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Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by Ray
If he would promise never to return I would cheerfully have paid his single fare myself!
He seems to love hobnobbing with the rich and famous and splurging on their hospitality!‘Cheap’ tag on Blair holiday
GRAEME WILSON
Rich obsession
London, Dec. 27: Tony Blair has been accused of “cheapening” the office of Prime Minister after it emerged he is spending a family holiday in Florida as a guest of Robin Gibb, the Bee Gees star.
A senior Conservative MP criticised Blair for accepting a string of “freebie” holidays from wealthy acquaintances, including Sir Cliff Richard and Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian Premier.
Blair and his family are staying at the luxurious Florida home of Gibb, who is a Labour supporter and appeared as a “warm-up” artist for Blair at one of the party’s rallies in Huddersfield during last year’s general election campaign.
Henry Bellingham, the Tory MP for Norfolk North West, said: “This is another example of the Prime Minister’s obsession with very rich people, an obsession which has already lead to the cash for peerages scandal. “This is yet another freebie holiday and I fear it cheapens the whole office. This is not something Prime Ministers should be doing while they are in office.”
John Campbell, Gibb’s manager, said: “It’s a private holiday and it’s a private arrangement. They are friends.”
In 2000, while Cherie and Tony Blair were on a holiday at Sir Cliff’s villa in Algarve, Portugal, Euan Blair grabbed headlines for his drunken escapades in Leicester Square, London. Tony Blair was also staying at the singer’s home in Barbados when the alleged “liquid bomb” airline plot was discovered this summer. He returned early to London a few days later.
At a holiday with former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Sardinia, Italy, the millionaire was forced to seek hospital treatment for a leg injury sustained when his British counterpart “ran into” him during a five-a-side football match.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
http://www.telegraphindia.com/106122...ry_7193110.asp
Quite a self seeking individual and no wonder he wants to be a poodle of the US. It helps to keep him in the limelight even though he is jaded and faded!
A PM should always remember that he is not a private individual. He represents the aura his country projects through him. It is like an officer in the military, who has to have a perfect public image if he wishes to command the respect of his command!
What a shame that this wily Joe has played into the hands of his political opponents, who are now laughing up their sleeves!
I wonder what the British public makes of Blair's penchant for being hosted by the rich and famous every holiday he takes.
I do hope he pays for his and his family's air tickets, or is that footed by the host or the govt?
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
If he would promise never to return I would cheerfully have paid his single fare myself!
Semper in excretum. Solum profunda variat.
I would also contribute to that noble cause!
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
One wonders if Mr. Robin Gibb was presented with a sweater knitted from No.10
"There is no excellence in all this world that can be separated from right living." - David Star Jordan My Blog
I don't know about British laws, but here in the US we keep our politicians on watch. They can't accept too much "gift" from the rich and famous. Those that they do accept, they have to declare the dollar value on their tax filings.
A republican congressman, a Vietnam War combat hero, an ace, Duke Cunningham, was disgraced and brought up on corruption charges because he took bribe money and awarded government contracts accordingly. Pretty much what Kofi does at the UN.
Last edited by gunnut; 28 Dec 06, at 20:31.
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
Yes there are laws and rules covering this sort of thing, but they seldom appear to be properly applied, as they were made in the days when parliament was for gentlemen who found such behaviour beneath contempt anyway. The self - seeking members of today are much more interested in whatever freebies are going around. That is their main priority, the secondary one is fixing themselves up with employment as 'advisors' with the big firms when the time comes to leave politics. Cynical? Me?
Semper in excretum. Solum profunda variat.
The world changeth!
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
Yep there are plenty of laws over disclosure. One of the things that did for Blunkett was a train ticket purchased on his expenses for his nanny. Not saying Briton is squeaky clean but there are plenty of rules in place.
Blair is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't really. I mean he is accepting the hospitality of a prominent Briton. As i understand it, Blair has arranged a "payment" to Mr Gibb that Mr Gibb is donating to charity. He is being castigated here in the cartoon papers because he has a security entourage.
What do the Mail and Express expect?
By going to an "estate" the security can be controlled. Otherwise it is booking 3 floors out in a hotel. If not the whole hotel. By visiting a prominent Briton he "keeps it in the family", "flies the flag" - blah blah etc etc.
Its just cheap journalism. OK, perhaps he should choose more wisely than Berlusconi - but Sir Cliff is pretty much a saint!
Speaks highly of my school, doesn't it?
Sir Cliff Richard
Background information
Birth name Harry Rodger Webb
Origin Born in Lucknow, India; raised in Calcutta and later England
He is a notable Anglo Indian (mixed British and Indian ancestry)
Last edited by Ray; 30 Dec 06, at 23:28.
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
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