A Most Baffling Englishman

First he falls under the spell of George Bush.
Then he's co-opted by the Pope.

Now this?

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former British prime minister Tony Blair is expected on Thursday to join U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase & Co Inc (JPM.N) as a senior adviser, according to a person familiar with the situation.
JPMorgan declined to comment. The Financial Times in London first reported the move on its Web site, saying it would be the first of a series positions Blair expects to take in the private sector...."

Full Text of Article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080110/bs_nm/jpmorgan_blair_dc_1)

What - the British Bankers don't want him?
He couldn't even pick a high class joint like Goldman Sachs?

Was he taken over by the Pod People???

With estimated mortgage commitments of around ┬г5 milion (10 million dollars US) on the various properties the Blair's own on which they are reportedly repaying around ┬г18500 per month (37000 dollars US), they need to grab all the opportunities they can to raise money. :geek:

Tony Blair joins investment bank

Tony Blair has taken a part-time post with US investment bank JP Morgan. Mr Blair, who stood down as UK prime minister in June last year, has been employed "in a senior advisory capacity", the bank said.

He said he looked forward to advising the bank on the "political and economic changes that globalisation brings".

It is not known how much JP Morgan will pay him, but some estimates say more than $1m (┬г500,000) a year. The bank said he had a "unique perspective".

Since leaving Number 10, Mr Blair has been an unpaid envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators.
Mr Blair earlier told the Financial Times he planned to take up "a small handful" of similar roles with other companies in different sectors.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7180306.stm

It is not known how much JP Morgan will pay him, but some estimates say more than $1m (┬г500,000) a year.

Some UK newspapers are today quoting un-named sources as saying that the salary could be as much as ┬г2 million (4 million US$) a year and that he would not need to 'attend' in person but purely give his views or advice over the phone or by email.

JP Morgan have declined to comment but have not denied the information.

Nice part-time work if you can get it, Eh? (the money-grabbing Cherie must be over the moon with joy :flower: )

[cottmann]

Tony Blair cannot be "a most baffling Englishman" because he is a Scot! He was born in Edinburgh of mostly-Scots ancestry.

Tony Blair cannot be "a most baffling Englishman" because he is a Scot! He was born in Edinburgh of mostly-Scots ancestry.

oops - didn't know that. I'm American (but at least I can find Britian on a map!)

How about "A most Baffling Brit"?

I'm American (but at least I can find Britian on a map!)Even though you mis-spell it

from Wikipaedia

Blair was born at the Queen Mary Maternity Home[5] in Edinburgh, Scotland on 6 May 1953,[1] the second son of Leo and Hazel Blair (n├йe Corscadden). Leo Blair, the illegitimate [6] son of two English actors, had been adopted by a Glasgow shipyard worker named James Blair and his wife Mary as a baby. Hazel Corscadden was the daughter of George Corscadden, a butcher and Orangeman who had moved to Glasgow in 1916 but returned to (and died in) Ballyshannon in 1923, where his wife Sarah Margaret ne├й Lipsett gave birth to Blair's mother Hazel above her family's grocery shop.[7][8] The Lipsett family in Donegal supposedly originated with a German Jewish immigrant to Ireland prior to the 18th century [9]. George Corscadden was from a family of Protestant farmers in County Donegal, Ireland,[10] who descended from Scottish settlers that took their family name from Garscadden, now part of Glasgow. The Blair family was often taken on holiday to Rossnowlagh, a beach resort near Hazel's hometown of Ballyshannon which is the venue of the main Orange order parade in the Republic of Ireland

Two English thespians living in Glasgow and a tribe of Orangemen from Northern Ireland (rotating in their graves). By that reckoning most of North America is peopled by Scots. I think the English deserve him.

copyleft requirement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair)