Unlike the funny guys at Through the Scary Door, who want to make sure that you know that none of this is corrupt I am happy to indeed call this corruption: if not legally, than morally:
Tony Blair is due to take his post-prime ministerial earnings to more than £7m this year following his appointment to a six-figure-salary job with Zurich Insurance, the Swiss financial firm, advising it on climate change.
The company, which could pay out tens of millions of pounds for claims from businesses and householders over floods, hurricanes and droughts caused by global warming, is taking Blair on to advise it on the implications of climate change.[…]
The appointment is the fourth deal negotiated by Blair since leaving office. He is getting a £5.8m advance for his memoirs and £500,000 from Washington Speakers Bureau Inc for a worldwide tour of speaking engagements.Earlier this month it was disclosed he was getting £500,000 a year as a consultant to bankers JP Morgan Chase.
Not to worry though that these companies are renting Blair to unduly influence the current government. Blair has made some strict promises not to do so until next July:
In accepting these jobs, Blair has agreed conditions with the advisory committee on business appointments – the body that vets ex-ministers and senior civil servants taking outside jobs. He has agreed not to lobby Gordon Brown, or any minister or official, on banking or climate change for his new employers or their clients until next July. He has pledged not to reveal any “privileged information that was available to him as prime minister” in his speeches.
No, these companies are not handing him large amounts of money (compared to what you and I make, only peanuts from their perspective of course) to buy his influence, but to reward him for being a good boy. It’s a doggie biscuit.