Tony Blair’s TFWA speaker fee “subject to an NDA”

INTERNATIONAL. Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s financial arrangements for his speaking engagement at this year’s TFWA World Conference in Cannes are subject to a non-disclosure agreement, a representative for the association has told The Moodie Davitt Report.

As reported, Blair has been engaged by TFWA to “share his experiences of working in international politics and offer his thoughts on Brexit, foreign policy and other pressing geopolitical matters.

“As always at the TFWA World Conference, our aim is to engage speakers who can help us better understand the times in which we live and do business,” the association continued.

TFWA should ditch this arrangement, get in an industry speaker for no fee, and donate the funds instead to TFWA Care, an outstanding example of a trade association using its power, reach and wealth to change the world for the better – rather than enriching someone who changed it for the worse.

Writing in his Blog, The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie had criticised the association’s choice of such a contentious figure as a keynote speaker and queried how much he was being paid.

“As with all their speakers, financial arrangements with Tony Blair are subject to a non-disclosure agreement,” a TFWA public relations agency told The Moodie Davitt Report in declining to reveal the fee agreement.

According to LoveMoney.com Blair can command around US$260,000 (£195k) per speech.

Note: Martin Moodie’s response follows below. Readers are welcome to make their comments, for or against that view, via the DISQUS platform at the foot of the story.

Comment: I reiterate the earlier remarks made in my Blog that this is a poor choice by TFWA and an inappropriate use of members’ money, writes Martin Moodie. The association does much outstanding work, organising great exhibitions and conferences, and in particular deploying its outstanding TFWA Care Corporate Social Responsibility programme. Launched in 2005, TFWA Care has contributed hugely to various humanitarian causes that help vulnerable people – especially women and children – build better lives. But here TFWA has got it badly wrong.

In announcing Blair’s engagement and listing many of his political achievements (some of them undoubtedly outstanding), TFWA described Blair as “someone with unrivalled experience of regional and global politics, who is able to address the often complex issues that are shaping the world economy”.

But that misses the key point. As mentioned in my Blog, Blair is now best (or worst) remembered for his role in misleading the British public and taking the UK into the disastrously ill-fated invasion of Iraq. A war that besides its immense and tragic human toll had devastating long-term repercussions for an already volatile region. He is a hugely divisive figure in much of the world, despised by many. After all, the Chilcott inquiry in the UK concluded that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and undermined the United Nations. That disastrous war is Blair’s enduring and shameful legacy.

TFWA should ditch this arrangement. It should get in an industry speaker for no fee, and donate the funds instead to TFWA Care, an outstanding example of a trade association using its power, reach and wealth to change the world for the better – rather than enriching someone who changed it for the worse.