Tony Blair, Bell Pottinger corporation, support dictators

This video from England is called Tony Blair publicly humiliated by Reg Keys [father of a soldier whom Blair had sent to Iraq for a war based on lies, which killed Mr Keys’ son. Reg Keys then decided to become an anti-Iraq war election candidate in Blair‘s constituency].

By Hugh Muir in Britain:

Diary: Who’s puffing the strongman of Kazakhstan … aside from Tony Blair?

Why it’s Bell Pottinger of course, PR pal to the reviled and friendless

Thursday 8 May 2014 23.00 BST

Black suit, brown suit? Red suitcase or blue? We’re still thinking about that invitation to the forthcoming economic summit in Kazakhstan, mentioned yesterday – and the possibility that we might meet Tony Blair, who advises the Kazakh government and its strongman president Nursultan Nazarbayev. We might even get to touch his garment. We note that the press activity around this great event is being organised by PR titans Bell Pottinger. And we can’t even feign surprise, for the company has never been shy of offering its services to clients others might steer clear of.

The Guardian‘s Andy Beckett, addressing this point last year, compiled a little list. Here are the highlights: “The government of Sri Lanka; FW de Klerk, when he ran against Nelson Mandela for president of South Africa; Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted Thai prime minister who protesters claim still controls the country; Asma al-Assad, the wife of the president of Syria; Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus; the repressive governments of Bahrain and Egypt; the American occupying administration in Iraq; the polluting oil company Trafigura; the fracking company Cuadrilla; the athlete Oscar Pistorius after he was charged with murder; the Pinochet Foundation during its campaign against the former Chilean dictator‘s British detention; the much-criticised arms conglomerate BAE Systems.” On that basis, the office intern could spin for Kazakhstan.

Bell Pottinger might be able to do something for Blair himself, especially if he is ever indicted as a war criminal. But in the meantime the former prime minister looks after his image himself. In his sights this week, the Financial Times. “The former British prime minister’s arguments have been lost to the lust for personal riches and attention,” wrote columnist Philip Stephens. “I struggle to think of a former political leader as diligent as Tony Blair in the sullying of his own reputation.”