Is He worth it

[jaysay]

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Cost of protecting Tony Blair for a day is £273,000
It appears that it cost the tax payer £270000 to guard Tony Blair on the 29th Jan when he gave evidence at the Iraq inquiry, some 657 police shifts and 28 support staff shifts were involved, beam me up Scotty

[garinda]

I'd have thought he'd have been offered Heavenly protection. A sort of holy flak jacket.

Given his current role, of being God's peace keeper here on Earth.

[Less]

Originally Posted by jaysay

It appears that it cost the tax payer £270000 to guard Tony Blair on the 29th Jan when he gave evidence at the Iraq inquiry, some 657 police shifts and 28 support staff shifts were involved, beam me up Scotty

Picky, picky, picky, That's you, always picking on the guy.

Do you not realise the tourism he generates in this Country?

(Especially when he spends a few months abroad).

[cashman]

aint just picky, its sad, sad, sad, would cost just as much i assume to protect any of the world/ex-world heads, n only a cretin would think owt else.

[Barrie Yates]

I wouldn't even relieve myself on him if he was on fire - IMHO e is the wors PM we have ver had.

[Barrie Yates]

Apologies for the spelling errors, really must proof read before posting - Sorry

[MargaretR]

I think everyone would be surprised if the cost of providing security were revealed.
Ministers and ex ministers automatically get it.
I think that it started during the IRA bombing era.

I am personally aware of one particular expensive waste of public money on personal security.
You may recall a local tory who was Home Office minister for a short time, before he got 'lorded' and sent to the Bahamas as governor - can't recall his name - not really top brass risk.

When I was having some redecorating done at Melbourne House (many years ago), the contractor sometimes didn't show some days. I tackled him about it and he explained that he was working on this house in the Ribble valley , which had been completely rewired with high tec security, and needed total interior redecoration.
Within months the chap was in the Bahamas - what a waste!

[garinda]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

I think everyone would be surprised if the cost of providing security were revealed.

'SCOTLAND YARD officers have expressed disquiet about the huge cost to the taxpayer of protecting Princess Eugenie and other “party-loving” minor royals.
The cost of providing armed, round-the-clock protection to guard the 19-year-old princess as she leads a busy social life in her first year at Newcastle University is conservatively estimated at more than £250,000 a year.

The decision to continue to provide both royals with 24-hour guards is said to stem from a secret deal agreed between their father, Andrew, and a senior Scotland Yard officer when his former wife Sarah, the Duchess of York, was pregnant with Beatrice in 1988.
During a private meeting, the prince is said to have forcefully requested that Scotland Yard provide lifelong armed protection to his children'
Scotland Yard alarm at cost of guards for Eugenie - Times Online

[garinda]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

I think everyone would be surprised if the cost of providing security were revealed.
Ministers and ex ministers automatically get it.
I think that it started during the IRA bombing era.

I am personally aware of one particular expensive waste of public money on personal security.
You may recall a local tory who was Home Office minister for a short time, before he got 'lorded' and sent to the Bahamas as governor - can't recall his name - not really top brass risk.

When I was having some redecorating done at Melbourne House (many years ago), the contractor sometimes didn't show some days. I tackled him about it and he explained that he was working on this house in the Ribble valley , which had been completely rewired with high tec security, and needed total interior redecoration.
Within months the chap was in the Bahamas - what a waste!

That was David Waddington, former M.P. for Clitheroe/Ribble Valley ennobled to Baron Waddington by Thatcher, and sent to be Governor of Bermuda.

He was also responsible for what's known as the Waddington Ammedment.

The elected government tried to block it at the time, and which makes laughable the view that the unelected Lords has no real power.

Stonewall’s concern is that the Lords insistence on the Waddington clause sends a worrying message at a time when police figures show that homophobic attacks are on the increase. We remain of the view that the language of the Waddington amendment is deeply offensive and stigmatising.
Stonewall


'The controversy stems from last year's Criminal Justice and Immigration Act when Tory former home secretary Lord Waddington succeeded in amending the legislation dealing with inciting hatred on grounds of sexual orientation to allow for "discussion or criticism" of sexual practices.
The government was unable to remove the amendment last year due to a lack of parliamentary time but is now using the Coroners and Justice Bill to scrap it'
BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Ministers win vote on gay hatred

Hate crimes

Section 74 and Schedule 16 amend Part 3A of the Public Order Act 1986 to extend hate crime legislation to cover "hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to sexual orientation (whether towards persons of the same sex, the opposite sex or both)."
To prevent the Act being used to inhibit freedom of speech on the subject of homosexuality, paragraph 14 of Schedule 16 inserts a new section 29JA, entitled "Protection of freedom of expression (sexual orientation)" but sometimes known as the Waddington Amendment (after Lord Waddington who introduced it). It reads:
“ In this Part, for the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred.[6] ” The government tried to insert a clause in the 2009 Coroners and Justice Bill which would have explicitly repealed section 29JA, but the proposed repeal failed and section 29JA remains.
Section 74 and Schedule 16 come into force on 23 March 2010.
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[garinda]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

You may recall a local tory who was Home Office minister for a short time, before he got 'lorded' and sent to the Bahamas as governor - can't recall his name - not really top brass risk.

Not 'top brass', but he must have been a very good licker'.

[jaysay]

Ain't it always the case in this country, we tell the world and his wife what is happening and when. They could have sent a letter to Bin Laden, Osama Bin Laden, Some Cave, Pakistan, dear Osama, just to let you know your old mate Blair will be at the Iraq War inquiry on ________ between the hours of _______ if you would like to have a pop at him. Then some bright spark realises that we have to spend the thick end of £300,000 using 650 police officers to protect him. Why not tell the media an hour after he's been to the inquiry, and those who want to see the exhibition can then see it on line, in the words of a Meerkat simples and a damn sit cheaper too

[Bernard Dawson]

Originally Posted by garinda

Not 'top brass', but he must have been a very good licker'.

He must have been a fairly important Tory,they named a village in the Ribble Valley after him.

[MargaretR]

Bin Laden and Bush were best buddies, so there is no threat there - the protection is needed from us

http://tvnewslies.org/html/bin_laden_ties.html
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/fre...1_bushbin.html

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Bernard Dawson

He must have been a fairly important Tory,they named a village in the Ribble Valley after him.

Lol.

...and his own game and toy company, to throw out of his pram

[Boeing Guy]

In answer...NO, funny really all the money he has. I once read that Salman Rushdie paid for most of his protection off the Met, while there was a fatwa on him.