Cherie 'exploits PM job for cash'

[ShadesWolf]

Cherie 'exploits PM job for cash' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4601415.stm)

Its hardly news, most people in the UK are more interested in have we had any sex in BIG BROTHER yet, What a sad country I live in


The Tories are demanding a tightening of government rules to prevent Cherie Blair earning "tens of thousands of pounds exploiting" her husband's job.
She is giving an inside account of life in Downing Street in a paid lecture in Washington on Monday, while Mr Blair holds talks with President Bush.

But the Tories want rules for ministers extended to ban commercial activities directly linked to the PM's job.

A Downing Street spokesman said her speech was a "private engagement".

Chris Grayling MP said Mrs Blair was exploiting a "grey area" in the rules.

She had strayed over the line of "what people would feel the rules should say", the shadow leader of the House of Commons told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

"The rules for ministers explicitly say they cannot make money from commercial activities in relation to their job.

"What we have here is a grey area because we have - not the (prime) minister himself, but his wife giving lectures to paying audiences about their life at No 10."

Mr Grayling has written to Cabinet Office Minister John Hutton asking him to look at how the rules could be tightened.

"What is wrong to me is the Blair family making tens of thousands of pounds out of effectively exploiting Mr Blair's job when the ministerial code says they are not allowed to do that," he added.

All tickets for the lecture - billed as the inside account of the "First Lady of Downing Street" - at the 2,500-seater Kennedy Centre are believed to have been sold at between £33 ($60) and £52 ($95) each.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "Mrs Blair's engagement has been arranged for some time.

"It is a private engagement and she is travelling independently of the prime minister's party.

"If she and the prime minister are in Washington at the same time it is a coincidence."

[JAG]

She shouldn't be able to profit while he is in the job - and nor should the PM.

[BDC]

Sounds fair enough to me.

I wish people would pay me lots of money to talk about my home life. *sigh*

[Ja'chyra]

If people want to pay to hear her speak I say let them, so long as it isn't secret or sensitive information. I would imagine it is just her perspective on information that anyone could find if they looked in the media etc.

[bmolsson]

Smart chick.... ~;)

[InsaneApache]

She shouldn't be able to profit while he is in the job - and nor should the PM.

here here, couldnt agree more...an abuse of priviledge. :bow:

[Tribesman]

She had strayed over the line of "what people would feel the rules should say",
What the hell does that mean ? Nothing
Has she done anything wrong ?
I mean its not as though she privatised water boards and took directorships in the privatised companies is it , or privatised prisoner escort services or even prisons themselves and taken the contract to run these services is it ?
And you can be damn sure that Dennis and Mark made a hell of a lot of cash through slightly more unsavoury practices than giving a speech while Maggie was in #10 .
Maybe the opposition should spend less time going on about non-issues and actually forming coherent workable policies so that maybe the people of Britain will be stupid enough to elect them next time .
Oh yeah , once they have got the the rip the party apart process that the tories call finding a new leader out of the way ~D

What a sad country I live in
Emigrate , its a big world . But you will probably find its pretty much the same everywhere . Politicians are scum and the people don't really give a damn . ~:cheers:

[Al Khalifah]

Who on Earth would pay good money to listen to that mad empty headed old bag rattle on? Is she going to reveal more aspects of her great struggles to raise her children, with her busy life style, despite not being super-woman? Or maybe it's a lecture on what not to do when getting dodgy property investment opportunities.
I'd pay her just to close her mouth for a few seconds and stop doing that hideous serial-killer-esque half smile.

[ShadesWolf]

These stories just wont go away......

Cherie 'crossed the line' - Short


Cherie Blair's decision to make a speech on life in Downing Street for a £30,000 fee was "outrageous" says ex-Cabinet minister Clare Short.
Mrs Blair had "crossed the line", she said, adding it was one thing to pursue her career as a lawyer but getting cash for being the premier's wife was wrong.

On Tuesday Mr Blair showed exasperation over the row as he defended his wife over her decision.

Her talk in Washington coincided with his pre-G8 meeting with George Bush.

Senior Tory MP Tim Yeo meanwhile accused Mrs Blair of being part of the "gradual corruption of the integrity of public life".

Ms Short, a former international development secretary, made her comments during an appearance on BBC TV's The Daily Politics.

She said: "[Mrs Blair] was allowed to be a lawyer and earn her living as a lawyer and she's a well paid lawyer - that's her independent profession, but to be getting money for herself personally out of being the wife of the prime minister is wrong...".

'Coincidence'

The Tories have urged Mrs Blair to hand her £30,000 fee for the lecture on life inside Downing Street to charity.

Mrs Blair said the fact her speech came at the same time her husband was in the US was a coincidence.

She said she had to "walk a tightrope" with her joint roles as a professional woman and as the UK prime minister's wife.

She told a US interviewer her engagement had been booked well in advance, adding: "It has crossed my mind that of all the 365 days in the year that Tony could have come, this was not my favourite."

She went on to say "you can't please all the people all the time".

Ministerial code

Mrs Blair argued that Denis Thatcher had a number of "outside interests" and "no-one found anything wrong with that".

The row centres on Mrs Blair's decision to give a talk on Tuesday at Washington's Kennedy Centre - billed as the inside account of the "First Lady of Downing Street".

The Conservatives say the lecture went against the spirit of the ministerial code which prevents members of the government making money from commercial activities relating to their job.

Shadow Commons leader Chris Grayling says the code should cover activities directly linked to the job of the Prime Minister.

Mr Grayling said Mrs Blair should donate any fee to charity arguing the "commercial nature" of her trip was "inappropriate".

'Normal procedure'

He said: "What is wrong to me is the Blair family making tens of thousands of pounds out of effectively exploiting Mr Blair's job when the ministerial code says they are not allowed to do that."

And he has written to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw saying he is "astonished" Britain's ambassador was involved in Mrs Blair's private engagement, after Sir David Manning introduced Mrs Blair at the Kennedy Centre.

"I should be grateful if you could investigate what has happened and in particular why a senior civil servant would agree to participate in a purely commercial event on behalf of Mrs Blair," he writes.

But Downing Street said it was "normal procedure" for Sir David to introduce or accompany "any prominent British citizen visiting Washington".

2012 ambassador

The Foreign Office said Sir David had introduced TV chef Nigella Lawson and artist Andrew Goldsworthy when they were in Washington.

The spokesman added that on the day of Mrs Blair's speech the ambassador also introduced the headteacher of the local British school in Washington.

A spokesman for London 2012 said: "Cherie Blair, as a senior bid ambassador, has undertaken a series of briefings with the international media and we were delighted that she was able to meet and brief senior figures from the American media while in New York."

[InsaneApache]

What with all this 'tightrope' walking and 'juggling' a career and kids...not to mention crystal gazing and (prolly) sleeping under a pyramid, she should open a Big Top and get in the cabinet...they could enter to 'here come the clowns'

Prezza could be the bouncer and Jack(boot) Straw the Ringmaster ~:cheers:

what a bunch of :furious3: another excellent example of socialism in action.

[JAG]

I won't let that go..

Labour politicians are infinately better than the current and past crop of Tories. I mean Ann Widlecombe and Liam Fox? hahahahah

[InsaneApache]

You gatta get on the stage JAG with a self delusion that strong mate ....

This is a bunch of toadying self-serving lying hypocrits who screw up the education and welfare systems, and then send their kids to be privatley educated and tell the rest of us that we are only good enough to send our kids to bog-standard schools and hospitals.....

And how long are you people going to blame the Conservatives for this....I mean c'mon the Bliar administration has been in place for nearly a decade...what!!!....it's still the tories? more like properganda youve swallowed hook line and sinker by this governments spin meisters.

Now this woman...who has never stood for office, never mind being elected is using the fact that her husband is First Lord of the Treasury to rake in £30 000 a speech. Bloody hell man thats nearly what I earn in a year....

All this talk of the tories being disgusting is that...talk, after all they not in power, but this bunch of snakes take some beating....in all my life I've never seen such brazen corruption...and that my class-warrior friend is really disgusting.

[JAG]

... Ann Widlecombe, Liam Fox....

.. David Davis!!!

ahahahhaaahah

~D

[Stefan the Berserker]

How primitive...

[InsaneApache]

.. Ann Widlecombe, Liam Fox.... .. David Davis!!! ahahahhaaahah

Your point being? ~:confused:

(I got it ......it's saturday night man ...and you got a bit pissed/stoned...hey thats ok coz thats what I do as well ~D )