$500,000 Tony Blair speech bores, outrages Chinese journalists

Posted By Adam Lewis Friday, November 9, 2007 - 10:31 AM Share

Sometime, just showing up isn't good enough, even for Tony Blair. The charismatic former British prime minister failed to woo Chinese journalists at a speaking engagement Thursday in Guangdong province in southern China. Since leaving his post, Blair has gone on the lecture circuit, charging a whopping $500,000 for this latest speech. But a Chinese newspaper complained that Blair had said "nothing new" and used the occasion to criticize officials in China for wasting taxpayer money:

The China Youth daily, which is affiliated to the Communist party's youth league, said Mr Blair was forthcoming with pleasantries and clichés without offering any insight.

"Like reports made by some local officials, there was nothing new in his views ... so was the speech worth the large sums of money paid out by local officials and businesses?" it questioned.

Blair may not yet be able to match the $1.5 million-per-hour fee Donald Trump charges for engagements at The Learning Annex, but Trump must say something interesting if people pay almost $500 a ticket to listen to him.

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