From world leader to employee of the world's biggest nepo baby. That's the trajectory of Tony Blair since leaving Downing Street. His latest professional milestone: advisor to the board of directors of Skydance, the new Hollywood giant, which was born last Tuesday and includes the film studios Paramount and Warner, and the TV channels CBS, CNN, and HBO.
If you or your family watch Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Batman, Mission Impossible, or SpongeBob, know that you are paying Tony Blair's salary, the man who will mistakenly go down in history for achieving two of the biggest parliamentary majorities in UK history (in 1997 and 2001), when what he should be recognized for is his ability to capitalize on his political career to dizzying heights.
Because what does the statesman who was a role model for leaders worldwide have to do with advising Skydance, a company born out of the whim of David Ellison, a 43-year-old whose greatest success in life is being the son of Larry Ellison, the founder and owner of Silicon Valley giant Oracle, who has decided to buy half of Hollywood to please his friend Donald Trump?
It's impossible to imagine Blair helping Ellison junior to manage the whim he bought in just two years with his father's backing and money, and now has to rationalize while trying to fulfill his promise of producing 30 films a year, paying off 78 billion euros of debt, and putting CNN at Trump's disposal.
As far as we know, Blair is not an expert in the entertainment industry. But then again, he wasn't in commodities either. Yet, in 2012, he charged a million dollars for a meeting of hours with the Prime Minister of Qatar at the Claridge hotel in London, where he convinced him to lift his veto on the purchase of the British mining company XStrata by the Swiss commodities traderGlencore.
The bill for the Claridge meeting amounts to 5,000 euros per minute. Perhaps more, because Blair was at that time an advisor to JP Morgan (allegedly receiving 2.5 million dollars annually). And JP Morgan was advising XStrata in the deal. So what is clear is that Blair, who even had his own political ideology - the Third Way- is actually knowledgeable in billing. Indeed, the Third Way was neither right nor left. It was the way to wealth. The key is networking. This is achieved with ten years in Downing Street and 19 in the private sector, including being an advisor to the Swiss insurance giant Zurich, a special envoy to the Middle East, and also a member of Trump's Peace Committee for Gaza, where he sits alongside figures from the US President to the Belarusian dictator Viktor Lukashenko, and the strongman of Saudi Arabia, Mohamad bin Salman.
This is how Blair has amassed a fortune of unknown magnitude. Some websites claim a hundred million pounds (120 million euros). His close associates claim it is much less, which is unlikely, because when he was Prime Minister, his wife, Cheryl, arranged the purchase of a house in London that already exceeded four million euros, and whose mortgage was backed by the future earnings of the former Government head when he left office. Everything was planned. And there stands the house, facing a square that fills with foxes at night. None of them, undoubtedly, as clever as their illustrious neighbor.