Yesterday’s broadcast of the Politics Show had Blair on, and someone who would have been familiar to him, his former speech writer. Though perhaps not familiar to the Beeboid staffer who compiles the credits. Apparently they tried to get the Education Secretary on the show too late, everyone knows You Can’t Hurry Gove. That’s Just the Way It Is…

UPDATE: In the comments Bill Quango MP, one of the blog’s favourite co-conspirators, points out the Beeboid got YAB’s MBE wrong, she sent it back over some imperialist outrage or another.

His National Insurance number, mobile numbers of advisers and staff, as well as an odd-looking address book. Nothing too damning on first glance, but an embarrassing breach of security none the less. Lolz indeed.

Just when Ed thought the onslaught against his leadership was dying down, guess who sticks an oar in?

Mr Blair said embattled Mr Miliband would be WRONG to pull back from his own forward-looking philosophy, WRONG to shift from the centre ground of politics and is WRONG to declare the days of New Labour were over.

And in another move that will infuriate the rookie Labour leader’s inner team, Mr Blair insisted PM David Cameron’s keystone health and education reforms were RIGHT.

In an interview with the Sun, Blair justifiably takes credit for the coalition’s education and NHS policy, as well as chastising Ed not understanding New Labour: “It is about the Labour party constantly being at the cutting edge, being a modernising party – always being full of creative ideas and isn’t pinned in its ideological past.” PMQs should be fun…

Last year Blair told the Institute for Government that he wasted much of his first term because of “squabbling and inertia” and that he regretted not taking on the task of reforming the public sector, a decision that directly led to the unsustainable mess we are in today. The unions will always have a Labour leader by the balls.

After he was elected last year Dave said “I would rather have five reforming years as Prime Minister than ten wasted years like Blair.” That dream seems a little lofty today after surrendering to the very same vested interests, squabbling and inertia that crippled his hero, in just over a year. The GP-led commissioning at the centre of the plan to save the NHS has been filleted and PCT’s look set to be replaced with equally bureaucratic and expensive “clinically led commissions”. To be radical is to be brave, but it seems Cameron is neither when it comes to the NHS.

Carole Caplin is back and she’s on the rampage, suing the Mail for implying that she was “some sort of sexpot or randy masseuse”.

She claims that she gave Tony Blair, or “Toblerone”, as she used to call him, nothing more than a neck message. No “hanky-panky” or funny business, well apart from those flats in Bristol. Given that she has turned down millions to tell the story of her years with the Blairs, Guido wonders exactly where the money came from for such a high-profile pursuit.

The judge reserved her decision for a later day…

Kay Burley sails close to the wind in her political bonkbuster ‘First Ladies.’ Guido has touched on the similarities to certain real life ladies involved the the Blair-like PM in the novel already. Not content with upsetting the lawyers there, Kay pushes things even further…

In the most shocking scene in the book, “Valerie”, nearly dies after taking a drink and drugs overdose in the No. 10 flat, while her husband ‘Julian’, the Blair-like PM, is at a tryst with one of his mistresses. She is discovered unconscious in the middle of the night by her 13 year old daughter. No. 10 officials try to stop doctors rushing her to hospital to stop the press from finding out.

Any similarity between this and a real life drama in No. 10 concerning the Blair family is pure coincidence.

The links between the Gaddafi family, Blair, Mandelson and Brown’s government are well documented. Does Ed Milband’s “new generation” also have links to the Libyan dictatorship? Has Ed Miliband himself got personal links to the “mad dog of the Middle East”?

Professor Held is ghost-writing a big-ideas book for his Dartmouth Park neighbour Ed Miliband, he is also co-director of the London School of Economics’ Centre for the Study of Global Governance. The Centre took £300,000 off Saif Gaddafi.

Held also oversaw Saif’s dodgy doctorate which is under great pressure to be revoked. Professor Held chairs the “Special Ralph Miliband Lecture” series and in November 2009 invited Ed to give one in front of his mother. Watch how Ed heaped praise on Held for all the work he has done for his family:

Six months later Held chaired another “Special Ralph Miliband” event, only this time with a slightly higher profile guest. The details have mysteriously been pulled from the LSE website, but Guido can confirm Held welcomed Saif as a “Representative of the Miliband program” with the sort of sycophantic introduction that only a large sum of money can buy:

(more…)

A spokesman for Tony Blair said he was…

“…shocked and appalled by the violence in Libya and continues to urge a political process of change”.

Gordon Brown’s constituents in Kircaldy must be delighted to hear that their part time MP is making a cool £15,000 an hour on the international stage. It’s no wonder he was so quick to give the money from his dire book sales to charity, on top of what he is raking in from speaking he would have only lost most of it in tax anyway. The rest of the cash is apparently going straight to The Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown and thus his staff and operation. If he paid his staff out of his fees they would be paid out of 50% post-tax income, this way they are paid out of untaxed income – a handy little tax dodge.The GB/SB Office is not a charity though, unlike the similar structure Blair has set up.

Through his Sports foundation, a charity, Blair is able to avoid paying tax on income he receives. The charity comes into question when it is revealed that the charity isn’t really doing very much. They paid more in staff costs in the last quarter than they spent on charitable activity. A similar get up is going on with the Faith Foundation which employs old loyalists like Ruth Turner at £120,000 a pop. With Blair’s staff costs rumoured to be a £5m a year, that’s a heck of a lot of cash saved through the donations and “charity” staff.

UPDATE: Guido is trying to get hold of someone from UK Uncut who will no doubt be livid about such practices. Right?

Speaking to Bloomberg News at the billionaire’s bunfight which is Davos, Tony Blair pretty much backed the Coalition’s line that the government’s priority should be to cut the deficit. He also echoed George Osborne in blaming the recent poor GDP figures on the bad weather. It will be music to the Cameroons’ ears that “the master” takes their line…