Jump to full article: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2008-10-17
Author: Andrew Pierce
Intro: So he lied after all? More than 10 years on, The Sunday Telegraph has presented evidence that Tony Blair deliberately intervened to exempt Formula One racing from the ban on tobacco advertising.
In a funny way, the apparent lie is even more shocking than the one he told in the House of Commons about Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. . . .
When the meeting with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone first surfaced in the press, in 1997, the size of the donation was unknown. I wrote that it was £1.5 million. Naturally, New Labour's spin doctors dismissed my article as malicious fiction.
Yet within 24 hours the party had confirmed that it had, in fact, received £1 million. That night, I asked its most senior press officer if there were any more uncomfortable revelations about the party's relationship with the most powerful man in motor racing. He insisted there were not. Nevertheless, the next day I reported that a second cheque for £1 million was in the post. So, in total, the deal was £2 million.
Within days, the saintly new prime minister went on television with John Humphrys to insist: "I'm a pretty straight sort of guy. . . .
Having worked through election night, I was outside Festival Hall in May 1997 when the newly elected PM talked of the birth of a "new dawn", as thousands of supporters sang Things Can Only Get Better. What a shattering blow it must be for those who believed the lyrics that, within three months, their champion was lying through his teeth to save his political skin. No wonder people are turned off politics.
Jump to full article » |