Nós as bifas adoramos postes tugas por isso vivemos em terra de pesacadores onde fazemos bacanais junto ao belavista domus
![]()
he Sargeants Inn \\
Homepage : Post
Is Ocean Club Owner David Symington related to Robert Murat?
Author
Blackwatch (of 25/10/2008 @ 15:00:19, in
Ocean Club - Symingtons, viewed 999 times)
Not only has it been suggested that Robert Murat and David Symington - the owner of the Ocean Club Complex - could be distant blood relations, it also appears that the Symington family are one of the most powerful families in Portugal and have very strong links to the most powerful figures in the British Establishment. Why did the British Government get so closely involved? It seems so obvious now ...
Remember the story about Ocean Club business man,
Angus Symington and Robert Murat and how his likeness cast doubt on the testimony of the Tapas witnesses? Well herein lies a tale ...
Although the Ocean Club is managed by Mark Warner Resorts, the property is actually owned by members of Portugal's trading aristocracy:
David Symington, John Garveigh and Robin Crosland (M.D).
1The privately educated Symingtons are the world's largest and most powerful Port and wine producers, accounting for roughly 40% of all premium Port sold throughout the world. Often described as Portuguese-Scots by trade magazines, the family has estates both in Portugal and
South America. The family itself is based Portugals' second largest city, Oporto and has been for generations. In fact, the family now head-up the Porto Embassy. The Garveighs, on the otherhand, came to Portugal in the 1960s and have considerable experience of the property market.Robert Murat's family were also in the Oporto Wine Business. Robert is the elder son of
John Henry Queriol Murat, a leading property developer in Portugal and widely accepted to have been instrumental in turning Praia da Luz into a high-class resort - as too are the Symingtons and the Garveighs - who picked up the property mantel in the 1980s.
In an article by
The Telegraph, it was described how Robert's father capitalised on the collapsing property market prior to Portugal's Carnation Revolution in the mid-1970s over fears that there would be a communist take-over. It is suggested that he helped build Praia de Luz in partnership with another Portuguese businessman, João Pedro Jacinto, until a professional dispute in the 1980s destroyed his father's prospects prematurely.
2 He died from throat cancer in the 1980s when Robert was 12 - devastating the family's burgeoning property empire.
However, in an unusual twist, it has been alleged that the Murats and the Symingtons may be related through the
Atkinson family:"The fourth child of John and Ellen Atkinson was Margaret (1826-1898). She married Henry Murat, one of the oldest English Port shipping families in Oporto." -
The Symington Family Ancestry in Oporto -
view Symington Family Tree here
The
Symington Family are descended from Andrew James Symington and Beatrice Atkinson who married in Oporto in 1891 - a fact clearly documented on the family's
website. Andrew James arrived as a young man from Scotland in 1882 whilst Beatrice was descended from John Atkinson - the famous wine merchant - who had lived in Oporto since 1814. Atkinson himself was descended from first British Consul in Lisbon and Oporto - Thomas Maynard - who was appointed to his position in 1656 by Oliver Cromwell. From what I can gather online, it's my understanding that Robert Murat is a descendent of Beatrice Atkinson's first Aunt, Maragret Atkinson who married the Oporto Wine Magnate, Henry Murat in the mid-to-late1800s (both Henry and Queriol Murat were
grandson and great-grandson of Peter Murat, one of the earliest Port Shipping Merchants in Oporto - click here to view
Murat-Symington Tree).
If this is true, then it would of course mean that Robert James Queriol Evelegh Murat (Robert Murat) would also be a descendent of Thomas Maynard - the first English Consul of Lisbon and Oporto (one has only to consider the names of Robert and his father John - John Henry Queriol Murat - to appreciate the familial link).
In August 2005, the Symingtons and the Teague family featured in a
tussle with the British Government over an Oporto Estate worth over £14 million. John Buck, the British Ambassador in Lisbon at the time, hinted that the Foreign Office believed it had a strong claim to the estate. He referred to it as 'a public asset'.
In April that year the British Consulate in Oporto was transferred
from the British Government to the Symington Estates HQ in Travessa Barão de Forrester, ending 300 years of close relations between the two countries. The Ocean Club owners's nephew, John Symington (or Joaohonesto from Porto) is now the British Honorary Consul and Zilda Gomes is Pro-Consul.
3
British Ambassador to Portugal John Buck said: "The closure of the Consulate in Oporto, and of many of the Government's other Consulates in the developed world, is a response to the increasing challenges faced elsewhere, for example in promoting sustainable development or fighting terrorism. It is a positive sign of the way in which most British communities have become fully integrated into a developing Europe."
In January of this year, the Daily Mail ran a story in which it was alleged that Robert Murat and another Ocean Club property developer,
Angus Symington bore an 'astonishing likeness' to each other.
4 However, neither the Daily Mail nor either of the parties involved mentioned the Symington link. The story was used to raise doubt about the reliability of the eight Tapas witnesses placing Robert at the Ocean Club on the evening of May 3rd. For the most part the British Press failed to acknowledge that Angus Symington was the son of Ocean Club owner David.
Angus Symington (a reference to the family's Scottish heritage) is a co-partner in
Ocean Country Real Estate along with Christopher Garveigh - son of Ocean Club owner John Garveigh. The company has its Head Office in Praia da Luz.
Robert Murat and Angus Symington - not just similar but related
Paulo Reis also described how his intention immediately prior to starting the
Madeleine Gazeta Digital blog in May 2007 was to use the blog to exploit the new trading opportunities developing between Portugal, China and Macau. He was to focus on the Wine Industry (he started the blog in late April 2007).After first boarding at Ampleforth College near York and Ripon (often described as the 'Catholic Eton'), Rupert Symington (born 1964 and nephew of
Ocean Club owner David Symington) attended the Oxford University's Corpus Christi College at the same time as the UK's Foreign Secretary David Miliband (born 1965).
At Ampleforth College, Symington sat alongside such luminaries as King Letsie III of Lesotho and the Scottish historian, William Dalrymple - second cousin to Virgiania Woolf, expert in early Muslim and Eastern Christianity and regular contributor to
New Statesman and
The Guardian (
Lesotho was actually one of the first places mentioned by Light in the Darkness author, Matthew James. Ramabanta in Lesotho's Basutoland is home to a Catholic Mission and to a
Shrine dedicated to Portugal's Fatima Miracle)After graduating Rupert honed his skills at the prestigious INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France followed by a five-year stint in the city of London as financial analyst with Nomura. Nomura has since taken over the European and Asian operations of bankrupt Lehman Brothers. (Rupert has also worked in Africa).
Rupert's brother Charles Symington (39) has
extensive business links with the Spanish-South American Wine Empire,
Miguel Torres. The company has offices and wineries in Barcelona, Spain, Sweden, Chile and California. Followers of the Madeleine McCann case may remember that it was
Clara Torres, the Spanish tourist from Albacete who took the photograph of 'Madeleine' in Morocco in September last year. However, it has not been established whether or not Clara Torres is a member of the Barcelona dynasty.
Rupert Symington
If any of this is true, then the Madeleine drama must have been a worry to all their tourism and property prospects. As for Robert, it must have difficult knowing that his Symington relations across the road at the Ocean Club had become so fantastically and enviably wealthy and successful, whilst his own prospects in life had now all but collapsed.
Any further information welcome.
As it says on the
Ocean Club website
"There are still strong connections between The Ocean Club and this famous family."
Notes:
1
George Robin Crosland is co-owner and Managing Director of the Ocean Club. He has been in the Algarve for more than 26 years, orginally working as an architect in Nigeria (having trained at Hull School of Architecture). The name 'Crosland' is popular in Plymouth and Devon - where Robert Murat's maternal family - the Eveleighs - are based. In fact it was another Plymouth architect, Des Taylor who built Murat's villa, Casa Liliana in 1993. For the sake of trivia, Plymouth is also home to the Plymouth Brethren - a fiercely conservative, Evangelical Christian movement, whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1820s. The former Socialist Labour Foreign Secretary and Fabian Society stalwhart,
Anthony Crosland was raised by the Brethren, as was Aleister Crowley. Crosland - a former MP for Great Grimsby (a town situated on the UK's Hull and Humber Estuary) - was generally regarded as Labour's most influential revisionist thinker and a 'prophet' of New Labour movement (Gordon Brown, is a self-proclaimed disciple of Crosland). The Sunday Times and Telegraph journalist Susan Crosland - Tony Crosland's widow - is a
good friend of John Prescott, the veteran MP for Hull East. On his Friendsreunited entry, George Robin Crosland says he has sold his share in the business and wants to travel. he says he is thinking of moving to the Caribbean, Burmuda or the Caymons.
2 Although it is possible to speculate that John Murat's business associates may have at one time included the Symingtons, the Croslands or the Garveighs, there's currently no evidence to confirm it either way.
3 Given that the Symington family are both owners of the Ocean Club and preside over the British Consulate in Oporto it seems reasonable to assume that the Symington family may have been the people responsible for getting John Buck and the British Government so closely involved in the case (the Portuguese Press alleged that Buck was the first to impress upon the Police that this had been abuction and that they should pursue it over and above all other enquiries, but this has yet to be proved). So far both the British and Portuguese Press have failed to acknowledge the power and influence of the Symington family in Portugal. This in itself is worthy of closer scrutiny (on June 7 2005, John Buck hosted an event at the Oporto Cricket & Lawn Tennis Club. The event was sponsored by Symington Family Estates). In more recent months the Symington Family Estate sponsored and hosted a meeting by the British-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce on the issue of '
European Identity'. John Symington was joined by a number of senior figues that included the new British Ambassador to Portugal, Alex Ellis. Incidentally, I always thought Joaohonesto ('honest john') was our very own Paulo Reis. The following thread includes a very '
Reis-Style Rant' as well as no small amount of concern shown over the Porto wine-industry.
4 This is not the first 'astonishing likeness' we have had, of course, the first was the alleged likeness between Robert Murat's daughter, Sofia (4) and Madeleine McCann. Did May 2007 see a bizarre 'genesreunited' event?see also:
Rupert and Charles SymingtonArticles by William Dalrymple (Rupert Symington's Ampleforth boarding school-mate)
Political IslamOn Understanding Al-QaedaGeneral
http://www.symington.com/
****All of which leads me back to the Three Arguidos' unconditional support of Robert Murat.
Comments:
# 1
I think you might be onto something here. Very impressed. The thing that really stands out is the story about Angus Symington. Why the hell didn't the press make a connection between Angus Symington and David Symington, the Ocean Club owner? Also, I think the best that can be said is that Murat was a distant relative. Even so, the fact he lives so close to the Ocean Club and is in property suggests these people may know they are related. Seriously. This is all quite a surprise. I still think the McCanns might know something though.
Author JezM (send 27/10/2008 @ 13:22:56)
# 2
Had an idea. Have another look at this bit"In August 2005, the Symingtons and the Teague family featured in a tussle with the British Government over an Oporto Estate worth over £14 million. John Buck, the British ambassador in Lisbon at the time, hinted that the Foreign Office believed it had a strong claim to the estate. He referred to it as 'a public asset'."If other wine families had been looking to claim this Porto estate, is it possible Robert and his mother Jenny had been looking into it also?IF they are related to the Symingtons and IF they know they are related, when did they first know they were?Could the claim on the estate have something to do with it?Are you SURE that RM's family goes back to the original Porto wine family?
Author JezM (send 27/10/2008 @ 15:51:10)
# 3
Not sure about all that Jez. Maybe I've confused things a little. Here's how it goes:Some dearly departed and very rich old biddy in Porto, Portugal, called Evelyn Teage bequeathed her estate to Britain and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1957 on condition that Britain would serve as Oporto's permanent consul (the estate was valued at over £14 million).Trouble is, in 2005, Britain and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office pulled their consulate out of Oporto - thus reneging on the agreement with the old lady.The family of the old lady also claims that the British Foreign Office abused the conditions of the gift when it moved valuable silverware to the British embassy in Lisbon, as well as selling parts of the estate.Naturally, the family wanted to claim back the whole of the Estate off the British Foreign Office.From what I can gather, neither the Symingtons nor the Murats have any legal claim to the Estate, but that didn't prevent the Symington family taking sides with the old lady's family during its scrap with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.In spite of the spat with the Foreign Office, Johnny Symington was appointed by Britain as Honorary Consul in Oporto after the British Embassy had pulled out.This shouldn't come as any surprise as the Symingtons (both the Ocean Club's David Symington and Johnny Symington) are descendents of the first British Consul in Lisbon and Oporto - Thomas Maynard - who was appointed to his position in 1656 by Oliver Cromwell.The Symingtons are related to Maynard through Beatrice Atkinson who married Scotsman Andrew James Symington in 1891.It's my belief that Robert Murat is a descendent of Beatrice Atkinson's first Aunt, Maragret Atkinson who married the Oporto Wine Magnate, Henry Murat in the mid-1800s. This means he too would be related to Thomas Maynard - the first English Consul of Lisbon and Oporto.Johnny Symington (relative of Ocean Club owner David Symington) took over as Honorary Consul in 2005.So if people are looking for a reason why the British Government got so involved in the Madeleine case, it wasn't because of some connection to Gerry or Kate, but because of the Symington family. Bell Pottinger were recruited not for the McCanns but for the Symingtons. The crisis management team were in place to look after the interests of a very powerful and a well-connected British-Portguese family. The British Government is protecting the Symingtons and the Croslands - not the McCanns. The McCanns just became lucky benefactors of whatever cover-up was in place - that's my view.As for Murat, I really don't know. Perhaps he got interested in genealogy or something. I know I did after the death of my own father a few years ago. Perhaps some personal crisis made him check out his family history. And then we have that whole thing kicking off with the Estate in 2005 and the appointment of his distant cousin Johnny Symington as Honorary Consul. All this coinciding with the collapse of his marriage to Dawn and his estrangement from his daughter. Must have been trying times.I am more interested in finding out who was his father's original business partner - the one John Murat fell out with. Maybe he's the source of some resentment or other. Maybe there are rivals on all sides. People with things against Murat.Here's what we have so far:
The Ocean Club is co-owned by David Symington.
David Symington is a member of the rich and powerful Symington Dynasty (at least it says this on the Ocean Club website)
Johnny Symington is Britain's Honorary Consul in Oporto (Portugal's Second City) and is a friend an associate of John Buck - the fomer British Ambassador who seized control of the McCann investigation.
Rupert Symington attended Oxford University at the same time as David Miliband and is very influential in his own right.
Robert Murat appears to be related to the Symingtons - a distant cousin and perhaps (although not likely) even heir to certain estates in Oporto.
So which is more likely: were the British Government falling over backwards to help (and possibly clear) an anonymous and fairly unremarkable couple from Leicester or falling over backwards to help their very rich and influential friends, the Symingtons?
Author BW (send 27/10/2008 @ 17:19:45)
# 4
Palmera16 writes at the
3arguidos: "What is odd about two people who are related having similar looks?"Nothing, but the whole world was never told that the two people were related in the first place. That's what is odd. There has never been any mention in the media of a family relationship between Robert Murat and David Symington - the owner of the Ocean Club (a relationship that only goes back 4 generations).
The Daily Mail aricle that reported on the likeness between Angus Symington and Robert Murat didn't even care to mention that Angus Symington was related to David Symington - the owner of the Ocean Club.In fact, as far as the British media are concerned - the owners of the Ocean Club are Mark Warner Resorts. But they are not: they only co-manage the property on behalf of Symington and Crosland.
Only two publications in the world have mentioned who owns the Ocean Club - the
Portugal Resident and yours truly.Why have the Brtish Media never mentioned who really owns the Ocean Club? Likewise, why have they never mentioned that the owners of the Ocean Club also represent the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Oporto? Their link to the British Government?
# 5
I'm wondering about the other look-alike, David Payne; could he be related to Murat and Symington?
Author NeverPebbles (send 27/10/2008 @ 20:01:39)
# 6
There's no evidence to suggest he is, no. My feeling is that something happened and several parties were very keen to have the crisis managed to avoid an embarrassing scandal. Here we have the Symingtons - co-owners of the Ocean Club and Honourary Consuls in Oporto and associates of Buck (there's also this issue of millions of pounds being owned by the British Foreign Office being owned to to friends of the Symington family. Favors called in?)I think people are making this a lot more complex that it really is.To be perfectly honest, I never thought Payne looked anything like Murat. I always thought that was a very very desperate story.My feeling is that they realised nobody was buying that first lookalike story (least of all the police) and so the legal team rolled out Angus instead. It was a risk, but as long as people didn't know that Angus was related to the owner of the Ocean Club or that he was related to Murat, they would be safe.So they kept quiet about all that and just hoped for the best.Whether its a happy accident or not, Angus to all intents and pruposes seems to have got Murat off the hook.
Author BW (send 27/10/2008 @ 20:25:22)
# 7
BTW: This sounds like I'm excusing the McCanns. I'm not. I just think that all this opens things up a little. The plot has taken on some new characters.Some people are likely to say that being distant cousins is unimportant - but these people are Portugal's aristocracy. Bloodlines are very important to these people. They are a dynasty in every sense of the word. Take the Rothschilds, who similarly kept the fortune in the family with carefully arranged marriages between closely related family members. The Rothschilds and the Frères is a similar proposition, or the Rothchilds and the Meyers. The only difference is one of scale.In fact, it seems fairly inconceivable given Murat's proximity to the Ocean Club and his interest in property that the subject of ancestry hadn't been raised. Murat is a property developer and Angus Symington is a property developer - and both of them lived within yards of one another. But of course, there's no certainly no evidence in the public domain to suggest that they did know.At the end of the day, these are not your typical British ex-Pats (as much as they would like to present themselves to the media in this way). Robert's father was not your typical ex-pat either: the Symingtons, the Croslands and the Murats built Praia da Luz up from scratch. Before they came it was just a beach. Murat's father and the Symingtons turned it into the resort we know today. They would be very much aware of each other. There seems little doubt about it.Even today’s Independent talks about Nat Rothschild and some 'distant cousin' being involved in some clandestine business dealings. Forums like the Three Arguidos won't like this news because they have invested everything in the McCanns being guilty and the Murats being completely innocent, without once contemplating a 'broader' arrangement or a degree of shared interests. Or maybe even resentments from elsewhere, other parties we might not even know about. Powerful people attract powerful enemies. My view is that the news answers rather a lot of questions: especially those that concern events immediately after the alleged abduction. And as regards 'creche records' - well who would really be in the best position to alter those?Robert Murat: 'dignified silence' or just keeping his head down and avoiding the glare of publicity? And what about those visits from Brian Kennedy? Pressure from the team or just team-talk?
Author BW (send 27/10/2008 @ 21:30:15)
# 8
Getting back to this wrangle over the £14 million Teage Estate.John Buck and the Symingtons feature very prominently in it. Also the whole thing was going to court in early 2006.This woman leaves her £14 million Estate to the British Foreign Office in Oporto on the condition that the Embassy will remain in Oporto.Although the Symingtons side with the Teague family, the British Consulate pulls out and leaves the Symingtons in as 'Honorary Consuls'.Was this move manufactured by the foreign office to fight off the claims of the Teage family?Where would the Foreign Office stand from a legal point of view?Does having an 'Honorary Consul' in Oporto mean that they have satisfied the conditions of the Teage agreement?If it does, this means that the Symington family has helped out the British Foreign Office and saved them forking out millions to Teage's great nephew and heir, Henry Shotton.In which case the British Foreign Office owes no small amount of favour to the Symington family.So when the owner of the Ocean Club (David Symington) has a major crisis on his hands, he calls on the direct intervention of the British Foreign Office and Symington friend, John Buck to manage the crisis.There's another link about the case below
http://www.the-news.net/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=821-45
Author JezM (send 28/10/2008 @ 10:16:53)
# 9
Hello BW. I have enjoyed reading your blog very much. Many in Portugal were not happy with choice of Symington. Many wanted a Portuges man or woman to deal with public or none at all. I have looked on the internet and found this also. Alex Ellis is the new man at the British Embassy in Lisbon. The British-Portuguese chmaber of commerce had an event this year in summer. It was sponsored by the Symington Family. It was about European identity. Alex Ellis was there.
http://www.bpcc.pt/featuredEventsDetail.asp?id=53 Here is also a report about Buck and Symingtons
http://jn.sapo.pt/PaginaInicial/Interior.aspx?content_id=498708
Author elisa (send 28/10/2008 @ 10:56:22)
# 10
You mention the Symingtons having estates in South america. There are quite a few interviews with the Symingtons online that took place with the family in places like Brazil. I remembered that there was a story going round last year about a mobile call being traced to Argentina and south america. Could it be someone who knows the symingtons? Mobile story here
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1906170.ece
Author Sprite (send 29/10/2008 @ 16:48:27)
# 11Yes, somebody with a grudge against the family. A rival, a vengeful competitor? Powerful people make powerful enemies. Who knows.
Symington 'Dynasty' assorted links:Ocean Club talks about their 'famous' family
http://www.luzoceanclub.com/history.htm Symington family history:
http://www.symington.com/family.asp?id=4&cid=2http://www.agoodnose.com/index.php?action=page&p=symingtonSymingtons feature in £14 million tussle with UK Government:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/portugal/1497071/Grand-family-of-wine-sues-Britain-for-reneging-on-14m-consulate-bequest.htmlhttp://www.the-news.net/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=821-45John Symington takes over as Honourary Consul/John Buck Story:
http://the-news.net/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=798-34Symingtos host and sponsor European Identity event with British Ambassador Alex Ellis and British-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce:
http://www.bpcc.pt/featuredEventsDetail.asp?id=53 Dominic Symington talking in Brazil, South America (where they have further estates)
http://www.gula.com.br/revista/185/textos/2346/ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1906170.ece ** I just thought it was worth reiterating that the Symington post is not an attempt to shift the burden from the McCanns to the Murats, nor is it an attempt to implicate the Symington family in Madeleine's disappearence. The intention is only to broaden the field of vision and extend the political and local context. As the intro to the site makes quite clear, I am not attempting to solve the mystery of who abducted Madeleine McCann. I am only interested in understanding the chain of events that gave rise to the media circus and transformed what was essentially a tragic local 'incident' into a major international 'event'.
That the incident took place at a property owned and managed by a family with well established links to the British Foreign Office and with a relatively deep rooted powerbase in the Portugal area may have had an impact on Downing Street's decision to send Mitchell and Dodd out in the first place, and it may account for the unprecedented level of support offered to the McCanns. On the otherhand, it may also account for the enormous wave of support offered by forums and blogs to Robert Murat. I am not offering a theory, just looking at the information available. At the end of the day there were at least 3 major parties all looking out for their own interests and conducting their own crisis management campaigns: the McCanns, the Murats and the owners of the Ocean Club. And it is how they went about their respective campaigns that may ultimately be responsible for the crap spewed up by the media and for some of the problems encountered during the investigation.
Author BW (send 30/10/2008 @ 16:43:37)
# 26
Acc to this article John Major used to holiday over there with a Ian and Cynthia Symington.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/07/27/do2702.xml
Author Anonimo (send 31/10/2008 @ 17:20:05)
# 27
Bingo! Great link. This provides a large piece of the puzzle:"While Tory prime ministers tended to holiday with friends abroad - Margaret Thatcher with Lady Glover, a widowed friend in Switzerland; John Major with Ian and Cynthia Symington in the Douro valley in Portugal"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/07/27/do2702.xmlYes, that's probably Ian Douglas Symington, father of Charles Symington (the Symington who was interviewed in Brazil) and uncle of Rupert Symington (who attended Ampleforth, the 'Catholic Eton').
What's more, John Major's political aide at the time was Howell James - the man
who personally had Clarence Mitchell seconded to the Foreign and Commwealth Office to represent the McCanns -in June last year.However, it is David Symington who owns the Ocean Club. Blair later appointed Howell James as the Government's Communications Director.And who was the PR and Spin mastermind behind the Conservatives and Margaret Thatcher's rise to power? The first person to employ Howell James? It was
Tim Bell - the founder of Bell Pottinger who took over as Crisis Management on behalf of the Ocean Club.Tim Bell (now Lord Bell and the founder of Bell Pottinger) was another who swapped allegiances when New Labour came along. In fact it was Lord Bell who successfully lobbied on behalf of the Saudi Government to have the
BAE Arms deal charges dropped and rescued Blair from another criminal investigation.And get this: Lord Bell also worked for Alexander Lukashenko - the authoritarian President of Belarus (a
Belarus Orphanage is where the McCanns sent all those cuddly toys they received in Rothley). Bell was also on hand to help Blair and his investors sell '
democracy to the Iraqis'.In addition to handling the McCann Crisis on behalf of the Ocean Club, Bell Pottinger handled all the media attention behind poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko.
In fact, Lord Bell, is a friend of Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky.But the real biggy is this: Bell Pottinger's client, Michael Cherney was recently involved in a $4 billion business dispute with Oleg Deripaska.As usual we've been making the mistake of lumping the Conservatives on one side and New Labour on the other, when it's a lot more complex than that.This is a timely reminder that Blair and New Labour only got in ’97 because they were the legitimate heir-apparent to Margaret Thatcher. Which party they belonged to was irrelevant. New Labour were more conservative than the conservatives.Who is being backed this time? Brown or Cameron? It doesn't matter which camp you are in as long as its centrist.Is this why we have Esther McVey
0 comentários: