'Tony Blair presided over a silent conspiracy to change the face of Britain for ever with mass immigration, an explosive book reveals.He ordered his Labour government never to discuss in public the supposed 'advantages' of the unprecedented influx.But behind the scenes ministers were instructed to wave tens of thousands of asylum seekers into the UK under cover of their being 'economic migrants'.Astonishingly, the minister Mr Blair put in charge of borders ruled against deporting failed claimants because it would be too 'emotional'.Tony Blair presided over a silent conspiracy to change the face of Britain for ever with mass immigration, investigative journalist Tom Bower claims in his explosive new book
The main aim of allowing in millions of people was to make the country 'see the benefit of a multicultural society'. The Blair government did not see its job as being to 'control immigration'.The policy is revealed today in a Daily Mail serialisation of an authoritative biography of the former prime minister by Tom Bower, an internationally-acclaimed investigative journalist.'
"I know I look a lot older. That's what being leader of the Labour Party does to you. Actually, looking round some of you look a lot older."
"Since I was here 4 years ago, I feel wiser. I feel older. A lot older! But hang on, some of you lot look older too."
'I wish I could relate Clarissa Dickson Wright's gossip about "Miranda", as she claims Tony Blair was known at the Bar when they moved in similar circles, back in the 1970s. The dirt she would like to dish on him is eye-popping. Ditto Derry Irvine, Peter Mandelson, Jack Straw and Cherie Blair. "In fact, I could tell you stories about all that Cabinet," she says.I wonder if the BBC will remember these stories in her obituary, I think I know the answer to that."Go on then," I challenge the remaining half of the Two Fat Ladies cooking duo, "tell me something I don't know about Gordon Brown."
She rises to the occasion with a snippet that, if true, would end the Prime Minister's career. "I heard it from an Edinburgh taxi driver," she says, putting down her embroidery to savour this moment of wickedness, so at odds with the polite surroundings of London's Goring Hotel.
Sadly, these stories are far too outrageous to print either here or in her autobiography, Spilling the Beans - so lurid, indeed, that they probably say more about her wish to shock than anything else.'
"...Get them to investigate me and others and publish a Hutton style report.”That was one very odd line from an email sent from Rebekah Brooks to James Murdoch re a long telephone conversation Rebekah Brooks claimed to have with Tony Blair.
Make sense yet?
"... Publish part one of the report at same time as the police closes its inquiry and clear you and accept short comings and new solutions and process and part two when any trials are over."
When this happens I wonder what we will discover about Windrush Ventures Ltd.?'A list of "shell" companies where firms keep money offshore will be published to discourage tax evasion, David Cameron will announce later.
Ministers had already announced the register, intended to lift the "cloak of secrecy" around company ownership.
But the prime minister will say making the register public will make it easier for firms and developing countries to know who they are doing business with.
Labour, anti-corruption campaigners and charities welcomed the move.
Speaking at the Open Government Partnership summit in London later, Mr Cameron will say a small minority of companies have hidden their business dealings in a "complex web of shell companies" for too long.'
'During Tony Blair's tenure as Prime Minister, spin, deceit and downright lying became everyday facts of political life.'No shit, Sherlock
''There is a problem within Islam – from the adherents of an ideology which is a strain within Islam,' he writes.
'We have to put it on the table and be honest about it. Of course there are Christian extremists and Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu ones. But I am afraid this strain is not the province of a few extremists. It has at its heart a view about religion and about the interaction between religion and politics that is not compatible with pluralistic, liberal, open-minded societies.
He adds: 'At the extreme end of the spectrum are terrorists, but the world view goes deeper and wider than it is comfortable for us to admit. So by and large we don't admit it.''
'Tony Blair and his former cabinet secretary face new questions over the “cash-for-honours” affair after fresh evidence emerged of a secret computer at 10 Downing Street. Damian McBride, who worked as a special adviser to Gordon Brown at Number 10 between 2007 and 2009, claimed he had been shown a “stand-alone computer through which No 10 staff could use personal email accounts”. This computer, understood to have been in a ground-floor room at No10, was run separately from the main Downing Street server, which blocked such accounts, Mr McBride said. He added that he had been told by officials: “We don’t discuss this publicly. We don’t want people going on about 'second Downing Street email systems’.” His account was in stark contrast to official denials given during the cash-for-honours investigation, which dogged the former prime minister’s last period in office. In 2006, Mr Blair’s government was accused of offering peerages and other honours to business leaders in return for substantial loans made to Labour before the 2005 general elections. As police investigated the matter, it was alleged that people working at No 10 had been able to circumvent the “normal” email system by using personal emails from a secret “second” system. Any such communications would have been outside the scope of the police inquiry into the affair, which saw several arrests, while Mr Blair was personally questioned by detectives as a witness. Responding to this suggestion, Lord O’Donnell told MPs on the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) in January 2007 that John Yates, the former Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner who led the cash-for-honours case, had said he had received “excellent co-operation” from the Cabinet Office. Lord O’Donnell added: “We have had no complains from them [the police] about access. We have complied fully with any requests. The Prime Minister has made it clear to me, to ensure that we co-operate fully with the police, and that is what we have done. “There is no second email system inside No10.” When Mr Blair was asked by MPs about the Number 10 email system he referred his questioners to Lord O’Donnell’s testimony. A Tory MP who is a current member of the PASC said the new revelations raised “serious” concerns over the way Number 10 was run under Mr Blair in 2006 and 2007. Priti Patel said the matter needed to be raised again following the claims by Mr McBride, who resigned in 2009 after leaked emails from his No10 account revealed a smear campaign against leading Tories was being plotted. She told The Sunday Telegraph: “There is no doubt that this raises serious questions that have to be answered by both Tony Blair and Gus O’Donnell about what kind of operation they were running at No 10 during this particular time.” Although no charges were ever brought, the police investigation cast a shadow over Mr Blair’s final period in office and saw members of his inner circle arrested, including Lord Levy, Labour’s fundraiser, and Ruth Turner, the former prime minister’s political aide, who was held after a dawn raid on her London home. Mr Blair, who was last week appointed by Ed Miliband to a sports advisory role in what many saw as the first step towards a domestic political return, reveals the effect the affair had on him and his close aides in his 2010 autobiography A Journey. He describes it as “psychologically atrocious” and adding that the popularity both of himself and of his party “fell like an arrow” in its wake. A spokesperson for Mr Blair: “This doesn’t change anything. The matter was fully looked into at the time and we have nothing further to add.” Lord O’Donnell was unavailable for comment. A Whitehall source told The Sunday Telegraph: “There are stand alone terminals in some offices [in no 10] to allow press officers to access news and other sites that are blocked by the main system firewall. The same applies in other government departments.” 'A fascinating story that may shed light into what was happening inside Tony Blair's Number 10 before the shredders started whirring. The only problem is that it means I have to believe Damian McBride and that does go against my natural instincts. I am awaiting this story appearing on the BBC website...
'The Telegraph's Rowena Mason writes:Is Tony Blair admitting that his Downing Street spokesmen lied in 1998?
Tony Blair has admitted “intervening” on Rupert Murdoch’s behalf with the Italian Prime Minister when the media tycoon was trying to buy a multi-billion pound business.
The former Prime Minister said he took his Cabinet Secretary’s advice on “propriety” before raising the issue of whether Mr Murdoch would be allowed to acquire part of the Mediaset Group.
At the time in 1998, Downing Street furiously denied media reports that Mr Blair had brought the deal up during a telephone call with Romano Prodi, the Italian leader.
In evidence to the Leveson Inquiry, Mr Blair said there was nothing wrong with asking his Italian counterpart about the possibility of a deal and betrayed frustration at the furore about the call at the time.'
'The London School of Economics has been heavily criticised for a "chapter of failures" in its links with the Gaddafi regime in Libya.Will there be a government sponsored enquiry into the links between senior British politicians and Saif Gaddafi? Maybe it could start by looking at the dealings, both personal and business, of Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair.
A report by former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf says mistakes and errors of judgement damaged the LSE's reputation.
The school's director, Sir Howard Davies, resigned in March over a £1.5m gift from a foundation led by Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif, a former student.
The LSE says it accepts all Lord Woolf's recommendations.'
'One of the more interesting asects of the upcoming trial of Saif-al Islam Gaddhaffi will be if we find out whether in 2006 former Prime Minister Blair became an adviser to the Libyan Investment Authority, a £40 billion fund established by the Gaddafis. 'Interesting...
