Blair Charities Illegally Fund Election Website?

'Tricky Dicky' Blair has set up a dodgy new electioneering website. All part of CREEP - his Campaign to RE-Elect the Prime minister. The Orange Party thought it would be fun to follow the money.

Is Phoney Blair illegally using funds from his charities, forming part of his complex web of secret companies, as a cover to bang the drum for New Labour?

The complex ownership of washed-up Blair’s new campaign website TonyBlair4Labour.org is shrouded in secrecy, hidden behind sham shell companies. But it seems cash from his charities are funnelled to the very company which runs his campaign website.

And that would break charity commission rules, make the move illegal once the election is called and downright dishonest if, heaven forbid, the Vicar's charities cash is channelled through off-shore tax-havens.

Much of the Blair income including cash from the charities, the 'Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative' and the 'Tony Blair Faith Foundation' has been channelled through the crafty structure 'Windrush Ventures No 3 Limited Partnership'.

And that exploits a little-known loophole in UK company law at the centre of the scam to keep his finances secret, leading some to describe his financial arrangements as 'Byzantine' and 'opaque'.

And who runs Blair's spanking new website? Step forward the very same Windrush Ventures No.3 LP, according to the website's terms and conditions. You can't keep a slick snake-oil salesman down. The website describes "The Office of Tony Blair" as "a trading name of Windrush Ventures No.3 LP".

But the charities commission states quite clearly: "Charities must not support or oppose a political party or candidate. Charities must not donate funds to political parties."

More so when an election is called and strict election laws kick in. "The guiding principle of charity law in terms of elections is that charities should be, and be seen to be, independent from party politics," warns the commission.

Blair's vast wealth gleaned from a £4.6m book deal and lucrative advising jobs for a US bank and a Swiss insurer is hidden away in commercial consultancy 'Tony Blair Associates' and Blair charities. Earlier this month it emerged Blair had carried out secret South Korea deals leading the Mail to reveal his "secret investment deals in low-tax regimes".

Profit-making schemes involving a dozen different legal entities are at the heart of the Blair Rich Project, handling the unprecedented millions funnelled through a couple of "limited partnerships" - 'Windrush Ventures' and a mirror 'Firerush Ventures' running side by side.

Yet the so-called limited partnership, 'Windrush Ventures No 3 LP' consists on paper of a partnership between an entity owned by Blair himself and an anonymous off-the-shelf company.

The members of Windrush Ventures No.3 limited partnership are BDBCO No.819 Ltd and Windrush Ventures No.2 LLP. But the off-the-shelf company, 'BDBCO No 819 Ltd' does not reveal its ownership on records at Companies House. Instead, its shares are listed as held by a second off-the-shelf entity, 'BDBCO No 822'.

While the law requires Blair to publish limited accounts for parts of the Windrush entities, the finances of the master-partnership remain a secret. But more than £6m of Blair earnings has found its way down from the partnership into other companies.

The Blair Rich Project's complex financial structures using highly specialised limited partnerships and parallel companies were unravelled by accountant Richard Murphy who solved the mystery buried in the small print of the Partnership (Accounts) Regulations 2008, following a Guardian online competition to "shine the brightest light" on Blair's dodgy financial dealings.

Blair, who would normally have to publish company accounts detailing the millions flowing into his various ventures, found a crafty way to keep his wealth secret giving him the benefits of running a UK company but without prying eyes.

But Blair's complex tax dealings has led some to question whether he's paying full UK tax on all overseas earnings and whether some companies are in tax-havens, deliberately keeping client names secret.

A Blair spokesman has insisted the ex-PM was a 'UK resident taxpayer on all of his income'. But details of the full revenues remain hidden. Blair refuses to offer any explanation over why he is using the complex structures described by the Financial Times as "neither tax efficient nor managerially useful".

The sham shell smokescreen gives Blair the cover of an offshore "secrecy jurisdiction" while allowing him to state that he remains a "regular, onshore, British taxpayer", fuelling speculation that Blair might have been thinking of going offshore before his EU president bid was scuppered.

The Orange Party noted on Tuesday it was time a forensic accountant took a fresh look at the legality of phoney Blair's sordid shady tax dealings, asking what has Blair got to hide that he'd go to such extraordinary lengths and cost to keep his tax affairs so secret? Add to that using his charities as an illegal cover for political electioneering.

But with delicious irony it seems New Labour's 'secret weapon' has backfired. Research by PoliticsHome suggests perma-tanned Blair’s intervention in the election may do more harm than good for the fag-end campaign.

Blair wealth graphic: Guardian

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Phoney Blair's Secret Dodgy Dealings

Desperate New Labour has unveiled its 'secret weapon' in the election battle. A money-grabbing tax cheat, probed over 'cash for honours' with blood on his hands over Iraq. Phoney baloney Blair returned to his Sedgefield stomping ground with the mystery over his secret dodgy financial dealings hanging over his head.

Haunted by lies over the illegal war, perma-tanned Blair is left to wander the world with guilt on his shoulders and a stash of cash.

Millions of pounds have been channelled through a fog of commercial, charitable and religious con-tricks since the snake-oil salesman was booted out of office.

The extent of Blair's wealth is astonishing, leading some to describe his financial arrangements as 'Byzantine' and 'opaque'.

But the vast wealth from a £4.6m book deal, lucrative jobs advising a US bank and a Swiss insurer and a dodgy South Korean deal, is hidden away in commercial consultancy 'Tony Blair Associates', charities and shell companies.

The Mail, on Blair's case again today over "secret investment deals in low-tax regimes", reckons his earnings will hit around £40 million over five years. With wealth comes property. Paying £5.75m for a stately pile in Buckinghamshire in addition to the £4.45m paid for a London home in Connaught Square and an adjoining mews house.

There's a charity, the 'Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative', and another called the 'Tony Blair Faith Foundation'. Much of the income has been funnelled through a crafty structure called 'Windrush Ventures No 3 Limited Partnership'.

The Blair Rich Project's complex financial structures using highly specialised limited partnerships and parallel companies are a shameful mystery worth unravelling.

So much so that The Guardian recently launched an online competition offering a prize to the person who can "shine the brightest light".

Solving the mystery, the winner unearthed a little-known loophole in UK company law at the centre of the scam, being used by Blair to keep his finances secret. Accountant Richard Murphy, of Tax Research UK identified the small print of the Partnership (Accounts) Regulations 2008 as the key to the mystery.

Blair would normally have to publish company accounts detailing the millions flowing into his various commercial ventures. But found a crafty way to keep his wealth secret. And that gave him the benefits of running a UK company but without prying eyes.

And what a complex web he weaves. At the heart are profit-making commercial schemes involving 12 different legal entities handling the unprecedented millions funnelled through a pair of "limited partnerships" - 'Windrush Ventures' and 'Firerush Ventures'.

The main vehicle, a so-called limited partnership, 'Windrush Ventures No 3 LP' consists on paper of a partnership between an entity owned by Blair himself and an anonymous off-the-shelf company. The Windrush structure pays for Blair's £560,000 a year lease on his Mayfair office.

While the law requires Blair to publish limited accounts for parts of the Windrush entities, the finances of the master-partnership remain a secret. But more than £6m has found its way down from the partnership into other companies.

Details of the full revenues remain hidden. At the centre are claims this gives Blair the advantage of an offshore "secrecy jurisdiction" while allowing him to state that he remains a regular, onshore, British taxpayer.

Blair could use these odd arrangements to transfer millions tax-free to his four children under an inheritance tax avoidance scheme, though Blair denies this.

However the ex-PM refuses to offer any explanation over why he is using the complex structures described by the Financial Times as "neither tax efficient nor managerially useful".

In 'Blair Enterprises', the structure is so artificial that in one part of it, Blair is, in effect, forming partnerships with himself. And one off-the-shelf company, merely called 'BDBCO No 819 Ltd' does not reveal its ownership on records at Companies House. Instead, its shares are listed as held by a second off-the-shelf entity, 'BDBCO No 822'.

The Orange Party can feel a headache coming on. And of course that's all part of the plan. Leave 'em shell-shocked with sham off-the-shelf shell companies.

But the plot thickens. Early last year Blair applied to set up the charity, the 'Tony Blair Africa Governance' initiative. But its application was not accepted until late in the year, partly amid concerns as to whether it was sufficiently separated from Blair's 'personal arrangements'.

So many complex tax dealings begs so many questions: Is Blair paying full UK tax on all overseas earnings? Are some companies in tax-havens, deliberately keeping client names secret? And what has Blair got to hide that he'd go to such extraordinary lengths and cost to keep his tax affairs so secret?

Warmongering Blair may have got away with his ill-gotten gains but the Orange Party feels it's time a forensic accountant took a fresh look at the legality of phoney baloney Blair's sordid shady tax dealings.

Blair wealth graphic: The Mail. Blair cash route graphic: The Guardian. Lower pictures: Private Eye covers 1154/1176.

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Brown Wipes Blood Off Hands For Chilcot

Penny-pinching Brown comes under the starry-eyed gaze of the Iraq stitch-up as families demand to know why loved ones were sent to their deaths without proper equipment. Brown is set to snuggle up to Chilcot pals with denial written on his face and blood on his hands.

Warmongering Blair faced stage-managed Chilcot sham trials with smiles and "no regrets". No-one is taken in by Brown's grin after stitching up Chilcot with his placemen.

But families hoping the Chilcot whitewash will grill Brown are set to be disappointed. The canny politician is a dab hand at ducking responsibility, droning on with denials and reeling off meaningless tractor stats to fudge the facts.

Bunkered Brown has been forced to come out of hiding gambling he's nothing to lose this side of the election. Families expecting a last chance to hear the truth about the worst foreign policy disaster in recent times will be faced with a dodgy attempt to rewrite history.

But Brown cannot escape being a top member of Blair's war cabinet who helped push through the war. Going along with the plan to dupe parliament and people over an illegal war on the back of a pack of lies. And as chancellor he held the purse strings, holding back vital cash for equipment and kit for a war which happened on his treasury watch.

Whilst Blair was busy preparing to join pal Bush in Iraq, Brown was busy slashing the defence budget and starving the armed forces of funds.

Chilcot witnesses, including ex-defence secretary, Hoon, have accused the treasury of 'penny-pinching' over the Iraq war. Ex-top MoD civil servant, Tebbit, told how Brown "guillotined" military spending six months after the invasion.

Equipment shortages forced on the military as well as useless kit, such as the Snatch Land Rover dubbed “mobile coffins”, were a direct result of budget cuts. Troops were sent to war without enough transport helicopters, driven around in Land Rovers vulnerable to roadside bombs and suicide bomb attacks.

Time and again inquests have heard the sorry plight of troops sent to their deaths with a woeful lack of kit and equipment. This week an inquest into the deaths in a Snatch heard how troops believed vehicles were unsuitable but were told to make do.

The Times and Telegraph make a splash with ex-army chiefs gunning for Brown. Ex-defence chief, Guthrie, tells The Times a failure to properly fund the armed forces while Brown was chancellor has "undoubtedly cost the lives of soldiers."

The Telegraph reveals former special forces chief, Lamb, has warned the SAS are inadequately equipped with only basic equipment due to underfunding.

Thirty-six servicemen and one servicewoman were killed while on patrol in Snatch Land Rovers. Now families of troops killed in poorly protected Land Rovers are urging the Iraq inquiry to challenge Brown on his funding.

Why did Brown jeopardise soldiers’ lives by cutting funding and forcing them to travel in the unsuitable vehicles? Why were frontline soldiers' complaints not acted on?

Hand-picked Chilcot stooges, working to a tight Downing Street remit with plenty of wiggle room, say that the purpose of the inquiry is 'not to apportion blame'. But the more deception, lies, incompetence and dishonesty is revealed, the clearer it becomes that someone must be held accountable for the tragic number of avoidable deaths.

Sickening photo-ops of Brown PR stunts with troops are hard to stomach. Families deserve better than the sham of a Chilcot whitewash and the weasel words of a penny-pinching chancellor. It was Brown who supported the illegal war with one bloody hand while slashing the defence budget with the other.

The families of the dead have a right to the truth about an illegal war fought in their name. It is the verdict of those families on Brown's performance which will be most telling.

The deaths of all soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan is as much on the conscience of Brown as it is on Blair. Both are left with blood on their hands. Voters will now decide whether to back Brown's morally criminal government which put cheap politics above the safety of the armed forces.

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Blair's Joke Book Journey To Nowhere

Serious but with the hint of a smile. Smart yet informal. A pretty straight kind of guy with a touch of two-faced shallowness. A date has finally been announced for the release of disgraced Blair's long-awaited vanity 'memoirs' kept under wraps until after the election. Nice tan - shame about the cold devil eyes.

Jokes for Blair's joke book are already coming thick and fast. Is it to be filed under Fiction or Non-Fiction?

The contrived cover title 'Journey' so beloved of media luvvies and reality TV contestants, says it all. Slick, shallow untrustworthy and unpopular - just some of the reviews readers won't see on the back cover.

Blair's book blows out of the water the rule that you cannot judge a book by looking at the cover. A photograph, design and title more suited to the latest celebrity puff 'bestseller' destined for the Poundshop.

The book will probably go down a bomb in the States used to being duped by a slick snake-oil salesman. But over here at £25 a pop? Is Brand Blair registered in the UK for tax purposes or has he joined the long list of dodgy non-doms?

Still suffering from writer's cramp, the ex-PM went to great pains to point out he wrote the book all by himself. “I have really enjoyed the writing of the book. … Most of all I want readers to have as much pleasure reading it as I had writing it,” said sincere Blair.

The Orange Party is confused. Wasn't it ghost written? Or was that just a figment of Robert Harris's imagination?

The old showman made a big song and dance of not spilling the Brown beans until after the election so as not to spoil bitter Brown's big day.

“His book is frank, open, revealing and written in an intimate and accessible style," said his vanity publisher. Has anyone told arch-rival Brown or will Blair suffer from writer's block.

Or does a September launch show Blair thinks the struggling Supreme Leader is on a loser. Blair has nothing to lose except for the royalties from book sales and serialisation rights.

Passed over for his life-long quest to head up a New World Order as EU El Presidente, war-mongering Blair is left to wander the world on his lonesome with only his ill-gotten gains, blood on his hands, guilt on his shoulders and murky memoirs to flog.

Raking in thousands of pounds from a City hedge fund which raked in fat profits from the banking crisis, cashing in on his war contacts and raking in a few million more from the publisher's advance book deal.

Juggling globe-trotting a joke role as 'Middle East peace envoy' one day and the odd book signing at WH Smith the next.

Washed-up Blair is set to sink to the depths of a soap star has-been, plugging a new book on TV chat shows. How the once high and mighty have fallen.

Bottom picture: Private Eye

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Bitter Short Spits Blair Venom

Blair's booby trap, Bitter Short, has spit venom at her former boss, pouring out her heart and hatred at the Chilcot whitewash. But the ex-cabinet minister didn't have the guts to quit at the time, instead backing warmongering Blair's illegal war. Short needs a wake-up call, not another audience.

The Orange Party has little time for Short.

For all her protestations now, the New Labour minister voted for Blair's war on the back of a pack of lies, leaving 179 UK soldiers dead along with hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and an almighty mess.

Cook was a politician of principle, delivering a devastating resignation speech on the eve of war. Short blew her chance as the only other New Labour MP with an ounce of principle and dignity, by staying on.

Getting short shrift from Campbell, who told Chilcot “she was very difficult to handle”, implying she might leak like a sieve, Short was a loose cabinet cannon. Campbellspeak that she refused to be bullied and beaten into submission.

Short's 'testimony' to Chilcot had the whiff of ancient history - resurrected when the now Independent MP set out her stall for Chilcot on Marr's TV sofa on Sunday.

There’s no love lost between Short and Blair. To hear her again wade into Blair and his cronies satisfied some of the blood lust for warmongering Blair and the Mail. A refreshing counterpoint helping to ease the pain of sitting through six hours while the slippery showman lectured Chilcot.

The “preachy” PM’s evidence to Chilcot was “ludicrous,” she told Marr, repeating her view to Brown's Chilcot placemen that Blair's cabinet was "misled" into thinking the war with Iraq was legal.

Attorney general Goldsmith had been "leaned on" to change his advice before the invasion. Blair "and his mates" decided war was necessary and "everything was done on a wing and a prayer." All good stuff with the ring of truth.

Slamming Blair's account as "historically inaccurate", she added: "I believed them at the time. You don't want to disbelieve your prime minister in the run-up to war and you want to believe the leader of your party. You want to be loyal."

But Short was loyal with one hand and holding out for a plumb job as she took the Blair shilling with the other. Only to later wake up and realise it was all a "con". In stark contrast to the honourable Cook who saw through the lies and quit.

No word from Short on pal Brown, recalling only how they cuddled up "having cups of coffee with me and saying 'Tony Blair's obsessed with his legacy and he thinks he can have a quick war and then a reshuffle'."

Blair “marginalised” Brown in the build-up to the war, she told Chilcot. The then chancellor neither opposed nor supported the invasion, she told Marr.

Which leaves Bunkered Brown facing Chilcot in complete denial, denying a war even took place on his treasury watch.

But for all her faults and failing for the anti-war lobby, Short has one redeeming feature which has stuck in the throat of the Orange Party.

Once asked how she thought Blair has changed over the years, she gave a spine chilling reply: "He developed a taste for war."

Mid pictures Scarfe, Sunday Times, Private Eye

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Deceitful Charade Of Blair's Parade

The Blair circus is in town with the slippery showman set to be savaged by dead sheep at the Chilcot whitewash. A question for warmongering Blair: Why did you murder thousands with an illegal invasion?

A huge security operation is underway with taxpayers footing the £250,000 bill for Judgment Day and the disgraced ex-PM sneaking in by the back door.

But Blair is protected by his own ring of steel, with the dark forces of power and influence and the mandarin mentality of the old boys club of Brown's Chilcot placemen.

With not a lawyer among them and no 'evidence' under oath, none have the skill nor experience in forensic questioning to penetrate the slick veneer of Barrister Blair.

Two top FO international lawyers have told Chilcot the war was illegal. It was a breach of international law and therefore a crime. That's enough for the Orange Party. Why continue with the charade and allow Blair to massage his ego?

If Chilcot isn't a 'trial' then cut to the quick. Issue an arrest warrant for war crimes and let a court decide. The legal precedent is there after someone tried it on with a planned visit of an Israeli foreign minister.

A deep sense of anger and frustration has set in for the families of many of the 179 UK soldiers killed in Iraq. Chilcot is a waste of space. Thousands of vital documents remain classified. All roads lead back to Blair. His lasting legacy is a country and families shattered by an illegal war.

Slippery Blair changed his tune while cosying up to Fern Britton with a crafty pre-emptive strike at Chilcot. With brazen cheek, the master wriggler now says he would have backed the invasion even if he had known beforehand Iraq had no WMDs.

A gung-ho war to topple evil Sadam. But illegal regime change rather than hunting invisible WMDs. An arrogant PM who took the country to war on the back of a pack of lies.

Seven years and hundreds of thousands of lives lost later, the shame and scandal of the greatest moral and political disaster in recent history continues. Until today the low point was a gut-wrenching performance by Blair's shameless spin doctor-in-chief, Campbell, backing up his boss.

Now, even the former PM's weasel words will be a mere side show. Bunkered Brown is set to be dragged before Chilcot - denying that a war even took place on his treasury watch.

But Brown did not set up Chilcot to a tight remit only to indict himself, Blair or the New Labour cronies.

It's not there to "apportion blame" but to "identify the lessons that can be learned". A line so often used when a culprit is looking for an excuse to soldier on.

But after the Hutton whitewash into the mysterious death of government scientist David Kelly, who blew the whistle on sexed up WMD dossiers, it's now down to the last chance of Chilcot to hold those responsible to account.

As In The Loop's Armando Iannucci writes today, it's time for Chilcot to flex their ageing muscles: "Despite the disastrous failings of intelligence, the obvious lack of preparedness and the horrendous whiff of deceit, no one so far has apologised or got sacked. Heads did not roll; they got knighted."

Blair duped parliament and the people to launch his aggressive illegal war, motivated by displaced deference to the powerful Bush administration and a warped sense of the "right thing to do".

Passed over for his lifelong dream of the plumb EU job, Blair has been left to wander the world with his ill-gotten gains, blood on his hands, guilt on his shoulders and thousands of pounds from a City hedge fund which raked in fat profits from the banking crisis.

And this is the secret weapon New Labour hopes to use to win over the marginals in the election?

Now disgraced Blair is trying to salvage what little remains of his tarnished reputation. The deceitful charade of the Chilcot parade looks set to give him that chance.

UPDATE 6pm: Blair was heckled, booed and branded "liar and murderer" after hours lecturing Chilcot and leaving with no regrets.

Top picture: The Times

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