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Scampy....you are deluded get help before you become an embarasment to your folks...please.

Usual jealously and envy of those wishing to be accomplished and successful. His time as PM was up a longtime ago, what would you prefer he did, engage in unpaid community work to purge his sins or volunteer in endless humanitarian causes endangering his life? The issue here and what really stinks is the obsessive scrutiny you pay to someone's life which has absolutely nothing to do with you. Blair is getting rich, well so what and in any case good on him.

Blair sold his soul to the Devil and now he is reaping his earthly rewards...for now.

Became leader, went to war, left Labour, became a catholic, ask forgiveness, then went off and made millions, a real success and I 'm sure the creep with enjoy it, same as all the lads with no arms and legs will look back with love on a leader who started a war left to make money.

good luck to him.

What gets me is the contradiction between the public man ("I wish only to serve") and the private man ("I will do anything to become seriously rich"). Blair would no doubt argue that in the years since he left Downing Street he has continued to help humanity – most obviously through his Middle East diplomacy and his Faith Foundation. But both of these have served as platforms that help maintain his high international profile. His book is the same. The short-term profits will go to the British Legion, but the publicity will be his, as will the tax breaks. Now we learn that, in addition to his hugely well-paid speaking gigs, he is to benefit from a Mayfair investment vehicle. The former Labour leader may say that his concern has always been the poor and underprivileged. In fact, throughout his career, he has always had an eye for the main chance and never missed an opportunity to enrich himself and (witness his stately home) elevate himself and his family above the common herd. What is the difference between Tony Blair and a rich, old-style Tory tycoon? Nothing. Nothing at all. Except that Blair will probably end up with more money.

I would care less if his abandonment of public finances to Gordon Brown had not trashed our economy so comprehensively.

Who gives a fuck. No matter what he does now, certain people will always find fault with it.

The Tories will love all the coverage this complete non-story in the ST will garner over the next few days. The story is propaganda and lefties are falling for it hook, line and sinker. The timing is quite calculated.

This FSA filing is nothing sinister. A filing of this sort (I did them, for my sins, in a former life) is routinely done as part of family succession and tax-planning measures, typically when incorporating a family investment company or family limited partnership (http://www.boodlehatfield.com/default.asp?sID=1238492737072) as part of establishing a "family office". Most families with Blair's business interests and likely future income are advised to do this. The filing was made ages ago and nothing material to it has changed since. The ST has now wilfully misconstrued this FSA filing to speculate that Blair may make more money through regulated investment advice. There is no basis for this at all, and the tone of the article - more or less copied with no paywall here (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/tony-blairs-new-bank-for-supe...) is speculative and mostly filler: a tawdry example of emergent Fox News reporting in the UK Murdoch press.

The irony here is that Blair is only having to do this because Labour brought in myriad tax legislation that made new family trusts - of the type Mr Osborne is a beneficiary - unappealing.

Those who spit latte froth into their copies of the Observer at each fresh disclosure about Blair's post-political life puzzle me. He was always a pro-business centerist and this got Labour elected, a lot. What else did you expect after he quit? Not all ex-PMs go for the bleat-about-charity-after-giving-away-billions-to-banks retirement plan.

Blair has also given away a fifth of his wealth (cue grumbles off). This is at worst a Clintonian triangulation, though even Clinton personally trousered the proceeds of his bio ($30m and counting).

Will the menegerie of multim-millionaire Tory "business leaders" or MPs with followed Blair's example? Is Osborne about to give away his inherited £4m beneficial interest in the family wallpaper business? Thought not.

The actual duplicity here, which is an embarrassingly trite one to point out, is that a cabinet of millionaire (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7133943.ece)cutters, led by the chinless dauphin of a Victorian dark satanic mill owner (also the heir to a colonial baronetcy), are putting a hair shirt on every working person for a generation. Even IDS is flabberghasted at Osborne's zeal for screwing the poor.

NS readers might think on that a bit more instead of joining Murdoch's chorus.

@Jeremiah
His education is not the issue nor his fathers profession. Plenty of Liberals in the same boat and tories too. Many Labour members are not short of a few bob or an Oxbridge education.
Blair is still a party member and does contribute large amounts of money too.
He is a socialist at heart but he is not the working class Unionist some want him to be. TB moved the party on rightly to a place they could win again and again. 18 years of Tory rule replaced with 13 years of Labour. If TB had not moved the party it would have been 31 years of Tory rule.
The old days of miners and ship building have gone Thatcher killed them off. New skills are needed and new ways of thinking too.
I can't understand why Labour voters want to go back to the wilderness, why can't they see the new world order. The poor need support and help but the feckless need a kicking why would anyone support worklessness?
In conditions that would have sunk any other ex PM TB went out and earned a living and his good works and charity are all about you if you would only look.
Forget the war Issue if you dont understand the reasons now you never will. If you cant see that the Iranian backed insurgents turned a success into a blood bath then you are not up to the job of political scrutiny.
Do not get taken in by the shroud wavers they have an agenda. The Tories would have given their right arm for Blair thats why they have tried to manufacture another one in Cameron. If the truth be known he would have been better off joining the Lib Dems because the old left was a burden too heavy to carry. Cut them adrift and you will see the Labour party soar again. Change or die thats the message they wont hear.
If TB becomes the richest man alive I for one would not care he has an incredible talent just a shame you cant see it. Try reading some of his old speeches or even his more recent ones.
Read what some of the other world leaders think of him.....they cant all be wrong you know.
Look at the world awards he has gained. Go to Sierra Leone and see what they think of him or Kosovo he is a god to many who thought the world had abandoned them and we Britain came to their rescue.
Our oversees aid programmes started by Blair and continued by Brown have changed lives beyond compare go do some research. This man does not deserve to be hounded in this country as he is. The media hatred led by the BBC and Guardian is shroud waving of the highest order to hide their blood stained hands over the betrayal of Dr Kelly.
For Gods sake open your eyes and look at reality not the altered history of the weak lilly livered wimps that frequent the airwaves and corridors of the media HQ's.

Tony is deeply troubled as he suspects rightly that although he can and has made money he can not make the time in which to enjoy it... he is to depart and get on fighting his war forever. !

The Blair's will pay a price for their lies sooner or later just wait?