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Old July 12th, 2012 #61
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Default Tony Blair, the MOD and UFO/alien sightings

Funny it should be in the news today. Gerry Fable should enjoy this article.


Quote:
The former Labour leader was apparently concerned about information on the unidentified objects being released to the public, as a result of the impending Freedom of Information Act, so decided to find out what facts existed.

The move was prompted by a letter received by Downing Street from Dr David Clarke, which referred to a potential 'cover up' over UFOs, asking the prime minister to make all records on the matter available to the public.

Around 6,700 pages of UFO files have been made available by the National Archives, with several sightings of unexplained aircraft being revealed.

In one of the documents a police officer said he saw a 'square/diamond shaped object moving across the sky and changing shape', while working at Stamford Bridge during an FA Cup game between Chelsea and Manchester United.

A number of UFO sightings were also reported in Wales in 1977. In one instance a hotel owner said he saw too tall 'faceless humanoids', wearing silver suits.

An intelligence officer said it was not the MoD's duty to deny the existence of aliens but to discern whether UFO's were a threat to Britain.

In an email, he added: '(The discussion) tends to suggest to the public that there are Top Secret teams of specialist scientists scurrying around the country in a real life version of the X-Files… [but] this is total fiction.'
Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/904975-tony-blair-was-briefed-on-alien-defence-policy-by-ministry-of-defence#ixzz20Q20X7g4 safe

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Old July 14th, 2012 #62
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Listen to the Army officer talking at 3mins 20 seconds. He says the security in place for the Olympics is to protect 'Earth', then quickly corrects himself to say the 'Olympic park'.

No way in a million years was that a genuine slip-of-the-tongue. WTF is going on?
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Last edited by Gerry Fable; July 14th, 2012 at 10:59 AM.
 
Old July 14th, 2012 #63
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerry Fable View Post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FcH8...layer_embedded

Listen to the Army officer talking at 3mins 20 seconds. He says the security in place for the Olympics is to protect 'Earth', then quickly corrects himself to say the 'Olympic park'.

No way in a million years was that a genuine slip-of-the-tongue. WTF is going on?
I don't know. I don't get it at all. I think the world and his wife are primed to expect a terrorist attack be it from muslims or a false flag but aliens? Why aliens, why Britain, why the Olympics? I just find it hard to think about because I don't really believe in aliens. I know it's arrogant to think that Earth is the only planet populated by sentient beings, and I know many people are convinced they've had brushes with aliens or seen UFOs but I just find it a bit hard to swallow. Ghosts, yes. Aliens, no.
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Old July 14th, 2012 #64
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Old July 14th, 2012 #65
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Aliens exist. It is just that space is so vast, and life so rare, that is is almost certain that alien life has not visited this planet. It's possible, but highly unlikely.

Aliens are far more likely to exist than ghosts. I don't understand your logic there, for someone who doesn't believe in God, or the existence of spirit.

But that video clip. WTF Are they doing it on purpose for a laugh? Maybe Project Blue Beam is not a conspiracy theory after all?

Something fishy is going on with these Olympics.
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Old July 14th, 2012 #66
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Originally Posted by Gerry Fable View Post
Aliens exist. It is just that space is so vast, and life so rare, that is is almost certain that alien life has not visited this planet. It's possible, but highly unlikely.

Aliens are far more likely to exist than ghosts. I don't understand your logic there, for someone who doesn't believe in God, or the existence of spirit.

But that video clip. WTF Are they doing it on purpose for a laugh? Maybe Project Blue Beam is not a conspiracy theory after all?

Something fishy is going on with these Olympics.
I don't understand my own logic. I (think) I have seen/heard ghosts and that's why I (kind of) believe in them. I've never seen an alien so can't believe in them. I have never seen China but I believe it exists. I don't understand my own logic on it, so I don't expect anyone else to.

Yes, that video is confusing the hell out of me. Confusing "the Olympic park" with "Earth" isn't the kind of slip you hear every day, is it? There's all the fuss about the SAMs, the coffins, the blood donor requests - I'm happy to believe there's a terrorist attack expected but aliens? Are they going to try and false flag an alien attack? Do they really think people will swallow it? Or do they really expect one?

I'm just glad I live nowhere near London at the minute.
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Old July 14th, 2012 #67
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The intelligence services obviously employ psychologists for their disinformation campaigns, and I wonder if MI5/MI6 is playing up to the conspiracy theorists for some psychological purpose?

I am sure there is a valid and rational reason for this 'Alien threat' bollox. But I do know that a false flag terrorist attack is far more likely than ET suddenly making an appearance.
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Old July 14th, 2012 #68
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Originally Posted by Bev View Post
Yes, that video is confusing the hell out of me. Confusing "the Olympic park" with "Earth" isn't the kind of slip you hear every day, is it?
I don't think there's any mention of 'Earth'. I think it was a kind of pause, as in '. . .unlikely but very serious threat that might exist to. . .errr. . .Olympic Park.'
 
Old July 16th, 2012 #69
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It’s a scientific prediction that will get dollar signs pinging in Steven Spielberg’s eyes: We could make contact with aliens in less than 100 years.

But according to one of our leading physicists, it is a matter for governments – rather than Hollywood – who should start preparing for our first extra-terrestrial encounter now.

Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum conference in Dublin, Jocelyn Bell Burnell said: ‘I do suspect we are going to get signs of life elsewhere, maybe even intelligent life, within the next century.

How well prepared are we? Have we thought of how we approach them? Should we put them in a zoo, eat them, send in GIs to bring them democracy?’

She said we are most likely to find alien life where we find rocky planets with carbon dioxide and ozone in the atmospheres. The Oxford University professor said: ‘If we do suspect there is intelligent life out there, are we going to make ourselves known to them or not?

‘There are interesting questions about who you would tell first – the Press, the Prime Minister, the Pope? We should start thinking now.’

However, she said that even if we do find signs of alien life, it is likely to take decades to talk to them from Earth via radio or lasers.

Professor Bell Burnell said: ‘Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. So you are probably talking of conversations that could take 50 or 100 years, just one way.’

Previous research has found almost half of Britons believe in little green men.

The poll of more than 2,000 men and women for the Royal Society found that 44 per cent are of the opinion extra-terrestrial life exists and more than a third of those questioned said we should be actively searching and trying to make contact with ET.


Worrying: Stephen Hawking has warned that aliens may plunder Earth for its resources



Scientists are divided about whether we should be advertising our presence to inhabitants of other planets.

Some say that if we alert hostile aliens to our existence we risk an invasion that could lead to the end of life on Earth.

They argue that if ET has the technology to cross space to reach us any defences we have will be all but useless.

And Stephen Hawking has warned that aliens may plunder Earth for its resources.

Advocating that we do everything we can to avoid contact, he said: ‘We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.

‘If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2174136/Aliens-Well-probably-close-encounter-century-says-leading-physicist-warns-governments-ready.html safe

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Zombies, aliens, owt else?
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Old July 26th, 2012 #70
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Default Tony Blair claims FOI was the worst law he ever passed - I bet he does!

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Tony Blair was lambasted by MPs today for failing to answer their questions on the Freedom of Information Act, even though he was the law's architect.

The former Prime Minister called the act 'one of the greatest mistakes I made in office' and now refused to appear before the Commons justice select committee to discuss it, it was revealed today.

FOI allows any person in Britain to request information from public bodies.

Sir Alan Beith, the committee's chairman, said Mr Blair was given every chance to give evidence at a convenient time but only answered written questions after a press report suggested they would be critical of his non-appearance.

'We deplore Mr Blair’s failure to cooperate with a committee of the House, despite being given every opportunity to attend at a time convenient to him,' Sir Alan said .

Their new report made no major recommendations to reduce the openness created by the Freedom of Information laws and did not recommend fees should be brought in to recoup the costs of answering requests.

But its findings were finalised before the MPs received a letter from Mr Blair, who came up with the idea of the Act as prime minister, saying that it undermined discussions at the highest levels of government.

Sir Alan said: 'Former prime minister Tony Blair described himself as a "nincompoop" for his role in the legislation, saying that it was "antithetical to sensible government".


'Yet when we sought to question Mr Blair on his change of opinion he refused to defend his views before us and submitted answers to our written questions only after our report was agreed, and after a press report had appeared, suggesting we might criticise his failure to give evidence.'

The report said the existing legislation already intended to provide a 'safe space' for policy-making in which ministers could be given frank advice by officials and this should be respected by everyone.

Ministerial vetoes would, from time to time, need to be used to protect this space, the report added.

It said the 'potential risks of a chilling effect - if it is a reality - go beyond a bowdlerising or editing of the records'.

'It is that no record exists, because ministers may avoid holding formal meetings entirely,' the committee said.


But research by the Constitution Unit found the 'chilling effect' of FOI laws appeared “negligible to marginal”, despite the concerns raised by former senior ministers and officials.

Retired Cabinet Secretary Lord O’Donnell told the MPs that ministers and officials 'are going to find ways around it, things are not going to be written down' and the cost of ministers’ mobile phone bills will rise.

'That, to me, makes for worse government and it makes it impossible for (historians) to try to recreate accurately what has gone on when there are no records,' he warned.

The MPs’ report concluded: 'Given the uncertainty of the evidence we do not recommend any major diminution of the openness created by the Freedom of Information Act.

'But, given the clear intention of Parliament in passing the legislation that it should allow a ‘safe space’ for policy formation and Cabinet discussion, we remind everyone involved in both using and determining that space that the Act was intended to protect high-level policy discussions.
WHAT IS THE FOI ACT?

The Freedom of Information Act was passed in November 2000, three years after Tony Blair, its architect, first became Prime Minister.

It came into force in January 2005, giving the public a right to access all types of recorded information held by taxpayer-funded authorities and organisations.

These include government departments, councils and the BBC.

There are certain exceptions allowed to be used to prevent some information being released.

These include if it would cost too much to collate, it is not in the public interest to publish or is a matter of national security.

'We also recognise that the realities of government mean that the ministerial veto will have to be used from time to time to protect that space.'

The report also called for higher fines for the destruction of information, along with changes to protect universities from having to disclose research before the paper has been published.

Dr Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group, backed the report, saying that if research data was not exempt from FOI legislation 'then we are in real danger of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs'.

'Openness and transparency must have limitations in order to protect our national interests, including national security and the safety of our researchers.'

Nick Pickles, director of the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, added: 'Access to information is an essential part of holding government to account.

'As the committee has found, the Act already protects sensitive discussions and those seeking to restore a veil of secrecy to decision making should not be allowed to stem the flow of information, by charging or limiting the scope of the Act.

A spokesman for Mr Blair’s office said he had submitted written evidence to the committee in response to its questions.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2179167/Tony-Blair-branded-deplorable-refusing-testify-MPs-Freedom-Information-law-nincompoop-create.html
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Funny - he only did two decent things in his time in number 10 and now calls himself a nincompoop for one of them.
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Old September 3rd, 2012 #71
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Default Tutu calls for 'lying' Blair and Bush to face trial in Hague Criminal Court over Iraq war

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu has demanded that Tony Blair be tried in The Hague over the invasion of Iraq.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner accused the former Prime Minister of lying about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and said that the 2003 war had left the world more destabilised and divided than ‘any other conflict in history’.

He said Mr Blair should be subjected to a trial at the International Criminal Court, along with former US president George W. Bush.

The archbishop claimed that the US and UK-led military operation to oust Saddam created the backdrop for the civil war in Syria and a possible wider Middle East conflict involving Iran.

He said: ‘The then leaders of the United States and Great Britain fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart.

‘They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand – with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us.

'The question is not whether Saddam Hussein was good or bad or how many people he massacred, the point is that Mr Bush and Mr Blair should not have allowed themselves to stoop to his immoral level.’

Calling for the pair to face justice in The Hague, he said different standards appeared to be set for prosecuting African leaders, and that the death toll during and after the Iraq conflict was sufficient evidence for them to face action.


‘On these grounds alone, in a consistent world, those responsible should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in The Hague,’ he said.

Archbishop Tutu, a long-time critic of the Iraq war, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for speaking out against apartheid in his native South Africa.


Last week he pulled out of a South African conference on leadership because Mr Blair was attending.

In response to the archbishop’s remarks, Mr Blair said that it was right to get rid of Saddam because of the human rights abuses he perpetrated, and he argued that Iraq was now a better place.

He said: ‘I have a great respect for Archbishop Tutu’s fight against apartheid – where we were on the same side of the argument – but to repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is completely wrong, as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown.


‘And to say the fact that Saddam massacred hundreds of thousands of his citizens is irrelevant to the morality of removing him is bizarre.’

He added: ‘I would also point out that despite the problems, Iraq today has an economy three times or more in size with child mortality rate cut by a third of what it was. And with investment hugely increased in places such as Basra.’

Yesterday, former Lib Dem leader Menzies Campbell declined to back Archbishop Tutu’s call for a Hague trial.

He said: ‘When any question of crime is discussed in any jurisdiction, you have to ask yourself whether an act was committed and whether that act was committed with criminal intent.

'Although I believe that George W Bush and Tony Blair were wrong ...  I don’t believe they did so with any malign intention.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2197109/Desmond-Tutu-Archbishop-calls-lying-Blair-Bush-face-trial-Hague-Criminal-Court-Iraq-war.html
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Old September 3rd, 2012 #72
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Default Israeli model begs Blair to intervene to save life of Gaddafi jr

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The last-known girlfriend of Colonel Gaddafi’s playboy son Saif al-Islam has called on his ‘old friend’ Tony Blair to save his life.

Saif Gaddafi is facing the death penalty in Libya where he is on trial for his role in the killing of protesters during last year’s uprising against his father.

Human rights groups are concerned that he will not face a fair trial and efforts to extradite him to the International Criminal Court in the Hague have failed.

Now Orly Weinerman, a 41-year-old Israeli model and actress who dated Saif for six years after meeting him in London in 2005, has called on Mr Blair to make Saif’s accusers ‘see reason’.

She said: ‘Saif worked closely with Mr Blair before he was captured.


'The two are old friends – it is time that Mr Blair returned some loyalty.

'Mr Blair is a man of God – as a Christian he has a moral duty to help a friend in need.’

Saif’s close links with Mr Blair were illustrated in documents found during the uprising.

A letter written by Mr Blair in 2007 gave suggestions to help with Saif’s PhD, which he was taking at the London School of Economics.

Miss Weinerman added: ‘You should just ask Mr Blair what a serious, honourable person he is. The ICC has let him down, and so has the international community.

‘Killing him will achieve absolutely nothing, beyond punishing him for who his father was. Absolutely everything must be done to save him.’

The Israeli actress said her ‘discreet relationship’ with Saif al-Islam - whose name means ‘Sword of Islam’ - began in April 2005 when they were introduced by mutual friends.

It was strained from the start because she is Jewish - a fact that caused complications in an Islamic country such as Libya.

Her parents - her father is a green energy consultant and her mother a pianist - were also opposed to her converting to Islam, she said, and her relationship with Saif came in for much criticism in the Israeli press.

‘It was something we had to deal with,’ said Miss Weinerman, who is now based in her home city of Tel Aviv.

‘The fact that Saif was prepared to involve himself in a loving relationship with a Jew is a measure of how open and civilised he is.

‘He judged people for what they are - not what people perceive them to be. Saif never made an issue of my religion, or the country I came from.’

She had previously denied having any contact with Saif, after publications including Germany’s Der Spiegel reported their romance in 2006.

Saif’s reputation is as a notorious womaniser, and he has been photographed surrounded by gorgeous women.




Fall from power: How Saif Gaddafi looked after he was captured by revolutionary fighters last November

When his father ruled Libya, Saif played a key role in dealings with the West, and in particular with Mr Blair who met the tyrant in the infamous ‘Deal in the Desert’ in 2004 to bring Libya in from the cold.

It was around then that a grubby backroom deal is suspected of being done to free the Lockerbie bomber, although Mr Blair denies any part in this.

When Mr Blair stepped down as premier, he pursued business interests in the North African country, assisting international companies to make profits from its oil and gas reserves.


More...


Miss Weinerman did not meet Mr Blair or any of Saif’s other high-profile Western contacts, but says she was dating him during the period when he was meeting them.

She was also busy with modelling assignments and soap opera parts in mainly Israeli TV shows at the time.

At one stage the couple talked of marriage, she said, but were finally separated last year when the Libyan uprising toppled the dictator after 42 years in power, and Saif went on the run.

The trial of Saif Gaddafi, being held in the mountain town of Zintan, will be one of the biggest events the country has seen.

Previous attempts to bring him to trial had been plagued with arguments over whether the case should be heard in the capital.
Links: Former Prime Minister Tony Blair (left) and the late Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi pictured in Tripoli in 2004

Links: Former Prime Minister Tony Blair (left) and the late Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi pictured in Tripoli in 2004. When Mr Blair stepped down as premier, he pursued business interests in the North African country, assisting international companies to make profits from its oil and gas reserves

The Zintan brigade fighters - who captured him - insisted he be tried in their home town amid fears he might escape with the help of sympathisers if he was put in the dock in Tripoli, or that he would be treated leniently.

The decision was also complicated by a demand from the International Criminal Court that Saif be tried at The Hague.

One official from the Libyan prosecutor’s office said recently: ‘We are sure that the evidence we have gathered is solid and it will shock and surprise the world. We believe we are capable of holding a fair trial.’

Three Libyan judges will hear the case, which is expected to last for up to six months, with two prosecutors.

Saif has so far refused to appoint a lawyer to defend him, and one will be appointed for him if he continues to refuse.

Human rights groups have argued that the Libyan justice system is not capable of dealing with such a high-profile case.

Amnesty International said an unfair trial in Libya would go against ‘justice and accountability’.

Yesterday a spokesman for Tony Blair declined to comment.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2197304/Saif-Gaddafis-girlfriend-calls-PM-save-life.html

Is she mad? Blair would love nothing better than to have all those with any sort of knowledge of anything to do with that part of his life silenced.
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Old January 27th, 2013 #73
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Tony Blair: Europe must change. But most Britons want to stay IN - and now I want to mobilise them


Talk to anyone in the political or business community outside of Britain today and there is only one question on their lips: ‘Are you guys seriously going to leave Europe?’ The incredulity with which they ask reflects their view of the wisdom of leaving. Of course, they could all be wrong. But the near-universal opinion of friends and interested parties outside the UK should make those of us inside the UK pause.

Up to last Wednesday I would answer confidently (though not always feeling it): no, we’re staying in Europe. After David Cameron’s speech, in which, for the first time since we joined Europe almost 40 years ago, a leader of a party with a chance of governing has said it will be its policy to put leaving to a referendum, I can’t give that answer. The answer has to be: maybe. That is a momentous decision. It has vast implications for our economy and our position in the world.

The irony is that I could agree with 90 per cent of what David Cameron said in his speech. I agree with him that Europe has to reform and do so now with greater urgency following the financial crisis. I agree, too, with his defence of why Britain should stay as a full member of the European Union. On this 90 per cent, I and many others would work with him. It was the ten per cent sting in the tail where we part company: that if we don’t get what we want, we should quit.


In the first part, we are making a case for reform in Europe, so as to make Europe competitive and create jobs. That is a debate for all 27 countries. In the second, we are putting into play Britain’s membership. That is one versus 26.

Where we argue for reform in Europe, we’re making a case made by successive British PMs. It can be two steps forward, one step back. However, contrary to popular conception, by and large the UK has been adept at blocking things we don’t like and getting things we do.


When David Cameron speaks of reform, many European heads are nodding. But they stop sharply when he switches country-leader hat for party-leader hat and threatens British exit. Then our allies suspect this is not about Europe or Britain, but about tensions within his party and they cease being allies.

So why does Britain’s membership of the EU matter? In 1946, Winston Churchill made his famous speech in Zurich calling for a United States of Europe.

He saw a continent ravaged by centuries of conflict and recently by two world wars. He saw France and Germany – enemies in those wars – becoming friends in a new union. The rationale for Europe was simple – peace not war.

In 2013, there is a new rationale and one that is stronger, clearer and more enduring: not peace, but power. The geo-political landscape of the 21st Century is undergoing a revolution. The question for Britain is: what is the best vantage point for us in this new landscape?

At the end of the 19th Century, Britain was the world’s greatest power. At the end of the 20th Century, it was the USA. At the end of the 21st Century it will likely be China or, at the very least, China and possibly India will be as powerful as the USA. We have to understand how profound this change is and how it will impact us.


China has a population double that of Europe and the US put together, and India not far off it. A nation such as Indonesia – now on its way up – has three times more people than Germany. Today this counts economically and politically. Slowly but surely the size of a nation’s economy is becoming aligned with the size of its population. Why? Because technology and money are now mobile and, provided a country is part of the world’s markets, in time, size matters.

So for the UK and similar-sized countries in Europe, we have to face the fact that in the future there will be many countries bigger than us and some, such as Mexico and the Philippines, with populations double ours. At present the EU is the most powerful political union and biggest business market in the world. We will need it to remain at the top and we will need to be part of it.

This is why in other parts of the world – in the Far East and in Latin America, even in Africa – new emerging countries are also forming blocs. They do this to leverage power. You get the weight together that you can’t get on your own.

For the UK, therefore, to leave the bloc right on its doorstep would be an extraordinary denial of its own interests. Britain is a big player and should remain one. It has two huge alliances: with the US and with Europe. Use them, leverage them, build on them. Don’t throw them away. The permanent discomfort of losing them will be infinitely greater than the periodic discomfort of maintaining them.

So, for sure, we should argue with passion for Europe to recognise why it must change. Globalisation and technology mean we have to; so does demography.

The average age of people in Europe in the Eighties was early 30s. Today it is moving towards early 40s. All of these things mean that public services, welfare, pensions – the whole way the State is run – have to change.
Prime Minister David Cameron has promised an in/out referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union by the end of 2017, if the Conservatives win the next general election.

Prime Minister David Cameron has promised an in/out referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union by the end of 2017, if the Conservatives win the next general election.

We should lead the case for Europe to change. But we can’t do it if we’re not in it.

Europe is in crisis now because, though a single currency for a single market makes sense long-term, the way the euro was created subordinated the economics to the politics. That was the design flaw and was always the UK’s problem with it, so that though the political case for Britain being in the euro was plain, the economic case wasn’t; and since it is an economic and monetary union, the economics had to be right. So Britain stayed out.

But that is a wholly different thing to separating ourselves out from the EU altogether. That is where putting our membership into play is such a risk.

We don’t know yet what reforms we will seek; or get. We don’t know what the rest of Europe will decide. The referendum won’t happen for four or five years. The only certain thing is the uncertainty.

That is why UKIP is rejoicing and it really doesn’t matter what David Cameron comes back with by way of a deal. It will never be enough for them. They’re like the old Left in the Labour Party or the new Right in the fringe parties of Europe and the Tea Party in the US. They have a perfect right to make their point. But they shouldn’t decide the policy of a serious nation.

In 1946, Churchill gave his blessing to the French-German rapprochement. But he didn’t feel the need for Britain to be part of it. So we weren’t. We spent the next 20 years trying to get in. It is important not to repeat that pattern. I believe there is a sensible, solid majority in the UK for us to stay in Europe. It is time to start mobilising it.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2268918/Tony-Blair-warns-leaving-European-Union.html

Tony, if "most" Britons want to stay in, there'll be no need to mobilise them.
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Old January 27th, 2013 #74
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And appearing to prove the exact opposite of Blair's claim:
Quote:
David Cameron's promise of a referendum on whether Britain should cut all ties with Brussels has reversed the flood of Tory voters switching to UKIP.

And pressure on Labour leader Ed Miliband to follow suit is set to grow after calls for him to back a nationwide vote on the issue won big support in a Mail on Sunday poll.

The survey suggests the Prime Minister’s EU referendum vow has prompted a Tory bounce, with Labour’s lead cut by two points to seven per cent.



According to the Survation poll for this newspaper, Labour has a clear lead on 38 per cent, followed by the Tories on 31, UKIP on 14 and the Lib Dems on a lowly ten.


The two-point gain for the Conservatives since the New Year appears to have come directly from UKIP, who are down by two.

And the Conservatives received another boost today after UKIP leader Nigel Farage announced he now aims to target pro-EU Mr Miliband instead of Mr Cameron.

Mr Farage denounced the Labour leader’s ‘abject’ refusal to back a nationwide in/out ballot on the EU and said he was now ‘gunning for Labour’.

It is a marked change in tone from Mr Farage, whose sustained and vitriolic attacks on ‘that man’ Mr Cameron in the past year have seen Tory defectors take UKIP’s ratings to record levels.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2268923/Tories-surge-referendum-pledge-Britain-cut-ties-Brussels.html
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Old January 31st, 2013 #75
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Default Tony Blair is a national hero (if you are Polish!) Former PM given award by Poland for services rendered

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In Britain, his ‘open door’ immigration policies have been criticised by all sides.

But in Poland, which was transformed by entry into the EU, Tony Blair is feted as a hero.

And yesterday the former Prime Minister was handed a special award for helping hundreds of thousands of Poles come to live in the UK.

He was honoured with the gong at the annual Polish Business Leaders Awards ceremony in Warsaw.

Mr Blair's prize paid tribute to his backing for Poland’s efforts to join the EU, opening up the British labour market to Poles and overseeing a growth in trade between the two countries while in office.

A golden statuette was accepted in his absence by Robin Barnett, Britain’s ambassador in Poland.

But Mr Blair recorded a video message for the audience at Warsaw’s National Opera house, in which he said ‘As you know, Poland is a country I admire greatly.

'I admire the Polish people greatly. I'd like to thank you for the contribution you've made to the European Union since you joined, and to my country, to Britain, both at the workplace and in society.


'This is a difficult economic time and I know the Business Centre Club of Poland do fantastic work. So to be given this award for the contribution I have made, in my way, to relations between Britain and Poland, between British people and Polish people is an especial honour.'

The award, referred to as the ‘Special Prize’, is awarded to a figure from outside the world of business who has helped Poland.

Previous winners include Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton and Bertie Ahern. Mr Blair shared it with two Poles, former defence minister Janusz Onyszkiewicz and former deputy prime minister Janusz Steinhoff.

Tony Blair in his prerecorded video message for the audience at Warsaw's National Opera house, in which he said 'As you know, Poland is a country I admire greatly'

Around 700,000 eastern Europeans migrated to the UK form eight former communist nations when they were admitted to the European Union in 2004 – despite ministers predicting only 15,000 a year would arrive.

Between December 2003 and December 2010 the Polish-born population of the UK increased from 75,000 to 532,000.

Latest census figures reveal that the number of Poles living in Britain now stands at 625,000.

Tory MP Philip Hollobone, raged last night: ‘This award is entirely appropriate.

‘Tony Blair presided over the biggest wave of immigration this country has seen since the Norman conquest, 2.5million net migrants came in to the UK while he was in charge and Britain will never be the same again’.


Ed Miliband spoke out last year to say the relaxation of immigration controls – under which only Britain, Ireland and Sweden allowed people from new member countries unrestricted rights to live and work - were a ‘mistake’.

Mr Miliband said the Labour government had underestimated both the numbers of Polish immigrants and the ‘big effect’ it had on living standards for working-class households.

But Mr Blair recently defended his record, saying Polish immigrants did ‘good work in our country’ and that ‘most sensible people’ appreciated their contribution to Britain.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-Britain.html for video
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Old May 18th, 2013 #76
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Default Cherie Blair: Do as I say, not as I do

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Such are the quirks and foibles of the super-rich that even outwardly simple occasions, such as the celebration of a 60th birthday, can turn into rather complicated productions.

Take Cherie Blair’s arrangements to mark her husband Tony’s 60th earlier this month.

Knowing how keen he is to stave off the advancing years, she hired an Italian-based ‘detox chef’ to prepare an unimpeachably healthy dinner for the group of family and friends she flew to Europe to mark the event.

Then, she engaged the same chef to rustle up another menu of plain, if pricey, offerings for a dozen guests at their £5.75 million country pile in the Chilterns.

None of this comes cheap, of course.

But Cherie, who in an interview with the American business TV channel CNBC this week spoke passionately about the importance of women being financially independent of their husbands, was determined to foot the bill herself.

Despite the fact the former prime minister has earned a reputed £60 million in business since leaving office, 58-year-old Cherie, who is a successful barrister, is keen to make her own fortune, too.

However, she is discovering that the entrepreneurial road to great wealth can be littered with potholes.

More than a year after she controversially launched a multi-million-pound private healthcare venture, with plans to open clinics in supermarkets across the country, she has been hit by a succession of disappointing setbacks.

I can reveal that a Cayman Islands-based private equity fund Mrs Blair jointly founded to raise cash for the ambitious business project has raised only a fraction of the £75 million needed to finance the clinics she had set her heart on.

It means that her much-vaunted plan to open 100 surgeries in branches of Sainsbury’s over the next four years is not as advanced as she might have hoped.

It is undoubtedly a blow for Mrs Blair, who joined forces with Right-wing America businesswoman Gail Lese to launch Mee Healthcare.

The announcment of her healthcare venture was a move that astonished many on the Left, who never believed they would see this lifelong socialist and NHS champion espouse, let alone profit from, private healthcare.




A source very close to the business told me this week: ‘It’s been tough and it’s obviously very difficult in the current market environment to raise funds for start-up businesses.

‘It’s been harder than expected in a difficult economic climate.’

The source admitted the private equity fund had failed to raise the sums Mrs Blair was banking on, but refused to be drawn on suggestions it has come up with less than £10 million.

However, this week, in one bit of welcome news, it was revealed that Tory MP and former Lehman Brothers banker Brooks Newmark has joined 41 investors who have promised money through the Allele Fund.

This is a company formed by Mrs Blair and Miss Lese in 2008 to act as an investment vehicle to secure funding for the clinics.

It should be remembered, however, that as late as last August, those involved in the deal were confidently talking up plans to raise the £75 million from rich investors in ‘three to nine months’.

There was plenty of positive spin then that £6 million had already been raised through the Allele Fund.

But nine months on, having failed to raise anything like the amount they need, the two women have been forced to downsize their expectations.

A spokesman for Mee Healthcare admitted this week that the aims of the company have been substantially reduced.

Now, the plan is to open just five centres in Sainsbury’s supermarkets around the country in the next year to add to the seven that are already up and running.



At the same time, the somewhat overblown promises being made by the company a few months ago that it would provide an innovative ‘one-stop shop’ for all medical needs, from GPs to dentists and pampering services, have also had to be radically rethought.

In fact, not one doctor has been hired to work in the clinics, and someone very close to the company told me this week that there are no plans in the immediate future to hire one.

Offering GP appointments was a crucial aspect of the business plan.

Now that it is being quietly delayed, the company’s main source of income will come from £25 eye tests and the sale of spectacles.

This is hardly groundbreaking, given that there is an optician on virtually every High Street and shopping centre in the land.

Despite scaling back its plans, the company still claims to offer hearing tests, together with access to dentists and dental hygienists.

To test these claims, this week I rang the Mee outlet in a Sainsbury’s in Gravesend, Kent, to inquire about booking an appointment to have a dental check-up.

Even though Mee trumpets the service on its flashy website, a member of its staff who answered the phone at the store told me the service was not yet available — and would not be until August at the earliest because of a ‘delay with the fittings’.

Likewise, the Mee centres in Northampton and Ely, Cambridgeshire, admitted that despite advertising dental treatment online, it is still not available in the shops.

This must come as a disappointing turn of events to Mrs Blair and Harvard-educated Miss Lese, who previously managed a £58 million fund for the Boston-based Fidelity Investments.

When the first Mee Clinic opened in March last year, Mrs Blair gave an interview to the Financial Times in which she excitedly talked up the radical plans for the business, which has taken advantage of Coalition policies to open the NHS to private competition.

At the time, marketing material proclaimed that Mee was developed to ‘revolutionise the delivery of healthcare in the UK’.





The firm proudly boasted its motto was: ‘Your one-stop connection for quality health, wellness and life.’
Meanwhile, its website promised: ‘Mee provides a range of premium healthcare and wellbeing services at accessible prices.

‘We aim to bring the very best health and wellness treatments to you, from our trusted care professionals.

'At Mee we have a variety of treatments that everyone can enjoy and fit into their busy lifestyles.’

It was, admittedly, a rather unexpected venture for Liverpool-raised Mrs Blair.

Since the age of 16, she’s been a member of a Labour party that excoriates private healthcare.

But she rejected claims that she was cashing in — though her case has not been helped by the fact that she and 45-year-old Miss Lese, who is a trained doctor, registered the Allele Fund in the tax haven of the Cayman Islands.


This means that any tax the company pays to the UK exchequer is significantly reduced.

However, a source close to Miss Lese insisted to the Mail this week: ‘The fund is registered offshore to give it parity of tax treatment with the overwhelming majority of other funds and private equity.

'This is absolutely not an Allele issue, but an issue you should take up with the regulators.’

This sounds similar to the sort of defence offered by corporations such as Google, Starbucks and Amazon, who have been increasingly criticised for paying too little tax in this country.

Certainly the blonde American might seem like an odd bedfellow for Cherie Blair.

In the past, she has donated money to Right-winger Sarah Palin’s bid to get into the White House.

She also worked with beaten Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The company setback comes despite Mrs Blair and her partner hiring respected City advisers Cavendish Corporate Finance to help them identify high-profile investors, selected from a specially prepared list of ‘very high net worth individuals’.

The women have also appointed John F. Shea, whose family runs one of the biggest private building firms in the U.S., to the board of the Allele Fund.

Meanwhile, Mrs Blair and Miss Lese brought in specialist international PR firm RLM Finsbury — which advises the likes of RBS and Burberry — to formulate their media strategy.

The struggle to raise money has left Miss Lese trying to secure investment herself.

‘Basically, Gail’s been very hard at work talking to investors and it has been coming through in bits and bobs,’ my source said.

‘It’s tough. It’s primarily down to Gail and she has been on a constant road show to raise funds when she is not running the business.’

But Mee is not the only business Mrs Blair has been keen to get off the ground.

Last year, she courted controversy by offering her services as a legal and human rights consultant through a company that advised the oppressive Middle Eastern state of Bahrain.

Mrs Blair, who visited the country in November 2011, touted for business through a consultancy called Omnia Strategy.

It said its work in Bahrain was aimed at implementing reforms to safeguard human rights.

Mrs Blair founded the company, which offers expertise in training judges and human rights lawyers, 18 months ago with 29-year-old law graduate Alexandrina Wellesley.

Miss Wellesley is a descendant of the Duke of Wellington and the daughter of Lord John Wellesley.

But dissidents in Bahrain say Cherie’s involvement in the country was a PR coup for the brutal oil-rich regime, in a country where more than 60 people have been killed in uprisings in the past two years.

Detainees claim to have been ritually tortured and threatened with rape.

Meanwhile, as the Mail revealed this week, Mrs Blair, who was made a CBE in the New Year honours for her charity work, has been expanding her property portfolio, which is worth £21 million.

In February, she jointly bought a £600,000 rural cottage with the former prime minister’s younger sister, Sarah, a mile from South Pavilion, the Blair’s Grade I-listed mansion in the village of Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire.

It brings the number of homes Tony and Cherie own to eight, including a £3.65 million London house near Hyde Park.

As for Miss Lese, she told the Mail this week: ‘We don’t comment on fundraising due to regulatory reasons.’

But she added: ‘The Mee Healthcare stores are proving popular with customers, and we are really thrilled with the performance of our first centres in Sainsbury’s stores, which have strongly exceeded our expectations.

‘We are proud of the success of the business and positive customer service we provide, despite the tough conditions for retail start-ups, so we are over the moon.

‘We employ more than 75 staff members and, given the strong success of the business and customer demand for our services and products, we continue to plan to aggressively open Mee Healthcare Centres throughout the UK, with at least 100 planned over the next five years.’

Despite such fighting talk, it remains to be seen if Mrs Blair will, on her own account, ever make the millions for which she seems to hanker.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ht-winger.html
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Old May 18th, 2013 #77
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However, she is discovering that the entrepreneurial road to great wealth can be littered with potholes.
Can't the millions of immigrants her husband imported to do imaginary jobs repair those imaginary potholes...
 
Old May 18th, 2013 #78
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Cherie Blair: A walking, talking, real life "Spitting Image" doll.
 
Old May 20th, 2013 #79
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Default War Criminal Tony Blair continues to profit, will advise next Albanian government

Only fitting considering all that he and his wife have done for shiptars.


Albania: Tony Blair to advise next Albanian government

Published On: Mon, May 20th, 2013

Tony Blair has agreed to advise the next government of Albania, opening the way for a deal which could be worth millions of pounds, Telegraph.co.uk Reported on Sunday.



Edi Rama, leader of the opposition Socialist Party in Albania, announced last week that Mr Blair will act as a consultant, starting next month after elections which Mr Rama is expected to win. The former prime minister’s role was agreed at a meeting at his office in Grosvenor Square, central London.

Mr Rama said on Tuesday on Twitter: “An excellent meeting with Tony Blair. We agreed that after June 23, he and his team will work with us for good governance. Fantastic!”

Albania hopes to join the European Union and it is likely that Mr Blair’s advice on how to do that as well as how to implement New Labour-style domestic reforms will be high on his agenda. Mr Rama from Socialist Party is popular in Albania and polls indicate that, currently predicted to gain in the region of 49 per cent of the national vote, he is on target to win the election.

A Socialist Party spokesman refused to say how much Mr Blair’s Government Advisory Practice (GAP) will be paid, although the figure is likely to be several million pounds.


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Old May 20th, 2013 #80
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one of the biggest traitors this country has ever seen
 
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