It's heartening to know that I'm not the only one sickened by the news that Britain's ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair has been snapped up by J P Morgan Chase on a salary of £500,000. For that, he's not even expected to pass his banking exams, merely advise them on the economic impact of globalization (something they'd be better just Googling) and introducing them to potential clients.
When the Blairs bought a £3.4m house, all the press wondered how they would pay the mortgage. Now we know. Even with tax rates of 40 percent, they could pay it all off in half the time it takes most people, and still have enough to live at twice the standards of most people.
I neither grudge nor envy Blair's money, and I'm sure that he's actually worth that to the bank. All he has to do is get some billionaire friend to sign up (and from his years of free holidays in the grand holiday homes of the rich and famous, he knows plenty of them) and he's earned his keep. What revolts me is the hypocrisy of it all. Politicians tell us how above it all they are, and then as soon as they leave office they get jobs with the industries that they were supposed to be regulating in a detached manner just a few months ago. There are rules to stop the most outrageous breaches, but if moving straight from being First Lord of the Treasury to being director of a bank isn't colourable, I don't know what is.
And I need hardly mention that Blair was a Labour prime minister. Aren't they supposed to believe in fairness and equality? Don't they tell us that the fatcats are appalling? Well, yes, they do. Until the cream jug comes round.
