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Mandela rains on Blair’s Liberty Medal parade
Peter Hain reveals that Mandela was ‘virtually breathing fire’ after Blair joined the Iraq War
Neatly timed to coincide with the publication of his memoir A Journey, already climbing the New York Times bestsellers list, Tony Blair was awarded the Liberty Medal by former President Bill Clinton at a ceremony in Philadelphia yesterday.
The medal is designed to honour people who have worked towards promoting freedom and it was made clear that Blair was receiving it for his role in the Northern Ireland peace process, not his part in taking Britain to war in Iraq.
Hence the absence of protesters throwing eggs and shoes which greeted his last public appearance, at a book signing in Dublin.
"To be free, is to be responsible for the freedom of others," said Blair in a brief acceptance speech.
The medal comes with a cash prize of £65,000 which might once have been useful - it's more than half what the PM's salary was when Blair entered Downing Street in 1997 - but can now go into the kitty for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.
Coincidentally, Blair picked up his award within hours of the revelation that Nelson Mandela, a previous winner of the Liberty Medal, was "furious" at the former PM for taking Britain into the Iraq war in 2003.
The former apartheid campaigner and Labour Cabinet minister Peter Hain tells in a new biography of Mandela how the great man phoned him from Johannesburg in a foul mood.
"He was virtually breathing fire down the phone on this and feeling a sense of betrayal," said Hain. "It was quite striking."
Hain told how Mandela said: "A big mistake, Peter, a very big mistake. It is wrong. Why is Tony doing this after all his support for Africa? This will cause huge damage internationally." ·
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It sickens me that Blair receives £65,000. Even worse that he might donate it to his faith foundation nonsense. If we have to tolerate Popey visiting, he might better use it to pay some of the costs.
The headline should have been Hain tries to rain on Tony Blair's parade to get cheap publicity for his own book. Shame on him for doing it and you dignifying it by giving him the publicity.
Where was Nelson's fury when the HIV-AIDS crowd was advised to eat beetroot and garlic to combat their illness by the Minister of Health?
Where was his fury when these same HIV-AIDS people had to use the courts to force proper assistance fron the ANC government?
Where was his fury when the death rate of these persons was over 600 000 individuals in the years before the ANC was forced to change their HIV-AIDS policies?
Where is his fury when we have lost upwards of 20 000 citizens lives per year [total so far 300 000 plus] due to the high rate of criminal murders?
Where is his fury when Jacob Zuma's son, Duduzani, was awarded, without any prior tender process, competitive bidding, confirmation of capital issues or demonstration of skills/expertise, the multi-billion rand Arcelor-Mittal deal.
This current "fury" story is simply back-dated grandstanding! Like it makes a blind bit of difference when the leader of one country â??phones the leader of a small province to complain about the leader of a third country. Not intelligent behaviour!
Bush/Blair wouldâ??ve taken Mandelaâ??s call and discussed the situation with far more information and insight than any politician trying to tell the Welsh what to doâ?¦
I could go on and on but I'm sure you'all get the drift now.
This is also typical ANC behaviour pointing at controversies in order to conceal their own misdeeds and Hain merely co-operates to boost his book sales!
Thank you for this opportunity!
James Mashele.