The Road to Hell...

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and I wonder whether this is a maxim which affects Tony Blair much as his relentlessly optimistic, some say messianic crusade in the holy lands and Africa continues.

Today's front page at the Independent which reads: "Tony Blair's £200,000 hedge fund pay day"  contains details that he is to be paid £2000 a minute for a 100 minute speech by (and for members of)  the Lansdowne Group, a hedge fund which made over £100 million pounds by short-selling stock in Nothern Rock, Barclays, HBOS and Irish Allied bank.
(For an even more extreme example check out this link)

Blair is not an enigma. He speaks on behalf of the Carlyle group, the infamously shadowy 'private equity firm' (read defence contractor) that made a fortune off the back of arms deals post 9/11, the Iraq wars, and the privatisation of the spying establishment in Britain. and he speaks on behalf of JP Morgan, the only major investment bank to have all but avoided the financial crisis which levelled Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and speaks at the behest of the Washington Speaker's Bureau.


He is a recent convert to the Catholic church, is instrumental in brokering a deal between BG group (formerly British Gas), the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government over a 15-year contract for natural gas off the shores of Gaza, (clearly a highly disputed resource), he continually battles for progress and development in Africa competing with the Chinese for Africa’s rich mineral attentions, and continues to maintain and develop ties between Switzerland and the UAE.

He speaks out on global financial reform, and as a spokesperson for a well defined political, spiritual and capital agenda one really has to ask: is he doing more good than harm (as he seems to think) or more harm than good in an increasingly complex and dangerous world?

What would the world look like without a Blair? One may as well ask the question “What would Israel look like without the Sykes-Picot agreement?” or “What would Iraq look like today if Churchill had never gone in?”.
The answer is that Tony Blair is very much carrying on the delicate and fraught story of British politics, continuing the legacy of the British Empire, the Pax Americana, the Catholic and European agendas, not to mention the secular and economic interests of the western military/industrial complex.

But as much as he does, it all seems rather futile in one sense. His crusade against radical Islam almost certainly lends them as much strength as it discourages them, as it seems with all the players who sponsor the machinations of the political west in the holy land of Oil.

He is reported to have charged £400,000 for making two speeches in the Phillipines, he spends 10 days a month in Jerusalem where it is said that "People are very kissy to him, but both muslims and jews laugh at him behind his back".

In Rwanda, he is coaxed by the likes of German Bankers who give his 'African Governance Initiative' millions and Sierra Leone, Liberia, UAE, Kuwait, Zurich, New York, Washington, Yale, Paris have all been in his diary for speeches, which he is reportedly paid up to £140,000 each for.

In fact, a brief look at the "Office of Tony Blair" and Windrush Ventures, his Faith Foundation, Sports Foundation and Climate Change foundation tells you quite quickly that he is moving millions and millions around the world in one form or another, mostly as charitable donations. But take Windrush Ventures, which is a three-part company: Windrush 3 LC lists as one of it's partners Windrush 2 LLC, which in turn wholly owns Windrush 1 . It's not only an extremely unusual set-up, it also takes advantage of a loophole in UK tax law, meaning it doesn't have to publish it's earnings, profits etc.

JP morgan pays him £2 million pounds per year, as does Zurich Financial Services. The Kuwaiti government and Mubdala, an Abu-Dhabi state backed investment fund for green technology each pay him £1 million a year.

His agenda as Special Envoy to the Middle East is to bring the same kind of weight and tactics to securing peace there as he did in Ireland in the good friday agreement, and as a fiercely optimistic diplomat, he believes he has a chance, despite the historical context.

The question the Independent seems to be asking is: "Why is Tony taking money from a firm which not only stood to gain from financial collapse in the UK, but had a vested interest in it for as much as two years before it eventually happened?".

The implication is that he's corrupt, but having read an extensive set of his speeches this afternoon, I would beg to differ. It may certainly prove to be the case that the bigwigs at Lansdowne have realised too late that massive profiteering by it's most ambitious employees can only have a negative impact on their company in the long run, (not to mention the country and the economy) and I'd suggest that Blair, out of everyone available is precisely the right person to hire to come and address their staff, hence the high price tag: afterall, why should he come to bolster their spirits with high-minded talk of faith, politics and the economy when they are seemingly irredeemable sinners?

Here's what he has to say on the subject of leadership:
"Courage in leadership is not simply the will to make the difficult decisions or about having the nerve to do the right thing since often times God alone knows what the right thing is.  It is to be in our natural state - which is one of nagging doubt, imperfect knowledge and uncertain prediction."

I never expected to read something like this from Blair, but having done so, it strikes me as rather profound, that a world leader should suggest that our 'natural state is one of nagging doubt, imperfect knowledge, and uncertain prediction' but of course, in one sense, he's exactly right.

If making the tough decisions were the only thing a leader had to do, then they'd simply figure out what were the hardest decisions to make and then make them, easy: job done. Fact is, tough decisions are tough precisely because of nagging doubts, uncertainty about the future and imperfect knowledge of the present, which are in fact, (for the most part) our natural state.

I find that rather refreshing!

In another speech, he says: "Today more than ever, we need to discover and re-discover our essential humility before God, our dignity as found in our lives being placed at the service of the Source and Goal of everything"

Which I absolutely agree with (on one level at least) - and am inspired by, because politicians so universally avoid this type of speaking in general, in UK politics.

"We can perform acts of mercy, but only God can lend them dignity."

Which interests me, and which I'm interested to explore and to understand more deeply.

Finally reading this extract of his speech from October 2009, you'd genuinely be convinced that his heart is in the right place:

"First, we need to understand each other, learn about our roots, how and why we are as we are, learn the essential spirituality, peacefulness and goodness of the others' faith. This means we educate each other about each other.

Secondly, we need to respect each other. We must do this, not pro forma, to be polite or courteous but do it deeply, beyond tolerance or acceptance. We say it is Love that motivates us. We must demonstrate it in our dealings with each other, as indeed both our Lord and the Prophet exhorted us to do. One reason why peace between Israel and Palestine matters so much is: that it is a test, not just of conflict resolution but of even-handedness and respect. We share our common heritage in Abraham and Moses. Peace between Jews and Muslims in the Land holy for all of us, would be such a powerful symbol of peaceful co-existence of faiths as well as nations or peoples.

Third, we must act. Our relationship with each other and both of us with Judaism that in time I'm sure will be part of the Common Word, will best be judged in action, in the work we can do together in relieving poverty, fighting injustice, preventing disease and bringing hope to those in despair. That's why I am so delighted to see four of my Faiths Act Fellows here today with us.

Love your God; love your neighbour as yourself. "

Blair might be being paid enormous sums of money to give these kinds of lectures, but I have to say that I'm always inspired by his words, and frequently against my instinct to distrust him precisely because his philosophy seems to dovetail so neatly with my own.