Tony Blair’s amazing charitable donation
Hm. I hate to be cynical, and I hate to think that I’m being unduly influenced by my dislike of Tony Blair, but…I don’t altogether share the awe quite a lot of Labour members seem to feel about his donation to the Royal British Legion. I don’t in the least doubt it’s A Good Thing as far as it goes, in that it’s all going to a Good Cause, etc, etc, but I view his motives as a little less philanthropic than others do.
To begin with – his wealth’s been estimated as being between £20 million and £60 million. A man with that much money can afford to spare a few million. It’s the equivalent of normal people taking out a direct debit to a charity, or making a one-off donation of a £1000, say. Still a good thing, but I’d be far more impressed if, in following with his supposedly Christian principles, he took nearly all his money and gave it away, leaving him with…say…£1 million? I’m sure he could scrape by.
Secondly, the whole thing smacks of a publicity stunt. I can’t help feeling that more people will buy the book if they feel their money is going to a worthy cause than if it’s going into Tony Blair’s pockets. So his sales will be right up, too. Why is he making such a big thing about the donation? Once again, going back to his Christianity, the whole gesture sounds a bit like praying on street corners, or that pharisee who cast his eyes to heaven and asked why he was so much better than everyone else. (Sorry to harp on about his religion, but it’s something that means a lot to me. I mean…I’m C of E myself, but still.)
Then there’s the whole stuff (covered admirably in the Telegraph today; I won’t go deeply into it) about the tax breaks he might get from a large charitable donation. Truly, philanthropy is a wonderful thing.
Despite all this, I’m obviously glad that the money is going somewhere worthwhile rather than Blair’s bank account. But still. Let’s not idolize him. I thought the Labour party was over that.
(By the way, I’m going away for a few days; this will be the last post until Friday/Saturday. …just so people know.)
Tony Blair introduced a more aspirational kind of centre-leftism to Labour and to British society in general. Why on earth would he, or should he, donate all of his money except for £1 million? This is a £4.6m down payment plus further royalties. And announcing his donation will only increase sales, meaning even more money than most people are projecting. This book will sell worldwide. And all the royalties are going to the Legion. I’m more than happy that a former public servant will be donating millions of pounds to a worthy cause by using his experiences as a public servant to sell books.
“Smacks of publicity”. So? The more books he sells, the more money that goes to the British Legion and the injured soldiers that they work with. You don’t sell a book by not talking about it, do you? I know people who work in publishing who could testify to that. Do you?
Tony Blair centre-left? He’s a Thatcherite who thinks the Labour Party shouldn’t even exist. No Labour supporter should expect any good to come out of a book by him, so I have no sympathy with him promoting it.
The man who took this country into a war that has killed a million people can NOT been seen as philanthropic.