X-Nico

66 unusual facts about Tony Blair


Angelo Sodano

On 27 December 1998, he wrote, at the request of the democratic government of Chile, an official letter to the British prime minister Tony Blair stating that "the Chilean Government considers it an offence to its territorial sovereignty as a nation the fact of being deprived of the power to judge its own citizens" through the detention of Pinochet in Britain.

Anselmo Sule

According to La Cuarta, Sule held a friendship with important politicians such as Erich Honecker, Tony Blair, and Fidel Castro, throughout his life.

Anthony Blair

Tony Blair, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, British Prime Minister 1997–2007

Black Boots on Latin Feet

Much is made of the fact that Tony Blair picked track 4, Cancel Today, as one of his Desert Island Discs when he appeared on that show in 1996, as at the time few people had heard of the band.

Booth family

Cherie Blair, daughter of Tony Booth and the wife of Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Cannabis classification in the United Kingdom

As Home Secretary in Tony Blair's Labour government, David Blunkett announced in 2001 that cannabis would be transferred from class B of the Act to class C, removing the threat of arrest for possession.

Charlotte Metcalf

She made the first party political broadcasts for Tony Blair and New Labour, including Clause Four.

Chiantishire

The location rose to prominence in the UK in the mid 1990s when then Prime Minister Tony Blair chose it as one of his preferred summer retreats.

Clive Betts

Betts was made an opposition whip under Tony Blair in 1996, and after the 1997 general election, he entered the government as an Assistant Whip.

Courtney Coventry

She was flown to UK by the Metropolitan Police at British taxpayers' expense on the day before Tony Blair was to resign from office, 26 June 2007 where she was met at London's Heathrow Airport by plainclothes police escorts.

Dawn Fratangelo

She reported from New York City and Europe, including in-depth reports from London on Prime Minister Tony Blair's critical decision to support the U.S. on Iraq.

Dennis Tirpak

He was the Chairman of The International Scientific Steering Committee for Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gas Concentrations which took place at the invitation of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2005.

Diary of a Bad Year

The essays, which take up the larger part of each page, are on wide-ranging topics, including the politics of George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Guantanamo Bay, and terrorism.

Directive on services in the internal market

In Tony Blair's speech to the European Parliament on 23 June, he committed the UK Presidency to try to "resolve some of the hard dossiers", of which the Services Directive was one.

Europa XS

In 1997 UK Prime Minister Tony Blair launched the Millennium Products competition to promote British industry in the 21st Century.

Four-hour target in emergency departments

Tony Blair felt the targets had been successful in achieving their aim.

From the Mars Hotel

This inspired the name of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's band, Ugly Rumours.

G.ho.st

The beta launch near Jerusalem was attended by Quartet Representative and former UK prime minister Tony Blair.

GeoNet

The UK systems GEO2 and MCR1 were run by Poptel which aimed its services at non-commercial organisations, and the distinctive GeoNet addressing format (e.g. GEO2:TONY.BLAIR – a well-known user in the early 1990s) was widely recognised in NGO and labour movement circles.

Harry Borden

His subjects have included celebrities ranging from Robin Williams and Ewan McGregor though Jamie Oliver to Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.

Hilary Armstrong

Armstrong was seen as a politician on the centre-right of the Labour Party, and was close politically to her near neighbour Tony Blair and the New Labour agenda.

The daughter of Labour MP Ernest Armstrong, she was shortlisted for the vacant Sedgefield constituency in 1983, only to lose out to Tony Blair.

In the Crossfire

This is the first political song of the band which denounced the alliance of Prime Minister Tony Blair with president George W. Bush (I don't see myself when I look at the flag) during the war on Iraq.

Is It Fair?

In October 2004, the petition was handed in to the then Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street.

Itchen College

Itchen Sixth Form College was widely publicised during the 2001 General Election after a visit by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Jean-Marie Bockel

On the right wing of the Socialist Party, he declared himself to be an admirer and strong supporter of the policies of Tony Blair.

Jim Dickson

Politically he is identified with the right wing of the Labour Party and was leading Lambeth's Labour Group when it was described as "more New Labour than New Labour" by then Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

John Spellar

When Tony Blair formed his government in 1997, Spellar was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, being promoted to become Minister of State for the Armed Forces in 1999.

Kat Fletcher

Although a long standing member of the Labour paty, she ran on a leftist platform as a member of the Campaign for Free Education (CFE) criticising the NUS proximity to Tony Blair's Labour government, particularly on the issue of tuition fees.

Kevin Barron

Kevin Barron was a leading figure in the campaign to rewrite Clause IV under the new leadership of Tony Blair and it came as a surprise that there was no job in government for him after the victorious 1997 general election.

Ludmila's Broken English

The twins are named Blair Albert Heath and Gordon-Marie "Bunny" Heath - something many commentators have taken as a reference to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

M.A.C.H. 1

A spoof, entitled B.L.A.I.R. 1, a satire on Tony Blair, appeared in 2000 AD in the late 1990s, and gained considerable media attention at the time.

Morpeth School

Special guests who have visited Morpeth School have included Tony Blair the British Prime Minister who visited the school during his first month in office.

New Labour, New Danger

The main poster used in the campaign involved a picture of Labour Party leader Tony Blair on a black background with a strip of the poster appearing to be torn off across the eyes of Blair.

No. 10 Squadron RAF

However, former Prime Minister Tony Blair reverted to the VC10 for more sensitive flights, notably during his diplomacy to Pakistan and the Middle East after the 11 September 2001 attacks.

Pavle Kalinić

He wrote introductions for several books translated into Croatian, such as The Third Way by Tony Blair, Clash of Fundamentalisms by Tariq Ali, Disarming Iraq by Hans Blix, The Fateful Triangle by Noam Chomsky.

Peter Stoffer

Stoffer is a populist and has been an advocate of Third Way policies championed by Tony Blair.

Plane Stupid

John Stewart explained their actions saying: "Tony Blair talks the talk about taking action on climate change while building more runways and allowing more planes at airports".

PledgeBank

British Prime Minister Tony Blair started a pledge himself, to become patron of a community sports club if 100 notable figures will do the same, which succeeded.

Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000

In December 2006 Prime Minister Tony Blair and politicians of other parties were questioned by police as part of their investigation into the Cash for Honours affair.

Pontifical Irish College

Important contemporary visitors to the college include Pope John Paul II, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Irish President Mary McAleese.

Postwar Britain

Privatization was an enduring legacy of Thatcherism; it was accepted by the Labour administration of Tony Blair.

However the rest of the 1990s saw the beginning of a period of continuous economic growth that lasted over 16 years and was greatly expanded under the New Labour government of Tony Blair following his landslide election victory in 1997, with a rejuvenated party having abandoned its commitment to policies including nuclear disarmament and nationalisation of key industries, and no reversal of the Thatcher-led union reforms.

Radiofrequency ablation

In 2004, former British prime minister Tony Blair underwent RF catheter ablation for recurrent atrial flutter.

Ron Christie

Christie was selected by Bush to lead an American delegation to an international conference on volunteerism and civic engagement hosted by Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.

Saddam Hussein's alleged shredder

The Suns political editor Trevor Kavanagh wrote in February 2004 that "Public opinion swung behind Tony Blair as voters learned how Saddam fed dissidents feet first into industrial shredders."

Sheffield iSchool

John McTernan - Director of Political Operations at 10 Downing Street under Tony Blair.

Sidney Blumenthal

He was present at the two original conferences, both in the U.K. and America in which he became friends with the newly elected Labour leader Tony Blair.

Sir Michael Barber

During Blair’s second term, from 2001 to 2005, Barber served as the Chief Adviser on Delivery, reporting directly to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Slovakia Summit 2005

Prior to the summit, Bush had travelled to Brussels and met with several European leaders and councils of the European Union and NATO, including Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi, Jacques Chirac, and Javier Solana.

Social Democratic Alliance

The initial attempt failed however as a group of Alþingi representatives rejected the new party's platform – which was inspired by that of Tony Blair's New Labour – and broke away before the merger to found the Left-Green Movement (Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð), based on more traditional democratic socialist values as well as green politics and euroscepticism.

Socialist Students

Socialist Students was established in the late 1990s by members of the Socialist Party (SP) who had built support for the Save Free Education Campaign amongst students in the battle over the introduction of fees when the Labour Party under Tony Blair was elected in 1997.

Sule Lamido

After a September 2001 meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London, Lamido told the BBC that Britain was passionate over the numerous problems retarding Africa's its peace, progress and prosperity, described the meeting as "fantastic".

Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia

The book was used extensively by American analysts and British politicians including Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell in the wake of the attacks.

TeaMp0isoN

The group published in Pastebin what appeared to be the address book and other private data of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in June 2011.

The Co-operative brand

The Co-operative Movement called on the Prime Minister to establish a Co-operative Commission to consider ways to ensure the survival of the co-operative business model into the 21st century.

The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair

Although innocent, he was accused by American military officials of plotting to assassinate then British prime minister Tony Blair along with his two brothers.

The Swaminarayan School

Since its creation, it has been visited by many famous people, including Tony Blair, General Sir Richard Dannatt GCB, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.

Tottenham by-election, 2000

Both Sharon and Bernie Grant had been on the left-wing of the party whereas the leading black contender for the nomination, David Lammy, was a supporter of Tony Blair.

Trade unions in the United Kingdom

Margaret Thatcher's governments weakened the powers of the unions in the 1980s, in particular by making it more difficult to strike legally, and some within the British trades union movement criticised Tony Blair's Labour government for not reversing some of Thatcher's changes.

Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe

On 20 April 2004 then British prime minister Tony Blair unexpectedly promised a referendum, a proposal which he had previously rejected.

United Kingdom agency worker law

The Directive was the culmination of initial resistance by the Government under Tony Blair, and a final surge of Parliamentary support for a Temporary and Agency Workers (Equal Treatment) Bill.

Wheelbase

While Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair was given a long wheelbase version of the Rover 75 for official use.

Zimbabwean cricket crisis

The matter came to prominence before the 2003 World Cup, when both the British prime minister Tony Blair and the Australian prime minister John Howard said they would prefer it if their teams did not travel to Zimbabwe, but did not ban them from doing so.

Zimbabwean parliamentary election, 2005

Zanu-PF is using claimed interference of Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and United States president George W. Bush in Zimbabwean politics, as an election issue.

Zubeida Malik

She has interviewed key figures for the BBC, including Kofi Annan, President Musharraf, Tony Blair, Prince Saud Al Faisal, Desmond Tutu, and the spiritual leader of Hamas Sheikh Yassin.


Adam Price

Controversy erupted in 2002 as Price exposed the link between UK prime minister Tony Blair and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal in the Mittal Affair, also known as 'Garbagegate' or Cash for Influence.

Alan Pascoe

He claimed that the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, had broken a written undertaking to host the games.

Alex Okosi

Interviewees have included former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group, and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Azarias Ruberwa

The list also included other notable politicians such as former British PM Tony Blair and U.S. President Barack Obama.

Bill Gammell

Bill Gammell was born in Edinburgh, and was the son of an investment banker, who was invited at an early age to join Edinbugh's Ivory & Sime (which was started in the late 1800s with the formation of the British Assets Trust.) Gammell attended Edinburgh's exclusive Fettes College where he was friends and debating partners with future British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Bond Offshore Helicopters

The company also provides VIP charter services, and in the past have flown Tony Blair, Razorlight and Supergrass to various locations.

Camden New Journal

In 2006, the Camden New Journal - and its sister paper the Islington Tribune - broke the national story that Government minister Margaret Hodge had described the war in Iraq as British Prime Minister Tony Blair's biggest mistake.

Campbell Live

Campbell Live has interviewed various notable personalities, including Al Gore, Robert Fisk, Tony Blair, as well as an array of celebrities, including Adam Lambert and Metallica.

Covert listening device

In 2003, Alastair Campbell (who was Director of Communications and Strategy from 1997-2003 for the UK PM) in his memoirs The Blair Years: The Alastair Campbell Diaries alleged that two bugs were discovered in the hotel room meant for visiting British PM Tony Blair planted by Indian intelligence agencies.

Death and funeral of Ariel Sharon

Foreign dignitaries who attended the official service included U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Czech Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, among others.

Foreign Policy Centre

They include 'After Multiculturalism' by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, 'The Post-Modern State and the World Order' by Robert Cooper, 'Network Europe' and 'Public Diplomacy' by Mark Leonard, 'Brand China' by Joshua Cooper Ramo, 'Voices from Iran' by Alex Bigham and 'A Global Alliance for Global Values' by Tony Blair.

History of Fianna Fáil

The election of Tony Blair in Britain gave renewed hope of an agreement for peace in Northern Ireland, an issue that has traditionally always been an aspiration of Irish Governments.

History of the London School of Economics

Anthony Giddens, the former Director of the LSE, stands as the creator of the "Third Way" followed by both Tony Blair (who unveiled the Fabian Window at LSE in 2005) and Bill Clinton.

Hugo Young

Young was a strong proponent of European integration, and sharply expressed his disappointment with the British government's eurosceptic politics in his columns, including Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to side with George W. Bush instead of his EU partners in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Ian Lang, Baron Lang of Monkton

As chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, Lang insisted that Tony Blair's paid work for UI Energy Corporation, an oil firm with interests in Iraq, just 14 months after leaving office should be made public following a period when the committee agreed to keep it confidential due to "market sensitivity".

Kimberly Quinn

In 2001, she married Quinn; during this marriage, she had an affair with David Blunkett, Home Secretary in Tony Blair's ministry.

Kopspijkers

At first only Dutch people were impersonated, later also foreign celebrities (including Tony Blair, Nelson Mandela, John Kerry and Viktor Yushchenko) were impersonated.

Linda Colley

In 1999, Colley was one of several speakers invited to deliver a Millennium Lecture at 10 Downing Street by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and his wife Cherie Blair.

National College for School Leadership

Established in 2000 as the National College for School Leadership, its physical centre – a learning and conference centre (LCC) situated in a striking building designed by Sir Michael Hopkins on the Jubilee Campus of the University of Nottingham – was opened on 24 October 2002 by Tony Blair.

Office for Judicial Complaints

On 23 January 2010 Cherie Booth QC, wife of Tony Blair (who until recently had been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), was sitting as a Recorder in a case where a man was found guilty violent assault in which he broke another man's jaw in a queue in a bank.

One more heave

The electoral success of such an approach was never tested as Smith died of a heart attack in 1994 and Tony Blair won the subsequent leadership election.

Roger Gale

His Labour Party opponent in the 1983 election was Cherie Blair, wife of the former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Rover 800 Series

Tony Blair owned an early 800 in the 1980s, and the vice-chancellor of Middlesex University had two — one for personal use and one for official duties.

Sir Michael Barber

In the past, Sir Michael served as a partner and head of the global education practice at McKinsey, advisor to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and a global expert on education reform and implementation of large-scale system change.

SpeakOut

In 2006, SpeakOut administrator Chris Johnson was recognised by British Prime Minister Tony Blair for exceptional work in the voluntary sector.

Ted Wragg

Although initially his beliefs were reflected by the government of Tony Blair, he later fell out with it and attacked it, nicknaming Ruth Kelly "Ruth Dalek" and "The Duchess of Drivel"; he also coined the nickname 'Tony Zoffis' (Tony's office) for Andrew Adonis, then a member of the Downing Street policy unit but subsequently ennobled and appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education.

The Amazing Mrs Pritchard

Several politicians and journalists made cameo appearances, including Tony Blair, Gavin Esler, Roy Hattersley, John Humphrys, Nick Robinson, David Steel, Andrew Marr, Simon McCoy, Sarah Montague, Peter Snow and Kirsty Wark.

The Curious Incident of the WMD in Iraq

It is a fictional autobiography of then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, parodying the style of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights

2003: Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, T.D., Prime Minister of Ireland and the Right Honourable Tony Blair

Trimdon Colliery

Its most famous resident was the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Walter Scheib

His creations were served to many world leaders, including Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Vicente Fox, Václav Havel, Nelson Mandela and Boris Yeltsin.

Zoran Đinđić

His meetings with Western leaders George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and others strongly indicated that the West supported his politics.