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…
We’ve been remiss in not spotting a small but interesting additon to Blair Inc. This is “Windrush Ventures No.3 LP, Dega na Shqiperi”, set up as a separate concern in Albania, and acting, according to its financial statement, as an agent for Windrush Ventures No.3 LP back in Blighty. Its published accounts to the end of 2015 indicate just under £65,000 profit before tax (although the currency of the document is Albanian lek, which at one lek to the penny makes for a temporary quickening of the pulse). As noted previously, Blair reportedly finished his mysterious project in Albania earlier this year – believed to be not unconnected with his advisory role in the facilitation of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, for which he is presumably being paid by the Azeri-led consortium building it. And. presumably, this moolah is paid via Windrush Ventures, of which WV3LP is the tax-opaque, accountant-immune underground nexus for several golden streams.
So, WV3LP (Uk) is presumably the paymaster for Wv3LP Dega na Shqiperi’s agency services: Hence we have yet another instance of Blair wearing one hat paying Blair wearing another hat, which, less the agency cut, leaves Blair, in a fez, with around £58,000, while Blair, in a fetching Ascot number with a fascinator, pockets the rest. Before tax, we hasten to add.
Sorry, that was confused as we attempted to work in the hat analogy. Try again. WRV Blighty is paying WRV Albania for agency services. Blair Albania keeps the whole (post Albanian tax) profit – and he’s probably stitched up the tax with old mate Edi Rama, who runs the place. However we rather doubt if WRVBlighty would pay WRVAlbania more than 10% of the value to WRVBlighty of whatever was going on. Blair Blighty would seem to have pulled in something of the order of £585000 on the Albanian end of whatever it was, alone.
It’s a bugger doing Tony’s accounts, but you’ve got to hand it to us, we try.
This may just be coincidental. The World Bank – which as far as we know still employs Blair, and lists him as an ‘expert’ on its website – has just loaned Albania $71 million to spend on hotels. Probably a good investment as the eastern and southern Med become tourist no-go zones.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-worldbank-albania-idUSKBN1422FD
Cherie is not unknown to the World Bank’s corporate investment arm, the IFC, either. But that’s another story.
Creepy old dude with smug young aspirers –
http://blablaface.net/great-britain/faces/tony-blair/449975
Burquas etc conspicuous by their absence, but a glass of house white in evidence – are you sure this is about ‘all faiths’, Tony? Or just the nice ones in Western dress?
Our opinion of this should be self-evident, we think:
http://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-press/20161212/281981787221669
In short, Blair is proposing that his charities should collect ‘data on mosques and schools in African nations under the banner of ‘countering extremism”, before making these available to such humanitarian icons in states with which Blair Inc has relations as Paul Kagame, Abdel al-Sisi, Uhuru Kenyatta, and so forth. Even his own employees are reportedly upset about this, and no wonder. Except jolly Jim Murphy, now taking the Blair £200K, whose idea it appears to have been.
The Sinday Times (paywall) has this today, but Pressreader gives the article in full.
Is there no end to the man’s impudence? No.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4024370/Boris-Johnson-knocks-bid-Blair-funding-taxpayer-s-bill-ex-PM-hits-3MILLION-year.html
Why should we fund his Middle East project? It’s not advancing our interests by one iota – quite the reverse. Blair thinks he can put the bite on the taxpayer because he believes he is a government agent. It’s time to tell him he isn’t. Well done, Boris! Let this be the dawn of official clarity as to Blair’s motives and intentions.
The cosy relationship between Eurotone and Edi Rama apparently continues, despite reports that Blair Inc had finished its business in Albania. Rama is believed very recently to have been in London, talking to Blair, World at One and the Times with his take on Brexit. Very supportive, Edi, and we just loved the marker-pen office doodles you exhibited in NY last week, too.
https://abc24.al/rama-takon-tony-blair-top-channel-albania-news-lajme/
(Old pic, but note Blair’s puppy-awaiting-pat posture)
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2016/apr/26/eu-referendum-frank-field-speech-be-labour-second-longest-suicide-note-says-frank-field-politics-live
Edi punting Blair’s TAP project also shown.
Small world.
The post-truth story that Jeremy Corbyn ‘walked out’ of a Labour shindig when the assembled Blairites began to sing ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ – the ditty whose romantic nature was fully evident by the end of the era it ushered in – was uncritically copied by UK papers. It even made a few aggregators. But neglecting hnvnews.co.uk – a newcomer to the UK media scene, run by a web design company in Ankara, Turkey – whose main sources appear to be the Express and the Guardian – foreign interest was confined to lkub.al , an Albanian aggregator, and indeksonline.net, also Albanian, whose treatment of Edi Rama is shall we say uncritical:
http://indeksonline.net/lajmet/laburistet-ne-britani-kerkojne-rikthimin-e-tony-blair-kryetari-i-partise-largohet-nga-festa-42743/
The story has been denied by some of those present – Corbyn left for another engagement before the hilarity began, the brave rebels shrieking their defiance only after he was out of earshot – although it will doubtless continue to be regarded as fact by those nostalgic for a former parliamentary majority based on a collection of untruths. Only the Mirror and Huffpo seem to have pursued the non-story to that conclusion.
And that’s about all there is about Tony, today. We await his excruciating Christmas card with impatience.
The owner of the soakaway Sun’s a liar. Who knew? Tony did.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/20/meeting-notes-contradict-murdoch-claim-not-to-have-asked-pms-for-help
Blair, the minutes show, said he was “instinctively sympathetic to what Murdoch was trying to achieve” and “offered to reflect on how best to approach the commission”. He added that he “would get our experts in Brussels to look into it and might take it up with Kohl”, according to the records written by Blair’s private secretary, Angus Lapsley.
Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, and communications director, Alastair Campbell, as well as the Downing Street adviser James Purnell, who went on to become secretary of state for culture, media and sport, also attended the meeting.
Tony, of course, had invited Rupert to grab him by the balls in order to get the Murdoch media behind him the previous year. And ‘if you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow’, in the words of the late T. Pratchett (whom God preserve).
This from the Iraq Enquiry Digest: an FoI request reveals that no material evidence of a breach of UN 1441 was advanced, before citing such a breach as a justification for war.
http://www.iraqinquirydigest.org/?p=15463#more-15463
The Report states that the evidence underpinning Blair’s unequivocal view* was never made available to the Inquiry.
The Cabinet Office parried my freedom of information request for this evidence for a considerable time. Consequently, I modified my request to seek the official record which should have been made by Blair’s senior civil service advisors (e.g. Rycroft) to provide an audit trail necessary to hold this decision making to account. This is particularly important as, in Goldsmith’s admission, it could be brought before a court.
* http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/244331/2003-03-15-letter-rycroft-to-brummell-iraq.pdf#search=rycroft
The absence of any such record denies vital evidence to any investigation by a court of this particular decision making process- working to a civil or criminal prosecution.
It would appear an unarguable example of misconduct by either Blair or his senior civil servants (or both).
NOTE: These URL’s are genuine. At least one Google link to this story in fact goes to a phoney site. Care needed.
Sebastian Ghita, who, a reader may recall, was allegedly rewarded by Romania’s Victor Ponta with a political sinecure after Ghita had facilitated the transfer of a ridiculous amount of money to the Office of Tony Blair, in exchange for an appearance by Blair to ‘validate*’ Ponta’s candidacy in the 2014 elections….has left the country. Now read on-
http://adevarul.ro/locale/ploiesti/surse-judiciare-sebastian-ghita-fugit-romania-fostul-deputat-aparut-ultima-data-public-19-decembrie-1_585a94fa5ab6550cb8a2fb1f/
last activity on his account watsupp on a phone that uses it frequently was on 19 December at 23.05. Judicial sources say that there is information, since Tuesday evening that Ghita managed to flee the country.
Citeste mai mult: adevarul.ro/locale/ploiesti/surse-judiciare-sebastian-ghita-fugit-romania-fostul-deputat-aparut-ultima-data-public-19-decembrie-1_585a94fa5ab6550cb8a2fb1f/index.html ( + Google Translate)
So the ‘Ponta-Blair’ case, as it is being called, isn’t as over as some might wish, then.
* Really not sure if that’s the right word at all.
That link, corrected:
http://adevarul.ro/locale/ploiesti/surse-judiciare-sebastian-ghita-fugit-romania-fostul-deputat-aparut-ultima-data-public-19-decembrie-1_585a94fa5ab6550cb8a2fb1f/
Ghita didn’t make it to today’s hearing of the ‘Blair file’ as ongoing investigations are alternatively known:
https://www.nineoclock.ro/sebastian-ghita-summoned-with-warrant-by-dna-after-he-didnt-show-up-following-the-received-summons/
…being, perhaps, some distance away from Romania. The case now appears to be focussing on the money-laundering aspect of the deal, in which Blair’s appearance and enormous payment were *allegedly* arranged through intermediaries by Ponta and Ghita in order to make it appear that Ponta was nothing to do with it. Questions arising: Could Blair have not been aware of what was going on? Will whichever arm of Blair Inc. collected the cash be allowed to hold on to it? In this regard, it may be relevant to note that the Romanian state prosecutor has already sequestered an equivalent sum from Ghita.
We apologise for harping on about this, but it is uniquely illustrative of a certain lack of due diligence on Blair’s part, for which, if he were not so Important, he might well himself be investigated.
Ghita remains incommunicado. The Romanian border is being watched, and the police are after him. Meanwhile, as to those intermediaries through which Blair’s visit was arranged: the Multimedia Foundation for Local Democracy is obscure, and probably local to Romania. It may be associated with the Aspen Institute, Colorado’s answer to Davos, whose shindigs Blair has attended in the past (with the Clintons). The Center For American Progress (what’s an ex-British PM doing with them?) was founded by John Podesta*, and is a staunchly Clintonite thinktank, funded in part by the UAE, and influential in appointing its insiders to the Obama administration.
*1 degree of separation from Cherie… –
http://maldivesindependent.com/politics/podesta-group-hired-to-whitewash-governments-crimes-117711
Probably worth a wider audience:
http://www.welfareweekly.com/tony-blair-destroyed-britains-faith-benefits-system-claim-researchers/
In 1991, 26% agreed that if benefits were less generous people would ‘stand on their own two feet’. By 2007 this figure had doubled to 52% and now stands at 54%.
Only three-in-ten now believe that benefits are too low and should be increased, compared to three-quarters in 1998 – just one year before ‘New Deal’.
Incidentally, and worth repeating every time the Daily Mail aims a kick at the downed –
Public understanding about benefits if often far from the reality. A poll by Ipsos Mori in 2013 revealed that 29% of the British public believed that the UK spends more on Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) than pensions. In reality we spend 15 times more on pensions than JSA.
The public also believe that £24 out of every £100 spent on benefits is claimed fraudulently, compared with official estimates of £0.70 per £100.
Apologies for the hiatus to anyone who might be following this sordid saga. Most unusually, Blair neither went anywhere nor did anything over Christmas/New Year. Or at least, he wasn’t putting out press releases or annoying foreigners. As his successor Dave jets out to Bahrain to see if he too can attract some Arab gold, Tony’s Firerush Ventures (which he keeps telling us has been shut down, but it hasn’t according to Companies House – https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06901376 ) seems to have been enjoying some creative accounting:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/tony-blairs-firerush-ventures-gets-2-million-bailout-from-windrush-ventures-2017-1
In which Tony seems to have sold shares in Firerush Ventures, aka himself, to himself, aka Windrush Ventures, watched their value evaporate, dispersed only Tony will know where, been unable to reimburse Windrush and forgiven himself the £2M as it was undoubtedly someone else’s fault as usual.. Should have been a banker – which is exactly what Firerush aspired to be.
Yet another unignorable hint that Blair Inc’s empire is not the straightest of concerns, we think.
Meanwhile, in Romania:
http://www.intellinews.com/deputy-head-of-romanian-intelligence-services-suspended-as-political-scandal-unfolds-113692/
And in Malaysia the 1MDB matter continues to create headlines. It will be recalled that Blair advised PetroSaudi, a sortofoilcompany headed by a Saudi prince, which was bankrolled by the Malaysian investment fund – Blair was also advising Malaysia or liked it to be thought he was. PetroSaudi’s been attracting legal attention:
http://daily-news.gq/petrosaudis-tarek-obaid-is-under-investigation-by-the-swiss-authorities—1mdb-officials-named
Following the money seems a sound strategy, in bringing Blair to book.
Blair is reportedly discussing making a film about his life. Which will presumably treat its subject with the deference due to the Dear Leader. OTOH, Richard Littlejohn’s little paean is well worth singing along to:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-4126572/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Tony-Blair-Movie.html
More is emerging about Blair’s intentions and methodology in the Israel-Palestine conflict:
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/was-blairs-sweatshops-palestine-agenda-shaped-labour-donor
Was de Boer headhunted by Blair based on Cohen’s advice? If so, is this a case of jobs for the boys? Is there a conflict of interests?
I contacted de Boer, enquiring if Cohen had introduced him to Blair. I also enquired if he was aware that Cohen had helped bankroll Labour when Blair was in Downing Street.
De Boer sent me a convoluted reply, which did not answer those questions directly. He did, however, confirm that Blair had been aware of his work for Cohen.
He confirmed, too, that Blair had “steered” Kerry to McKinsey when the secretary of state wished to have a blueprint for the Palestinian economy drawn up. “I also led that work,” he stated.
Neither Blair nor Cohen replied to requests for comment. (Though I think we’d guessed that.)
Subsequently….
Blair stepped down as the Quartet’s representative in 2015. But the operation he led in Jerusalem is still in place.
When Blair resigned, de Boer took over as head of the office. Because Blair has not been replaced, that means de Boer is now running the show, although he told me: “I am not the [Quartet] representative because I am not a politician.”
Time to ask who’s paying for this office. If there’s no Quartet representative – and no apparent plans for there to be one – why is there a Quartet office? Regardless of Trump’s mediaeval and partisan approach to the ongoing Israel disaster, he should take a critical look at this cosy refuge for globalising beancounters.
While we wait for the currently subdued Tony Blair to move his crew of expensive suits into new palatial premises – funded by someone other than Mubadala, which is suffering from low oil prices – and start hitting the headlines again, this may be the opportunity to scrape some of the slime from his trail to date, and measure its slipperiness:
Here’s Tony, defending his chum Bush, in 2004:
It is not a sensible or intelligent response for us in Europe to ridicule American argument or parody their political leadership.
And Tony, on Trump:
“I get really anxious when I think that policy is being made by Twitter feed,” Blair said. “Those that shout loudest do not necessarily deserve to be heard the most.”
(Tony, speaking at the Global Financial Markets forum in Abu Dhabi, March last year)
….though we can well understand his dismissal of Twitter:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/06/16/twitter-tony-blair-jokes_n_5498514.html
In which the comedian has equal status with the Great Pontificator.
As Tim Farron attaches his 9 MP’s to the heroic endeavour of overturning the democratic will of the UK people, and not-brexiting, we wonder where Tony is these days. And he’s broken cover at last:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2693632/tony-blair-to-fly-to-brussels-tomorrow-to-hold-talks-with-european-commission-president-jean-claude-juncker-in-wake-of-brexit-ruling/
Farron, this morning on ‘Today’, repeatedly described the imagined outcome of May’s exit negotiations as a ‘stitch-up’. Note this phrase. We’ll be hearing a lot of it. But with the now-unelected, rabid globalist Europhile Blair presuming to influence the process by holding wholly unofficial talks with Juncker, it is completely clear who’s doing the stitching.
Also worth a glance is Blair’s participation in the holocaust celebrations, attributed here to the European Parliament, but in reality organised by Moshe Kantor’s ‘European’ ***ish Congress. As noted before, this is an ultra *ion*st outfit, which employs Tony via its offshoot , the ‘European’ Council for Tolerance and Reconciliation (see: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/04/tony-blair-tolerance-reconciliation-european-council ). Which isn’t an EU project either.
It walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it’s got to be Blair. Plus ca change.
Also in the Blair orbit – what planet he is on need not concern us – Bernie Ecclestone was prised away from his position as fuehrer of F1 racing yesterday. F1 has since 2008 been owned by a hedge fund, like everything else on this planet, but Bernie’s income remained at the level which previously allowed him to donate 1.5M to Blair’s New Labour, along with a request to go easy on tobacco advertising. Which at the time was plastered over F1 cars and circuits. Unfortunately for New Labour and the advertisers, this – some say – deal became public, the money was returned, and Ecclestone’s knighthood was probably put on hold as well.
(Bernie’s ousting was attributed to declining audiences for the sport; the new owner feeling that better marketing is required to recover from this. Others may growl that it is an overhyped, boring, elitist activity and that watching a freshly-painted wall is preferable.)
And was Tony at Davos? Dunno, but his lovely wife got caught by a pap there, with the predictable bevy of rich lady suits-
http://uk.businessinsider.com/arianna-huffington-at-davos-2017-1?r=US&IR=T/#ellyn-shook-cherie-blair-cbe-huffington-and-director-of-the-georgetown-institute-for-women-peace-and-security-at-georgetown-university-melanne-verveer-at-the-reconnect-event-23
In Which Tony is Ashamed:
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/tony-blair-ashamed-of-spate-of-anti-semitic-attacks-in-london/
Why? Did he do them?
Tony has never been backward in offering his valuable insights on matters of international concern, or treating us to the fruits of his vast experience as an ex- world leader, businessman, celebrity, freeloader and conman. But on two subjects he is inscrutable: any details as to cashflow in his many enterprises…and, since that strange meeting with Jared Kushner, Trump. We would have thought that as a passionate supporter of the free movement of cheap labour, not to mention his wearing the Kippah of Tolerance and Reconciliation, something critical of Trump’s abrupt adoption of Tea Party policies ought to have been released to the tabloids by now. But no.
Can it be that his connection with the Clinton axis has been compromised and that he is keeping all his options open?
Or, as the alleged fraudster Sebastian Ghita continues to evade Romanian – and now European – justice, in among others, the Ponta-Ghita-Blair Case, is he maybe planning to disappear too? A consummation most devoutly to be wished.
http://anticoruptie.hotnews.ro/stiri-anticoruptie-21567880-sebastian-ghita-cautat-europol.htm
We are delighted to note that the latest heavily abbreviated accounts for Firerush Ventures Limited, whose overwhelming-majority shareholder is Windrush Ventures Limited, have been presented on a break-up basis, which means that the company is not expected to continue. But Tony’s headlined shock decision to exit ‘most’ of his commercial ventures would not have been a surprise to anyone looking at his 2014/15 accounts. During which time the company’s articles of association were changed in order to permit the issue of ~£2.7M-worth of preference shares to Windrush a month after the shares were apparently issued. This was apparently to supply capital to a ‘failing’ – or failing – Firerush, and as noted above, Firerush is not in a position to redeem them at more than 50p in the £.
Firerush Ventures Nos. 1 and 2 have now been cleaned out completely, and there is of course no information on No.3 LLP. So farewell, then, the Firerush empire. Originally set up to distance Blair commerce from Blair charidee, it limps towards extinction, with not a trace visible of its former glory. Yet Tony is donating an alleged £9M from his corporate structure to overturning the Brexit vote by any devious means available. How strange.
Should have been No.3 LP, not LLP, sorry.
And what of Windrush? Windrush Ventures Ltd was transferred to the ownership of The Tony Blair Institute in December. Tony is the sole member and ; er, non-beneficial owner of this, which exists explicitly to promote globalisation. The Windrush group’s net assets, sure enough, are over £9M for the year. Windrush Ventures No. 1 Ltd, whose control has been handed over to Windrush Ventures Ltd, held over a million of this, while Windrush Ventures No.2 LLP (break up basis, confirmation statement) held something over £10M…eh? Although, if it wrote off the Firerush shares completely, our ducks are back in a row. Windrush Ventures No 2 LLP is intending to cease to be within the year. And while its links with Windrush Ventures No.3 LP – impenetrable, of course, to prying eyes – will cease, there is nothing to say that the latter will not continue to operate on its own.
Confusing? At least the scope for confusion has narrowed. The Tony Blair Institute is the one to watch now, and any hints that can be garnered regarding Windrush and Firerush No 3 LP, four BDB companies, and let us never forget the securities broker in the USA.
Move along, nothing to see…
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/document-api-images-prod/docs/LEpMkEocy-X-Fb0TmKvzDKnk62XLxkjScl3AkY8ahr0/application-pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIAITGIXR2ARJJWYOBQ&Expires=1485879086&Signature=SA8ENKuW0JK%2FcJ7JPNGx52Jt5vY%3D&x-amz-security-token=FQoDYXdzEI%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaDEbl4FpB3sOUZdJ1uSK3A%2FbUsFzXx8WoTpd%2FZK5Sy703TBITTb4UcMq740uk2CxFsJb5bvD0e%2BX13D1pkTnlLnaCvbmW85bnZcFSaJ6zPamsZJd6T4fnvhrhYOvRrkpXy8AYwptftKeXOK12dAb54i2XZADtR90xdv0opfgs4Zd7ZjXfQ%2B%2BbuDyMA3DRUBsZJu0M%2F2GW3JcqV3RTr4bif2KO5dhxmCtiFI1GsiXDYn%2FvsnPxfuSDJV7fFmzqU1LEswE2Uh7JlB7qBdv%2F2PL17Vp6CrlEE1NT6%2FD6ndjvDzE%2FjvjaFtjy2G18Kq1ZIvxgGrm3yEvfH7U8tDBmVxqEeLzEG4NxGTgaRvhJjEbp9Iw%2F9tyArijJQmQO14Tjz%2BRHE7G%2Bj4g%2FksNYKEi%2F5K6ljPOHl5eQ230cHwIwyBsTMcHB1AniD4rOVHzeyCwP63FwzXuNzoceCKmIX3iRKMaLExqsP5g9L13i1sYfnOggtH8zZSG9QkVeu%2FPO%2FHDXcYui9RE0cTnhnw9Yt8z%2B8KKegcVQjz7O2RsJAakP6y6qEkF5CaiVZw5eLQh7OJUKm7Dt0OtJAP3gWyncP8tmb47iRHlvpqEuAbwov7PCxAU%3D
50, Broadway, is the address of Bircham Dyson Bell, who seem to have been retained.
Re. Firerush Ventures No.3 LP, the FCA confirms that it can no longer provide regulated products and services as of January 23rd: its previous authorisation being withdrawn.
Its limited partner, BDBCO no 850, has like all the other Bircham Dyson Bell (BDB)-created satellites of Blair Inc, submitted its accounts as a dormant company since 2010. The satellites have all appointed a new director in the last month too – a Mr. McLoughlin, who is a BDB staffer. . The sole shareholder in BDB 850 is BDB 853, whose confirmation statement is due later this year, indicating its possible closure: however 850 appears to be remaining active (though dormant!) into 2018. McLoughlin was also appointed 853’s (and 819’s)* sole shareholder Bircham and Co Nominees Ltd (also long-dormant)**.
*A parallel situation holds for the Windrush satellites, with BDBCO 822 to issue a confirmation statement, but the company it ‘controls’, BDBCO 819, remaining in existence at least pro tem.
**Sole shareholder Bircham Dyson Bell LLP. As no money actually flows through the satellites, it doesn’t matter who ‘owns’ them.
The field of interest narrows to 819 and 853, then. Although essential to the machinations of Windrush and Firerush Ventures, whatever those were – even though dormant for most of their lives – they will outlive those partnerships. Why? Perhaps they will become part of the new The Tony Blair Institute structure?
Onward. The Tony Blair Institute – no doubt to occupy Tony Blair Tower once the new premises for 30 expensive suits have been identified – as already indicated, TTBI is “restricted specifically to making globalisation work including helping countries, their people and their governments alleviate poverty, raise the standard of living foster religious and cultural tolerance and advance peace and reconciliation”
(TBI: Articles of Association. These in full, on the Companies House beta website.)
Which sits somewhat uneasily with TTBI’s registration under code number 85590, which see here:
http://www.siccode.co.uk/sic2007/code-85590
Under the heading ‘Powers’, it is apparent that the activities listed under 85590 are merely a small proportion of those to be pursued in Tony’s mission to the unglobalised. Education is one of the seven activities listed in para (f) – the listing runs up to (l) – but the only one covered by 85590. And we may be sure that to “lobby, advertise, publish, research and survey…” (para (f), too) will also be important functions of this political think tank. Maybe it will run in parallel with Pearson, Laureate Universities, et al?
The company will have virtually unlimited powers with respect to its finances. And although it is stated that Blair will receive no salary or remuneration from TBI, he is the only director, and the Articles state that any director may receive rent on premises let to TBI, interest on loans made to TBI and, obviously, expenses.
Peripherally: An application by its sole director to strike The Tony Blair Sports Foundation Trading Company off the register is dated 18th December 2016. Another one bites the dust, albeit a trading company which has apparently never traded anything. The Sports Foundation itself has submitted a Confirmation Statement, and its income according to its latest account, fell to less than half the previous year’s. It looks as if the writing is on the wall for this, the only Blair outfit to itemise what it actually does – which seems to be good work. Worth noting, though, that its (only) two employees last year pocketed £87,353 in wages between them: clearly not groundsmen, then.
Less peripherally: One indicator of Blair’s sincerity or otherwise in winding up Wind&Firerush will be the disappearance of Abg Securities in Kansas City MO. This is wholly owned by Firerush Ventures No. 3 LP, and apparently run by Ari Untracht, director of principal and advisory strategies at Tony Blair Associates (TBA).It remains to be seen whether Untracht will be assigned to The Institute….
Also a director of principal and advisory strategies at Tony Blair Associates as well as being the other advisor at Abg Securities, is Jason – aka Jackson – Eisenpresser.
Small world.
‘Takes one to know one’ department.
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Blairs-ex-aide-Netanyahu-an-armour-plated-bullshitter
As the hyperopportunist Campbell attempts to massage Blair’s reputation without getting his hands too dirty, riddle us this: Why did Blair spend his time as Quartet envoy pandering to a known armour-plated bullshitter’s every whim?
As an LLC, ABG LLC of Kansas City is not liable for tax. Its latest accounts show that while retaining its members’ equity, it in fact made a loss of $185,000, mainly attributable to ‘professional fees’. Which was obligingly made up by its ‘related party’….Firerush Ventures.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/vprr/1601/16014189.pdf
Could it be that the two advisors in ABG LLC – Untracht and Eisenpresser – who were employees of Tony Blair Associates at the same time – were being paid a little something the US taxman wouldn’t see?
As an admirer of you both I must say that I hope that William Dalrymple
did not give an extremely fulsome introduction to your talk.
Yer man’s getting pretty furtive these days. With anyone more self-aware, we would suggest that remorse for his past wickedness was the cause. We jest. We simply doubt that his security detail attracts many volunteers these days. A visit to Finchley had to be ‘kept under wraps’, indeed –
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/tony-blair-jw3-event/
However, we forecast this some time ago, in happier times. Surely of significance, though, is the failure to report Tony’s inspirational words at the JW3 event: the reporter has to make do with an earlier speech of ‘one of the the greatest friends of Anglo-J**ry and Isr**l ever to have inhabited Downing Street’ at Kantor’s holocaust gig last month.
At last – stirrings under the stone beneath which Tony Blair so mysteriously disappeared.
It’s called the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change; no change in the delusions of grandeur, then. And it’s a (expletive) charity, ffs.
Note to Charity Commissioners…doesn’t this skate dangerously close to some very thin ice?
Charities are free to participate in public debates and to use their voice to try to influence decisions
which will support the work of the charity. However, there are particular legal requirements about
political activity by charities.
Charity law defines political activity as any activity that aims to promote or oppose a change in the
law or Government policy. Charities can undertake political activity in support of their charitable aims,
but it’s not acceptable for a charity to pursue its aims solely through political activities. This is because
charities can never have a political purpose – so an organisation which exists purely to campaign for a
change in the law is not a charity.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/354727/Charities_politics_and_campaigning_MP_factsheet_6.pdf
Given that ‘global change’ in Tony’s book, and as all the available evidence agrees, consists of facilitating the replacement of national governments by multinational corporations, how can his objective be anything other than political?
Still, if you want a job, have previously held office in a major finance house, or have the ear of Kim Jong Un ( who is yet to be converted to globalisation), there’s a job for you with the TBIGC…
https://www.charityjob.co.uk/recruiter/tony-blair-institute-for-global-change/32344
Correction. As far as the Charities Commission was concerned today, neither the Tony Blair Institute (its style as a UK – registered private company limited by guarantee) nor the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (when it needs to impress) is actually a UK- registered charity per se, although its memorandum of association constrains the means by and purposes for which its money can be extracted, so that Tony, the sole director and member, can derive no direct income from it. Interestingly, the solicitor handling TBI’s formation is the same as the one who put the Windrush/Firerush maze together, Alexandra Harles. Then (and still?) working for Bircham Dyson Bell, she now appears to be trading as Alex Harle Advisory as well, offering legal solutions for every commercial eventuality, including charities.
As presently constituted, TBI would be eligible for UK charitable status, subject to its objectives being appropriate ones. THere is little point in its existence if charitable status is not envisaged – it gives the charity legal identity, and not much else. However, not all its stated activities are appropriate to a charity, we submit, and some are downright political. We need to take a look at other jurisdictions, perhaps.
Ok. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change is now hiring. A Philanthropy and Partnerships Officer, who will work with the Philanthropy and Partnerships Manager to ‘scale up funding’ from ‘restricted sources’ – IOW to put the bite on known donors for more cash. Tony also requires a Business Development Manager Institutional, reporting to the Director of Development and External Relations ‘working mainly across the Effective Government and Counter-Extremism areas’ and serving as ‘the primary fundraiser for institutional donor funding.’
Frome which we glean that nothing much has actually changed. The TBIfGC, like its predecessor ‘charities’ exists to rapaciously solicit and divert government and institutional funding into channels determined by Tony’s obsession with change and deliverology, is implemented by the same suits and fixers as before and thinks in management bollocks-speak, while reproducing as closely as possible the grandiose impotence of the Cabinet in Tony’s glory years.
The opacity of the setup is at least equal to the old Windrush/Firerush scheme: there are indications that Tony was considering doing this three years ago and was precipitated into it by changes in company law combined with a decline in Firerush’s fortunes as Gulf oil profits fell, along with several questionable deals. His loudly-touted donation of the book value of Wndrush/Firerush to the new enterprise was merely a transfer of operating capital from the old system to its replacement: this cash will not be employed in charitable works, but will fund at least in part the salaries and expenses of the 200 people in 20 countries presently alleged to be working for him – not excluding his own expenses, though not his salary. The functions of Windrush if not of Firerush, which may have proved unsuccessful, as well as the TBFF, the (Africa) Governance Initiative and all their important-sounding spinoffs and sub-charites are now inextricably consolidated in a single charitable company whose functional definition is so vague as to elude objections to its charitable status, and whose commercial involvement is invisible to scrutiny.
Or so we firmly Believe ™.
https://www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs/philanthropy-and-partnerships-officer-business-development-manager-institutional-/491780?tsId=1
Bless….TY.
Still, an opportunity for a footnote: The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (when looking for staff) is registered at Companies House merely as “Tony Blair Institute”, as a private company limited by guarantee. However, it is our understanding that such a company must include the word ‘Limited’ in its title.
(eg http://wisteriaformations.co.uk/articles/2012/10/charities-and-not-for-profit-organisations-%E2%80%93-limited-by-guarantee/ )
And, fascinatingly, it is not one of the three charities whose name contains ‘Tony Blair’ currently listed on the Charity Commission website. So while it is unafraid to advertise for suits on Charity Job’s website (see above), it is not, it seems, a registered charity, but is exploiting the registered charitable status of its pre-existing components – whose participation is not mentioned in the TBI’s incorporation document. Crafty Tony. I wonder if that will exempt him from 20% corporation tax, though…
And what of Reg Keys and the public-spirited campaign to bring Blair to book over Iraq? They raised their initial target, and the legal team it funded has concluded that a case may exist against certain officials, not unrelated to malfeasance in public office.
Unfortunately, as they say, The fact that the evidence supports legal action moves us one step closer to our goal. However, the facts have also presented an issue of great constitutional importance that must be fully and carefully resolved before we can issue any proceedings. To do so, we need the assistance of additional expert counsel.
This issue is all the more significant because, as you will be aware, in 2016 the UK experienced major changes. In the past few months there have been significant court judgments, including the Supreme Court’s Article 50 decision, that must inevitably inform our legal team’s approach.
All this has to be taken into account and our legal arguments finalised to ensure we are able to take the next step.
With your help, we can raise the £22,000 needed to add the additional expert counsel to our legal team and for them to carry out the work necessary to determine conclusively if we can advance to the next stage.
Supporters of the campaign can pledge their donations here:
https://www.crowdjustice.org/case/chilcot2/