Blair's little earner
Friday, January 11, 2008 I'm no fan of Tony Blair but I don't see why people are getting so hot under the collar about the £0.5m (or is it £1m?) a year he will allegedly be paid by US bank JP Morgan as a part-time adviser.
Our former prime minister has done his time in parliament. Unlike Tony Benn (for example) he had no wish to hang around, and I don't blame him. Having got to the very top of his profession, he understandably wants to do something else. Accepting this and other offers is not "cashing in". It's called earning a living and Blair is perfectly entitled to accept whatever jobs come his way.
Career politicians are, in my view, a menace. (There are exceptions, but not many.) The only thing I would add is that it might be better if politicians took a "proper" job before they enter politics rather than afterwards. That way, prospective MPs could be chosen on the basis of their achievements and "real life" experience rather than their political CV.
People
Reader Comments (8)
Simon, I would go one better, not only do they have to get a proper job but they have to live on a sink estate for 6 months without protection, just the obligatory blunt instrument under the bed. When you see people openly urinating in the street, spitting phlegm at a bus stop, bullying, mugging and mindless violence like I have witnessed for the last 20 years living in East London, we may get a government that we deserve. I have come to the conclusion, after seeing a parents open evening at my childrens school deserted, no self discipline, indolence and drug oriented self indulgence, that 51% at least, of poverty is self induced.
To answer in Nu-Labor style... the question should not be how much industry perceives him and his connections to be worth now, more what we as a body of electors would like to see him serve in terms of a criminal sentence. Perjury, treason, genocide, Sale of Goods Act, take your pick.
I don't think that many people object to Blair's "little earner" in itself but because here is the man who led a government that has been the architect of an authoritarian and very unhappy country. Some of us see it as more rewards for a bad, if not evil, job done.
Yes i do mind Tony Blair getting another well paid job,He along with all his little helpers has destroyed this country, he is responsible for taking away our democracey and free will.
He is also responsible for making most of us rely on credit to survive. His also responsible for turning labour into a dictotorial style government and making our once Great Britain into a nanny state.Its a matter of who you know NOT WHAT YOU KNOW that has got him this job because from his past experience he should of ended up doing a prison sentence the way he has treated the working classes and destroyed our country.
Perhaps he should have got a job in a pub and he would have found out what his servants really thought.
I'm with you, Pat, 100%. The man should be taken out and shot.
Blimey. Is everyone who contributes to these comments so right wing? I hadn't realised believing in preserving liberties meant hating Labour.
Ex-Labour party member here Rose! One can hate nu-labor from anywhere on the political spectrum. All it takes is a distaste at receiving lectures in morality from venal liars, cowards and murderers.