Blair Inc: The Man Behind The Mask
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley April 23, 2015
Author Francis Beckett: David Henche: Nick Kochan
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ISBN: 978-1-78418-648-7
Publisher: John Blake Publishing Ltd
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Website: http://www.newsouthbooks.com.au
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The information contained in Blair Inc. is based on some serious research carried out by the team of Beckett, Henke and Kochan in a genuine desire to take a serious look at the pathway Tony Blair has travelled since his days as the British Prime Minister.
Shrouded in secrecy, “Blair Inc” has become a financial force to be reckoned with, amassing great wealth in a little over eight years.
The deeper they dug, the more people they found who would or could say something, a number of alarming and concerning issues became apparent. The biggest concern of all though is, ‘Who is Tony Blair and how influential has he really become’.
When Tony Blair was elected to the office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1997 in a landslide victory for the Labour Party he was the peoples darling; the man who was going to make all things right. On leaving his office in 2007, he moved completely away from the British political scene, immediately taking up the role as the official Envoy of the Quartet of the Middle East, a role he had been offered in recognition of his support of the US in the 2001 Invasion of Afghanistan.
As the Quartet Representative (QR) one of his main tasks is to work towards establishing peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis, a process which was immediately made more difficult by his well-known support and sympathy for the Israelis.
It would seem that as the years have passed his dedication to this role has become fleeting to say the least, but alternatively the man who left Downing Street in 2007, with a young family of four children and a huge mortgage, has somehow become a man of serious means within the upper echelon of world politics and business.
Establishing several Charitable Foundations in the years immediate to his leaving his Prime Ministerial office, these have allowed him to have a public face. They also give a form of legitimacy to many of his actions, as well as allowing him to gad about the world addressing various other Charitable Organisations, Lecturing through the Washington Speakers Bureau, at University’s and other significant groups, as well as meeting and advising a range of political and financial leaders considered to be the movers and shakers of World Finances and Politics.
Blair is a man, who although no longer Prime Minister, considers in many ways he still holds an office of some political significance, which as the QR he does, and who has surrounded all he does with incredibly high levels of security.
But his influence politically as QR, by all who have been involved with him in the subsequent years, is considered insignificant and has fallen far short of the intent of the role he should be carrying out.
He is a complex man who has used the people he met and the political clout he developed, to go on and create an empire which, on financial fronts, is of considerable significance. The concerning component is the secrecy which surrounds everything he does.
The other side of the equation is the huge property portfolio wife Cherie Blair, nee Booth, and son Euan have established, worth Millions in just a little over eight years, let alone the lavish offices worldwide inhabited by associates of Tony Blair and wife Cherie, and their combined charitable organisations. The question needs to be asked, where has the funding come from to be able to create such wealth in such a short span of time?
In a direct quote from the book which sums up the situation well, you could be justified in saying that Blair works with some very strange bedfellows indeed.
‘He has sought to make his money while also creating an international profile as a do-gooder, becoming the Middle East special envoy of the Quartet (an international diplomatic group consisting of the UN, the EU, the U.S. and Russia) and setting up charities, such as the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the African Governance Initiative’.
His empire as such appears to be expanding rapidly, his wealth at last count in the vicinity of 45 Million pounds, the secrecy with which he surrounds his business activities has become legendary, as well as downright concerning.
He has used the influence gained and cultivated during his time as Prime Minister to enhance his business activities and lifestyle to a level of wealth he obviously believes sets him above the law and the normal governances.
Considered a ‘global superpower’, unshackled by the normal governances, in what appears to be an unscrupulous attitude to getting richer and richer, just Who is Tony Blair?