specified objective, could be abruptly truncated by any criticism of I**a*l:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3766567.stm

    No surprises there, then. Tony has also paid tribute to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Colombia’s Santos, whom Tony and his shadow, Jonathan Powell, have advised, lucratively, on matters as diverse as hydro-electric power, gold mining and negotiating with so-called terrorists*. The prize was awarded slightly after the Colombians had rejected Santos’ proposed peace deal with FARC. Still and all, satire died when Kissinger got the NPP…

    *Or freedom fighters. Up to you.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    We’d hoped to be able to ignore the new heir to the TBA throne, having taken it as unremarkable that third-generation Blair spawn would be pretty well erupting from the loins of the Wives of the Sons Of Tony Blair*, but we note that every single account on the web, (and there are hundreds) of the arrival of Damien is worded identically, thus: Tony and Cherie Blair have another role to add to their portfolio careers that of grandparents. The couples second son Nicky (far right)…
    and identically lacking a semicolon, or even a comma, after ‘careers’; and an apostrophe in the possessive ‘couple’s’, as it should be. Undoubtedly, this is perception management from the Orifice of Tony Blair, and shame on the world’s English-language subeditors for their utter failure to check the copy before pasting it.

    *The daughter doesn’t seem to be getting the same promotioonal effort. Not even the Mail’s Sidebar of Shame…

    • Ba'al Zevul

      A sample of those websites worldwide beholden to the Blair machine for news of its progeny:
      www*
      greenautomation.com
      apartments-vodice.de
      wettorfitness.com
      sans-papiers.be
      rustygaming.uk
      studiosanti.eu
      advantagetennis.ca

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