In a different country this would be the well deserved fate of George Bush, to be hounded by protesters for his warmongering in Iraq and his complete sellout to corporate interests, in this case JP Morgan but also Rupert Murdoch's enterprise. Alas, this only occurs in Britain and only when security allows it.
Blair was testifying at the Leveson inquiry into the phone hacking scandal of News International, run by one Rupert Murdoch, a man Blair says is "misunderstood", Blair on Rupert Murdoch: "He is not actually a sort of identikit rightwing person … you know, he has bits of him that are very anti-establishment; meritocratic, I would say." Uh huh...But I suppose we shouldn't have expected anything else from the godfather of Murdoch's daughter Grace.
via The Guardian
Is that what life is like these days for Tony Blair? Not when it comes to rain, of course – a tan that assured speaks of an ability to source expensive sun year-round. But as his blacked-out Range Rover drew up at the Royal Courts of Justice on Monday before his appearance at the Leveson inquiry, he was awaited, as he always is these days, by a small gaggle of protesters shouting about Iraq.
Blair may have stepped down as prime minister five years ago and no longer has the smallest influence over whether troops leave Afghanistan urgently, as several of those present demanded. And yet the devotion of his placard-wielding critics, trailing like a cloud in his wake, never wavers.
This may be the reason why, when one of their number burst into the courtroom during Blair's testimony and, after an initial "Excuse me", bellowed that the former prime minister was a war criminal, the former PM scarcely flinched. Lord Justice Leveson leapt to his feet and was visibly shaken by the intrusion; Blair, by contrast, rested his chin on a hand and waited for the man to be bundled out by his close protection officers. Another day, another call for extradition to The Hague.
...
As he was driven away from court, his Range Rover was pelted with eggs by a protester. Well, of course it was.
These occasional annoyances aside, it's all a small price to pay for the millions of Euros made and the continued Rock Star lifestyle now available to Tony Blair. So what if a small group of malcontents will forever despise him for what he did and what he represents. Right, Tony?
