Blair - rent boy for big business

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
14 January 2008

When he was prime minister, Blair boasted of having found jobs for the unemployed. He was lying. In fact, he had only forced the jobless off the benefit register or into casual jobs.

Once out of Downing Street, however, he was certainly quick to find cushy jobs for himself.

First, he got himself appointed by Bush as his envoy to the Middle East, with undisclosed earnings and paid expenses. With Blair's Iraq record and support for Israel's bombing of Lebanon, this may be a prestigious post for him, but it is an insult for the region's populations!

Meanwhile, he managed to carry on making speeches - except that, now, he was getting paid for each one. So, when he went to China to preach the virtues of capitalist profit, he got himself a neat £250,000 for the effort. Any of us could live for several years off that sort of money!

But this was not enough for Blair's greed. He also signed a deal for his memoirs, earning him £5m ahead of publication! One can only wonder what can be so valuable in what he has to say? Dirty words about Brown, maybe?

Blair's latest money-spinner is the most revealing, however. He is to be part time adviser for the American investment bank, JP Morgan, one of the world's largest banks. Blair refused to disclose his salary, but "head hunters" say it must be over £500,000 a year. £10,000/week for a part-time job? Maybe not much, compared to top capitalists' earnings, but not bad for an ex-prime minister!

This makes Blair the first ex-Labour prime minister to move on to big business, let alone big banking. So far, this was the preserve of Tory prime ministers - like John Major, who became chairman of the European arm of US investment fund Carlyle, or Thatcher, who was advisor to tobacco group Philip Morris.

It says it all about the appreciation of big business for Blair's "good work" in office - i.e. the anti-working class policies he and Brown forced down our throats for a whole decade. The capitalists recognise Tory Blair as someone who served them well - and he sure did!