Cherie Blair has given an interview to Tatler magazine in which she says that she worries all the time about not having enough money. The wife of the ex-prime minister, herself a high earning barrister, and a multi-millionaire, says that she is conditioned by her upbringing, which was poor working class. Her grandmother apparently was obsessed about not having a pauper’s funeral. It was all about being “respectable poor”.
Mrs Blair has always been a hate figure, perhaps because she was the first prime minister’s wife to really have a working career, and, quite a high profile and confrontational one, which she continued to pursue whilst they lived in Downing Street. Her work as a barrister, specialising in human rights often involved her working on cases against the government. I must admit I was ready to dislike her intensely as much as I disked her husband, but, on the few occasions I heard her talk, she came over as reasonably sensible.
But without any doubt she has always had a reputation, and I can’t see that it could be unfounded, so entrenched is it, for being a money grabber. If she is, then short of marrying Tiger Woods or David Beckham, she chose the right guy. Tony Blair is estimated to have earned around £12 million since he left Downing Street two and a half years ago, with another £4.5 million on the way for advance on his soon to be published memoirs.
Blair seems to have a collection of jobs, in a world of unemployment, none of which he seems to spend very much time at, nor, for that matter, is any good at. But it is public speaking which earns him the bulk of his money. It is reckoned that he may be the most highly paid public speaker in the world, so I guess he must be good at that.
Amazing!
Despite what is being revealed in the inquiry into the Iraq war, it astonishes me that people can still bear to be in the same room with this man, let alone listen to his voice.
Amazing!
Getting back to Mrs Blair, one of the most astounding things that she says in the interview is that she thinks that MPs have been pilloried over their expenses. She says “They saw it as an allowance, which is not the same thing”. Oh well, that’s alright then. If they saw it as an allowance that is total justification for telling the Commons authorities that they lived at one address in order to extract maximum expenses, whilst telling the tax authorities that they lived at another address in order to maximise tax avoidance. Perfectly alright. A totally different thing. Right! Bampot!
Mrs Blair has always been a hate figure, perhaps because she was the first prime minister’s wife to really have a working career, and, quite a high profile and confrontational one, which she continued to pursue whilst they lived in Downing Street. Her work as a barrister, specialising in human rights often involved her working on cases against the government. I must admit I was ready to dislike her intensely as much as I disked her husband, but, on the few occasions I heard her talk, she came over as reasonably sensible.
But without any doubt she has always had a reputation, and I can’t see that it could be unfounded, so entrenched is it, for being a money grabber. If she is, then short of marrying Tiger Woods or David Beckham, she chose the right guy. Tony Blair is estimated to have earned around £12 million since he left Downing Street two and a half years ago, with another £4.5 million on the way for advance on his soon to be published memoirs.
Blair seems to have a collection of jobs, in a world of unemployment, none of which he seems to spend very much time at, nor, for that matter, is any good at. But it is public speaking which earns him the bulk of his money. It is reckoned that he may be the most highly paid public speaker in the world, so I guess he must be good at that.
Amazing!
Despite what is being revealed in the inquiry into the Iraq war, it astonishes me that people can still bear to be in the same room with this man, let alone listen to his voice.
Amazing!
Getting back to Mrs Blair, one of the most astounding things that she says in the interview is that she thinks that MPs have been pilloried over their expenses. She says “They saw it as an allowance, which is not the same thing”. Oh well, that’s alright then. If they saw it as an allowance that is total justification for telling the Commons authorities that they lived at one address in order to extract maximum expenses, whilst telling the tax authorities that they lived at another address in order to maximise tax avoidance. Perfectly alright. A totally different thing. Right! Bampot!
She's certainly wasn't conditioned by her childhood to that particular piece of thinking. I suspect her granny wouldn't be too proud of it.
It goes down as a “let them eat cake” moment from my point of view.
It goes down as a “let them eat cake” moment from my point of view.
