Tony Blair - Articles - Zimbio

More Downing Street memos! The Blair -Murdoch Project -The Guardian

Mon, 4 Nov 2008 09:15:00 GMT

posted by Pablothehat
I came across this article on Prison Planet originally.

(Taken from the Guardian)

Memo shows how Blair aided Murdoch

David Hencke and Rob Evans
The Guardian,
Saturday November 1 2008
Article history

A newly disclosed Downing Street memo has revealed how Tony Blair helped Rupert Murdoch overcome an official investigation which was jeopardising one of his big investments. It shows that Blair, while prime minister, immediately ordered his top officials to help the tycoon who was frustrated that a potentially lucrative scheme was being blocked by a long-running European commission investigation.

Blair told the media magnate that "he was instinctively sympathetic to what Murdoch was aiming to achieve". The tycoon eventually won approval for the plan. BSkyB had teamed up with other big companies to develop an interactive scheme in which people could shop and manage their finances through their televisions.

The memo is the first to be disclosed under freedom of information legislation documenting the contents of meetings between Murdoch and Blair. Blair has been accused of granting political favours to Murdoch in return for support from his newspapers; Lance Price, a former Downing Street spin doctor, said Murdoch seemed to be one of the four most influential people in the administration.

Over the past couple of years I have been cronicalling the to'ings and frow'ings of this NULabour Experiment , though I must admit, I haven't studied the Gorden Brown Stewardship as closely as have the Bliarite Years but it is a strange sycronity that I was just re-reading this part of the NULabour history the other day.

(Taken from "From Here to Modernity. A musical tale of poverty, war and political ambition."
A piece I have been working on for a few years, that I hope to finish it over the winter.)

On the 18th of March 1997, Rupert Murdoch's publication The Sun newspaper declares that it will support Labour Leader Blair at the general election.

That year’s election on the 1st of May 1997 sees the nation swing towards Labour by a landslide and by the next day, Tony Blair becomes the youngest prime minister since 1812 and with a Commons majority of 179.

The country was dazzled by this new broom that came to sweep out the dirty gutters, the blocked drains, the floors of the dusty and staid rooms of power. They were singing a new song, not the old songs but new, with rock star accompaniment, possibly with the remnants’ of the disbanded Red Wedge movement, the musically dubious promise that “Things could only get better."

Of course, with Tony Blair's training with the Durham's Chorister School, he ensured they were all singing from the same hymn book and a feeling of real change sweeped across the nation.

What we forgot about brooms though, is the story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the power rested within the broom and not with the Apprentice.

Well NULabour certainly turnout to be a Micky Mouse outfit!

Newly disclosed Downing Street memo shows how Blair aided Murdoch | Politics | The Guardian

Funny Gordon Brown Song (Video Clip) | British Prime Minister But For How Long?

Mon, 16 Sep 2008 17:06:01 GMT

posted by ChrisTV

Gordon Brown waited ten years for Tony Blair to give up his post as Prime Minister of Britain, and now that he’s got the top job, I’m guessing he wishes he hadn’t bothered.

There has been a debate amongst Labour MPs for the past few months over whether Gordon Brown is the man to take the party in to the next General Election. On this showing, I’d have to say no.

This is a brilliant song and video. Set to the tune of Golden Brown by The Stranglers, the song takes the piss out of Gordon Brown and his distinct lack of leadership qualities.

It picks up on the goldfish-style breathing, the strange eyes, the weird way he opens his mouth fully to breathe and lots more besides. He even picks his nose at one point!

Police claims over loans for honours attacked by No 10 - All Did - Blog Posts - DID | ALL DID at ALLDID.com

Mon, 14 Oct 2008 05:19:37 GMT

posted by cheaplaptops
SCOTLAND Yard provoked anger in Downing Street last night by saying that police had uncovered "significant and valuable material" in the loans - for - honours investigation... Tagged as: scotland, provoked, downing, street, police, uncovered, significant, valuable, material, honours, investigation

Tony Blair's Faith Foundation

Thu, 6 Jun 2008 11:51:00 GMT

posted by vjack
Former English prime minister Tony Blair wants to make a difference in important issues such as global poverty and conflict. Excellent! There's just one problem. His proposed solution is a faith-based foundation, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. But why is this a problem if his goals are laudable?

Blair's goals for the new foundation are threefold:

Tackle poverty and war,
Improve awareness between world religions, and
Promote faith.

I have no problem with the first goal. I can even live with the second because improved awareness and understanding of other religions appears to be a step in the right direction. Granted, I'd prefer increased awareness that it is time to move beyond religious superstitions. But goal #3? No thanks. What good does faith produce in our modern world?

Mr. Blair said there was "nothing more important" than creating understanding between different faiths and cultures.

Nothing? I certainly disagree with that. Also, since atheism is clearly not a faith (and does not require any faith whatsoever), I guess we atheists are again left out in the cold.

I'm all for the notion that we should increasingly view ourselves as global citizens, but I fail to see how religious faith can serve this goal. Each of the big monotheistic religions teaches believers that they alone are right and that everyone else is wrong. Each of the three devalues persons from other faith traditions or no faith tradition at all. In short, a great deal of divisiveness is built in.

If Blair is serious about countering religious extremism in each of the leading world religions, I can support that component of his plan. However, I am absolutely convinced that the only effective path to this important goal involves less faith rather than more.

But Mr Blair said while in office he feared being branded a "nutter" if he talked about his religious views.

If the term "nutter" means what I suspect it does, the label just might be deserved.

Tags: Tony Blair, poverty, faith, war, religion, atheism, religious extremism

Blair Admits That He Was A Christian Fanatic

Sun, 26 Nov 2007 01:08:00 GMT

posted by aalarashid
Tony Blair [below]
Former British prime minister Tony Blair has admitted for the first time that religion was of major influence during his decade in power.
"If I am honest about it, yes of course it was hugely important," Blair, who stepped down in June, said on The Blair Years, a BBC1 television documentary to be aired as of Sunday, November 25.

"You know you can't have a religious faith and it be an insignificant aspect because it's, it's profound about you and about you as a human being."

"As I always say there is no point in me denying it, I happen to have religious conviction, I don't actually think there is anything wrong in having religious conviction — on the contrary I think it is a strength for people."

Blair, now a Middle East peace envoy, said religion was a point of "strength" and a crucial component of his character. "For me having faith was an important part of being able to do that," said Blair, a Protestant planning to convert to Roman Catholicism, the denomination of his wife Cherie.

Blair said he consciously avoided speaking about his religious beliefs during his 1997-2007 term in office. "You talk about it in our system and frankly people do think you're a nutter." He said Britain's political system made it difficult for politicians to talk publicly about religious faith.

"I mean if you are in the American political system or others then you can talk about religious faith and people say yes that's fair enough and it is something they respond to quite naturally."

BIBLE MAN

European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson Mandelson, {right}, one of Blair's close confidants, a cabinet minister under Blair and one of his close confidants, said religion was "very, very important" for the former prime minister. "This is a man who takes a Bible with him wherever he goes and last thing at night he will read from the Bible," Mandelson told the BBC program.

Blair's former media advisor Alastair Campbell told the documentary that Blair always asked his aides to find him a church to attend, wherever he happened to be.

"I think his close circle always understood that there was a part of him that was really, really important," he added.

"On that kind of spiritual level it did inform a lot of what he talked about, what he read…what he felt was important."

Blair's opponents say his religious zeal blinded him to the consequences of his actions, and point to his belief that his decision to go to war would be judged by God. Religious convictions were one of the commonalities between Blair and war alley US President George Bush.

Once said that God had chosen him to lead the nation, Bush is known for his openness about religion and keenness to show to the public that he is an observant Evangelical Christian.

Under Bush, Evangelical Christians, the fastest-growing faith-based group in the US, gained more political clout and religiously affiliated charity groups got more government funding.

Former US president and Nobel Prize winner Jimmy Carter recently accused the Bush administration of eliminating the line between church and state.

Ex-president Bill Clinton and his secretary of state Madeleine Albright also criticized Bush for invoking religion into his foreign policies.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, believes that had Blair been explicit about the influence of his religious convictions he would not have kept his post.

"The public might have been less willing to give him the triumph of three consecutive general election victories if they'd known the extent to which ethical values would overshadow pragmatism."

Source: IslamonlineAs he submits to God's Will, and surrenders to the Creator, he is rid of selfishness and conceit. And when, O Nanak, he is merciful to all beings, only then shall he be called a Muslim.”