The current issue of Private Eye magazine reports that Tony Blair is scheduled to carry out a speaking tour of Australia in July this year. The six-date tour is being sponsored by Australian cardboard box manufacturer Visy Industries This company is not short of a bob or two (it recently coughed up A$31.7m, or around £19m, to settle accusations of price-fixing) but appears to be financing the tour by charging tickets from A$1,000 (A$15,000 though gets you a table for ten plus cocktails and photo with Tony). The report does not say how much Blair is being paid to deliver his words of wisdom although he is rumoured to be among the world’s highest paid speakers and, since leaving parliament, is said to have trousered millions of pounds each year from speaking engagements.
Of course, anyone tempted to splash out this kind of money to get up close and personal with TB could also consider a simple way to recoup some of the cost. As far as I know there is still a sizeable reward being offered to anyone who successfully carries out a citizen’s arrest on this war criminal.