VALUE FOR MONEY ?

It`s reported that estimates of Tony Blair`s wealth are anything between £20million and £100million but at that financial altitude it doesn`t really matter that  much.  There is, of course, something a little odd about someone acquiring that sort of cash, eleven properties around the world, a reported £250,000 for giving a speech, having `An Office` and generally living the good life following a chequered career in politics paid from the public purse.

What`s even more odd is that, as he is a former Prime Minister of the UK, he is entitled to round-the-clock security protection, estimated to cost the UK taxpayer anything between £250,000 and £1million a year depending on who you listen to.   The odd thing, of course, is not so much the round-the-clock security protection, for if anyone needs it, it should be Blair, but the fact that anyone with his sort of wonga should really be paying for his own protection rather than relying on the UK taxpayers, many of whom admittedly might like to get their hands on him.   No wonder he`s laughing all the way to a few banks.

Now maybe, just maybe, I might not mind quite so much if in his capacity as `Middle East Peace Envoy` he was able to earn his money by contributing to some peace in the middle east rather than the carnage we see every day between Israel and Palestine......or even if there was a semblance of `normality` in Iraq.   All in all, friend Blair seems not to represent value for money to the British taxpayer and the longer he goes on the less fit for purpose he becomes.   Nothing new there then.