THE SUNDAY TIMES: Tony Blair has hit back defiantly at his British critics, insisting that he is appreciated overseas much more than at home. He also defended his money-making activities.
“If I did what these people who criticise me here wanted, I’d end up just sitting in a corner, but that is never going to be me,” he said.
Interviewed for today’s News Review, the former prime minister said: “You get to a position where the criticism you get, you just have to live with. It’s the way it is. When you are someone like me, you create a lot of controversy one way or another. You just decide to do what you are going to do and let that speak for itself.”
He blamed his negative image in Britain on the press, saying: “They don’t approach me in an objective way. Their first question is how to belittle what I’m doing, knock it down, write something bad about it. It’s not right. It’s not journalism. They don’t get me and they’ve got a score to settle with me. But they are not going to settle it.”
He added: “It’s not true that nobody likes me! Reading the papers in Britain, you’d end up thinking I’d lost three elections rather than won them. There is a completely different atmosphere around me outside the country. People accept the work that you are doing, as it is. They don’t see anything wrong with being successful financially and also doing good work.”
Since leaving office in 2007, Blair has divided his time between unpaid humanitarian work and lucrative activities advising banks, companies and Arab governments.
There has been criticism of his high fees for public speaking, but Blair responded: “When leaders step down, they all do a certain amount of paid speaking and that is fair enough. If all I wanted to do was make speeches, let me tell you, I could make five times the number.”
He added: “I got out of politics early enough to have a second act in life. Why shouldn’t a politician be able to do that? Others do. Nobody says Bill Gates is bad for moving from business to philanthropy. Why shouldn’t a politician do a business model when they change their life?” >>> John Arlidge | Sunday, December 20, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair: I could make much more money: Tony Blair has likened himself to Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, and suggested he could make five times as many lucrative speeches as he does now >>> James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Sunday, December 20, 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: What Tony Blair did next after Downing Street: Is the former prime minister a philanthropist or a hustler? The Sunday Times went to discover the truth about Blair Inc >>> John Arlidge | Sunday, December 20, 2009
